Mazzy Star – Fade Into You

"Fade Into You" as written by and Hope Sandoval David Roback....
I want to hold the hand inside you
I want to take a breath that's true
I look to you and I see nothing
I look to you to see the truth
You live your life
You go in shadows
You'll come apart and you'll go blind
Some kind of light into your darkness
Colors your eyes with what's not there.

Fade into you
Strange you never knew
Fade into you
I think it's strange you never knew

A stranger's light comes on slowly
A stranger's heart without a home
You put your hands into your head
And then smiles cover your heart

Fade into you
Strange you never knew
Fade into you
I think it's strange you never knew

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


Lyrics submitted by numb

Fade Into You song meanings
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  • +43
    General Commentwhat it means to me:
    she thought she finally found someone true, and fell in love with them. but the person had many walls built up, she tried to reach through them and show how much she cares. she thinks he is damaged and has a dark perception of the world. he doesn't really show himself.

    she realizes she will never really get through to him. he won't let her. he doesn't, or can't really love her back. what she thought was inside of him really isn't there (but she loves him anyway).

    she looks to him and sees "nothing" because what she originally saw in him doesn't really exist. and that "nothing" has become truth to her. she has to remind herself he can't give back.

    i believe the "truth" she looks to him to see, is also the depressing realization that she can't look to someone else to make her happy. he taught her this sad truth.

    she doesn't normally open up to people easily either, but she offered her heart to him, to be her home, and welcomed his. deep in his mind, he knows. he realizes how much she loved him, but it's too late. and doesn't matter. his heart is too protected, but he smiles knowing what she has given him.

    ...and she fades into him. i think this means she loved him so much he became everything to her. at first she looked to him as someone to make her happy, but ended up trying to be everything to make him happy. and lost herself.
    i think it also means that she begins to see the darkness in him, in herself. she is hurt and depressed and has lost hope. it's like looking in a mirror.

    after everything she thinks it is strange he never knew how much she really wanted to care and how sincere she was and wanted to be the one to make him happy and for him to be the one to make her happy. what could have been. the hurt he was causing her. she loved him for what he was. he's too messed up and self-centered to appreciate it. or just didn't feel the same way.

    i think it's about disappointment. a broken heart. and a damaged soul.

    maybe the darkness also becomes part of what makes him so real to her. accepting truth in disappointment and hurt. he has damaged her, she can't trust her own perception of reality. and now she has to build her own walls. the song sounds final, like there is a loss.

    i think she continues to love him from a distance, but she is done.

    part of her believes she understood him and that he would have loved her if only he really knew. the other part of her knows the truth.
    crowjanieon September 17, 2007   Link
    • 12 Replies
  • +27
    General CommentMy belief is that when you "fade into someone" you indulge in the short-term illusion of believing that someone else can make you happy.

    This song has all the right sounds of someone giving themselves over.. it's kind of like being blindfolded and led into the dark, completely trusting something that's not there...
    Miss Messon July 01, 2002   Link
  • +24
    Song MeaningI think this song is about someone who is in love with someone who is too damaged to feel love. Everything on the outside seems to be in place, but shadow and stranger imagery suggest that this person is floundering, unable to connect. The lover/singer is desperately trying to connect, hold the hand inside of someone who has yet to come to grips with themselves. They are not ready, still blind. It is so tragic to love someone like this. I have. This is the person who cannot give back. They sabotage themselves, colors their eyes with what's not there. The object of this song deep down cannot understand why anyone would love them. "strange you never knew" refers to this sense of self loathing and doubt. This person cannot see themselves as lovable even though the love is so real to the singer. Tragic.
    Judgedrewon December 18, 2010   Link
    • 5 Replies
  • +13
    Song MeaningMazzy Star, a female fronted alternative slow core band, achieved their greatest success in 1994 with the single ``Fade Into You.'' The song, with lyrics by vocalist Hope Sandoval and music by guitarist David Roback, peaked on the Billboard Modern Rock charts at number three. ``Fade Into You'' was also a Top 50 single in both the United States and the U.K. The video was prominently featured on MTV, and the song has been featured in movies such as Angus, Nicholas Cage's 2005 Lord of War, Guy Ritchie's Swept Away, and countless television shows such as Alias, Desperate Housewives, Roswell, Without a Trace, Cold Case, Gilmore Girls and CSI Miami.

    The song has different meanings to different people. For most, it's a reminder of an era of alternative music that defined a generation post Seattle-grunge. Memories of teenage make out sessions, slow dances, and romantic courting. Some people take the lyrics as words coming from a shy wallflower type that is finally confessing their feelings to the object of his or her affection.

    The lyrics are most widely interpreted as a bittersweet story of falling in love with someone that is slightly damaged and incapable of living up to expectations. Hope Sandoval hauntingly sings of trying to connect with her partner on both an emotional and physical level; until, she begins to realize that this person can't give back. They aren't quite positioned where they need to be in life. You can hear the disappointment and heartbreak in the way she sings her lyrics.
    She has in many ways given herself to whomever she sings to. They have become everything to her and she's lost herself in the process. She's faded into him and has discovered that she's slightly damaged as a result.

    The verse ``I think it's strange you never knew'' seems to suggest that this person hasn't even noticed Hope's heartache or her true feelings because their soul is damaged, their world may be dark, and they're self-centered and lacking a certain depth. It's as if this person fails to realize that the couple aren't the same two people they once were. He never noticed that she's morphed into something to appease him rather than something true to herself. (musicbanter.com)
    Mags2Uon November 02, 2012   Link
  • +12
    General Comment"i want to hold the hand inside you
    i want to take the breath that's true.."

    ~~Don't we all..~~
    Im not scerredon June 23, 2003   Link
  • +9
    General Commentlove. make love to this song. and cry.
    navyblue182on March 30, 2003   Link
  • +7
    General Commenti think this song is about someone who has had a crush on a certain person for some while and has never revealed the crush. "i think its strange you never knew". the song is just revealing the emotions. but thats just what i think :)
    _kermit_on August 14, 2002   Link
  • +5
    General CommentThe picture perfect song to listen to when you feel low, creative, or tranquil. Rock on Mazzy Star.
    raechickon January 06, 2002   Link
  • +5
    General CommentThis song was also in a Diet Coke commercial a year or two ago, with a husband talking about how when he and his wife first got married, she always wore sexy underwear, but now she wears cotton underwear, and seeing the cotton underwear in the laundry basket makes him feel comfortable. And yes, this is one of the sexiest songs ever :) R&B has nothin' on Mazzy Star!
    tara11coon October 17, 2002   Link
  • +5
    General CommentFirst, I think there are a lot of good interpretations given thus far, and I think they are all correct. It's what you take from the song. And about the guy's liking this song...it doesn't matter what songs you like and don't like. You are attracted to a song because of a certain aspect of your being has been touched. It can be rythmic, emotional, whatever. It just works. Now, what do I think it all means? I think she is declaring her love for someone. But, not just that. Right before the first chorus she says, "some kind of night into your darkness
    colours your eyes with what's not there," She told her crush that she was in love with them, and they are just becoming aware of the crush. Then, it's turns into that other person's love toward her. "a stranger's light comes on slowly, a stranger's heart without a home, you put your hands into your head, and then the smiles cover your heart." There she is saying a stranger, being her, looking for a "home", or someone to love, and the crush is realizing this foreign feeling, and then returning that emotion, "smiles cover your heart." And the chorus is just repeating the fact that they are one now, but ironic that the crush never knew she had feelings before hand. A little confusing, I know, but it's hard to try and put emotion into words.
    charlotteguy04on November 29, 2004   Link
    • 1 Reply

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