What does Black mean?

Pearl Jam: Black Meaning

Album cover for Black album cover

Black Lyrics

Hey... oooh...
she's a painted canvas, under sheets of clay
her legs spread out before me as her body lay still.
All of five horizons revolved around her soul
As the earth to the sun
Now the air I tasted and breathed has taken a turn

Ooh,...

  1. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jun 18th 2011 !⃝

    Lost lover maybe ..he tells us of how a part of his life it could be a girl it could without.

  2. MeaninOfLife_MusicMania90
    click a star to vote
    May 26th 2011 !⃝

    Virginity....he sings of how he first took a girls virginity. he falls in love with her knowin its only a fling to her an that she will end with somebody else.

  3. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    May 5th 2011 !⃝

    He took someone's virginity and loved her and lost her couldn't be with her. I'm guessing she was young.

  4. blackdaemon
    click a star to vote
    Sep 18th 2010 !⃝

    This is a song about how when Eddie was living in Mission Bay, he saw a beautiful 16 year old girl hanging out on the beach with some surfers. Being that Eddie was not the coolest guy in high school or as a young adult (or now), he knew he could not have the girl, and had to stay with his current homely girlfriend. He then became very frustrated and wrote this song about the girl whom he became obsessed with over the years. Writing other songs about her and naming album covers after her.

  5. Doppleganger
    click a star to vote
    Sep 13th 2010 !⃝

    The song is about a heart-broken man remembering his lost lover.

  6. dallasmusiclover
    click a star to vote
    Aug 1st 2010 !⃝

    It's about a man not wanting to let go of someone who meant the world to him. She was the sun in his life, and now the world is all Black without her. He realizes she will be the sun in someone else's life, but he wants it to be him.

  7. reallyelijah
    click a star to vote
    Mar 31st 2009 !⃝

    Revival rising...the preacher said all is washed in black...turned my world to black...a worlds love gone bad..all I am all I'll ever be(Cause he's only on plastic from petroleum on plastic CD's,cassetes,vcr tape etc.)THE PREACHER SAID," All is washed in black !" Take a song and drive away(In his beast;when I looked closer it was like a horse arrayed for battle and when it moved it made a great noise...and when I looked closer I seen the faces of men(through the windshields and side windows of cars and trucks)from petroleum:linoleum,asphalt,fibreglass shingles,gin,whiskey,aspirin,carpets,freon,insulation,pipes,circuit breakers,pharmaceuticals,food additives,herbicides,pesticides,paint,lubricants,solvents,etc,etc,etc,etc,..

    His inspiration for this song from a letter to Mrs Gairth and the Superintendant of schools in TN from the prophet from Toledo,James Oldham

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  8. reallyelijah
    click a star to vote
    Mar 22nd 2009 !⃝

    The inspiration from this song came from a prophet from Toledo,Ohio who sent a letter to Mrs Gairth and the superintendent of schools in TN . It's about petroleum coming up from the bottomless pit. The prophets name is James (Jim) Oldham. At the end of Jeremy well be a few Oldham's as well as one in Black and a Jim.At the end of black is a bunch of to le do 's. Try to erase it from the blackboard !

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  9. shawna_kx92
    click a star to vote
    Nov 17th 2008 !⃝

    This is a very depressing song and it kinda of hard to make sense of. I personally believe is about the lead singer losing a girl he love very much.
    'Sheets of empty canvas, untouched sheets are clean
    Her things spread out before me as her body once did
    All five horizons revolved around her soul
    As the earth does the sun
    Now the air I've tasted and breathed has taken a turn
    Ooh, and all I taught her was everything'
    These lyrics talk about how the writer 'made' this girl. He taught her a lot of things, and they depended on each other, like the earth depends on the sun.
    After losing this girl, everything went 'black' as if there were no sun, the world would be dark.
    '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'
    The writed misses this girl very much, and wishes to have her back in his life.

12 next ›



More Pearl Jam songs »


 


Latest Articles

 


Submit Your Interpretation

[ want a different song? ]




Just Posted

Steve's Going to London anonymous
Yes I'm A Mess anonymous
Droppin' Plates anonymous
Rat anonymous
Cry for the Moon anonymous
And the Snakes Start to Sing anonymous
Gingerbread Man anonymous
Not Like the Movies anonymous
This Masquerade anonymous
Birthday Suit anonymous
Dollhouse anonymous
Death anonymous
Copy Cat anonymous
I Hate Jimmy Page anonymous
I Hate Jimmy Page anonymous

(We won't give out your email)