Colorblind

It seems to be about someone who knows colour by its RGB values and all the technical properties about it, but physically can't see it. Same with sound, he can't hear the 'colour' on his radio but a satellite would be able to know it from the waveforms in the signal.

On a more metaphorical level, maybe Kevin is trying to complain about the way that computers can replace the senses that we already should have naturally, and that you can look at things too scientifically or technically instead of using our "god-given" instincts. I also have this funny little idea that the song is about life from the eyes of a robot. The robot doesn't know what "senses" are, and he sees everything with its exact color values, breaking them down to just red, green and blue, as they are primary and "other colours fade anyway" Just an idea. Excellent song though.

I think that to understand this song one must put oneself in Kevin Moore's shoes. Right after breaking up with Dream Theater, a band that focuses more on technical prowess than anything else, Moore must have felt completely alienated from the group. He was looking for a completely different sound (as it shows in all of Chroma Key) while the other band members were heading in another direction, which he greatly disliked. This song is mostly about that.

"On a beach twenty yards from the roadside Back again, 6 AM, far from sleep Must be 290 blue on the water It's gray to me, 3-CV [sic] is all I see"

This verse serves as an intro to Colorblind's motif. "290" was CSS Alabama's shipyard number, and the ship was initially known by that number only. "3-CV" is actually CV-3 misspelled, also known as the USS Saratoga. Here Moore tells us he's been rambling on for hours, wandering on the road well after midnight trying to make sense out of life, and then decides to take a look at the sea to see if he can feel anything. He thinks he sees a vessel in the distance, but instead of feeling something akin to woodwork's warmth (290) he thinks of steel, iron, and grayness (CV-3).

"Green can only hold you in the garden Too much red will go right to your head But if it's all the same to you Give me back my blue Other colors fade, anyway"

The main verse, where the theme of synesthesia continues: 'Green' can only catch your attention in nature, and 'red' is associated with quick, temporary feelings such as violence and love (at least as he feels it). It can also be interpreted that those things we usually don't 'stare' at for long and/or immediately absorb. He then asks someone to give him back his blue, a color mostly associated with depression, because that's the feeling that lingers on the most in him.

"I'm colorblind, three way tragedy Pantone memory, grayscale eyes Maybe I'm paranoid; yeah, that's my problem You almost have to be when you look like me"

Being colorblind is a three way tragedy in the way that he can't distinguish between the three 'colors' that give color to life, even though he can see them. He can technically sense them, in the way that he knows he's looking at colors, but he can't feel them, they all look gray to him. This is also a criticism to Dream Theater, which as mentioned was a group that focused more on the technical aspects of music composition than on. "Pantone memory" refers to the fact that he can recall colors, in his mind he can feel them, but "grayscale eyes" means he can only see the world as gray. With "Maybe I'm paranoid; yeah, that's my problem" Moore raises the question as whether this is because modern life is actually gray, or whether he just doesn't get it and is too paranoid. In the last sentence, 'to look' is a metaphor for 'to be', continuing the theme of associating life in colors.

"Stopped in the shade of a road sign When the sun rose like a bomb Tried to read the simple writing But the letters came out wrong It's all white lines to me But things are getting clearer I can almost read the writing in the mirror"

He gets back in his car, and now it's well into the morning and the sun is rising. He tries to read a road sign but he still can't understand what he's looking at. He only does it once he's already too far away, and looking through the rear mirror; only in his memory, of things past, can he feel something.

And finally:

"I'm colorblind, freeway tragedy Pantone memory, x-ray eyes Where'd all the color go on my radio? You almost have to be a satellite to see."

A reprise of the main verse, "Freeway tragedy" refers to the fact that this is all happening on a roadside reflection. "X-ray eyes" is obviously alluding to him seeing things 'through', but not really 'looking' (feeling) at them. "Where'd all the color go on my radio?" is Moore's way of saying this is actually a synesthetic experience, and that 'colors' are a metaphor for emotions in life. It's also about Dream Theater, about music, about modern life: technical skill cannot substitute emotional introversion, true creative inspiration comes from the soul and not from pretentious abstractions or gimmicks. You almost have to be a satellite to understand, you must be alienated and isolated from society to see. Moore feels this way, and his travelling is a reflection of the last words in this verse.

Kevin himself described the lyrics like this:

"Well, the lyrics are based on a story I read by, I can’t remember his name, Oliver Sacks (Note: this could quite possibly not be the author’s name... the fidelity of the tape kind of gives out as Kevin is mentioning the author’s name). Anyway it’s the true story of a guy, an artist, who gets into a car accident and loses the ability to see colour. So, he starts painting in black and white. So, yeah, it’s sort of based on that."

http://www.oocities.org/hume2112/chromakeyint.html

Awesome song..

fucking sick song!! so glad my mate over in NZ introduced me to this band