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!



Lyrics submitted by , edited by offhand, papple

Track duration: 04:12

"Bold as Love" as written by John Mayer

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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Bold As Love song meanings
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  • 0
    General Comment:Remember that Hendrix was a paratrooper in the 101th Airborne. Could anger (shiny metallic purple armour) be a jet fighter? He later speaks directly of war trophies and ribbons (medals?).

    Like the Doors' Crystal Ship, this song touches on many references and has multiple meanings.
    Flag offhandon March 12, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Who cares about acid? This song is about love and uncertainty. It's about all of the emotions he characterizes as colors. And the lyrics are wrong, Jimi says "green jealousy," not "queen jealousy."
    Flag mtaylor22on February 24, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:To everyone arguing about acid think about this: "LSD occasionally causes psychotic behavior in people who have not taken it." Timothy Leory. Terence McKenna quoted this in a video I watched.
    Flag Kirbz42on May 18, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:this song is amazing, and Jimi Hendrix is a musical genius hands down..

    What I think he was referring to in this song is the whole spectrum of human emotion, or to say his emotions. He substitutes his emotions for all colors and the colors can also represent a rainbow; the rainbow represents the "beauty" of emotions and expressing yourself. But, he also sees each emotion as a character, and each of these "characters" are symbolic to the variety of his emotions within himself as an artist. Then, he refers to each character as bold, more specifically, bold as love. From which, he isolates each emotion saying they are all unique and bold.
    Flag clairenicole23on February 28, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:If you read the definition of a condition called Synesthesia it basically explains the song for you check it out en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…
    Flag KSAon October 13, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Well, I didn't read everyone's take on it, so I don't mean to repeat anything anyone has said.

    To me, the song is pretty self explanitory -- especially when you consider that "axis" doesn't necessarily have to mean the earth's axis. In context with the song, the axis of reflection symmetry fits perfectly. And as far as the line, "Bold as love" anyone who's been in love can attest to just how bold love actually is. It's an emotion that's contantly wavering. It's a vast mix of feelings jammed into one - yet spread out infinitely. It's a true paradox.

    Even being in love for so long, you still experience anger, jealously, desperation, fear, loathing, longing, etc. To equate emotions with the color of a rainbow is fitting -- I don't think it has anything to do with acid. In fact, I think that's a downside to having used drugs: everyone thinks everything you do is drug related.
    Flag timberwo1fon October 03, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I think if the song is about colors and tripping acid it is even more amazing that this song eerily resembles the "Axis Powers" and seems to talk about preparing for a war without fully understanding the reason. Bold and uncertain… like love... maybe he is even comparing a relationship to a woman to a war.
    Flag Tyger647on September 19, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I think if the song is about colors and tripping acid it is even more amazing that this song eerily resembles the "Axis Powers" and seems to talk about preparing for a war without fully understanding the reason. Bold and uncertain… like love.
    Flag Tyger647on September 19, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Lyrically and musically one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. I'm assuming each one of the colors is a physical representation of each of his emotions but I'm going to try and not read too deep into this song. I'll just listen to it and love it for what it is.

    As far as the acid things goes: Jimi was heavy on acid, as many hippies were at the time. His music is obviously heavily influenced by LSD but that doesn't mean you have to listen to it on acid to enjoy it. Seeing the colors... that's a normal thing with acid. You don't have to be listening to music to see pretty colors. Drop and go out into the woods, camping. You'll see. :3
    Flag ShashiJapan4on August 07, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:What not one person here has brought up, as a huge part of this song and of sixties and seventies life. War! Every color not only has an emotion with it but some kind of military aspect. Purple shinny armor, Queen jealousy, Blue life giving waters taken for granted, Turquoise armies, Red so confident that he flashes trophies of war, 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 Im trying to say its frigthened like me. By all means it could be a song about his feels on war and that he could never love war. By no means does it have to be a song about a relationship though to be fair a lot of his music brings up a relationship feeling. Don’t take drungs into acount when talking about music because in the end the singer isn’t going to want his fans to go do drugs just to listen to the music.
    Flag theshroomer1986on August 05, 2008   Link

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