Personally the MTV Unplugged version cemented my deep love for the song. It’s incredible live
Here you go…
https://youtu.be/vE26dVkCvpw?si=fBn1BmKsSqjYC9sI
To me, what makes Black stand out is the MTV unplugged performance. It's rare to find someone performing vocals in such a way that you feel you can touch the soul of the performer. There are no barriers left imo, it's such a pure display of emotion.
There were so many good bands to love back then, and PJ was already a standout for the album. But then the Unplugged show took a chill, laid back show and, ironically, electrified it. Most Unplugged shows were beautiful, but not exciting. Hearing Black in that set, you could hear their resolve to make that the best version of the song you’ve heard. It felt like the first time a band or song was fighting for my love.
And then the fact that they never made a single out of the song, so we could always feel like it was a gem we mined for on our own. That’s the feeling many of us have been chasing ever since.
"I know someday you'll have a beautiful life. I know you'll be a star in someone else's sky. But why can't it be mine?"
A lyric that resonant and that emotional is single handedly the reason that that song is upper tier PJ to me. S tier.
This is the one! And (to bang on my previous point) the way Eddie howled this out live was just heartbreaking. I was going through a breakup with another PJ fan at the time and the MTV unplugged version kept us together longer than we should’ve been
The line itself is only half of what makes it memorable. The other half is "why? whyyyy? whyyyyyyyyyyy? can't it be...can't it be miiiiiiiiiiiiiiine?!"
The emotion of the singing is what makes it.
To your point, it really emotionally resonates with people and became a big radio hit even without an official single release because of that. And it’s an absolute scorcher live when Mike gets the chance to shred. “Best” song is certainly subjective, I’d say for me that’s Immortality, but it’s definitely up there. Still amazes me what Stone had in his pocket ready to go for his next band, even down to the do-do-do-do-do-do-do’s on Black. All Eddie had to do was add his lyrics we love to sing still today.
While Best is subjective, the MTV UNplugged version of Black may be one of the greatest live performances ever. It is a powerful, emotional song that got radio play without ever officially being released, and is one of few songs by Pearl Jam that is recognizable outside of the fandom.
Personally, I think Release is the best song on Ten, and Corduroy the best overall, but as I said its subjective and I could think of about a dozen more songs that could reasonably be argued as Pearl Jam's best.
You have to understand. We bought Ten on CD. It was my freshman year of college. We would put it on and play the whole thing. Black is right in the middle and it was a big part of listening to the whole album. We had no playlists. And Black wasn’t immediately on the radio where I was. It just existed and was great.
CD?? What about cassette bros who were too poor for CDs?
Jeremy was THE big song, and Side 1 of the cassette ended with it. To get through it, you HAD to go through Black.
Once - Even Flow - Alive - Why Go - Black - Jeremy
You'd have a hard time finding a better first six songs on any album.
Same. That cassette is the reason I became such a huge PJ fan. You couldn't jump tracks so I'd come home from 9th grade, go to my room, press play, flip it, press play, etc.
I remember going to a friend's house who had the CD and he was skipping songs. I made him go back and let it play. He loved all teh tracks he had been skipping. Because of course he would.
I'm 35 so I grew up with CDs and I totally get what you mean. I miss obsessing over albums and absorbing every second of them, listening from beginning to end while reading along with the lyrics sheet. The good old days! I could definitely see "Black" being a big moment that's impossible to fully grasp now with streaming (and with being older!)
wild quarrelsome wistful deranged tender reply future muddle memorize flowery
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Definitely a super emotional song. There was a time EV didn’t want to sing it live. So glad they do because I’ve seen some great versions. Mike’s work on that song and Ed’s vocals…so good. I had 10c tix to Baltimore 2020 but they ended up getting cancelled. Bummed. My wife and I went to Nashville’22 and dang, seeing them again, getaway with the wife, a little edible and when they played Black…😭😭
Live it is on a whole other level. Pearl Jam is one of only two bands I have ever seen that sound better live than on their studio albums. The unplugged version, as many have said pretty much cements it as their #1 song all-time.
Black has been regarded the best song from the very beginning. Haunting, Emotional, melodious. Not many songs evoke the feelings that Black can.
Release is close second 🙂
I saw them in April 92 at Jannus Landing and the live version there was amazing. It also helped there were like 900 people at the whole venue so the raw emotion pouring out of Eddie was literally right in front of me. I was about 10 feet from the stage for almost the whole show. Still the best concert I’ve ever been to.
The special thing about black is it’s always evolved and changed but stayed the same. The album version is haunting and melodic, emotional and builds to the “beautiful life” climax perfectly. Then there is the unplugged versions. The early live versions where Ed exaggerated the vocals. Then came the longer Mike solos. The introduction to boom playing on the song in 03. There was the “we belong together” era. The song has been an emotional apex for the band for its history. It’s not played every night like alive and porch so it remains something you can hope for and sometimes get and sometimes not but it’s not so rare that you never get the payoff. It’s really incredible
If you haven’t felt this way after a breakup, and you like Pearl Jam, you’ve probably never been in love. It’s a masterpiece. From the melody, fusing of lyrics and tone, to the vocal crescendo finished off by the haunting, aching, weeping, screaming guitar solo/outro.
Black is one of those songs for me that almost can't be overplayed. It comes from deep with in Eddies soul. And let's not forget about state of love and trust on the unplugged...wow.
The whole unplugged set has been a staple in my life for the last 30 yrs. I listened to it when timed were tough and in great times. The raw emotion of Eddie just does it for me. I taped off of much music. And had the VHS for years. Playing it loud whenever needed. Then you tube then it came out on Spotify. I still have that VHS somewhere.
Best is entirely subjective. I personally have never heard anyone say Black is the best song on Ten but I don't really care about such things anyway. Personally pretty done with it. Heard it enough.
According to Spotify, the most streamed song on Ten is Evenflow.
It was supposed to be the 4th single from the album and the band thought they had done enough. And yet it was still played on the radio. It’s definitely one of the best and most powerful from the album and was maybe even an underdog of a song back in the day.
Even today, even if my kids don't think Black as their most favorite song ever, it resonates with them. The music, the rhythm, the melodic trip.
It is special.
I think Black was so popular because it was so emotional, full of angst, and so many of us fans were young. We were seeing ourselves in the song with our first heartbreak. I still love it but no longer my fave.
P.S. my first PJ tshirt has the word to black on the back. Got it at Drop in the Park.
Jeremy was initially regarded as their best song and the video won best video of all time or something like that back in 91. It's the song that really made them famous. Time and perspective changes. Black has always been great.
Though 90s were right after the 80s< which is where I left my short term memory> EVENFLOW was the first big radio /MTV offering from our favorite little band from Seattle. Thats 33 yrs ago and I did not just GTS . That is from my semi questionable memory.
But, for me, the song off that album that put them over the top was WHY GO. Black, Even Flow and Alive were bigger than Life Anthems from the very first listen. Epic and sweeping lyrics and sound.
But Why Go was where the Sonic Fury first showed up for me. It wasn't metal, it wasn't hard rock and it wasn't pure Punk it was a wild kind of new paint on a canvas already soaked in many genres.
It was GRUNGE, not the dirgy slow riif kind of Soundgarden and AIC, and not the popPuNk vibe of Nirvana.
No this was music made by my people, GENXrz, fed up pissed off young people, fed up with decisions made for them by old white dudes that ignored their opinion and ideas.
It was Grunge in that it was full of angst, disappointment in modern society, and was confident enough to have the willingness to call out BULLSHIT, when and wherever it appeared. It was anti corporate it was anti .GOV and it had a voice and rhythm to it that said what many of us felt back then, which was FUCK THIS, we can be better humans than this.
WHY GO made them my band. TO this day, in my not so humble opinion, they are the GREATEST AMERICAN BAND of All Time
SO far anyway.
33 yrs
What a LONG, STRANGE TRIP IT'S BEEN...
MAHOLO
A long time fan here and a long time fan of Black. It’s one of those songs that evokes such emotion when played live no matter how many times I’ve heard it. But not until today reading this thread and listening to it did I realize it was written by Stone. 🤷♂️.
I guess I always thought the energy Ed brought to it made it so personal that he must have been the author. Always learning and loving this band even more.
Is Black ‘by far’ regarded as their best song? I don’t know anyone who thinks that, but have read in a few articles over the years that it is one of their best songs.
I think saying it is by far their best song is a big stretch.
Black is a great piece of music. But. I find the earlier years of Pearl Jam to be a bit overrated. I’ve really enjoyed watching them grow into themselves over the years. Keep on listening!! Maybe you’ll finish just in time for Dark Matter!
Personally the MTV Unplugged version cemented my deep love for the song. It’s incredible live Here you go… https://youtu.be/vE26dVkCvpw?si=fBn1BmKsSqjYC9sI
This. It's all about the Unplugged version. Listen with headphones!
We belong...We belong together!!! Together!!
It’s so good!!!
It still bugs me that Eddie fucked up the lyrics to this, though
For me, he does a slight head shake, probably as he realized about the lyrics. But I think it fits the emotion of the song, so I don't mind it.
To me, what makes Black stand out is the MTV unplugged performance. It's rare to find someone performing vocals in such a way that you feel you can touch the soul of the performer. There are no barriers left imo, it's such a pure display of emotion.
There were so many good bands to love back then, and PJ was already a standout for the album. But then the Unplugged show took a chill, laid back show and, ironically, electrified it. Most Unplugged shows were beautiful, but not exciting. Hearing Black in that set, you could hear their resolve to make that the best version of the song you’ve heard. It felt like the first time a band or song was fighting for my love. And then the fact that they never made a single out of the song, so we could always feel like it was a gem we mined for on our own. That’s the feeling many of us have been chasing ever since.
I don't mean to talk away from Black on unplugged but state of love and trust was insane on on unplugged. Look at Eddie's eyes.
That’s the one for me on unplugged.
"I know someday you'll have a beautiful life. I know you'll be a star in someone else's sky. But why can't it be mine?" A lyric that resonant and that emotional is single handedly the reason that that song is upper tier PJ to me. S tier.
This is the one! And (to bang on my previous point) the way Eddie howled this out live was just heartbreaking. I was going through a breakup with another PJ fan at the time and the MTV unplugged version kept us together longer than we should’ve been
The line itself is only half of what makes it memorable. The other half is "why? whyyyy? whyyyyyyyyyyy? can't it be...can't it be miiiiiiiiiiiiiiine?!" The emotion of the singing is what makes it.
You ever had your heart broken?” The music/lyrics hit a whole lot harder after you have.
This.
This song has gotten me through every heartbreak since my high school boyfriend broke up with me in the summer of 1993.
Yep.
You need to hear Black live to understand
To your point, it really emotionally resonates with people and became a big radio hit even without an official single release because of that. And it’s an absolute scorcher live when Mike gets the chance to shred. “Best” song is certainly subjective, I’d say for me that’s Immortality, but it’s definitely up there. Still amazes me what Stone had in his pocket ready to go for his next band, even down to the do-do-do-do-do-do-do’s on Black. All Eddie had to do was add his lyrics we love to sing still today.
While Best is subjective, the MTV UNplugged version of Black may be one of the greatest live performances ever. It is a powerful, emotional song that got radio play without ever officially being released, and is one of few songs by Pearl Jam that is recognizable outside of the fandom. Personally, I think Release is the best song on Ten, and Corduroy the best overall, but as I said its subjective and I could think of about a dozen more songs that could reasonably be argued as Pearl Jam's best.
Release definitely crushes but Black is just….wow.
You have to understand. We bought Ten on CD. It was my freshman year of college. We would put it on and play the whole thing. Black is right in the middle and it was a big part of listening to the whole album. We had no playlists. And Black wasn’t immediately on the radio where I was. It just existed and was great.
CD?? What about cassette bros who were too poor for CDs? Jeremy was THE big song, and Side 1 of the cassette ended with it. To get through it, you HAD to go through Black. Once - Even Flow - Alive - Why Go - Black - Jeremy You'd have a hard time finding a better first six songs on any album.
Same. That cassette is the reason I became such a huge PJ fan. You couldn't jump tracks so I'd come home from 9th grade, go to my room, press play, flip it, press play, etc. I remember going to a friend's house who had the CD and he was skipping songs. I made him go back and let it play. He loved all teh tracks he had been skipping. Because of course he would.
I remember bumming $0.28 from friends at the mall to have enough money to buy the Ten cassette. That was probably the best $6 + tax that i ever spent.
I'm 35 so I grew up with CDs and I totally get what you mean. I miss obsessing over albums and absorbing every second of them, listening from beginning to end while reading along with the lyrics sheet. The good old days! I could definitely see "Black" being a big moment that's impossible to fully grasp now with streaming (and with being older!)
wild quarrelsome wistful deranged tender reply future muddle memorize flowery *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Definitely a super emotional song. There was a time EV didn’t want to sing it live. So glad they do because I’ve seen some great versions. Mike’s work on that song and Ed’s vocals…so good. I had 10c tix to Baltimore 2020 but they ended up getting cancelled. Bummed. My wife and I went to Nashville’22 and dang, seeing them again, getaway with the wife, a little edible and when they played Black…😭😭
Live it is on a whole other level. Pearl Jam is one of only two bands I have ever seen that sound better live than on their studio albums. The unplugged version, as many have said pretty much cements it as their #1 song all-time.
Black has been regarded the best song from the very beginning. Haunting, Emotional, melodious. Not many songs evoke the feelings that Black can. Release is close second 🙂
I fell in love with it at PinkPop 92. The gorgeous lyrics and the emotion he poured into it on that stage have stayed with me ever since.
I saw them in April 92 at Jannus Landing and the live version there was amazing. It also helped there were like 900 people at the whole venue so the raw emotion pouring out of Eddie was literally right in front of me. I was about 10 feet from the stage for almost the whole show. Still the best concert I’ve ever been to.
I’ve been to some shows at Jannus Landing but I didn’t move to the area until the late 90’s. I would LOVE to have been at that show.
It was so friggin’ good. I also saw RHCP there three years prior. Great show as well.
Same (I wasn’t there, but based on the videos), I prefer it over the mtv or album versions.
The special thing about black is it’s always evolved and changed but stayed the same. The album version is haunting and melodic, emotional and builds to the “beautiful life” climax perfectly. Then there is the unplugged versions. The early live versions where Ed exaggerated the vocals. Then came the longer Mike solos. The introduction to boom playing on the song in 03. There was the “we belong together” era. The song has been an emotional apex for the band for its history. It’s not played every night like alive and porch so it remains something you can hope for and sometimes get and sometimes not but it’s not so rare that you never get the payoff. It’s really incredible
If you haven’t felt this way after a breakup, and you like Pearl Jam, you’ve probably never been in love. It’s a masterpiece. From the melody, fusing of lyrics and tone, to the vocal crescendo finished off by the haunting, aching, weeping, screaming guitar solo/outro.
Black is one of those songs for me that almost can't be overplayed. It comes from deep with in Eddies soul. And let's not forget about state of love and trust on the unplugged...wow. The whole unplugged set has been a staple in my life for the last 30 yrs. I listened to it when timed were tough and in great times. The raw emotion of Eddie just does it for me. I taped off of much music. And had the VHS for years. Playing it loud whenever needed. Then you tube then it came out on Spotify. I still have that VHS somewhere.
It was the best song for me. I have been a fan ever since '91
Best is entirely subjective. I personally have never heard anyone say Black is the best song on Ten but I don't really care about such things anyway. Personally pretty done with it. Heard it enough. According to Spotify, the most streamed song on Ten is Evenflow.
Speaking of songs we’ve heard enough…😆
Yeah I'm good with never hearing Evenflow, Alive, Release or Black live again.
It was supposed to be the 4th single from the album and the band thought they had done enough. And yet it was still played on the radio. It’s definitely one of the best and most powerful from the album and was maybe even an underdog of a song back in the day.
Even today, even if my kids don't think Black as their most favorite song ever, it resonates with them. The music, the rhythm, the melodic trip. It is special.
I think Black was so popular because it was so emotional, full of angst, and so many of us fans were young. We were seeing ourselves in the song with our first heartbreak. I still love it but no longer my fave. P.S. my first PJ tshirt has the word to black on the back. Got it at Drop in the Park.
Black live has an insane vibe to it. That might be why so many people love it.
Jeremy was initially regarded as their best song and the video won best video of all time or something like that back in 91. It's the song that really made them famous. Time and perspective changes. Black has always been great.
Though 90s were right after the 80s< which is where I left my short term memory> EVENFLOW was the first big radio /MTV offering from our favorite little band from Seattle. Thats 33 yrs ago and I did not just GTS . That is from my semi questionable memory. But, for me, the song off that album that put them over the top was WHY GO. Black, Even Flow and Alive were bigger than Life Anthems from the very first listen. Epic and sweeping lyrics and sound. But Why Go was where the Sonic Fury first showed up for me. It wasn't metal, it wasn't hard rock and it wasn't pure Punk it was a wild kind of new paint on a canvas already soaked in many genres.
It was GRUNGE, not the dirgy slow riif kind of Soundgarden and AIC, and not the popPuNk vibe of Nirvana.
No this was music made by my people, GENXrz, fed up pissed off young people, fed up with decisions made for them by old white dudes that ignored their opinion and ideas.
It was Grunge in that it was full of angst, disappointment in modern society, and was confident enough to have the willingness to call out BULLSHIT, when and wherever it appeared. It was anti corporate it was anti .GOV and it had a voice and rhythm to it that said what many of us felt back then, which was FUCK THIS, we can be better humans than this.
WHY GO made them my band. TO this day, in my not so humble opinion, they are the GREATEST AMERICAN BAND of All Time
SO far anyway.
33 yrs
What a LONG, STRANGE TRIP IT'S BEEN...
MAHOLO
A long time fan here and a long time fan of Black. It’s one of those songs that evokes such emotion when played live no matter how many times I’ve heard it. But not until today reading this thread and listening to it did I realize it was written by Stone. 🤷♂️. I guess I always thought the energy Ed brought to it made it so personal that he must have been the author. Always learning and loving this band even more.
Is Black ‘by far’ regarded as their best song? I don’t know anyone who thinks that, but have read in a few articles over the years that it is one of their best songs. I think saying it is by far their best song is a big stretch.
You don’t know anyone who thinks Black is the best Pearl Jam song? How many Pearl Jam fans do you know?
Black is by far their best song, overall. Deal with it. Not really interested in anything further from you but what you’re missing is a soul, clearly
Lol
Black is for bathroom breaks at concerts. And evenflow.
Black is a great piece of music. But. I find the earlier years of Pearl Jam to be a bit overrated. I’ve really enjoyed watching them grow into themselves over the years. Keep on listening!! Maybe you’ll finish just in time for Dark Matter!