Question about "Alive"
StillAlive in '05
Posts: 8
I got into a long discussion with one of my good friends about Pearl Jam a few weeks back.....He, like me, is a die hard PJ fan....However, something he told me disturbed me...
My friend tried to convince me that "Alive" had some deeper meanings...Well he suggested that it might have been about an encouter Eddie (or 1 of the other band members) had with their mother...And by encounter, he meant sexual........
I just laughed at him and told him he was fucked up for even thinking about such a thing....He's a very smart and knowlegeable guy tho, so I couldn't get to angry at him....I was just like "agree to disagree".....
Has anyone ever heard a crazy interpretation like this before? Is my friend just insane in his assumptions? Share your thoughts
My friend tried to convince me that "Alive" had some deeper meanings...Well he suggested that it might have been about an encouter Eddie (or 1 of the other band members) had with their mother...And by encounter, he meant sexual........
I just laughed at him and told him he was fucked up for even thinking about such a thing....He's a very smart and knowlegeable guy tho, so I couldn't get to angry at him....I was just like "agree to disagree".....
Has anyone ever heard a crazy interpretation like this before? Is my friend just insane in his assumptions? Share your thoughts
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14/09/06, 16/09/06, 17/09/06, 19/09/06, 20/09/06 ~ The Stone lookalike leg of the 2006 tour
18/06/07 - Amazing, just amazing
04/07/06 ~Proud to be part of the AIC Astoria Crew~
Rockin' out to Creadles
But my friend kept bringing up a few lines that are hard for me to interpret....
"Oh, she walks slowly, across a young man’s room
She said I’m ready...for you
I can’t remember anything to this very day
’cept the look, the look...
Oh, you know where, now I can’t see, I just stare..."
^^^ these were the lines he used as reference
Believe me, I'm not buying into this....I was just wondering if anyone else has heard this interpretation before
And he also said on some interview about "the look", and somehow he refered to "you now where" exactly as we are thinking, right there where he came out. make your own conclusions.
"the story of the song is that a mother is with a father and the father dies. its an intense thing because the son looks just like the father. the son grows up to be the father, the person that she lost. his father's dead, and now this confusion, his mother, his love, how does he love her, how does she love him? in fact, the mother, even though she marries somebody else, there's no one she's ever loved more than the father. you know how it is, first loves and stuff. and the guy dies. how could you ever get him back? but the son. he looks exactly like him. it's uncanny. so she wants him. the son is oblivious to it all. he doesn't know what the fuck is going on. he's still dealing, he's still growing up. he's still dealing with love, the death of his father. all he knows is 'I'm still alive' - those three words, that's totally out of burden. but i'm stilla alive. i'm the lover that's still alive."
thats the bit you mean.
14/09/06, 16/09/06, 17/09/06, 19/09/06, 20/09/06 ~ The Stone lookalike leg of the 2006 tour
18/06/07 - Amazing, just amazing
04/07/06 ~Proud to be part of the AIC Astoria Crew~
Rockin' out to Creadles
it is my understanding that the song is autobiographical to an extent.
the father dying and son not getting to know him...that's ed's story.
the incestuous part, that's not ed's story. but it IS part of the meaing of the song.
"she walks slowly, across a young man's room
she said i'm ready...(to fuck you)
i can't remember anything to this very day
'cept the look, the look...
(between her legs), now i can't see, i just stare..."
Taken in the larger context of the Mamasan trilogy (Alive, Once, Footsteps), you have to realize that Alive cannot be completely autobiographical.
So to answer your question, yes in part Alive deals with incest (a taboo topic)...as Once deals with the effects of said incestuous relationship (murder) and Footsteps caps off the story with the protagonist sitting in a jail cell, blaming it all on his mother...but it doesn't mean it's all "true" or was a complete experience by any particular band member.
ds
And no one makes me close my eyes
So I throw the windows wide
And call to you across the sky....
Yeah, I still thinks its pretty ambiguous....But none of us can pick apart Eddies head, and its prolly much better that way....
Oh yeah just a tid bit of knowlege....Dennis Rodman(former NBA star) is a huge fan of PJ and I remember reading many years back that "Alive" was one of his most favorite songs of all time...
how about that. did you also know that Black, Red, and Yellow (Hail, Hail Single released on 05-21-1997) is about dennis rodman? during the build-up to the last chorus there's a telephone answering machine message that dennis left for one of the band members...it goes like this:
yo bro tell us what's happenin' um i'm on the west
west side of, on the west coast
give me a jingle uh when you get in
from where the fuck you're at
ds
And no one makes me close my eyes
So I throw the windows wide
And call to you across the sky....
Even Flow Psycho Member #039
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"This next one is a nice little ditty about the fucked up relationship between a mother and son, you know like incest, lies that kinda stuff. My mama one day explained to me what happened to my dad and i was like well mama that's fucked up, see ya but when can i say, somehow that story made it to this song."
~You laugh because I am different, I laugh because you are all the fucking same -?~
~Education is the most powerfull weapon you can use to change the world - Nelson Mandela~
thats fuckin hilarious....thanks for that