Black, a bad break-up or suicide?

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Comments

  • damn_u85
    damn_u85 Posts: 6
    I have listened to this song I dont know how many times. And when I learned how to play it I sang it all the time. This song touched me in the deepest way. I was going through a bad break up myself and all you have to do is listen to the lyrics and you'll get it. I dont see how anyone gets suicide out of it though


    "I know she gave me all that she wore"
  • pearljamprincess
    pearljamprincess Posts: 2
    This is probably one of their most emotive songs and I remember hearing it for the first time after I broke up with my first boyfriend and feeling every lyric as if it had been written for me.

    Thats why I love them - its better than therapy!
  • bambers-back
    bambers-back Posts: 50
    i love that song but u cant just right it off as a breakup song, yes it says someone elses sky but her being a star could mean she is nolonger of this world???
    anyway it has the best depressing line EVER
    ''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 MINE?"
    that line and eddies voice combined makes the song, that lyric just cuts through me (sorry if that sounds gay) it makes me wonder how i would cope losing the one i love (again sorry if that sounds stupid and emotional)
    the glass/ slitting wrists theory is interesting i cant believe i missed that!!!!
  • Siouxsun
    Siouxsun Posts: 14
    http://www.songfacts.com/search_fact.php?combinedartists=pearl+jam
  • outspaced
    outspaced Posts: 65
    Siouxsun wrote:
    http://www.songfacts.com/search_fact.php?combinedartists=pearl+jam


    what's that fucker from Stain'd doing singing Black??? Christ
    die on a hilltop.. eyeing the crows,
    waiting for your lids to close..
    but you want to watch as they peck your flesh..
    Ironic that they go for the eyes first
  • Siouxsun
    Siouxsun Posts: 14
    outspaced wrote:
    what's that fucker from Stain'd doing singing Black??? Christ
    I dont know but I would never have trespassed the territory if I was a musician !
  • faithful227
    faithful227 Posts: 352
    i have always thought of it as a breakup song. more so after i heard the "we belong together" tag. at camden night 2 this year ed brought it back, as a whisper right at the end. it was incredible and may be the highlight of all the shows i've seen. it was even better when they went directly into one of the best performances of crazy mary ive seen as well. awesome.
    VHC member #155***

    Ft Lauderdale '96:::West Palm Beach '98:::Tampa '00:::Tampa '03:::Camden 1&2 '06::: DC '06:::West Palm Beach '08:::Tampa '08:::Columbia '08:::Virginia Beach '08

  • lifeisgood
    lifeisgood Posts: 1
    Echoing what so many others have offered - so many of their songs can be interpreted in different ways.

    I think it could be both. Bad break-up followed by suicide.

    I don't think I've ever listened to this song without thinking about my brother-in-law, who committed suicide some time after his girlfriend broke up with him.
  • comebackwoman
    comebackwoman Posts: 7,271
    faithful227 wrote:
    i have always thought of it as a breakup song. more so after i heard the "we belong together" tag. at camden night 2 this year ed brought it back, as a whisper right at the end. it was incredible and may be the highlight of all the shows i've seen. it was even better when they went directly into one of the best performances of crazy mary ive seen as well. awesome.

    That was such an amazing performance. It sent chills down my spine!

    I have always thought of Black as a break up song...he desperately still wants to be with the girl (we belong together tag), but wishes her well regardless. It's filled with so much angst. Such a fitting song for anyone who has ever come to the realization that a relationship must end (or has ended) and is still struggling with accepting it.
    There's a light when my baby's in my arms :)
  • Ms. Haiku
    Ms. Haiku Washington DC Posts: 7,389
    Hey...oooh...
    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...

    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 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 will be...yeah...
    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, can't it be mine

    What's interesting is that when I read the lyrics the ramifications of the break up seem more important than the break up. The artist has lost inspiration, and is really focused on that, it seems. How the art is affected. I'm sure there is the loss of the love, but the artist didn't see how the art would be affected, how the inspiration would be lost. What is more important, the loss of love or the loss of creativity?
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
  • AllIAm
    AllIAm Posts: 1,309
    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 will be...yeah...


    well considering my boyfriend just broke up with me im going with break up. its weird too cause a few weeks ago i got "all i am, all i'll be" tattooed on my wrist and then this all happened. its like it sealed my fate

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