After years playing violin as a session musician with the likes of John Mellencamp, Indigo Girls and Bob Dylan, Germano embarked on a solo career in 1991 with the understated but occasionally brilliant On The Way Down From The Moon Palace on her own label, which led to a deal with Capitol, who released her second album. Although Happiness was a massive step up in terms of confidence and songwriting, troubles at the label led to her buying back the rights. In 1994 4AD released a re-sequenced and remixed version of Happiness with a new sleeve and a few different tracks (including a gloomy version of the formerly scintillating ‘... Dresses’).
She turned out to be not just a great musician (she plays most of the instruments: piano, guitar, percussion and tape effects, as well as her trademark violin) and a wittily melancholy if kooky songwriter (‘I Love A Snot’, indeed), but a phenomenal arranger whose innovation and breadth of expression is comparable to PJ Harvey at her tape-mangling best.
As her style developed, so the music’s potential commercial appeal increased without compromising its uniqueness. Bright kaleidoscopes during an otherwise dark time in 4AD’s history, the following three albums, Geek The Girl, Excerpts From A Love Circus and Slide all won critical acclaim, but sadly failed to reach the wide audience they deserved; Germano was dropped in 1998, and announced her retirement from the music business.
(In 1997, she also released a collaboration with Giant Sand and future members of Calexico under the name OP8 Featuring The Ilk Of Lisa Germano).
Retirement didn’t suit her, and she was soon out on tour again, sessioning for David Bowie and Neil Finn, before, in 2003, releasing the self-funded Lullaby For Liquid Pig on ArtistDIRECT imprint Ineffable. A return to the woozy, after-the-carnival soundworld of ...Love Circus, the album was made with help from collaborators Finn, Johnny Marr and Wendy Melvoin.
Label-less again after Ineffable dissolved, Swans mainstay and longtime Germano fan Michael Gira snapped her up for his Young God label, which in 2007 released In The Maybe World, a stripped-down but ultimately hopeful reflection on mortality inspired by the death of, well, a cat, but also the imagined death of her Father. Young God subsequently reissued Liquid Pig with an extra CD of live recordings and demos, whose between-song banter highlighted Germano’s unique and cat-slanted take on life and death.
In September 2009 the album Magic Neighbor was released, again on Young God Records.
She also works with Maynard James Keenan's Puscifer
Official site: www.lisagermano.com
... Of Love and Colors
Lisa Germano Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
What are we gonna do
With ourselves
And our addictions
And our desire to kill each other?
And special things, your own dreams?
People. All us fucked-up people,
I had a dream of love and colors,
And all the while it seemed real,
And in this dream, we were unique.
Couldn't it be? I wasn't cryin' Before he died,
He died so young
And I can't see you anymore,
'Cause there's no answers here,
There's no feeling.
People. All us fucked-up people,
Can't we see beyond the pain of losing one another?
I had this dream of trust and beauty,
And all the while, it seemed real,
And in this dream, we were not fighting.
Couldn't it be? You gave it up,
You lost your reason. You never saw
You are unique. You spread your wings
And cut 'em off. You're only hurting.
People, all our fucked-up smiles
We quit dreaming long ago and our
Distrust and our addictions and our desire
To kill each other makes all the sense in the world
You just fucked up for a moment. You're only hurting
That's just like me
That's just like me
That's just like me
I had this dream of love and colors.
The lyrics of Lisa Germano’s “Of Love and Color” display a certain sense of despair and hopelessness, as the song talks about the struggles and pain that each person experiences in life. Through the phrase, “People. All us fucked-up people,” the song creates a sense of unity and relatability, showing that everyone has their own addictions, desires, and pain, and are all trying to make sense of them. The song even asks the question, “What are we gonna do with ourselves?” implying that there may be no answer or solution to the problems that each individual faces.
The song also frustratingly speaks of the loss of loved ones, specifically, and how this loss creates a feeling of emptiness and numbness that’s impossible to escape, as there are "no answers here, no feeling." The dream of love and colors mentioned in the lyrics may be seen as a feeling of hope and positivity that is shattered by the loss of a loved one, and the song implies that once this dream is destroyed, there may be no way to recover it.
Through its lyrics, "Of Love and Colors" is a poignant yet slightly disturbing commentary on the struggles that each and every human being faces in their own lives. It seems to be a reflection of life itself, and how we all eventually come to terms with what our own personal reality means to us.
Line by Line Meaning
People. All us fucked-up people,
The singer is addressing a group of people, acknowledging that they all have flaws and issues they are dealing with.
Can't we see behind the pain of losing?
The singer is suggesting that people should look beyond their sadness and try to find hope in the future.
I had a dream of love and colors,
The singer had a positive vision of the future, filled with love and beauty.
And all the while it seemed real,
The singer believed that this dream was achievable and not just a fantasy.
And in this dream, we were unique.
The singer imagined a world where everyone was special and valued for their individuality.
Couldn't it be? I wasn't cryin' Before he died,
The singer is reflecting on a personal loss and how it relates to their dream of a better world.
He died so young And I can't see you anymore,
The singer is mourning the death of someone close to them and the impact it has had on their life.
'Cause there's no answers here, There's no feeling.
The singer is struggling with the lack of understanding and emotional closure they have experienced.
Can't we see beyond the pain of losing one another?
The singer is asking people to consider the impact of their actions on others and to find a way to move beyond hurtful behaviors.
I had this dream of trust and beauty,
The singer has another positive vision for the future, one that involves trust and a sense of aesthetics.
And in this dream, we were not fighting.
The singer is imagining a world where people get along and have peaceful relationships.
Couldn't it be? You gave it up,
The singer is asking people to consider what might be holding them back from achieving these positive visions, and suggesting that they may have given up too easily.
You lost your reason. You never saw
The singer is pointing out that people sometimes lose sight of what is important and fail to see the bigger picture.
You are unique. You spread your wings And cut 'em off. You're only hurting.
The singer is encouraging people to embrace their uniqueness and potential, and to avoid self-destructive behaviors that harm them and those around them.
People, all our fucked-up smiles We quit dreaming long ago and our
The singer is reflecting on how people have lost their ability to dream and feel hopeful, and how this has led to sadness and disappointment.
Distrust and our addictions and our desire To kill each other makes all the sense in the world
The singer is expressing frustration with negative behaviors that people engage in, and how these feel like a logical response to negative experiences.
You just fucked up for a moment. You're only hurting That's just like me That's just like me That's just like me
The singer is acknowledging that they have also made mistakes and engaged in self-destructive behaviors, and that they are not alone in feeling this way.
I had this dream of love and colors.
The singer ends by reiterating their positive vision for the future, one filled with love and beauty.
Contributed by Sebastian I. Suggest a correction in the comments below.