Pop Song 432 of 500 'Black' Pearl Jam 1991

Pop Song 432 of 500 'Black' Pearl Jam 1991

Vocalist Eddie Vedder on the song's lyrics:

Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder had been a fan of American Music Club for years. Pearl Jam's song 'Black', Melody Maker's Allan Jones maintains, "couldn't have been written without AMC's songs as an example. 'Black' doesn't quote directly from 'Western Sky,' but it paraphrases the line 'Please be happy baby' where Vedder sings in a very Eitzel way, 'I hope someday you'll have a beautiful life'." Vedder confirmed Jones' interpretation when they first met. "Oh yes, nobody ever picked up on that," the singer told him. "It is American Music Club, but I'm surprised that anyone here has even heard of them."[6]

In the 2011 book Pearl Jam Twenty, Vedder said about the meaning of the song:

It's about first relationships. The song is about letting go. It's very rare for a relationship to withstand the Earth's gravitational pull and where it's going to take people and how they're going to grow. I've heard it said that you can't really have a true love unless it was a love unrequited. It's a harsh one, because then your truest one is the one you can't have forever.

Hey-hey-hey
Yeah-ah
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 breathe has taken a turn
Mmm, and all I taught her was everything
Mmm-hmm, I know she gave me all that she wore
And now my bitter hands chafe beneath the clouds
Of what was everything
All the pictures had 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?
Mmm, and twisted thoughts that spin 'round my head
I'm spinning, oh-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 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-yeah
Oh-oh, oh-oh, 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
Oh, can't it be mine?
Ooh
Ah, yeah
Ah, ooh-ooh
Doo-doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo