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i love you like a brother
and i love you like a child
and i love you like a lover
and i love you dumb and colorblind
and i love you like a mother
even after all you've done
and i love you like no other
but i know
youre not the one...
and i loved you in bright orange
and in violet and in green
and i loved you in such colors
as your eyes have never ever seen
and i loved the way you acted
but your one trick pony's dead
and i loved you unprotected
but you only love in
red
i know its dark for good
i never listen when i should
you only see in black and white
so go on back to your own kind
and i'll go back to mine
i love you like a brother
and i love you like a child
and i love you like a lover
and i love you dumb and colorblind
and i love you like a mother
even after all she's done
and i love you like no other
but i know youre not the one...
and i love you like a child
and i love you like a lover
and i love you dumb and colorblind
and i love you like a mother
even after all you've done
and i love you like no other
but i know
youre not the one...
and i loved you in bright orange
and in violet and in green
and i loved you in such colors
as your eyes have never ever seen
and i loved the way you acted
but your one trick pony's dead
and i loved you unprotected
but you only love in
red
i know its dark for good
i never listen when i should
you only see in black and white
so go on back to your own kind
and i'll go back to mine
i love you like a brother
and i love you like a child
and i love you like a lover
and i love you dumb and colorblind
and i love you like a mother
even after all she's done
and i love you like no other
but i know youre not the one...
Lyrics submitted by okokayok
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I honestly think it's just a simple realization that he's not what she wants in a person...
Someone can be "dumb and colorblind" to a person's true colors (lol, puns are great) for a long time before they realize... no. They aren't the prince or princess charming they are seeking.
I think this song is the epiphany that this person she's singing about is not all he was cracked up to be.
“I love you like a brother
and I love you like a child
and I love you like a lover
and I love you dumb and colorblind
and I love you like a mother
even after all you've done”
-This is the main character’s love for this person. When I first heard this song, I imagined that the person she is singing about had many problems and issues... and so, like a mother, like a sister, she took care of him... nurtured him in his times of need... and like a lover gave him hope for a better tomorrow. Even after all the stupid shit he’d done, she’d still try her hardest to make him feel better.
“and I love you like no other
but I know
you’re not the one...”
-She loves him, and she loves him a lot. But she is beginning to realize that he is not what she needs in a lover.
“and I loved you in bright orange
and in violet and in green
and I loved you in such colors
as your eyes have never ever seen”
-I saw that someone pointed out the focus on secondary colors, and find it interesting, but haven’t the foggiest idea what it translates to in the story... Oh well. Perhaps someone well figure it out? Anyway, this is the singer using color as a metaphor for how she loved him. Hrm... perhaps now the secondary colors could mean that she loved him extremely so, because to make these colors, you must put other colors together, thus instead of just three colors, orange, violet and green, she really loves him in six colors, which adds the three used to make the aforementioned colors. I think this is just how she loved him so much, in colors he’s never known before; in other words, with love he’s never felt before.
“and I loved the way you acted
but your one trick pony's dead
and I loved you unprotected
but you only love in
red”
-His one trick pony was the way that he acted. With his issues and problems, he acted helpless. It made her feel sorry for him and she fell for him, feeling like a protectress for him. Also, angry because of all his troubles, and in need of someone to help him. And she loved him “unprotected.” As in, she went out on a limb in order to love him... she sacrificed herself to his rage and frustration just to love him and help him. But, it was this very thing that made her realize that he’s not right for her: she would sacrifice herself. And constantly. Just for his sake, and to make him feel better... and it was no way to have a relationship, she thought. And he only loved in red; meaning, the only way he ever saw her was as an escape. Not a lover. Not at all.
“I know it’s dark for good
I never listen when I should
you only see in black and white
so go on back to your own kind
and I'll go back to mine”
-She knows “it’s dark for good.” It is always “dark” in his mind, because he only sees in black and white. He cannot “see” in colors, so it is only darkness and shades in his eyes. Her never listening when she should is likely how she was often told that he’s not right for her, but she didn’t want to believe them. And now she regrets not listening. “Go on back to your own kind and I’ll go back to mine” is her telling him to bug off, basically. She wants him to go back to all his troubles and she will go back to her nice life before he came along to ruin her fun.
“I love you like a brother
and I love you like a child
and I love you like a lover
and I love you dumb and colorblind
and I love you like a mother
even after all you've done
and I love you like no other
but I know
you’re not the one...”
-Repetition of the first verse to bring it back down from the louder singing. The volume fluctuation in this song makes me think of it as an argument, how it starts quiet, and gets louder and angrier, and now it’s back to being soft spoken. Around the middle, right after the screaming of “red” over and over is the height of her argument with him, where she’s telling him all of his flaws, and the reasons why she’s through with him. And now her getting quiet is her dramatic sort of apology, bringing it full circle... About how she loved him, and how yes, she helped him through a lot, but his issues are not hers, and if all she is to him is a place to go, then no. She will not bother with him, and she is done with him and his antics.
YAY, LONG COMMENT.
Just my thoughts :)
I hope they were worth reading! ^^
and in violet and in green
and i loved you in such colors
as your eyes have never ever seen"
Interesting to focus on the secondary colors. I wonder if Amanda intended to do this. To me, this goes back to the idea that "you only see in black and white," like whoever she's addressing cannot see past/between basic or antipodal ideas; more that he/she cannot love between the lines.
When I first heard this song, the line "you only love in red" made me think of violence, but I'm taking to the idea that she's talking about lust more so.
It's very difficult to come to terms with how different people show their feelings. In a way, emotional love and lust should balance one another out. Like, we're supposed to have both, but for many reasons it's hard to handle accommodating both on a personal level.
A beautiful song. Very candid and emotional, something I've liked about many of Amanda's songs.
But the person in question only loves in red - just one way. It might be just solely sexual, or (this is the way I interpreted it) the person can only see them as the boyfriend/girlfriend - only good for cuddling and kisses and the like. They never see them as a confidental, a friend, a person they could trust with everything. It's only the romantic-type of red they see in, and there are no grey areas with this person - they only see in black and white with everything (sort of like, "Either you're my lover or not, you can't be my mother or friend too, you're just my romantic sex companion and nothing more"). So they couldn't be The One.
Hope that helps.
The fact that her bio says Amanda was seduced by her piano tutor when she was a young girl really influences how I interpret the meanings of some songs though.
All he sees/loves in is "red" or I think means sex/lust. The one trick pony part to me means that she's tired of everything else he's lacking that the only thing he did right to keep her there just isn't enough anymore.
I love you like a mother even after all she's done. Now this part changes in the beginning she says "I loved you like a mother, even after all YOU'VE done, then later at the end she says "I loved you like a mother, even after all SHE's done."
So first I would say it's about unconditional love. She will always forgive him and will still be there for him, but it can't be anything more due to his lack of emotional range. And If you watch the video to "Girl Anachronism" there are parts in there with a "Mother" making excuses for her "crazy" daughter and from some of Amanda's other songs I kinda got the feeling that her Mother never "got her" or perhaps didn't believe her and treated her poorly. So perhaps that was a small hit on how she forgave and still loves her mom even after she's done to her.