Lyric discussion by MemoryWake 

Cover art for I Love You lyrics by Tanita Tikaram

"Brought up on love and the reasons why but the reasons why ought not to be said and so I'm left hands held to my head"

Johnny was rich, and brought up to believe that he needed to fall in love with someone with equal status and money, who would be his social match. A cookie-cutter woman.

Johnny and the artist fell in love, and they tried to make it work, but: "Gold and waves and Betty Blue Are the images that lead to the clues of why I can't love you"

Gold = money, waves = distance, Betty Blue = obsession. They were in love, but she was just so opposite to what Johnny's life could accept that in the end he left her.