Mazzy Star – Fade Into You lyrics

I think this is about being in love with someone who is pretty messed up, and trying your hardest to connect with them emotionally or mentally, but still not being able to do so. As an end result, you've tried so hard to connect to them that you've sort of faded into them, hence the "fade into you" part of the song. Furthermore, I believe the person whom you have lost yourself in hasn't even realized what's happened, hence the "strange you never knew" part of the song. The person is oblivious to how hard you've been trying, how lost you are, as well as how lost they are.

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).

Lyrics seem to be about some aloof, dark & mysterious character. I think she just wants to let him know that his unawareness seems strange to her. That's all I get from it. I try not to read way deeply into songs, cause the artist is the only one who really knows the point they are trying to get across.

I have to agree with the first comment on the very top. Well said. I was in a toxic relationship while my x had dedicated this song to me. At the time I didn't care to listen to it but now reflecting I was on drugs very heavy and through everything away she tried so hard but "I never knew" and I always was in a dark place mentally" shadows" "colors your eyes with what's not there" I was blind to the drug and I thought it would all be okay but at the end I had lost everything. Very sad song. Thank God I'm in a better place away from that lifestyle. Thank you serra for everything you had done for me. God bless. I love you.

Believe that someone loves someone that has no idea. Reaches out to them with no returned love. And they feel their fading into the midst of their own soul. Invisible to them and the sorrow they feel. Having so much love on the inside that they should sense without a word being said.