Black

The most honest and raw expression of such excruciating pain and longing that anyone who’s ever lost their greatest love can relate to.

That is one of the saddest songs i've ever heard.But it reminds me of someone i wish i could forget.

This song had become my anthem to a relationship that I ruined. The later realization that "she was the one and only" had made her loss unbearable for years. Twenty years we have reconciled as friends. Something I thought impossible. We were out with friends for dinner, listening to a great local band. A band that was friends with my band. During a break they asked me to come up a sing a set. We sang Black and I noticed "she" left in a hurry during the song. I closed the set early and hit the streets looking for her. She was across the street, sitting on the kerb, smoking her first cigarette in twenty years. She had always thought of us when she had heard this song and used to fantasize about me "growing up' and realizing what I had thrown away. We spent that night in a long list of unremarkable settings, saying very little to each other. We have literally never been apart since that night. She runs her business out of my office, we split time between her house in the city and my ranch in the foothills of the rocky mountains. We will continue this until her youngest finishes school. Her laugh and her smile are the same. She still sees the man in me I never thought I could be. The world has shifted on it's axis and turns only for us and her boys now. The confidence we have found within each other has benefited everyone around us. Many songs have clear, intended meanings. Sometimes they also have meanings, equally valid, that only resonate with one or two people. Who is to say they are wrong. I live in a different universe with the only person I was ever meant to be with, in large part because of an impromptu performance of this song. How can my interpretation be wrong, even if only one other person knows what that is?

This is the greatest song ever written, period. It is the most emotional gut wrenching form of self expression I have ever heard. Greatest band, greatest album, greatest song.

The part I love most in the song is where he says: "I know someday you'll have a beautiful life, I hope you'll be a star, in somebody else's sky, but why, why, can't be mine" it captures the the whole song in no more than a couple of lines. Eddie Vedder may just be the best writer of lyrics and music of our time!

"i know someday you'll have a beautiful life, i know you'll be a star in somebody else's sky, but, why, why, why can't it be oh can't it be mine" one of the best set of lyrics ever written about love. So damn true. this song is amazing.

this song is about a bad breakup and him wanting her back no matter what, even tough he knows that she will be a "star" in someone elses sky. Hey . . . ooh . . . Sheets of empty canvas, untouched sheets of clay Were laid spread out before me as her body once did All five horizons revolved around her soul As the earth to the sun Now the air I tasted and breathed has taken a turn Ooh, and all I taught her was everything Ooh, I know she gave me all that she wore And now my bitter hands chafe beneath the clouds Of what was everything? Oh, the pictures have all been washed in black, tattooed everything - He is saying that his life revolved all around her "All five horizons revolved around her soul" and then something happened and she left him, altough she tryed to stay with him anyway at first "I know she gave me all that she wore" I take a walk outside, I'm surrounded by some kids at play I can feel their laughter, so why do I sear Oh, and twisted thoughts that spin round my head I'm spinning, oh, I'm spinning - Even with all the joy and happiness in the world all around him, nothing but sadness and "twisted toughts" goes through his mind. How quick the sun can drop away And now my bitter hands cradle broken glass Of what was everything All the pictures have all been washed in black, tattooed everything All the love gone bad turned my world to black Tattooed all I see, all that I am, all I'll be . . . yeah - The "sun" of his life, the girl, the happiness, etc, just dissapeared, and now in his hands, he cradles the broken glass of what was everything (the relationship he had with her, broke like a water globe) and now all of the pictures (memories) have been washed in black (given sad meanings, whenever he remembers those moments he feels intense sadness), "all the love gone bad turned my world to black" means something close to what i just wrote, now everything in the world to him is sad, nothing can cheer him up and that tattoed him, like a big scar that he will never forget, it is something that will change him forever. Uh huh . . . uh huh . . . ooh . . . I know someday you'll have a beautiful life, I know you'll be a star In somebody else's sky, but why Why, why can't it be, why can't it be mine? this one is just obvious, he knows that she will still be happy without him, and will make someone's life brighter, and he asks why it can't be his. i know the interpretation kinda killed the feeling of the song, but i just wanted to make it clear to everyone what it is saying. it might not be what i wrote, but i think it makes more sense than those abortion theories :p btw, one of my fav. songs of all time, cried so many tears to this masterpiece :')

It's pretty obvious what this song is about... I agree that it's by far one of Pearl Jam's BEST songs... The last two lines.. AMAZING...

i actually cried once while listening to this song...its so powerful...my favourite pearl jam song!

ts about a guy who is crazy in love with this girl and he is with her and everything is dandy and perfect and they love each other very much and this guy pree much worships the ground she walks on. "Hey . . . ooh . . . Sheets of empty canvas, untouched sheets of clay Were laid spread out before me as her body once did All five horizons revolved around her soul As the earth to the sun" The empty sheets of canvas and clay are his future when they met and how they could shape it together and decide what happens. He is the earth she is the sun. After a while though they are separated (seemingly by her actions, not his). he becomes depressed and he can't enjoy life without her. his "earth" has no "sun" anymore and is dark and dull. Hes thinking back on everything they did together and he realizes how fragile it all was. "How quick the sun can drop away And now my bitter hands cradle broken glass Of what was everything" He is pretty much tortured by thinking about her now and needs her to be in his life but he knows she never will be. he knows shes gonna make some guy the happiest guy in the world but it tortures him to think about how that could have been him and how he lost what was once in his hands. "I know someday you'll have a beautiful life, I know you'll be a sun In somebody else's sky, but why Why, why can't it be, why can't it be mine?" at least thats what i got from it