Karma Chameleon Lyrics

Lyric discussion by notthattartagain 

Cover art for Karma Chameleon lyrics by Culture Club

Okay, submitted a typo - desert loving isn't the right lyric. My interpretation:

Is the loving in your eyes all the way? If I listened to your lies would you say I'm a man without conviction, I'm a man who doesn't know How to sell a contradiction? You come and go, You come and go

I always believed "come and go" is a play on words here - meaning that his partner is different in bed than when they're not sleeping together. Like as soon as they cum, he's out the door. The narrator's in a double bind because if he stands up for himself he can lose his lover, but if he doesn't, he feels like his lover doesn't respect him for going along with the lies and he might lose him anyway. He just can't win. What he's really wondering throughout this song is does his partner even want the relationship to work, and is it possible to fix things?

Karma karma karma karma karma chameleon You come and go you come and go Loving would be easy if your colors were like my dreams: Red Gold and Green, Red Gold and Green

I like the explanation someone else gave about Red Gold and Green being a symbol of political opinions (Rastafarian, etc) being a source of conflict. In many ways, the couple here just isn't right together. They have different values. As for karma chameleon, for some reason I think he used karma because it sounded good, but he probably meant "aura." Back in the 80s, a lot of the target audience wouldn't have known the difference anyway.

Didn't hear your wicked words every day And you used to be so sweet I heard you say that my love was an addiction When we cling our love is strong When you go you're gone forever You string along

George is coming to terms with his own denial of the change in the relationship. Again, the lover is sweet as anything until he's gotten what he wants, then he's consumed with bitterness, leaving and coming back over and over again. It's possible the lover is even having difficulty coming to terms with his homosexuality and taking it out on the narrator. So sweet as the lover used to be, George is starting to hear the wicked words and take them seriously as a problem.

Every Day is like survival You're my lover not my rival

This seems to indicate jealousy (possibly over George's greater fame?) but not just that, the feeling that the relationship is a struggle, the only thing that's working is the sex and the dawning realization that as much as he wants this to work, his lover just isn't open or honest enough for that to be possible. But he never quite makes up his mind in this song.

My Interpretation

notthattartagain has the same interpretation that I had. "Come and go" is actually "cum and go" (screw and chew, so-to-speak). Jon Moss was using Boy George for sex, pretending to be his boyfriend, but he wasn't gay enough to commit (or just didn't like George enough), so he would string George along. When he was ready to ditch him (probably after receiving oral sex), he would start a fight, say some nasty words, and take off.

Jon is a "chameleon" because when he's with women he acts straight, and when he's with gay men, he acts...