What do you think Fade Into You means?

Mazzy Star: Fade Into You Meaning

Album cover for Fade Into You album cover

Song Released: 1994


Fade Into You Lyrics

I want to hold the hand inside you
I want to take a breath that's true
I look to you and I see nothing
I look to you to see the truth
You live your life
You go in shadows
You'll come apart and you'll go black
Some kind of night into your...

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  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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     Nov 11th 2017 !⃝

    Oh this song haunts me. And looking into the interpretation is killing me. Years back a friendzoned friend of mine sent this to me. I knew he liked me however now I realize how intensely he loved me. I was too caught up in who I thought I should be, to understand he saw exactly who I was when I couldn't. I loved him too, but could never take it top far because deep down I knew I'd hurt him more. Now, years and a few life lessons later...I ache for him as I embrace the real me. I didn't understand why he associated this song with me until now.

  2. 2TOP RATED

    #2 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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     Jan 10th 2011 !⃝

    Trying to get inside a person who is unreachable.

  3. 3TOP RATED

    #3 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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     Jun 3rd 2013 !⃝

    This girl is speaking out about her feelings for this guy and the whole time she liked/loved him, he never knew and she was surprised because she thought it was obvious.

  4. anonymous
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     Apr 5th 2023 !⃝

    hi im mazzy desrochers and i was named after you :) and i love your voice and i wish to become a singer to but im to shy :( . ps i hope mazzy star reads this. love 11 year old mazzy.

  5. anonymous
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     Oct 16th 2022 !⃝

    I think it’s a self reflection. It could be a narcissist with an empath…I look at you and see nothing. I want to hold the hand inside you…a mother or father that left them as a young child or a parent dealing with a child with depression. The smile that cover up your heart…is definitely a mask poker face. I believe it reaches out on so many different levels. It just depends on who is listening.

  6. Lazycowboy
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     Jul 28th 2021 !⃝

    Perhaps,
    Mazzy Star’s ‘Fade Into You’ was written with former band mate Kendra Smith in mind? I’m thinking, maybe like Pink Floyd’s ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ is said to have been written with former band mate Syd Barrett in mind. You know, like watching somebody get lost in themselves and telling them, “you just.. fade into you, man! It’s strange you never knew you do that, dude”.

    All my Love for David, Hope, Sukiyaki, Kendra, Sylvia & the rest of the guys! Band mates are brothers in arms, never forgotten behind & always on your mind..

  7. anonymous
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     Sep 27th 2020 !⃝

    Hello,
    My interpretation, it is a love song between an empath and the narcissist.
    The empath has finally realised that the narc will never be able to love them.

  8. anonymous
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     Apr 9th 2020 !⃝

    I think it is about someone who is in love with a drug addict.
    Especially in the lyrics about a strangers light comes on slowly.

  9. anonymous
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     Sep 19th 2018 !⃝

    I like this song. It's has a somber feeling to it that makes me want to listen to it when I'm having a bad day. Most of the time I don't actually even listen to the lyrics but today I took a little deeper look into it.

    I know a lot of people think this is a song about romantic love. Whether that be unrequited, finding out that the person you love is not who you thought they were, or even finding out that you've invested yourself in a relationship that's one sided.

    I sometimes think about this song and I think that it could also be about someone that is watching their loved one go through a difficult time such as self-loathing or depression and wanting to help that person see what they see, but that the person they love is so far deep in the darkness that they can't see the truth right in front of them. A sense of feeling helpless because you can't get through to them.

    Lyrics and Possibly Interpretation:

    I want to hold the hand inside you

    (Wanting to comfort someone and lead them back to feeling love and accepted or worthy of redemption and change when they are in a dark place)

    I want to take a breath that's true

    (Wanting to tell them what is true but not being able to get through to them)

    I look to you and I see nothing

    (When we look at a loved one that's in a dark place and not being able to find the person we once knew them to be).

    I look to you to see the truth

    (Knowing the truth about who they are even when they don't see it. Knowing they are more than they believe but that they can't see past their own pain and doubt / knowing it's true that they are stuck).

    You live your life
    You go in shadows

    (They are a shadow of themselves, of what they use to be. They resemble the person you remember but but there is something darker that blocks their light, that's keeping them from their full potential)

    You'll come apart and you'll go blind

    (The loved one breaks apart and loose themselves possibly to self doubt or depression and they can't see their potential or anything good. They are blind to all the good and then their world starts to look dark).

    Some kind of night into your darkness

    (Their mind becomes a dark place. A perpetual void of sorts that sucks them in further and feels like there is no escape).

    Colors your eyes with what's not there

    (They close their eyes and self reflect. This person is watching there loved one dive deeper into a dark place. A place where they talk themselves into negativity. Like when we convince yourself that everything is wrong, that things are out to get us, that we are weak, and we can't see that all that stuff is not real. It's in the mind but we can't see truths).

    Fade into you
    Strange you never knew
    Fade into you
    I think it's strange you never knew

    (The person is looking at their loved one in this hard spot in their life and wondering how their loved one can't see that they are their for them. That they have a support system, that someone cares and not everything is bad).

    A stranger's light comes on slowly
    A stranger's heart without a home
    You put your hands into your head
    And then its smiles cover your heart

    (I'm not sure what this part is about. Maybe realization. Either the person that is living in darkness finally realizes that the person that is singing loves them or that someone cares and they dive deep into their mind to find healing and there is that moment or realization that dawns upon them making them smile. Understanding that it's not all bad. But that seems a little too positive for the way it's sung.

    I even thought for a little bit that the stranger Might be a therapist of sorts as the stranger. I know that it's kind of sucks when you have been telling someone something but they won't hear it and let it sink in from you but that they get it when it comes from a stranger. Maybe it's a therapist, someone that can help them talk through their issues.

    Maybe this part is about the person that is singing it. That they are expressing their love and light that is shining through that person's Darkness. The person that's in darkness is reaching within themselves possibly seeing something the other person sees in them but that also sounds positive.

    Maybe it's hope of sorts that the person singing will have an effect and that some of their words will sink into that person's mind and reach their heart enough to pull them out of the dark place but they're just not understanding why this person that they care about just doesn't get this already. But the loved one don't see that the person sing actually cares or doesn't see something within themselves that other people can see).

    Fade into you
    Strange you never knew
    Fade into you
    I think it's strange you never knew

    (I think fading into someone could be getting lost in there issues or being forgotten. It could possibly mean that you invest yourself into someone so much that either they take you for granted and don't see you. Maybe even that you lose yourself in them when you make it all about them and helping them until the day you realize that they might just not be able to be helped by you).

    Fade into you
    Strange you never knew
    Fade into you
    I think it's strange you never knew
    I think it's strange you never knew

    (I'm not really sure what this song is about but I think about most songs and they can be interpreted different based on what you are bringing to the words. I think that's what is important about context. Unfortunately, we don't know the writers situation and what they were going through during this period of time or what they witnessed. But I think that's okay. I think that this can help many people in different ways if you don't know directly what a song is about then you are better able to connect with it).

  10. HelpMeGetIt
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     May 2nd 2017 !⃝

    Hello!

    My thoughts on the lyrics include a number of questions. I would be very interested to hear what people think. In addition to my questions, if you agree or disagree with any of my interpretations I would like to hear your perspective.

    I will refer to the singer as 'she' and the person the song is about as 'the object'.


    I wanna hold the hand inside you (All of verse one is in the present tense. This is where she is now. Taking someone by the hand is like giving someone a hug or offering help. She wants to lead the object somewhere. She wants to help the object.)

    I wanna take the breath that's true (She wants to be happy. She wants herself and the object to be happy together)

    I look to you and I see nothing (She is looking to the object for help to be happy but she's not getting anything back. The object is not helping either of them to be happy. The object has put up barriers so she can't help. She's trying to help but the object won't let her.)

    I look to you to see the truth (She continues to look to the object to help them both be happy. She continues to try but continues to see nothing. The object won't help. She doesn't want to quit on the object.)


    You live your life, you go in shadow (From her experience, she observes that the object has periods of being very, very unhappy - Misery.)

    You'll come upon and you'll go black
    Some kind of night into your darkness (She cast her mind into the future and can only see sadness for the object. She observes that, when the object gets sad, it sinks deeper into unhappiness. The pits of despair and depression. Notice the future tense. Having seen all this before she can see that it will happen again. She has identified a pattern of recurring misery for the object.)

    Close your eyes with what's not there (The things that the object gets unhappy about aren't real or true. The mind of the object has distorted reality. The object's mind distorts the truth or even creates things that aren't anywhere close to real. The object's mind will again turn on itself and perpetuate misery for itself.)

    Fade into you (This is where I would welcome your viewpoint!

    1. Is she saying that she is thinking about the object so much that, in her mind, they're kind of blending together ie (I) fade into you?

    2. Or is she saying that she loves the object ie (my heart) fade(s) into you?

    3. Or is it entirely observational of the object ie Is she saying that the object is fading into itself. That the object is completely self obsessed ie (you) Fade into you?

    4. Or is she saying that she's forgotten about herself and is fading into the object? Her obsession has consumed her and she has lost touch with herself.

    5. Or is it an instructional comment? Does she want to object to become itself. Fade into yourself. Become yourself?

    Please help!)


    Strange you never knew
    (This could be referring to a few things:

    1. She could be referring to all of the verses - her observations and predictions. In other words she's saying that she can see all of these things and the object can't see any of it. The object doesn't understand.

    2. OR, and I think most likely, she's referring to the first line of the chorus - Fade into you. And since I can't work out exactly what that line means I'm gonna struggle with this line too!)

    Fade into you

    I think it's strange you never knew

    The strange light comes on slowly (Having talked about darkness in the object's heart in the previous verse, one might assume that she's talking about light in the objects heart. So the object very slowly starts to feel better. I'm not sure who the light is strange to. The object or the singer? I think it could be strange to the object since its been in the darkness for a long time. Feeling slightly better feels unusual)

    A stranger's heart is out of home
    (I can think of two possible meanings here:

    1. Who could the stranger be? I used to think that she's saying that the object finds such darkness that the heart is beaten, repressed and 'kicked out'. At this point the object's heart is out of home - forgotten. When the light begins to emerge, the object can begin to find the heart again. The object finds an awareness of the heart again and realises that it isn't where it should be. But it's been forgotten so long that it seems like a stranger.

    2. I now think that SHE could be the stranger. This would fit with in with option 4 of song title ie that she has faded into the object. Her obsession has consumed her. Since the object is so self obsessed it hasn't opened up to her. It barely knows her. So the singer is the stranger to the object. Hence, I used to think that most of this song was about the object. But the more I think about it the more it becomes about the object AND the singer. She is singing about the objects affect on her.)

    You put your hands into your head (This line is a metaphorical mind-blower! At the start of the song she wants to hold the hand inside the object. That's it! She tries to hold the object's hand (help the object) but the object doesn't take her hand (doesn't accept her help). The object withdraws both of its hands and pulls at its own mind, continuing the misery. This is so sad. I'm trying to be objective but this is just so sad. She is desperate to help but the object withdraws into its own misery. She can't help but be sucked in and fades into him. Her old self is fading and is blending in with the object's misery.)

    And your smiles cover your heart (Considering the mood of this song I don't think this is a happy line. I think that the smile here is a literal smile. I think that the smiles are a mask. The object has a dark, pained and miserable heart. The object smiles but the smiles are not true to the heart.)

    If you can help me unlock this song I would be very grateful. Thank you :)

    Dan

  11. anonymous
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     May 21st 2016 !⃝

    Song from mother's point of view about her deceased son who committed suicide after a long bout with clinical depression, bipolar disorder and a warped sense of his self worth and others around him saw him and felt about him.

  12. anonymous
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     Mar 16th 2016 !⃝

    She has given 99% of herself to someone who is blind to her addiction and should have cared enough about her to see the evident despair.

  13. anonymous
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     May 1st 2012 !⃝

    It is a song about a woman who loves a man. But the man is too high all the time and never sees this woman who is in love with him.


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