You Never Knew What These Misunderstood Songs Were Really About

‘Alive’ – Pearl Jam

While Pearl Jam’s 1991 hit may initially sound like an anthem of perseverance — particularly when singer Eddie Vedder belts out “Yeah, yeah I, oh, I’m still alive” — a deeper reading reveals something else entirely. The track is actually based around Vedder learning as a teenager that the man he thought was his father was actually his stepfather, and that his biological father was dead.