This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Anger, he smiles,
Towering in shiny metallic purple armour
Queen Jealousy, envy waits behind him
Her fiery green gown sneers at the grassy ground
Blue are the life-giving waters taken for granted,
They quietly understand
Once happy turquoise armies lay opposite ready,
But wonder why the fight is on
But they're all bold as love, yeah, they're all bold as love
Yeah, they're all bold as love
Just ask the axis
My red is so confident that he flashes trophies of war,
And ribbons of euphoria
Orange is young, full of daring,
But very unsteady for the first go round
My yellow in this case is not so mellow
In fact I'm trying to say it's frightened like me
And all these emotions of mine keep holding me from, eh,
Giving my life to a rainbow like you
But, I'm bold as love, yeah, I'm bold as love
Yeah, yeah
Well I'm bold, bold as love (hear me talking, girl)
I'm bold as love
Just ask the axis (he knows everything)
Yeah,
Yeah,
Yeah!
Towering in shiny metallic purple armour
Queen Jealousy, envy waits behind him
Her fiery green gown sneers at the grassy ground
Blue are the life-giving waters taken for granted,
They quietly understand
Once happy turquoise armies lay opposite ready,
But wonder why the fight is on
But they're all bold as love, yeah, they're all bold as love
Yeah, they're all bold as love
Just ask the axis
My red is so confident that he flashes trophies of war,
And ribbons of euphoria
Orange is young, full of daring,
But very unsteady for the first go round
My yellow in this case is not so mellow
In fact I'm trying to say it's frightened like me
And all these emotions of mine keep holding me from, eh,
Giving my life to a rainbow like you
But, I'm bold as love, yeah, I'm bold as love
Yeah, yeah
Well I'm bold, bold as love (hear me talking, girl)
I'm bold as love
Just ask the axis (he knows everything)
Yeah,
Yeah,
Yeah!
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Ok i think i get it now. By encompassing himself as a rainbow and(aside from other references to the queen's gown and blue oceans) describing each color as a different emotional state that is bold in it's own right, i think he's describing love as a rainbow through metaphor. He uses a vast range of colors to describe himself as confident, daring, unsteady and not so mellow. When you're in love you can feel a lot of things like this, sometimes all at once and it confuses the shit out of you. So in a way all his colors are confusing him and holding him back from this girl he's talking about. He even follows the color spectrum ROYGBIV but he starts in the middle. Often times true love waits(yea radiohead) and no one gets what they want right away. Both people have to give up certain things, games that they're playing etc; and meet themselves halfway, in the middle, and fall mutually in love(good luck).
Jimi saw his music as colors, and he played the colors he saw in his head. I think that's what the song is referring to. Also, johnnyGlaze, quit being a tool, Hendrix was a hippie.Bodester, most people do not get fucked up for life due to acid, only people who take waaaaaaay to much, or people that already have physcological problems.
It's about how he see's all people as "rainbows", each colour represnting different emotions. And he most likey reached this point of view through alternit perceptions.
i was reading in guitar world (with korn on it) that when u drop acid and listen to this song u see different colors and shit.
hey i am only repeating what the interview on jimi had.
hey i am only repeating what the interview on jimi had.
dont you see colours when youre on acid regardless of what youre listening to?
That's only one of the effects, and only happens to some people, some times. Another is that your brain gets fucked up for life. That's a lot more common.
This is one of my favorite Hendrix songs. I think the red + "ribbons of euphoria" might be talking about "reds" or barbituates. However, it's a great riff on that part.
I read somewhere that Jimi Hendrix had a fantasy about the axis of the world changing, and changing all life eternally, so that might be the "axis". I don't know how much of that is fiction, but it's an interesting thing to add to your perspective on this song.
@Bodester You see colors and patterns on LSD, assuming you’ve taken a proper dose. It doesn’t matter who you are. Brains "getting fucked up for life” is not at all common. It’s an invention of anti-drug propaganda. The only exception is that it might cause people who are already seriously mentally ill to become more so, and I’m not even sure whether that’s true. <br /> <br /> Using colors to describe emotions, on the other hand, is extremely common. There’s no mystery here. People have been doing that forever. It’s just a poetic expression. While Jimi may be referring to the psychedelic experience, he’s certainly not referring to “reds".<br /> <br /> The one thing in this song that isn’t clear is who, or what, the “Axis” is.
what exactly is it to be "bold as love?"
Atemporal, that's exactly the question that we cannot answer.
He talks about his colors as if they were emotions, I think. So if we go with that, his colors are bold or strong, etc, so being bold as love...?