U

+ 13

Unregistered 2021-12-01 22:08:01

Julie is mistaken for Lisa because she is her daughter. She looks like her mother except that her eyes are not blue.
Her father is elderly and near his end and has called her by her mothers name. That is why there is no anger or jealousy from Julie, just an understanding of the great love that they had and the pain of loss of separation. She loves her father dearly and promises to care for him until the sunlight touches his face (he goes to heaven)

U

+ 12

Unregistered 2016-09-24 09:37:21

Let's go over the possible meanings.
1. One interpretation is that the two are making love and Julie was called "Lisa" by mistake. The problem with this idea is that there is no suggestion in the lyrics of any kind of intimate activity like kissing, hugging, cuddling, or any type of passion. Compare this with a songs like "Angel of the Morning", "Third Rate Romance", "Stranger", or "I Loved 'Em Everyone" where the sexual activity is clear.
2. Another interpretation is that Lisa has died. I suppose the comparison would be songs like "Honey" and "Angels Cry Roses and Rain". The problem with this idea is that the phrasing is wrong.
"Lisa left you years ago"
This doesn't fit. Since this line isn't part of a rhyming pair, the obvious phrasing would be "You lost Lisa long ago" or perhaps "You lost Lisa years ago.". However, this still wouldn't match with the rest of the song. If he lost Lisa because she died then it would obvious to him that she died and that Julie was not Lisa; it wouldn't serve any purpose for her to point this out. I've seen several try to hold onto this interpretation for whatever reason. However, Julie would only be saying "I'm not your dead wife/fiancé/girlfriend/lover". The other problem with this assumption would be the lines:
"My eyes are not blue.
But mine won't leave you".
If leave is a metaphor for dying then she would be saying that her eyes won't die which makes little sense. But, let's overlook that. If she is indeed contrasting herself with someone who has died then she is saying that she won't die which of course is not a promise she could make. Dying is generally not by choice. That would require stretching the interpretation even further to the assumption that Lisa died by suicide. But, of course, suicide wouldn't fit with the assumption that God's hand leads her away. The phrasing there is also off:
"His hand led hers away"
If she died then he led her away, not just her hand. However, a hand can easily be interpreted as a loving touch or a hand in marriage so this would fit with falling in love with someone else. Likewise:
"She left you here drowning in your tears, here"
This also wouldn't match. If she died then either God left him there or circumstances did, not her. Also:
"Her smile told of no night"
Why only her smile? If she died then the reference would be to her as a whole, everything that made her what she was. However, if she left on her own then her smile could be seen as misleading as in the song "Smiling Faces Sometimes".
3. The lyrics seem pretty clear that leaving was voluntary on her part and that another man was involved. It's also clear that he is still mourning what he lost. This would certainly match with the idea of contrast. If Lisa left voluntarily then presumably Julie would not leave by choice. The only part that is curious with this interpretation is:
"But mine won't leave you.
'Til the sunlight has touched your face".

With the first assumption that this was during lovemaking, presumably sunlight would be the next morning. However, nothing else supports this idea. But with the interpretation of leaving voluntarily, staying until the morning wouldn't be much of a promise. Most likely, we have to reference an earlier line:
"She was your morning light"
This now makes more sense. It would be until he learned to love again. But it still wouldn't be much of a promise if she left as soon as he started to love her. So, I think the interpretation for "my eyes won't leave you" would be akin to "I won't let you out of my sight" meaning extra care, attention, or comfort until he is able to love again.

U

+ 12

Unregistered 2013-10-01 03:32:59

Read the lyrics people! Lisa didn't die. She is a cheating w***e who ran off with another man. Yes, you can be sad and miss someone who has done you that way. Now when Julie tells him she loves him, he is still hung up on the ex, and also looks at other women as potential lovers who will break his heart. Lisa is a b-i-t-c-h who ruined a good man.

U

+ 9

Unregistered 2015-10-04 01:50:19

I believe that both the death metaphor or the jilted lover interpretation can be correct depending on your philosophical bend. But I WANT to believe the first. Especially since I am madly in love with a woman who seems to be hung upon her ex husband. And I do not know if I am the 'Julie' to her 'Lisa' and it scares me.

j

+ 6

Justmythought 2015-04-18 12:43:27

Don't read it so literally. "His hand led her away" is a gentle metaphor of death. The "hand" of God. Julie wouldn't (or shouldn't) want him if he were just pining over a woman that dumped him for another lover. The empathy for them comes from her offering of light and hope to a man in true despair.

U

+ 6

Unregistered 2013-11-28 18:41:58

See. In my blue eyes with the name of lisa. This came from a way different outlook of life! I was placed in a foster home wen like 1yrs give or take few months old and a few others where already there when I arrived most much older! They say you don't remember when that lil. I remember being the happiest in my life of having a family of a mom and dad and siblings. One who resided and placed there was a girl name julie. She was the only one I felt secure with. She became my sister! I was taken out of the home appr. 4-5 yrs old. Till this day she is my sister yes far and in between contact but was/is my sister. We connected again back in 1988 and she helped me as that's when I found out I was pregnant and no family. So we became close again for few yrs. Then again lost contact for yrs. Well she met a great man lives in ft lauderdale and I live near clearwater moving here from buffalo, ny sept 2012. We now live bout 4 hrs away. Last few years we text holidays and stuff, such as this morning on thanksgiving day. I get a text wishing me a happy turkey day. Well I am soooooooooooooo thankful after 41 yrs she is part of my life regardless of how much we keep contact. I love you sis always never a day that goes by your not in my mind and every second in my heart!
Lisa/julie sis forever!

U

+ 5

Unregistered 2020-06-26 00:57:53

Some of you are close, but not entirely correct on the meaning of the song, “I’m Not Lisa”, which was written and sung by Jessi Colter. This song from 1975 has always been one of my personal favorites, but like many people, I wasn’t fully sure of the exact meaning of it. Did “Lisa” die? Did “Lisa” cheat? What exactly happened?

Jessi Colter (at that time going by her real name of Miriam Johnson) married Waylon Jennings in 1969. She was his fourth wife, and they stayed married for 33 years - until Waylon’s unexpected death in 2002, when Jessi could not wake Waylon up from a nap that he was taking on their couch.

I saw an interview with Jessi about two years ago, where she explained the meaning of her hit song. She said that in the earlier years of her marriage to Waylon, it was very obvious to her that Waylon was still haunted by the abrupt ending of his marriage to his 3rd wife, Barbara Rood, who was a beautiful blue eyed woman with red hair. Of course, we all know that Jessi has dark hair and brown eyes.
Barbara had left Waylon in 1968, after less than one year of marriage. In her interview, Jessi did not explain the reason why Barbara left, but the song itself indicates that “his hand led her away”, indicating that she ran away with another man. She DID NOT die. Waylon speaks about his three ex wives (all still living at that time) including Barbara Rood, in his 1996 autobiography. As far as I know, Barbara is still alive today. Waylon’s first and second wives have passed on.

Obviously, the fact that Waylon was not yet over his previous wife really upset Jessi, and that fact prompted Jessi to write and record “I’m Not Lisa”. It was Jessi’s way of reminding Waylon that she (“Julie” in Jessi’s song) was the woman with him now, and would be forever - while Barbara (“Lisa” in Jessi’s song”) had left Waylon “years ago…”

Once I heard Jessi’s explanation, I listened to the song again. To me, Jessi’s explanation of the song became crystal clear.

Jessi is still alive today and in her later 70’s,18 years after Waylon’s death. She has never remarried.

U

+ 5

Unregistered 2019-02-13 16:49:18

I am Lisa. That is my actual name, Lisa Michelle in fact. The songs brings back some pretty horrible memories of childhood. I grew up in a home of much violence and emotional and physical pain and my mother was the spawn of Satan. She tortured us three kids in ways that are undescribable. My father was a hard-working good man who unfortunately became disabled early in life and as soon as he did, she began cheating on him and she wasn't very secretive about it. With us kids being young we couldn't care for him and he couldn't care for himself with his disability so he stayed with her despite how she totally betrayed him and their marriage in every way possible. We knew she was cheating and he knew she was cheating but it was what it was. My father could not have cared for us kids given his disabled situation so if he left he would have to not only find someone else to care for him but he would have had to leave us with the mother and he did not want us alone in her care because he knew the abuse would increase. You must understand this was a long time ago and we lived in the country where you needed to drive to the closest neighbor so friends and family were basically non-existent outside of our immediate household there wasn't anyone we could turn to or talk to or rely on for help. So it was a dysfunctional screwed-up mess and I can tell you every time my mother would go off to a store or some other excuse and not come home for three days she would crank up the radio and play the song I'm Not Lisa and sing to it as loud as she could and we all knew what it meant. She was just rubbing in my father's face that since he was disabled and could no longer be the man she married she was going off and getting her needs met by another man. Well in my opinion that other man was not a "man" because no real man would cheat with a married woman who left her disabled husband and three young kids at home to have an affair with him. He was simply a coward whoever he was- my guess is there was more than one but yes I am quite certain that this song was about infidelity a woman left her husband or perhaps boyfriend we don't know they were married for another man and her husband or boyfriend was so distraught by it he wasn't wasn't ready to trust another woman with his heart. At least not yet. We don't know how long it will ever take to get over someone's infidelity.

U

+ 3

Unregistered 2020-05-30 02:45:00

Beautiful song from my childhood. Listening to the song again, I think that Lisa did die and his sorrow has crippled him, drowning in tears. Interestingly, the 2 lines of the chorus, ‘till the sunlight touches your face’ and ‘till the sunlight shines through your face’ . In the first chorus it means my eyes won’t leave you until tomorrow morning, and in the second chorus, it means my eyes won’t leave you until death. A statement of never ending love. This song written many decades before played out in real life in the marriage of Jesse Colter and Waylon Jennings. They remained married until Waylon’s death in 2002, married 32 years, Waylon had previous broken marriages that may have haunted him. Art imitates life, even predicts life.

U

+ 2

Unregistered 2021-07-16 10:32:28

My wife died after a 52 year marriage. I loved her dearly and still do even though she has been dead for 5 years. I took up with another lovely lady, who sadly has also passed away 2 years ago. She had a lot of trouble being herself and not as replacement of my first wife

z

+ 2

zephania 2020-05-30 16:07:22

E agree with Ercie.

My take is that this is an older couple, who've spent years together happily. Julie oves him, but he's showing signs of senility. He's fading in and out of reality, sometimes living in the past, sometimes calling her by the wrong name, but always loving her as she loves him. And she forgives him for his slips, knowing he can't help them, but of course hurt anyway.

I think if he'd never gotten over Lisa, never loved Julie, she wouldn't have stayed in love with him to this extent.

This song reminds me of my parents, who loved each other till the end, even when both had forgotten everything that mattered to them.

U

+ 2

Unregistered 2018-01-17 23:02:32

My humble opinion: this is about a woman who died and her husband can't get over her and is obsessed with her memory. I married a man such as that. While he loved me he didn't love me enough to overcome that gripping obsession. He is consumed with her. Talks about her all the time to anyone who listens. Would hang up pictures of her, refresh markings he had made when she was alive saying he loves her (yes present tense!). Would get angry when I tried to talk about how those things bothered me. He knows 'Lisa' is dead (but lives like she's alive). While we were married he sent an email to family and friends on a major wedding anniversary of their 'magical event'. It's more then 25 years since her death, his love and the pain of her death has never diminished. He's here (and she's not) drowning in his tears. Sadly after 10 years I could no longer wait until 'the sunlight reached his face' as well as his heart. Unable to help ease that, I had to move on. I'm not Lisa. Hello, I'm here, my name is Julie, I count too.
Living in and under a dead spouse's shadow is torturous and spiritually unhealthy. Particularly, when it had been her home too and he unwilling to move out from that. Another way to understand is Lisa-dead spouse and Julie-living spouse; the man unwilling to move on, which could be ok just don't marry anyone else in that state of mind.

U

+ 2

Unregistered 2012-08-14 01:39:21

It is hard to lose a loved one due do death. This is understandable becuase we cannot erase good memories.
This does not apply to lisa who left him for some one else. Her ex lover was crying not for lisa but for himself. His tears were just questions marks: why did she leave me? This lover is wrong. He should just forget her and move one with his life. She is not worthy of his tears. I would have said the same thing if the guy leaves a girl with a broken her. Forget about it her and move on. Enjoy the one who loves you.

U

+ 1

Unregistered 2021-07-16 10:44:34

I wrote the immediate post . I loved both ladies but a few times I called her by my wife's name, Pauline. It was easy to do. They were so alike. I think I may have been unconsciously looking for another Pauline.. Funnily enough, the 2 women did not actually look alike. Pauline was a blonde caucasian while Christine was a part Australian aborigine but their mannerisms were identical.

e

+ 1

Ercie Berwick 2019-10-13 00:49:02

I always took this song to mean that the man is suffering from Alzheimer's and that the woman he is now married to is telling him that his first wife, Lisa, died. That is the first thing that came to my mind when I first heard this beautiful song. My husband died on October 3, 2017, after a nine-year-long battle with Alzheimer's. He finally did not recognize me anymore. He often thought I was his mother.

U

0

Unregistered 2023-11-27 03:41:19

The song is about a woman who loves a man and vows to never leave him even though this man's heart is still attached to Lisa, the woman who left him years ago. Julie realizes the dynamics of their relationship, but, will love him until "the sunshine touches his face." It was Lisa that brought sunshine to his face, but she left him. Julie will love him as long as it takes for her (Julie) brings the sunshine back to his face.

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