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Black and White World Lyrics
I was looking at the black and white world
It seemed so exciting
If you'd only put me back to back with that girl
When the night's inviting
With just a little lighting
There'll never be days like that again
When I was just a boy and men were men
You never go from moment to moment
You're the living double of a single fiction
You're very colourful with your compliments
As you feel the finger's friction
It's a freeze-frame
Still it's real life
You don't want to look
Cause you've seen the film and you've read the book
I was looking at the black and white world
Trying to name some pin-up
Those days she was just a beautiful girl
Now she's framed and hung up
I thought she was young
Up until I saw her last night in close detail
Though they all fade away when you're so pale
It's more than just a physical attraction
It starts with a face and ends up a fixation
But you're never gonna feel a fraction
Of the way it used to work on your imagination
When you were looking at the black and white world...
It seemed so exciting
If you'd only put me back to back with that girl
When the night's inviting
With just a little lighting
There'll never be days like that again
When I was just a boy and men were men
You never go from moment to moment
You're the living double of a single fiction
You're very colourful with your compliments
As you feel the finger's friction
It's a freeze-frame
Still it's real life
You don't want to look
Cause you've seen the film and you've read the book
I was looking at the black and white world
Trying to name some pin-up
Those days she was just a beautiful girl
Now she's framed and hung up
I thought she was young
Up until I saw her last night in close detail
Though they all fade away when you're so pale
It's more than just a physical attraction
It starts with a face and ends up a fixation
But you're never gonna feel a fraction
Of the way it used to work on your imagination
When you were looking at the black and white world...
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This song is about the disparity between the idealized version of sex the narrator imagined while he was a boy masturbating compared to his disappointment with the real thing. As is usual in an Elvis song there are numerous clever puns and double-meanings. I am not certain but I think he actually meets and sleeps with the pin-up girl he was fixated upon as a boy - and he finds that the real thing is not nearly as nice as it works in his imagination. Or maybe he doesn't meet the pin-up girl - just a real woman instead of an imaginary woman.Another Elvis hymm of sexual angst.
@moik Good comment. "Black and White World" refers to the black and white photography used in the cheaper porno mags of the 60's and 70's.
@moik Good comment. "Black and White World" refers to the black and white photography used in the cheaper porno mags of the 60's and 70's.
Same as below - Additionally, I think while he eventually realizes his idealization of the woman (real, past lover, imagined, photograph, etc.) is not reality, he just doesn't really care, he's willing to live with the fantasy obsession he's created - it works better for him, so he sticks with it.
Memories erase imperfections.