Grievance (song)

Infobox Song
Name = Grievance


Artist = Pearl Jam
Album = Binaural
Background = lightsteelblue
Released = May 16, 2000
track_no = Track 9
Recorded = September 1999 – January 2000 at Studio Litho, Seattle, Washington
Genre = Alternative rock
Length = 3:14
Label = Epic
Producer = Tchad Blake, Pearl Jam
Writer = Eddie Vedder
prev = "Of the Girl"
prev_no = Track 8
next = "Rival"
next_no = Track 10"Grievance" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. The song is the ninth track on the band's sixth studio album, "Binaural" (2000).

Origin and recording

The song was written by frontman Eddie Vedder. Vedder about the song:

It's bad when you have writer's block in the studio and you've got three songs without words and four days left. It pretty much happened on the last record. And the worst part was they were songs that I had written. I had written the music to "Insignificance" and "Grievance". I just wasn't happy with what I had so I kept working on it and scrapping it and staying up at night, playing piano melodies to make it be the best thing. And it worked, finally. That causes hell in a relationship, that's all I'll tell you. [Weisbard, Eric, et al. [http://www.fivehorizons.com/archive/articles/spin801.shtml "Ten Past Ten"] "Spin". August 2001.]

Lyrics

Vedder took inspiration from the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle when writing the song. [Tannenbaum, Rob. [http://www.fivehorizons.com/archive/articles/george_700.shtml "Rebels Without a Pause"] . "George". July 2000.] When speaking about "Grievance" in an interview, Vedder stated:

I think technology went wrong somewhere. It just went into the wrong direction. Instead of helping us and freeing us, it seems to enslave us. That's what I talk about in "Grievance", about the dangers and what a lot of people don't see or don't want to see. There's the line, "For every tool they lend us a loss of independence" and it's true. Everything happens so fast. The technology is supposed to make everything simple, easy. It tries to make us believe that it's some sort of freedom we have. Of course, it's easy and comfortable if you can do all your shopping via the internet, if you don't need to leave the house to do anything. But, on the other hand, what is going to happen? You lose touch with people. You don't meet new people except on the internet and whatever you do can be traced. They know everything about you; they know what you buy; they know which papers you read, how long you stay on a page and they look at your statistics and they're going to offer you the products they think you might buy – most of them you don't really need anyway. What is going to happen to individuality? [Gabriella. [http://www.nyrock.com/interviews/2000/pj_int.asp "Interview with Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam"] . NYRock.com. August 2000.]

Reception

The song was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance in 2001. [cite web
url = http://www.rockonthenet.com/archive/2001/grammys.htm
title = 43rd Grammy Awards
publisher = Rockonthenet
accessdate = 2007-09-05]

Live performances

The band played this song when it appeared on the "Late Show with David Letterman" in April 2000 in support of "Binaural". The song was premiered live in concert at the band's May 10, 2000 concert in Bellingham, Washington. [ [http://pearljam.com/songs/song.php?song=Grievance "Pearl Jam Songs: "Grievance""] . pearljam.com.] A live performance of "Grievance" can be found on the "Light Years" single. Performances of the song can also be found on the DVDs "Touring Band 2000" and "Live at the Garden".

References

External links

* [http://www.pearljam.com/songs/song.php?song=Grievance Lyrics]