MY LIFE IN MUSIC
Jeff Ament
The Pearl Jam bassman on the records that really matter to him: “I remember the hair standing up on my neck”
INTERVIEW: SAM RICHARDS. PHOTO: DANNY CLINCH
SIMON & GARFUNKEL
Sounds Of Silence COLUMBIA, 1966
One day, my first-grade teacher, Mrs Robertson – not Robinson! – said, “Hey, I’m gonna put on this record and I want everybody to sing along.” And she passed out lyrics to “The Sound Of Silence”. I didn’t know what the words meant, but it was heavy: “Hello darkness, my old friend…” I remember the hair standing up on my neck. We were church-going folks, but I never felt the spirit moving through me the way that I did singing along with my friends to that song. I almost see it as the moment when I was really introduced to music. I go back to that song probably at least once a year. Usually it’s a moment when I’m by myself, so I can get weepy.
THE BEATLES