“When the fans changed the meaning of those words, they lifted the curse.” How Eddie Vedder plumbed the murkiest of emotional depths to complete a Pearl Jam classic

Pearl Jam's 1991 song "Alive" became a defining anthem for the Seattle grunge band, but its stadium-rock riff and uplifting chorus masked a much darker origin. Frontman Eddie Vedder wrote lyrics drawing on painful personal experience, turning the track into what he described as "a work of fiction ba