I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Fading everything to black and blue
You look a lot like you
Shatter in the blink of an eye
You keep sailing right on through
Every time you say you're learning
You just look a lot like me
Pale under the blistering sky
White and red
Black and blue
You've been waiting a long time
You've been waiting a long time
To fall down on your knees
Cut your hands
Cut yourself until you bleed
Fall asleep next to me
Wait for everyone to go away
And in a dimly lit
room where you've got nothing to hide
Say your goodbyes
Tell yourself we'll read
a note that says
I'm sorry everyone
I'm tired of feeling nothing goodbye
Wash your face
Dry your eyes
Cause you've been waiting a long time
You've been waiting a long long time
To fall down on your knees
Cut your hands
Cut yourself until you bleed
But fall asleep next to me
Have a dream I'm falling down
On my face
Scrape my knees
Scrape my hands until they bleed
Cause you're fast asleep next to me
Next to me, next to me, next to me
You look a lot like you
Shatter in the blink of an eye
You keep sailing right on through
Every time you say you're learning
You just look a lot like me
Pale under the blistering sky
White and red
Black and blue
You've been waiting a long time
You've been waiting a long time
To fall down on your knees
Cut your hands
Cut yourself until you bleed
Fall asleep next to me
Wait for everyone to go away
And in a dimly lit
room where you've got nothing to hide
Say your goodbyes
Tell yourself we'll read
a note that says
I'm sorry everyone
I'm tired of feeling nothing goodbye
Wash your face
Dry your eyes
Cause you've been waiting a long time
You've been waiting a long long time
To fall down on your knees
Cut your hands
Cut yourself until you bleed
But fall asleep next to me
Have a dream I'm falling down
On my face
Scrape my knees
Scrape my hands until they bleed
Cause you're fast asleep next to me
Next to me, next to me, next to me
Lyrics submitted by txsnowbunny
Black and Blue Lyrics as written by Adam Fredric Duritz David Lynn Bryson
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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this is what Adam Duritz says about it: Black and Blue
"'Black and Blue' is about the fragility of people. It's not necessarily about the girl doing all these things to herself as much as about her imagining doing all these things to herself. I didn't want to write a big song about suicide or anything; it's really a song about being so sad that you sit around and think about suicide, which I think people do all the time. That's why it says, in the last verse, 'tell yourself, or we’ll read a note that says, "I'm sorry everyone. I'm tired of feeling nothing. Goodbye."'
It's about her imagining everybody reading the note. It's about her thinking about all these things she'd do to herself, and it's also him thinking about it. It seemed to me that thinking about it was much smaller and much sadder than actually dong it.
Who is this song really about? " I couldn't tell, when I was writing the song, whether I was talking about … me … or this girl."
i can see the sex side and i can see the sucicide side. The tune is outta this world, I can fall asleep becuase it makes me feel peaceful, but the lyrics are so strong and powerful. amazing.....
I think he sees this person who is worn out. He can tell she is just on the edge of a complete breakdown. "shatter in the blink of an eye". She is carring so much, that he just says you have been waiting so long to let go, just do it. Fall apart and I'll help you rebuild again. The cutting is more figurative, she will be on the ground, battered by her emotions.
Sure, It is probably about suicide, but I like to come up with alternates.
i definitely agree
i read somewhere that adam said this song is about a girl imagining committing suicide, but in the end choosing to live. she's imagining everyone she knows gathering around and reading the note she wrote, but in the end she's "fast asleep next to me." and also, having a dream about him scraping his hands until they bleed? like maybe she's feeling this way because of him? but whatever this song means, it's absolutely beautiful and has gotten me through some hard times.
beautiful.
For me this has always been a song Adam is singing to himself about himself. He doesnt mention another gender till near the end. to me ive always taken that to be another indication of his alienation from everyone in his life..a fairly common theme for him. he's dwelling, in the song, on ending it all, or giving up in the face of the pressures of his life, of falling down, of falling asleep and remaining in that dream world of nothingness and everything...where he can still feel and be free.
catchxfire, very well put! :)
Agreed...devastatingly beautiful...
This song is about people's emotional fragility. It has lines where the character in the song is thinking about comitting suicide. You know, imagining what people would think and feel when they read the note. But I think this song is particularly about the fragility of some women when it comes to sex.
beautiful song, definatley. but when he sings about "fall down on your knees, cut ur hands, cut urself until u bleed" does he mean, in the process off falling she cuts herself, or does he literally mean shes cutting herself purposely cos shes unhappy? if anyone has any thoughts....
@moo It's her thinking about cutting herself.
reply to moo
it's about thinking about it... adam said something about how, in some ways, thinking about doing something (suicide or self mutilation) is worse than actually doing it...