Alive lyrics by Pearl Jam

The song has been revealed by singer Eddie Vedder to be part autobiographical and part fiction.[2] When Vedder was a teenager, his mother revealed to him that the man he thought was his father was actually his stepfather, and that his biological father was dead. It is the first piece to a trilogy of songs unofficially called "Mamasan". It comprises the songs "Alive", "Once", and "Footsteps". "Alive" tells a story of incest, which leads to the killing spree described in "Once", and eventually looking back from a prison cell in "Footsteps".

The first and last verses detail the actual events described above, but the second verse is storytelling on Vedder's part: the lyrics read "Oh, she walks slowly across the young man's room/She said "I'm ready for you"/I can't remember anything to this very day/Except the look, the look/You know where/Now I can't see, I just stare," and Vedder revealed that "she" was the mother, and "the look" referred to was not the look on her face, but "the look is between her legs. Where do you go with that? That's where you came from."

Rather than being the inspirational song most interpret it as, Vedder had quite a different meaning in mind: "[He's] still dealing with love, [he's] still dealing with the death of [his] father. All [he] knows is "I'm still alive"...that's totally out of burden."

Vedder stated at Pearl Jam's VH1 Storytellers appearance that over the years the meaning has changed for him. He said, "In the original story, a teenager is being made aware of a shocking truth that leaves him plenty confused...It was a curse--"I'm still alive."" The audience's response to the song is what has brought about the change in meaning for Vedder. He added, "They lifted the curse. The audience changed the meaning for me."[8]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alive_%28Pearl_Jam_son g%29