I'm Bold As Love
Just ask the Axis. He knows everything.
James Marshall Hendrix
November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970
I love so many of Jimi Hendrix’s songs: “Voodoo Chile“, “All Along the Watchtower” (which he did better than Bob Dylan), “Hey Joe“, “Purple Haze“, “Castles Made of Sand“, “Machine Gun“, “Crosstown Traffic“, “Red House“…but “Bold As Love” from Axis: Bold As Love (1967), is my favorite. Even though “Little Wing” (which is on the same album) deserves a very honorable mention. Not only is it just goddamn beautiful, I’ve never seen so much of myself in a piece of music.
In the song, Jimi is talking to the woman he loves and masterfully uses colors to describe both his complicated feelings and the different aspects of his personality. Despite being a guitar deity — the actual hammer of the gods in human form (Led Zeppelin be damned) — Jimi couldn’t actually read music, so he often employed this method to describe things, including how he wanted a piece of music to sound. He didn’t invent metaphors, but he damn sure made them work for him.
As an artist and as a man, Jimi Hendrix was intense and he was passionate, which are traits that we share. Our blood runs hot. And that same fire that draws others to us sometimes burns them when they stand too close. Like me, Jimi as the narrator knows that he can be prideful, stubborn, and temperamental. He also knows he can be better.
For himself.
For her.
“Bold As Love”
Anger!
He smiles, towering in shiny metallic purple armor.
Queen Jealousy, Envy waits behind him
Her fiery green gown snares at the grassy ground.
Blue are the life-giving waters, taken for granted,
They quietly understand
Once happy turquoise armies lay opposite ready
But wonder why the fight is on.
But they're are all bold as love
They're all bold as love
Yeah, they're all bold as love
Just ask the Axis…
When asked about the meaning of the song and album title, Jimi replied “Well, like the axis of the Earth, you know. If it changes, well, it changes the whole face of the Earth, like every few thousand years, you know. It’s like love in a human being. If he really falls in love deep enough, it will change him, you know, it might change his whole life. So both of them can really go together.”
Love hasn't changed me, it's made me want to change. Because she deserves the best version of me.
My red is so confident, that he flashes trophies of war
And ribbons of euphoria
Orange is young and full of daring
But very unsteady for the first go around.
My yellow in this case is not so mellow
In fact, I'm trying to say,
It's frightened like me
And all these emotions of mine
Keep holding me from giving my life to a rainbow like you
This verse is the one that hits me the hardest, every single time. Even as a writer, I don’t always have or say the right words. Like Jimi, I do have a brilliant palette of emotions, and the picture that I paint isn’t always pretty. Sometimes, my hues and shades are too bright, too loud. Sometimes, they bleed over the lines and through the page.
But she is there to steady my hand.
I’m fortunate to have found my own rainbow, somebody who also sees all my colors.
And I’m learning how to better let hers blend in with mine, because they don’t dull them, they enhance them. And the portrait that we're painting together is a masterpiece in progress.
