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In order to mark National Wear Orange day, which is also known as National Gun Violence Awareness Day, Pearl Jam have shared an uncensored music video for their song Jeremy.
The previously unreleased video opens with flashes of unreadable news paper clippings, with school bells, and bangs, with short audio clips of news presenters, speaking about America.
We see much more of ‘Jeremy’, and a lot less of Eddie Vedder, along with arguments between parental figures, bullying, fire, and the pose assumed for the American national anthem, transitioning into the Nazi salute.
It goes so far as to show the boy putting the gun in his mouth, before cutting to his horrified, blood covered classmates. It’s an emotional, and thought provoking video to watch.
Uncensored, the video is now able to show us a story, one of a young boy with troubles at home, who’s picked on at school, and eventually chooses to take his own life, due to it all. Not only calling attention to gun violence, the video has heavy under layers of mental health, domestic abuse, and the violence and humiliation students can be subject to at school.
The video is much darker, and more impactful, than the one originally released. It is however, saddening to see that little enough has changed, for an unreleased video from the early 90’s to still be hugely relevant to our culture.
Pearl Jam have released this video now, knowing that its a shocking, and upsetting video to watch, to raise attention around gun violence, and misuse. With everything going on, as well as the day on which they released the video, now certainly seems to be the perfect time.
Frontman Eddie Vedder was inspired to write the song after, reading a newspaper article about Jeremy Wade Delle, a high school student who stood up to speak in his English class, and shot himself in front of the class. The video was previously unavailable in the US, due to TV censorship laws.
Jeremy was on the band’s 1991 album Ten, the video was released yesterday, and can be viewed on Pearl Jam’s YouTube channel.