#61 of 366: Black, Pearl Jam

This a bit of an embarrassing admission for the list. I really “discovered” Pearl Jam last year.

I’d obviously HEARD the songs before, I was like 11 when this song came out, and really did have the radio tuned to stations that played their catalog in obvious “rebellion” to my country/bluegrass/gospel upbringing.

But I didn’t…consume…Pearl Jam until last year…and this song put me on my ass. Stunned me. What a performance. What songwriting. Top-shelf.

If I had consumed this song then, do you know what kind of badass 11 year old I would be? So wizened beyond my years and so many ways. Seeing through time and space. It would’ve been amazing.

But pea-brain (essentially given how I feel like my brain just matured at 42) Jesse then didn’t have the life experiences to draw upon that I do, right? So no crazy super-powers, just an overwhelming appreciate for a song that is so purely ART.

“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”

“And now my bitter hands chafe beneath the clouds, of what was everything, all the pictures had all been washed in black, tattooed everything”

…and quite possibly, in my opinion, the greatest verse of song ever written (containing the most heartbreaking set of lyrics I’ve ever encountered, experienced, endured?, etc.:

“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?

That’s where the bar is set people, and I don’t know if there are a set of words that can capture that feeling in such a pure way outside of what Vedder used. It is All-Time.

Enjoy this song a few times in a row. That’s how I like to do it. 😀

Be good, do good. Love.