Songfacts®:

• This song with themes of adultery and life on the road was written by X's husband-and-wife team of Exene Cervenka and John Doe, but was mostly written by Cervenka. In our interview with John Doe, he said she wrote "probably all of the lyrics and a lot of the melody for 'Under the Big Black Sun.'" The song was influenced by the death of Exene's sister Mirielle, who lost her life in a 1980 car accident. The Under The Big Black Sun album is dedicated to her. Speaking with Sounds a few months after her sister's death, Exene explained that many of her lyrics come from sadness, and "if that doesn't make enough desperation and sadness in my life, then I don't know what does."
• Under The Big Black Sun was the first album X released on Elektra Records, and like their first two albums, it was produced by Ray Manzarek of The Doors.