Pearl Jam - Black

There is a strong consensus among Pearl Jam and non-Pearl Jam fans regarding the emotional impact of this song.

People strongly remember and identify with black and especially the last lines:

"i know someday you'll I know someday you'll have a beautiful life,
I know you'll be a star, in somebody else's sky, but why why can't it be mine?".

So I guess those lines have their influence on everyone.
Each person thinks it's for him and about him, and how personal it is and fragile!

I find this song very self-explicit and clear in its subject matter,
and very poetic and vague in its similes and metaphors. I think the emotional impact is great firstly because of Eddie's voice, secondly, for the emotional music, and at last, the lyrics which make people identify so strongly with the subject and the emotion it arouses.
Lost love, unreturned love, or dead love is certainly the most popular subject in popular music and perhaps in art itself.
this is why it is such a classic.



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'll be... yeah...
Uh huh... uh huh... ooh...

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, can't it be mine