10 Songs That Actually Got Better Live
8. Alive - Pearl Jam
"Alive" by Pearl Jam has got to be one of the oddest songs to inspire a crowd singalong. Though the actual song construction pretty much begs to be sung in arenas, the subject matter surrounding it is a lot darker than many casual fans would like to admit. On the other hand, this is a situation where the crowd ended up altering the meaning of the entire track.
On the album, "Alive" is a twisted little song, as Eddie Vedder talks about a boy who is told that his birth father is dead, after which his mother tries to make sexual advances towards him. It's a very traumatic situation, but all that the boy can muster is the mantra "I'm still alive." That kind of adolescent angst is a bit much even by Seattle standards, but the whole song builds up once the band performs it for a paying audience.
As Mike McCready takes the outro solo, Vedder normally interacts with the audience, where they are all joined in the communal bond of music. With years under his belt, Vedder has actually substituted the phrase "We're all still alive" to the final chorus, bringing a bit of catharsis to whichever stadium they play. This song may have had dark origins, but Vedder has credited the fans for turning a dark subject into a positive chant.