10 Adult Rock Songs That No One Understood As Kids

3. Jeremy - Pearl Jam

As much as grunge was a breath of fresh air when it came out, it was never exactly the cheeriest of genres to begin with. Long before nu metal got in on the angsty action, the first wave of grunge bands were ripe with artists willing to talk about their inner pain, from Scott Weiland to Kurt Cobain being prime candidates for the angsty grunge frontman. Pearl Jam were unique in that respect by turning their songwriting outward. It's not about inner pain...it's just school shootings.

Looking to document a news story that he had found while reading the paper, Eddie Vedder composed Jeremy's lyrics as a tribute to Jeremy Wade Delle, who brought a gun to school and killed himself in front of his classmates. Given that Pearl Jam were always more about the music, no one would fault you for not knowing what it meant, partly because Eddie Vedder's ramble was a bit hard to understand on a normal day.

It all comes together in that one line though, as the chorus just ominously states that Jeremy spoke in class today, with the video showing in graphic detail what actually happened that horrible morning. Being a cautionary tale rather than an endorsement, the overarching narrative is a lot more raw than the inner whining coming from the other side of the fence. He spoke in class that day, and what he did spoke volumes for all the wrong reasons.