Description

2021 30th anniversary Record Store Day mini album with one side lazer etched

This record store day release features the rare original promo version of the single with different early versions of the tracks as well as a Beatles cover that werent released anywhere besides on the first promo version of the single. Alive was Pearl Jam’s first single, and appeared on the band’s debut album, Ten (1991). The track was written by guitarist Stone Gossard, which he titled ‘Dollar Short’, in 1990 when he was still a member of Mother Love Bone. According to Gossard in an interview for Pearl Jam’s VH1 Storytellers special, Mother Love Bone frontman Andrew Wood had even sung on it. After Wood died of a heroin overdose, Gossard and his bandmate Jeff Ament started playing with guitarist Mike McCready with the hope of starting a new band. ‘Dollar Short’ was one of five tracks compiled onto a tape called Stone Gossard Demos 91 that Gossard, Ament, and McCready circulated in the hopes of finding a singer and drummer for the group. Vocalist Eddie Vedder obtained a copy of the tape and wrote lyrics that describe a fictionalized account (though somewhat based on Vedder’s personal experience) of the time when he was told that the man he thought was his father was not actually his biological parent. It tells the story of a young man discovering that his father is actually his stepfather, while his mother’s grief leads to an incestuous relationship with the son, who strongly resembles the biological father. This leads to a later track called ‘Once’ in which the man descends into madness and goes on a killing spree, and ‘Footsteps’ in which the man is eventually looking back from a prison cell awaiting his execution. ‘Alive’ has been revealed by Vedder to be part autobiographical and part fiction. When Vedder was a teenager, his mother revealed to him that the man he thought was his father was actually his stepfather, and that his biological father was dead. The first and last verses detail those actual events, but the second verse is storytelling on Vedder’s part. The lyrics of the second verse read, ‘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…’, and Vedder revealed that ‘she’ was the mother, and ‘the look’ referred to was not the look on her face, but ‘the look is between her legs. Where do you go with that? That’s where you came from’. Rather than being the inspirational song most interpret it as, Vedder had quite a different meaning in mind, stating, ‘[He’s] still dealing with love, [he’s] still dealing with the death of [his] father. All [he] knows is ‘I’m still alive’…that’s totally out of burden’. ‘Alive’ was the first song for which Vedder recorded vocals. Vedder mailed the tape back to Seattle. Upon hearing the tape, the band invited Vedder to come to Seattle and he was asked to join the band. The band, then called Mookie Blaylock, recorded ‘Alive’ during a demo session at London Bridge studio in January 1991. The version recorded during this session would later appear on the group’s debut album, Ten, and on the promotional ‘Alive’ EP. During album mixing sessions in England in June 1991, mixer Tim Palmer had McCready add to the song’s outro solo. McCready recorded a number of attempts at the solo, and Palmer edited them into a composite version. The guitarist was unsatisfied with the result, so he made another attempt at the solo. ‘He had another go at it’, Palmer recalled, ‘and got it right away. There was no piecing together to do; it was one take’. Vedder stated at Pearl Jam’s 2006 VH1 Storytellers appearance that over the years the meaning has changed for him. He said, ‘In the original story, a teenager is being made aware of a shocking truth that leaves him plenty confused…It was a curse—’I’m still alive’. The audience’s response to the song is what has brought about the change in meaning for Vedder. He added, ‘They lifted the curse. The audience changed the meaning for me’. While the ‘Alive’ single was released commercially to international markets in 1991, the commercial single was not released in the United States until June 27, 1995 and was only available as a more expensive import version beforehand. Prior to its commercial release, ‘Alive’ was released as a promotional cd and cassette featuring different artwork and B-sides. While ‘Wash’ was also a B-side to the commercial singles, ‘I’ve Got a Feeling’ was only on the promotional version of the single. The guitar solo at the end of ‘Alive’ was also different from the Ten version, and there are a few other noticeable differences between the two. Stephen M. Deusner of Pitchfork Media said that ‘Alive’ remains potent not only because Vedder touches on some seriously transgressive shit here (dead fathers, hints at incest, survivor guilt), but mostly because the band rock the hell out of that coda’. Gossard said that ‘not a lot of people thought [‘Alive’] was a great single when we released it…I don’t think that the record company thought it was a slam-dunk. They went, ‘Oh! This seems like the best one so far’. The song peaked at number 16 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, number 18 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and at number 16 in the UK. Although the album’s follow-up singles would find more success on the rock charts, ‘Alive’ was nevertheless important in bringing attention to the band.

Track list:
1. Alive-promo version
2. Wash-original version
3. I’ve Got A Feeling-The Beatles cover
4. Dirty Frank-original version