Sunflowers, Clocks, and Tunes That Remain: On Coldplay's Yellow by Anja Wade

Yellow. A single color. What does it mean to you? There have been many songs and album concepts devoted to a single color. Blue. Red. The universal appeal of a single color is perhaps that it belies kaleidoscopic mystery. It is open to interpretation. Object to subject. Song to listener.

I like to reflect on lyrics when I learn them. Study them on record and paper. Yellow by Coldplay is a song I have heard a million times (as have you, I’m sure). Almost to the point of banality. And yet, looking at Yellow on paper and pressing play gives it life anew.

Several things strike me about Yellow. First, it’s impossible to say whether Chris Martin et al. meant it to be about what you or I think it’s about. After stumbling across this gem of an interview, I’m not even sure the original penmen knew what they were after. 

Yellow reminds me of many things. Sunflowers. Candy. VW Bugs. And lots of things that aren’t yellow. Stars. Lightbulbs. Electricity. It’s open-ended. There are lots of shades of yellow, too. Marigold yellow. Neon yellow. Buttercup yellow. Mustard yellow. Just plain yellow. The post-modernists were hip to this symbolism. Interestingly, Yellow is labeled as “post-Britpop” in data entries online.  

The interplay of yellow and time fluctuates throughout the song, like a mirage. Or a memory. The song starts in the present tense: “Look at the stars, look how they shine for you.” However, it falls into the past by the end of the phrase: “Yeah they were all yellow.” This back and forth continues. Where is the narrator in all of this? Where is the singer? Standing in the here and now or floating back to what once was? Yellow re-surfaces. It is persistent. You can’t forget it.

And that brings me back to the meaning of Yellow. What’s it all about? Well, who can say? Maybe that’s the point. The banal never goes out of style. It’s where the beauty and mystery hide. 

Copyright  2021 Anja Wade

Forsythia by Marjon Besteman

Yellow

Writers: G. Berryman, J. Buckland, W. Champion, C. Martin

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 what a thing to have done
And it was all yellow

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

I swam across
I jumped across for you
Oh what a thing to 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
Do you know
For you I'd bleed myself dry
For you I'd bleed myself dry

It's true
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for
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
And all the things that you do