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
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 frigthtened like me
And all these emotions of mine keep holding me from
Giving my life to a rainbow like you

But I'm bold as love
Yeah I'm bold, bold as love
I'm bold as love
Just ask the axis (he knows everything)



Lyrics submitted by stevea2323

Track duration: 08:38


Bold as Love (Jimi Hendrix Experience cover) song meanings
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24 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment:Thanks steve blue that makes sense to me.....havent heard mayers cover
    Flag heymikeon December 23, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:In an interview Jimi was asked about the Axis and he stated the axis is the point that the earth revolves around. He speculated that everything on the planet is centered at this point “anchored” in a way, and was trying to connect this with the idea that love is what we all revolve around and is our natural “center” of being. And that anger, jealousy, hate, etc… are not conducive to this and cause the axis tilt or wobble to try to spin them off.

    Jimi often used this notion of the point that we - all humans and animals revolve around - as a grounding point in the center of the earth ( many quoted from him on this) . And the wobble was us not always in balance. In Bold as Love it seems the Axis is metaphor-ed more to the center of human emotion or his emotion or Love. Where all emotions revolve around.
    Flag steveblueon December 06, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:OK - this cover is nothing like Hendrix's. it's mostly foul.

    aaronv15 I think you have it all there. Maybe the Axis is supposed to represent the differnt "colors" of love, like how different emotions associated with love -anger, jealousy, tranquilty, confidence, and fear - can take over at times in turn. Perhaps Hendrix's Axis was always turned in the direction of one of the hindering emotions like fear or anger. These emotionas took over and prevented him from "giving my life to a rainbow like you." Recognizing that the other has all the colors, and to love requires all the colors - even the hindering ones. I think Hendrix's goal was to inspire people to accept and get past the hindering "colors" of love and not to get hung up on fear or anger...
    Flag bluefrogson March 30, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:okay for one...jimi hendrix's version will always be better because theres so much more heart put into it
    number two...aaronv15 is right about the meaning and jimi talks about a similar sort of experience in the song "you got me floatin'"
    and third...i just want to thank Lilahbean13 for re-inforcing that this is a song meaning conversation not a little chat room for people like loverorloser, who are complete and total poser idiots and think john mayer is a better guitar player than jimi hendrix... jimi hendrix is a legend jm is a douche and by the way, loverorloser if you go listen to some jimi hendrix songs, you'll find that ALOT of jm's songs have riffs and melodies that were stolen directly from jimi hendrix
    so... i guess what i'm trying to say is that jm will never be on a higher level than jimi hendrix
    ...EVER...
    loverorloser... PEOPLE LIKE YOU MAKE ME SICK YOU ARE NOT, AND WILL NEVER BE A REAL ROCK FAN


    Flag jimigeniuson March 20, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:He's saying... Love is such a complicated mix of emotions. All imaginable emotions rolled into one, and at different moments, it changes. Written to someone he's deeply in love with - he's expressing this love to her, but there's some looming force keeping them apart. The Axis. It's either some outside force manipulating his life, or the core of his being forcing him to go pursue something else. He doesn't explain to us what his Axis is, but maybe she already knows.
    Flag aaronv15on February 15, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:i thought this was supposed to be song meaning.. not how much you enjoy the song.. no offense! i just would really like to know what different things people got from this song. it is indeed a great song though.
    Flag Lilahbean13on September 23, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment: Great cover, 'bold as love' as to represent the bright euphoric colors that depict the emotional spectrum, and how everbody has a degree of each.
    'And all these emotions of mine keep holding me from Giving my life to a rainbow like you'
    'Just ask the axis' is a great lyric as it uses the metaphor for war and the enemy, the axis.
    How can we stand so bold against great odds, the fight for love when you don't even know why you're being so bold to begin.
    Flag johny4304on January 16, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:umm.....bold as love, where the light is: CRAAAAAAAZY!! wow the key change after john's corny (but so true!) verbal break just about caused me to lose my body and elevate my soul to a different world. words don't describe this. that's why john recorded it: so you can HEAR it. telling you about this song is about equivalent to showing a playboy to a blind man: it just doesn't work.

    LISTEN TO IT!!!!
    Flag lightbulb12on October 20, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I just love this version so damn much..
    I feel like a complete bastard, but I almost prefer this version over Jimi's O_O
    Flag carpe_diemon August 04, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:aurally estatic...............
    jm is in whole different level than jimmy
    plus he will be soon emulating jimmy in guitar.....
    Flag loverorloseron June 15, 2008   Link

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