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Black Lyrics

Hey, oh
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

Oh and all I taught her was everything
Oh 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
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
How quick the sun can, drop away

And now my bitter hands
Cradle broken glass
Of what was everything
All the pictures had
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
I know someday you'll have a beautiful life
I hope you'll be a star
In somebody else's sky
But why
Why
Why can't it be
Why can't it be mine
Song Info
Copyright
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Writer
Stone C. Gossard, Eddie Jerome Vedder
Duration
5:48
Submitted by
mike On Apr 01, 2001
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546 Meanings

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Cover art for Black lyrics by Pearl Jam

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

@Jenilla Well said. The "greatest" breakup song of all time, if there is such a thing.

@Jenilla Lmao sorry! I hit add reply before commenting so it looks like my name is my comment. Oops!!

I actually wanted to say that I completely agree with you. This is such a beautiful but haunting song. There is a live video of Eddie singing it and the passion he expresses when he sings is is breathtaking.

@Jenilla I don't know how to use this but I agree with all the thoughts here. And the first post was 15 years ago. But yes this is cool and I will have to watch a live video because it tears my heartstrings

Cover art for Black lyrics by Pearl Jam

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

It's 2014 now, March 10-are things still the same for you? I am just losing it over someone where I was the stupid one in the relationship. I am a star in someone else's sky but now I want to be back where I was 30 years ago, but it's too late. Did anything change for you?

@odell0883 effin a man it reminds me of the gf of 20 yrs my high school sweetheart we have 2 kids we broke up and I missed out on a lot of her and my oldest daughter growing up while she was dating some rich dude but she still came to me behind his back and today we are reunited with another little girl we live crazy lives don't we all

@odell0883 Same!

Cover art for Black lyrics by Pearl Jam

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?

Memory

simply amazing.... I admire and love your strength to follow your true heart.

Wow, great post and great story. Inspiring. I started an account with this site just to reply to your post, it moved me so much. Good luck to you.

Listen to this one, although it's not quite as profound: Nearly 20 years ago I dated a woman who was one of the great loves of my life. I ruined that and came to understand this song in a new light and began to associate it with her. 2 years ago we miraculously reunited again out of the blue after becoming fiends again and then began discussing marriage.Well... I ruined it this time too.

Cover art for Black lyrics by Pearl Jam

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.

@hamjam well.....like....that's just your opinion man...

@hamjamthe Beatles were the best band ever, and that's demonstratable. Pearl Jam isn't even a pimple on the butt of Paul McCartney John Lennon and George Harrison

@hamjam I salute you. And those who love The Beatles are a bit jaded. Because somtimes it matters what generation you grew up in. I know people who believe that The Rolling Stones, or Metallica, or The Who, or Nirvana, or Led Zeppline, (I could go on for days) were the best. If Pearl Jam was the best to you. Then rock on. I once had an old boss once say to me, "Pearl Jam is this generations 'Beatles'".

Cover art for Black lyrics by Pearl Jam

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 agree

@Joevanderscher Sorry to be a bother, but Eddie never written the song "Black". The song was written way before he started singing for Pearl Jam.

@Joevanderscher when this song first came out, I couldn't actually understand what he said there - when I finally realized what he was singing, it crystallized the entire song. It all made sense, and made it powerful. It's an amazing moment to see it live.

Cover art for Black lyrics by Pearl Jam

"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.

@LiveUrLife Hey, thanks for the compliment. I wrote the lyric back in 1988. My name is Martin Vikene (Morten).

Cover art for Black lyrics by Pearl Jam

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 :')

I agree; beautiful lyrics. Vedder is so raw, so open in his writing; truly an awe inspiring artist. He shares his life, his feelings with the world which is so beautiful.

@Ikilikuz but what are the 5 horizons ? I only.know 1.

@Ikilikuz perhaps this? All five horizons revolved around her soul" - Possible religious reference, five is a pretty important number to many religions (like a pentagram). It could also refer to her being sprawled out (two legs+two arms+1 head=5). Thx to Songfacts.com

Cover art for Black lyrics by Pearl Jam

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...

Max - I've been a PJ fan for over 20 years and have attended dozens of their shows. NO ONE knows what this song is about. So to casually say it is "obvious" is not quite accurate. Some say it is about suicide. Some say abortion. Some say a lost love. Even Eddie Vedder has said that the song could have many meanings.

I am curious to hea what lyrics make you so certain that you know what the song is about.

Not Valid

This i definitely about loss. Be it loss of your love, loss of your loved child by aborting it. That might lead to suicide. Yeah, the story behind it might be something else. What's important is what it means to you. At least that's what i think..

Not Valid

@maxpower114 It is mainly about a break-up, I would say.

Cover art for Black lyrics by Pearl Jam

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

oh ive been there before my friend. beautiful song tho, eddie poured his soul into it

Not Valid

The first time I heard this I was lovestruck by it - i listened to it with someone who became very influential in my life. When I saw PJ for the second time last year and this played, I cried. I cried for the love of the song, and the love and the loss of a close friendship with the person who played it to me. It was the first song I heard by my all time fav artists

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that's the same way i felt. the first time i heard this it just captured me. i don't think i'll ever get tired of it. in the last verse where he sang "I know someday you'll be a sun in somebody else's sky, but why can't it be mine that part was just filled withso much passion. You can't fake it. <3 Eddie Vedder

Not Valid
Cover art for Black lyrics by Pearl Jam

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

agree

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