Pearl Jam’s “Black” Is Maybe The Sexiest Song I’ve Ever Heard
And Eddie Vedder’s 1992 MTV Unplugged performance enhances the lustful eroticism of the song
Rob Janicke, Riff co-editor, recently wrote about Pearl Jam’s sophomore album, Vs., which inspired me to give Pearl Jam’s debut album, Ten. As I was listening to Ten on Spotify and thinking about the conversation The Riff founder, Noah Levy, Rob, and I had on The Riff podcast (episode upcoming), I messaged Rob and told him I think “Black” is one of the sexiest songs I’ve ever heard.
He agreed and suggested I watch Eddie Vedder’s performance of the song “Black” on MTV Unplugged, recorded in New York City in 1992, to see the the band’s sensual performance of “Black,” emphasizing Vedder’s young twenty-something lust, heartache, melancholy, and passion.
I didn’t watch MTV growing up. I was born in the late 1970s, but my family didn’t have cable and the MTV I consumed was what I happened to catch when I was at friend’s houses. I remember my friends being completely enamored with the Unplugged MTV series. But, I didn’t get it.
At Rob’s sage advice, I immediately went to YouTube and watched Eddie Vedder singing “Black” and hot damn, he’s right.
This performance is sexy af.
The lyrics are also sexy af.
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
(Bolding, my emphasis).
I mean, these lyrics, written by Eddie Vedder with music by Stone Gossard, are purportedly about Vedder’s relationship with Beth Liebling, who Vedder dated in the 1980s and later married in 1994 (they’ve been divorced since 2000). From this song, it sounds like their relationship had many iterations. These lyrics speak of love, passion, longing, craving, letting go. Maybe they were on a break when the lyrics were penned?
Still, I find it one of the most sultry songs I’ve ever heard. Gritty and real.
The entire band is feeling the music as they perform it. Vedder’s eyes are closed as he channels his singing from some other place. His body language is intense. He’s on a barstool, gyrating, moving, feeling the song. It’s intense. It’s magic. It’s lustful, sultry, sexy, sensual, gritty, and melancholy.
This particular performance ends with a climactic, orgasmic grunting and repetition of lyrics, “We belong together,” which he has rewritten for later versions of the song to “I’ve been healed” or “We didn’t belong together”. It seems these lyrics and revisions of lyrics may have been omitted altogether in more recent iterations.
“Black” is a fantastic song and the 1992 performance of the song is f*cking fantastic. I’m glad Rob told me to watch it.
In Vedder’s words, from the 2011 documentary Pearl Jam 20,
“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.”
In later years, Vedder notably rendered the added lyric “We belong together” as “I’ve been healed” or “We didn’t belong together” indicating his moving on from the relationship and being content with how it ended.
— Source
While this is touted as a sad song, and I get that, I also get the lust-love-longing that inspired it.
Black was voted №9 of The Best Ballad of All Time by readers of Rolling Stone magazine, in October 2013 №7 of The 10 Saddest Songs of All Time. — Source
Personally, it makes my top-10 list of sultry, sexy songs. Give it a watch and see what you think.
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