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

“Let My Love Open the Door”

Pete Townshend | 1980

A peppy, hopeful love song, "Let My Love Open the Door" became a U. S. Top Ten hit for Pete Townshend in 1980, anchored by the kind of repeating synthesizer figures that he'd used in some of the Who's recordings in the previous decade. Although Townshend brushed the song off as "just a ditty" in Rolling Stone shortly after its release, in 1996 he revealed it was about love of the holiest sort. "It's supposed to be about the power of God's love," he remarked. "That when you're in difficulty, whether it's major or minor, God's love is always there for you."

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