‘Garden’: The Pearl Jam song that took aim at the Gulf War
Disasters are frequently followed by a societal fallout, leading to drastic preservation attempts. This is the case in a physical sense but also in a much more metaphorical one. A great example of this is how, when the Gulf War started, the BBC banned a huge range of songs, worried people may find them offensive. Included in the list were songs that seemingly had nothing to do with war, including ABBA’s ‘Waterloo’.
The Gulf War began in 1990. On August 2nd, Iraq invaded Kuwait, its oil-rich neighbour. Saddam Hussein led the invasion in a bid to gain access to the oil reserves there in an attempt to pay off debt and expand the region in the area where Iraq had power. This was one of the major causes which led to the coalition of countries coming together for armed conflict. The United States led the coalition.
For as long as war has existed, there have been those who oppose it, and rightly so. In the modern music industry, songs are being written, and fundraisers are being held for people in Ukraine and Gaza. This is not something new; artists have always expressed a disdain for war and sympathy for those living through it. In the same way this happens now, it also occurred in the Gulf War.
While there were attempts by radio stations to paper over cracks by banning songs that seemed to elude to violence, there was a range of different artists who were happy to create as a sign of protest towards what was going on. One of these bands was Pearl Jam, who wrote the 1991 track ‘Garden’, which was featured on their debut album Ten and questioned the Gulf War.
One day, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam was with Chris Cornell and Stone Gossard when George H.W. Bush came on TV to discuss the United States’ subsequent invasion of Kuwait. The news sparked something in Vedder: less anger and more genuine confusion. While he pondered the war, what it was for, and what might come out of it, he ended up penning lyrics to the track and Pearl Jam’s anti-war anthem was born.
“Why were we doing this? And why were we going off?” said Vedder when discussing his reaction. “It could be interpreted as greed because some people interpret as going off to fight for their country: ‘I will walk with my hands bound.’ But the thing is it was walking away from it: ‘I won’t be taken, yet I’ll go.'”
Pearl Jam wasn’t the only band to write a song about the Gulf War, either. A number of musicians came together to write songs that documented what was happening and tried to capture their emotions towards it. This meant that there were tracks, both positive and negative, depending on how people viewed the situation. The expressive section of art remains as prevalent as ever as it documents disaster in a unique and accessible way.
