Coldplay: Yellow Meaning

Song Released: 2000

Yellow Lyrics

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...

1. John_Post

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Apr 10th 2006 !⃝

   Yellow is a song about a fragile, newborn baby who has jaundice, which makes a baby´s skin turn yellow in colour, and a new father falling in love with him/her. The father is finally "taking his turn" to look after the baby after letting his partner do all the work and in the course of doing so is firstly facing up to his responsibilities as a father and hence "drawing a line" under all the things he used to enjoy doing (such as drink/drugs/cigarettes)but can no longer pursue because he has new responsibilities, and secondly falling in love with this beautiful new life.
   
   It all became clear to me the other night at 4am when I was standing on the balcony with our sick little newborn baby showing him the stars, with this song playing in the background!
2. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Apr 8th 2006 !⃝

   Stars are yellow. Our our star is a "yellow main sequence" star. Most main stars are. Stars can also be red, orange, blue, and brown. Hardly any are white, if that's what you were alluding too.
   
   I have no idea what this song is about, that's why I read this message board, but it seems everyone is just guessing. Too bad no one had any facts here.
   
   :(
3. citywokguy

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Mar 27th 2006 !⃝

   Yeah, this song is cool you guys should listen to System of a Down they are awesome.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
4. mile

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Mar 27th 2006 !⃝

   This response is to the last interprtation about the liver disease, I myself just lost my dad to kidney cancer about two weeks ago, or less and I even though I knew of this song of Coldplay just weeks before my dad passed I started to listen to it closely and liked it more than ever, and then I remembered telling my dad he looked yellow when he was in the hospital. It was after his death that I found true meaning for myself in this song and why I had suddenly become so attached to it, even the video reminds me of my dad, he liked the ocean a lot. So I thought the same thing you thought funny huh.
5. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Mar 22nd 2006 !⃝

   This song is actually about his mother who died from a liver disease. Skin turns yellow when the liver is failing. It is a very sad song to hear knowing the pain he went through watching her die. "I wrote a song, I wrote a song for you and it was called yellow" He says he would bleed himself dry because it is his mother and would do anything to save her. but it didn't work out that way.
6. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Mar 16th 2006 !⃝

   Yellow uses words like "stars, how they shine for you." It's the little things in life that people we love never really notice. And everything that they do we love. "You know I love you so." People make great sacrifices for the ones they love "I swam across, I jumped across for you."
7. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Mar 14th 2006 !⃝

   Wow some of those were from out in left field! I just love the song and like to think it's just about a girl he loves and would do anything for and that's enough for me.
8. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Mar 1st 2006 !⃝

   I saw Coldplay on MuchMusic and Chris Martin said that when they were writing the song he used the word of the first thing he saw in the room, which was the yellow pages.
9. tua07665

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Mar 1st 2006 !⃝

   I'm pretty sure the song is about cocain. They bought a bag of coke and it was all yellow, it was bad stuff. Hence the line "I drew a line, I drew a line for you.".... He drew a line of coke to snort. I heard that this is the real meaning of the song.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
10. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Feb 7th 2006 !⃝

    It's about the yellow fever in the 1800's in England, where everyone used to turn to skin and bones when they looked at a person with the yellow fever.. This is also related to the chord progressions in this song, where every chord is moving towards a frailer structure, and it seems like the pitch bending contributes to this theory of mine..
    
    I read this in a magazine once, and if you listen to the song with the screams of the yellow-fever afflicted in your head, it'll make lots of sense.. cheers!
11. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jan 17th 2006 !⃝

    I read that the title yellow came when the singer needed a two-syllabe word, and the first thing he saw was the Yellow Pages. Hence the title.
    Also, the Australian Comedy Trio 'Tripod' used the opening verse in their fictional outtakes from the musical 'Urinetown'. I can no longer keep a straight face while listening to 'Yellow' anymore.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
12. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Dec 18th 2005 !⃝

    But stars *aren't* yellow! I think it's more like nonsense words whose rhythm they liked. Sort of like later Paul McCartney lyrics.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
13. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Oct 17th 2005 !⃝

    Reading from other sites, it's about brotherly love, but my interpretation would have to be LOVE. When someone is constantly on your mind and doing anything for them, with the slightest of sugnificance would make you happy. Because it involves the person whom you love and it is happier "yellow" because your doing it for them.

Latest Articles

• 
  A new era for Millennial favorite, Linkin Park
• 
  Anime to watch for the soundtracks… and other reasons you’re undateable
• 
  Dolly, we need you
• 
  The Stranger Things Effect: How new media is drawing Gen Z and Alpha's attention to aging media
• 
  The most underrated soundtrack of the early 2000s
• 
  Buy the Soundtrack, Skip the Movie: Brainscan (1994)