The song alive which is on our first record and was the first song we ever wrote as a group and a song that we’ve played hundreds of times live… it has been transformed through the years and it’s not so much how we play or the arrangement, but more the interpretation.
The original story being told in the song is the one of a young man being knowed to some shocking truths. One was that the guy he believed to be his father while growing up was not and the hard truth number two was that the real father had pass away a few years before. Not as if the adolescence wasn't tough enough, when the mother relays this information, it leaves the kid who’s not terribly stable at that point in his development terrebly confused. I know this because I knew the guy. Not well. But I knew him. I mean, the guy was me but I nearly knew me then. To be honest, I was barely there to be knowed. So he takes all this news as a curse. Fine, you told me these secrets I’m suppose to forgive but I need to figure out a way to live with this. Fine, there’s death but I’m alive and I got to deal with this.
So, it was a curse – I’m still alive. So, years later we are playing to a larger and larger audience and they’re responding to this chorus in a way that you never thought. Folks are jumping down the aisle, using their bodies to express themselves and singing along “I’m still alive” in mass. So, at night when I look at this sea of people reacting in their own positive interpretation is really incredible.
The audience changed the meaning of this words and when they sing “I’m still alive” it’s like they’re celebrating. And here’s the thing: when they changed the meaning of those words they lifted the curse.
Eddie Vedder
(desculpem estar em inglês)
118 days to go,
Brooke