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Vote
Black 47%  47%  [ 71 ]
I Got Shit 42%  42%  [ 64 ]
Can't Decide 9%  9%  [ 14 ]
Total votes : 149
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 Post subject: The best....song for unrequited love
PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 3:22 pm 
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Black vs. I Got Shit

Black

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
And all I taught her was everything
I know she gave me all that she wore

And now my bitter hands chafe beneath the clouds
Of what was everything?
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...


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


I Got Shit

My lips are shakin' my nails are bit off
Been a month since i've heard myself talk
All the advantage this life's got on me
Picture a cup in the middle of the sea
And I fight back in my mind
Never lets me be right
I got memories, I got shit
So much it don't show

Oh I walked in light when you held me in that night
I walked the line when you held my hand that night

An empty shells seem so easy to crack
Got all these questions don't know who I could even ask
So I'll just lie alone and wait for the dream
Where I'm not ugly and you’re lookin' at me
And I stare you back
oh blue eyes, I've seen it
If just once I could feel love
Oh stare back at me, yeah..

Oh I walked in light when you held me in that night
Oh I walked the line when you held my hand that night
Oh I walked the line when you held me close that night
I paid the price never held you in real life

My lips are shakin'...

Previous The Best…
1.existential album closer
2. failing love song
3.seize the day song
4. anti-war song

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Last edited by stip on Mon Oct 16, 2006 1:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 3:23 pm 
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Two heavy hitters this week. These two songs are different than the other broken heart love songs in their catalogue since these songs are about a love that went unrequited, as opposed to regretting a failed relationship. There is an element of anger here that you won’t find in the other love songs, a reaction against the fundamental unfairness of the situation. Why, when I care so much/gave so much, was I let go. Why aren’t the feelings I have returned? Why am I unworthy?

Black is all about the build. The verses are great, and the chorus is one of my favorites, but the song climaxes with the final lyrics. He wishes her well, he knows she’ll be okay, and that she deserves her happiness, but what about him? Why is he left out of it? Why is everything tainted? Why is he left with nothing? No one has an answer for him, and the outro music is his wordless scream, his descent into despair. And of course the we belong together tag just rams that home. It’s such a simple statement, but it says so much. Eddie was a master of that on Ten, the lyric (We belong together, release me, I’m still alive) that conveys so much with so little.

The song has evolved over the years. The sadness is there, but the despair is replaced with a sort of wistful regret (the whispered we belong together instead of the howl)). It’s more mature, but less immediate. I prefer the immediacy


I got Shit is the best thing to come out of the Mirrorball sessions, and if anything is an even sadder song than Black, because it is so pathetic. Black is about a love lost, whereas I got Shit is about a fantasy, a love never actually possessed, and the way a desire for something unattainable coupled with a crippled sense of personal worth can leave us paralyzed. He’d rather pine for the dream then let it go and try and find something real. It is a song about failure, but what makes it an especially powerful failure is that the song is a moment of lost clarity. The person realizes how utterly lonely they are, how futile their obsession is, and yet they know they aren’t strong enough to let go to the fantasy. They’d rather walk the line between illusion and reality, because there are moments of light and love in the illusion. There is a perverse kind of safety in the rut, even if they know it is slowly killing them. And the music captures this perfectly, especially the outro which is even more pained, more desperate, more of a solitary cry, than the end of Black.

Both great songs, but Black gets the nod from me. I feel better at the end of it. I Got Shit is too raw and in some ways almost too private. There is a vouyeristic quality to it—like you are listening to someone’s private thoughts (the sparseness of the music adds to the effect. Black is a fairly lush song). I’ve never felt invited into it like I have for Black, which means I don’t feel the same kind of release at the end.

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The perfect gift for certain occasions


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 3:32 pm 
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Certainly two huge songs here, both excellent.

For me it's a pretty easy one, though. I would listen to Benaroya Hall once a week I reckon and that Black is magic. The audience singing "I know you'll be a star...in somebody else's sky". Chills.

Black really conveys that loss beautifully.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 3:35 pm 
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cant decide...both are in my top 5 pj songs so ill call it a tie.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 3:38 pm 
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Well I voted for black.

Black is the ultimate song about unrequited love, whereas I Got Shit is the ultimate song about unrequited life.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 3:46 pm 
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Good jorb Stip. Yet another poll thats gonna be 23487324 to 1!

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 3:46 pm 
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I Got Shit. By far the superior song, but then I have little love for Black. I just feel the lyrics and music far surpass the Ten song.

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 3:51 pm 
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pb21 wrote:
Well I voted for black.

Black is the ultimate song about unrequited love, whereas I Got Shit is the ultimate song about unrequited life.

i can see how i got shit can be about losing love, but its not as retrospective as black.

at the same time i could see how i got shit could be not be about losing love, and just losing touch w/ the world

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 3:57 pm 
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I can't decide. I didn't think there would be a matchup were I could not decide, but here it is...

I can't possibly vote againt Black, the last line "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 in mine" gives me chills everytime, and it's great live...

I Got Shit it' so different but powerfull and sad in it's own way... I can't vote against it either...

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 4:03 pm 
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in_my_tree wrote:
I can't decide. I didn't think there would be a matchup were I could not decide, but here it is...

I can't possibly vote againt Black, the last line "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 in mine" gives me chills everytime, and it's great live...

I Got Shit it' so different but powerfull and sad in it's own way... I can't vote against it either...


That part is amazing. I also think this song shows just how good mike is.

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 4:37 pm 
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pb21 wrote:
in_my_tree wrote:
I can't decide. I didn't think there would be a matchup were I could not decide, but here it is...

I can't possibly vote againt Black, the last line "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 in mine" gives me chills everytime, and it's great live...

I Got Shit it' so different but powerfull and sad in it's own way... I can't vote against it either...


That part is amazing. I also think this song shows just how good mike is.


Some of my favorites lyrics from PJ, so I vote for Black

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 4:47 pm 
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Too tough for me to decide.

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 5:23 pm 
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Sunny wrote:
Good jorb Stip. Yet another poll thats gonna be 23487324 to 1!


I think I got shit can pull off at least 5 votes

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"Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference."--FDR

The perfect gift for certain occasions


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PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:06 pm 
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Right now it's pretty tight....nice!!

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:19 pm 
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Two of my favourite Pearl Jam songs... of course, Black is my #1, so I Got Shit kind of gets the shaft in this one.

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:19 pm 
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I had to call this one a draw. These songs are both in my top five, so it is impossible for me to decide.

I don't think there have been two PJ songs which I have listened to more and sort of connected to more in the past year or so than these. I've had lady problems with this one girl, and I can absolutlely relate to the narrator in both of these songs. They both help me know that I'm not the only fool going through this same situation, and they also help me put what I am feeling into words. Much of what stip wrote up when he analyzed these songs in the first post is exactly my interpretation of them.

Both top notch songs for me.


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PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:43 pm 
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I think lyrically they both express unrequited love equally well, but black is overall a better song. barely.


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PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:47 pm 
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stip wrote:
Sunny wrote:
Good jorb Stip. Yet another poll thats gonna be 23487324 to 1!


I think I got shit can pull off at least 5 votes


I'm just pullin yer leg. It's predictable what the outcome will be, but seeing the actual numbers is still fun.

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:57 pm 
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I Got Shit, and by a mile. Some of Black's lyrics are superb but that drawn-out ending annoys the fuck out of me. "Do-do-do-do-do-do-do"? Ugh.

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 7:02 pm 
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dirtyfrank0705 wrote:
I Got Shit, and by a mile. Some of Black's lyrics are superb but that drawn-out ending annoys the fuck out of me. "Do-do-do-do-do-do-do"? Ugh.


I think it works great. It takes a normally happy head bopping vocalization that we usually associate with happy sunshiney songs and stick it in the middle of someone basically in the middle of a breakdown

the oh oh oh stuff in unemployable, on the other hand...

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