Pearl Jam's ''Jeremy'' Blamed for Deaths

Last year, 16-year-old Barry Loukaitis walked into his classroom at the Frontier Junior High School in Moses Lake, Wash., with a rifle and opened fire on his class. Loukaitis shot and killed three people including his teacher and seriously wounded a fourth.

The boy's attorney said the video for "Jeremy," a song by Pearl Jam about an unpopular boy who brings a gun into his classroom and starts shooting people, helped incite the boy's rage and shooting frenzy. A jury in Seattle watched the video several times Monday to determine whether or not "Jeremy" may have set the boy off. At press time, we had no news on the jury's decision.

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Song Stories

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

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