Led Zeppelin: Tangerine Meaning

Tangerine Lyrics

Measuring a summer's day, I only finds it slips away to grey,
The hours, they bring me pain.

[Chorus]
Tangerine, Tangerine, Living reflection from a dream;
I was her love, she was my queen, And now a thousand years between.

Thinking how...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Feb 18th 2011 !⃝

   The whole album "Led Zeppelin three" is about the break up of a relationship Jimmy had been in with a young woman who left him for a close friend.
   Jimmy regarded her as the love of his life but he lost her because he could not be faithful. He goes though a lot of pain but in the end accepts that she will be happier with his friend and only wants her happiness.
   
   Tangerine is about looking back to a time before he messed up the relationship and his regrets.
   
   Jimmy has said in interviews his only regret about his life is the loss of that relationship.
2. anonymous

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   Dec 21st 2022 !⃝

   My first boyfriend at 14 yrs old sent me this in 2021, 45 years later. You know how things are at 14. He told me I was the woman that broke his heart ❤️ I think he wishes things turned out differently.
3. anonymous

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   May 7th 2022 !⃝

   This song basically came to me in a dream I had where I saw my real father who had passed away .
   He was a musician .
   He was happy in the dream .
   The love of my life passed away a year ago to this day and he said he will meet my dad in heaven and play music together . They had both a dual diagnosis .. they had a struggle in life .. drugs and mental illness .
   They loved big one time in their lives and it also destroyed them .. my love he died of an overdose .
   So this dream I had of my dad on the one year anniversary of my love’s death was a message from heaven .
   In my dream my dad said the word “Tangerine “
   I tried to figure out the meaning of my dream and the word tangerine and in a biblical sense .. cuz they were believers in Christ as I am ..
   so tangerine means gold in Hebrew
   Which is what heaven is to look like as Jerusalem of gold is .. heaven on earth … 1000 years between ..
   so the meaning for me is a message from heaven ..
   that my dad represents my father in heaven .. and my love is there and we will see each other again .. ❤️
4. anonymous

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   May 19th 2021 !⃝

   It was a Yardbirds song called “Knowing that I’m Losing You”. You can easily hear:
   
   “Knowing-that-I’m-Losing-a you”
   
   in place of...
   
   “measuring-a-summer’s-day”, and again in
   
   “Thinking-how-it-used-to-be”
   
   Best LZ song IMO. But that’s all they have are great songs.
5. anonymous

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   Apr 6th 2021 !⃝

   In my opinion “tangerine” is because of the sweet and sour of something, in this case, love and heartbreak, happiness and sadness
6. Kikstand

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   Mar 18th 2019 !⃝

   I play three songs from Led Zeppelin on the acoustic guitar, Tangerine is my favorite. I agree that the song is about a lost relationship.
   Thanks to all that posted your interpretations of this!
7. anonymous

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   Mar 3rd 2017 !⃝

   Big Zep fan. Not sure why I'm so obsessed with this song. Thanks for the feedback.. Subliminal ....
8. anonymous

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   Jan 14th 2017 !⃝

   The title Tangerine, represents the sun. The narrator sings referencing the sun and time.
   The painful thing about falling in love is falling out of love, and that arc of time sends the narrator singing to the sun remembering "how it used to be". The sun "Tangerine" represents the passing of time and falling out of love.
9. Lilly61

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   Mar 30th 2015 !⃝

   Tangerine is about Jackie DeShannon. John Paul was in love with her. She had many hit songs and now works for Sirius radio.
10. anonymous

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    May 13th 2012 !⃝

    It's really straightforward: a man who loses a great love, doesn't know what else to do with life without it: "Measuring a summer's day, I only finds it slips away to grey", it's painful to not be with that person:
    "The hours, they bring me pain", always thinking about the past good "Living reflections from a dream"
11. anonymous

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    May 9th 2012 !⃝

    Lost love definately, a thousand years between- perhaps, even death. Reincarnation until they meet again...i can relate to that with experience. And lost love...
12. stewdog

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    Mar 31st 2012 !⃝

    Tangerine is the second song on side two of Led Zeppelin III. It features a twelve string guitar played by Jimmy Page.
    
    Tangerine is song that's meaning should be blatantly obvious to anybody. It even sounds like it was written in about ten minutes. Although it's tremendously good. Basically the song is about a man who is reflection on a past love affair. The lyrics suggest that the narrator and his lover, despite being in love, ended up drifting apart for unknown reasons.
13. anonymous

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    Jun 5th 2011 !⃝

    I saw Leppelin back in 1979 and Tangerine has always been one of my favorites...
    
    This song resinates a feel about a love that transends lifetimes. A true love/soul mates connection. A love that most never experience in one lifetime. With words like
    "does she remember times like these" and "a thousand years between" for me it is talking about a past life reference of two lovers.
14. anonymous

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    May 9th 2011 !⃝

    The emotion conveyed in the song is of reminescing emotions changed throughout seasons. About an unfulfillment lost but never to be forgotten. This song has endless spectrum of emotions I cherish deeply when I think of memories I had with my beloved who past away.
15. anonymous

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    Feb 18th 2011 !⃝

    Tangerine was is most certainly about a girl Jimmy Page dated while he was an art student in the days before he became famous. In the song he looks back and regrets the loss of his most sincere relationship.
16. anonymous

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    Jan 24th 2011 !⃝

    "knowing that im losing you" i think is what the song was originally.then was rerecorded by led zeppelin.its about being inlove and knowing that it is going to end.a love lost.
    
    "I was her love, she was my queen, And now a thousand years between.
    
    Thinking how it used to be, Does she still remember times like these?
    To think of us again? And I do."
    
    its clear to me but i might be completely wrong,its just a song about missing someone that you loved dearly and if they still think about you.its actually very sad.

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