The frontman continued: "So cut to a few years later and we're playing to larger and larger audiences and they're responding to this chorus in a way that you never thought. So it was a curse."Įddie Vedder performs with Pearl Jam on February 12th 1992 at the Melkweg in Amsterdam. "And fine the dad's dead but I'm still alive and I've gotta deal with this. So he took this to be a curse, like fine you told me this secret, but I've gotta figure a way to deal with this. To be honest I was barely there to be known. He added: "The guy was me, but I barely knew me then. "And one was that the guy he believed to be his father while growing up was not, and number two was that his real father had passed away a few years before. On VH1's Storyteller's series, the grunge legend explained: "The original story being told in the song is of a young man being made aware of some shocking truths. Once - the next track in the trilogy - sees the man go on a killing spree, while Footsteps (the third) sees him await execution from his prison cell.Įddie Vedder has often described the song as a "curse," but revealed how the interpretation of it has changed throughout the years.
The fictional element of the song sees the mother then have an incestuous relationship with the son, who resembles his biological father.
It tells the story of a man who finds out his father is actually his stepfather and that his biological dad is actually dead- an event which occurred in Eddie Vedder's own life when he was a teenager. The latter didn't make the record, but went on to feature as the B-side of their Jeremy single. Pearl Jam at Pinkpop Festival in June 1992: Eddie Vedder, Mike McCready, Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, Dave Abbruzzese.Īlive is the first part of a trilogy of songs, followed by Once, which also featured on Pearl Jam's debut album and Footsteps. The rest, as they say is history.īut what about the song's lyrics and meaning? The band - then called Mookie Blaylock after US basketball player Daron Oshay "Mookie" Blaylock - recorded the track during a demo session in January 1991. After hearing it, they invited him to come to Seattle and asked him to join them soon after.
He recorded his vocals to the music before mailing it back to the band.
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