Origins
Yellow was Coldplay’s very first significant hit, released in the summer of 2000. It was how the Coldplay name spread around the world as one of the brand-new bands to see, and it is likewise one of the most characteristic and particular singles of the English band, for that strange way of singing that Chris Martin has and for the easy appeal of the song, which is remembered and hummed still today, years later.
Music and Spontaneity
The method the lyrics of that song came out is quite random. Coldplay themselves, and in particular the vocalist, informs the story in this video interview for BBC: during the recording sessions the notes began to stream spontaneously from the guitar, and Chris Martin instinctively considered Neil Young’s way of singing. In some way, he associated that intonation with the option of the verses’ metrics and with some keywords with which the verses would end, such as “stars” and “you”. And after that, for no apparent reason, Martin saw the yellow pages in the studio and decided to use the word “yellow” greatly in the lyrics.
Sensitivity & death
For many years, have wondered about the true meaning of the final text, perhaps exactly because of the use of certain words that do not have a clear meaning for everybody. All those who have devoted themselves to the analysis have added their sensitivity, some have thought that it’s a song about unrequited love or even death, topics that in reality do not emerge unquestionably from the lyrics.
It is a love song…
It is most likely not focused on any particular female, so we can assume that Chris Martin is describing the enjoyable sensations he associates with love in general. By producing lyrics that did not have a real message to convey at the start, in this way the song becomes a spontaneous expression of the feelings felt by those who composed it. Thinking about the stars and the appeal of your enjoyed one. Yellow is a warm color, associated with light, and therefore can have a strong symbolic charge.
Chris Martin duplicated several times that the lyrics of that song “do not make much sense”. Yet lots of Coldplay fans saw this as a stunning thing. Because basically, love resembles this too: it does not include a significance ready to be understood. It just comes. And it’s lovely.