Pearl Jam Ensures Clinton Victory With Obama Song

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


mojo-photo-pearljambarack.jpgAlright, perhaps I’m biased: Pearl Jam have always bugged the crap out of me. Back in the grunge era (do I capitalize that?), I was a fan of almost all of the Seattle bands, and even 3rd-level grunge-rock like Alice in Chains and Screaming Trees landed in my vinyl collection. But I hated Pearl Jam: “Jeremy”‘s warbling, maudlin self-righteousness and aimless melody grated on me like a Celine Dion ballad, and the highest I’ve ever rated any of their songs is “tolerable.” However, the more I learned about Eddie Vedder and crew, the more I grew to have grudging respect for them; a radio show Vedder hosted in 1995 featured fantastic music, and the band’s fight against Ticketmaster was admirable (if fruitless). I realized that I like what they like, just not what they make.

So I suppose it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they’ve recorded an embarrassingly bad take on “Rock Around the Clock” in support of Obama called (shudder) “Rock Around Barack.” Its simpering, smirking chorus of “We’re gonna rock around Barack tonight” is so terrible I think I might have just blacked out after only the first 7 seconds of the thing, and when I woke up I was on the donation screen of Hillary Clinton’s website.

With Romney out of the race (and the Mega-Tuesday primaries settling nothing), my excitement over the knock-down drag-out rumble on the Democratic side has suddenly turned to abject terror: I just want this thing settled already, I don’t care how! Perhaps Pearl Jam are trying to help in their own perverted way: just like a bunch of really cool posters, a crew of aging hippies doing a Bill Haley cover for you can’t be a good sign.

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate