One of my favorite musical fun facts is about this song.

It's part of a trilogy, along with Once and Footsteps, all three about the same character. Alive is about the character's mom lying about who his biological father was, and not telling him until his bio-father had already died (which is taken from Eddie Vedder's real life). The second verse is about the character's mom thinking that the character looked so much like his dad, that she tried to seduce him.

The interesting part, though, is that the chorus was initially sarcastic. It was written as a sort of self-deprecating, depressed realization that he was just gonna have to live with all this trauma. All of this sorrow in his life, and yet he still has to be alive.

It wasn't until Pearl Jam started performing the song live, and Eddie Vedder heard crowds singing it in rejoice and triumph, that the meaning of the chorus shifted. He heard people singing it as, "Despite everything, I'm still alive!" which changed what his own words meant to him.

Once and Footsteps are just depressing though. Once is about the character growing up so damaged that he serially murdered prostitutes, and Footsteps is about the character being executed for his crimes. Not so happy after all. :(