Yellow

Song: Yellow
Artist: Coldplay
Album: Parachutes
Released: July 2000

Alright all you Coldplay haters, just simmer down when you feast your eyes on this entry. How can a band help the fact that their songs are so infectious that radio stations refuse to stop playing them? Sure, sure many of their songs were over played, and most of them are fairly repetitive, but when your songs are this good, repetition should be encouraged.

Okay, so lets look past the fact that my first make out was experienced with this song playing in the background of my parents' Dodge Intrepid (while they were driving, ba ha ha ha ha). Apparently they thought we were asleep, since it was late and on the way home from a long trip. Yes, I did reluctantly tell my wife about this experience long before I wrote this entry, and as you can imagine, her jealous mind has pushed this particular song out of her own top 100. Standing on it's own it is as good a love song as you can get. In the intro to the song a clean guitar gently clangs and then bounces into a simple and distorted riff, that then transitions into the verse. I love the lyrics, they aren't really a story, but more of a narration of a single moment. Chris Martin's voice sets the mood as he moves in and out of falsetto with all the effort of a bird soaring on the wind. Every note of the verse and chorus is an expression of the feelings he has for his love. Again the lyrics are vague enough that anyone can claim ownership, but explanatory enough that it can fit your situation perfectly. If you ask me that's the very essence of a great song. It's what music should be if you ask me, like a photograph of a feeling, or a memory.

Yellow doesn't really ever hit a peak, instead it follows a smooth figure eight track, from verse, to chorus and back again, avoiding steep hills and valleys. It weaves its way the same way a great love should, consistently. Not to say every relationship doesn't have peaks and valleys, they do, but the love you feel in a great relationship I think, is very consistent from day to day, the big waves can't break it, and strong winds of change can't move it. True love remains the same through all trials. This is what Yellow has become to me, a steady beautiful narrative of the emotion of love. Enjoy

Look at the stars,
Look how they shine for you,
And everything you do,
Yeah they were all yellow,

I came along
I wrote a song for you
And all the things you do
And it was called yellow

So then I took my turn
Oh all the things I've done
And it was all yellow

Your skin
Oh yeah your skin and bones
Turn into something beautiful
D'you know you know I love you so
You know I love you so

I swam across
I jumped across for you
Oh all the things you do
Cause you were all yellow

I drew a line
I drew a line for you
Oh what a thing to do
And it was all yellow

Your skin
Oh yeah your skin and bones
Turn into something beautiful
D'you know for you i bleed myself dry
For you i bleed myself dry

Its true look how they shine for you
look how they shine for you
look how they shine for you
look how they shine for you
look how they shine for you
look how they shine
look at the stars look how they shine for you