Rival by Pearl Jam

Album: Binaural (2000)

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"Rival" is about the tragedy at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. On April 20, 1999, two students shot up the school, killing 12 kids and a teacher before killing themselves.

The song was written by Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard, who came up with the lyric by imagining what the shooters were thinking the night before.
The song opens with the sounds of a snarling dog. This has some meaning to the song; dogs can be aggressive and volatile when they're angry, but also give off signals that something is wrong. In the Pearl Jam book Twenty, Stone Gossard says he was thinking about "what makes people kind of snap and how people are unpredictable."
The album is called Binaural because they used that recording technique on "Rival" and four other songs from the album. Binaural recording aims to simulate changes in where the sound is coming from, which works if you're wearing headphones and the sound is moving. The dog at the beginning of this song sounds like it's changing position, for example. That dog belonged to Tchad Blake, who produced the album. He's a big proponent of binaural recording.
On the lyric sheet that comes with the album, there is a note in Eddie Vedder's handwriting that says, "Growing up gay in Littleton."
This isn't the first Pearl Jam song about a high school shooting. Their 1992 song "Jeremy" is about a boy who shot himself in front of his English class.

Comments: 6

Obzcure from Auckland, New Zealandyea jeremy was a 91 song.. as for the columbine thing. theres a whole messes of things. maybe music and game influenced them. but the wars in middle eastern countries are influenced by religion. and i'm not gonna blame religion either. people will be affected by many different things. so you can blame anything. the best you can do is teach the differnce between a song and reality and just the right way to live. blaming things... anything isnt gonan help. in the case of columbine the parents had ALOT of respobility on this although
Kyle from St. Louis, Moto quote Chris Rock "Can't the kids just be crazy"
Cristina from Paduckah, KyWhen I was a child and I watched Pearl Jams, Jeremy it never influenced me to do wrong. It only prepared me to become patient even if it meant hemiliation and to not put danger since immaturity is the cause."Kill em All!" as on that AOL profile is not and can not be from Metallica's album because it is a phrase which everyone possess by thought but not action. Why do these shootings happen? I will tell you why, the bullies in this matter get the easy way out to have revenge on other children then most likely get to be popular or to prove he is a man then the ones that dont have that easy way out pull guns out ( if weak and cant show anger then he or she hopes that bullets makes taunts go away).To prevent shootings dont blame and suceed by helping parents that are not responsible of their kids!
Andrew from St. Louis, MoThe line, "Your disciples are ridden with metaphors", is referring to music, and how the killers took it too seriously. After the tragedy at Columbine, there was alot of question to whether music played a role in the violence. One of the killers posted on his AOL profile "Kill em All!!!", which also happened to be an album by Metallica.
John from Raleigh, NcI thought Jeremy was a '91 song.
Glenn from Kingston, NhI think there's some sort of Japan/WWII reference in here too.. "I've been harboring fleets in this resevoir. Red Sun."

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