If you were a college age girl in Utah in the mid nineties to early 2000's, chances are you've been to a Colors concert. Colors was made up of three boys who went to Davis high school, started a band and managed to gain a little cult following amongst said college age LDS females over the years.
They played at SUU my freshman year and I was one of hundreds of starry eyed girls sitting in the Student Center living room daydreaming about what it would be like to have a boyfriend who wrote songs with my initials in it. They played a song that day that was about a girl who has a crush on a boy and he doesn't feel the same way but he doesn't want to hurt her. Well I was an eighteen year old college freshman so OF COURSE there was a boy in that room I had a massive crush on who may or may not have actually known I was alive and so the song felt VERY personal. I was terribly disappointed when it turned out to be a new song that was not on the CD every single one of us bought after the show. I tried to keep the few lyrics and melody I remembered in my brain by singing it to myself as often as I could.
About a month and a half later, Colors played at a Student Government retreat I was attending. After that show I pulled the kid who wrote the song aside and asked him if I could get the lyrics. I'm sure he thought I was some weird fan who just wanted to talk to him but he was nice enough to write them all down. I would read them over from time to time and cry about various boys throughout my college career. I kept those lyrics in a folder for YEARS until Colors finally put the song on a CD after I was back from my mission. By then they had rewritten it a little and I thought the arrangement was kind of cheesy. I'm not really sure what happened to those lyrics either.
My friend Lisa gave me a copy of their "farewell" concert a few years ago and I ran across it tonight while I was looking for something else. It caught my eye because Lisa told me this week that the boy who wrote those lyrics down just got married. It has been a long, long time since I have listened to a Colors song and so of course there are a hundred ghosts hanging out in my room tonight. The most sobering one is that 18 year old me who is maybe just a little disappointed that in the twelve years since she first heard that song I haven't changed much but the geographic location of my unrequited crushes. I'm sorry 18. But just trust me, I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing. And I have way better shoes than you.
So here you go, the arrangment is still a little hokey but it might wake up a few ghosts at your house too. Hey Girl by Colors.
10 comments:
Hilarious! Just another post I relate all too well with.
wow.
colors, huh?
really?
that's right they're from davis high.
I actually went with a friend to his wedding reception. Very chic and artsy, as one would expect...and full of LDS pseudo-celebs. I never really listened to them, though. Maybe I'll start now.
I don't know that i'm actually RECOMMENDING Colors. It's definitely stuff that EFYers and college freshman eat up.
"LDS pseudo-celebs". That's awesome.
Yes Tom, Colors. I am going to put them in your ipod for Wasatch Back!!
I may not start listing to them...but, I would like to hear them and I own a cd someone burned for me.
definitely worth a listen, especially if you already have the CD! "Outside the Lines" is probably my favorite. I do own them all ; )
Sadly, it's a burned cd so I don't know the names of the songs...but I think I'll try them out any. I'm in preparation for my summer '07 mix, so we'll see if there might be a fun song to stick on there.
You are in luck.
My friend married the guy from Colors. I will totally hook you up.
And this is nowhere near my pretend visits I have with Jake Gyllenhaal, or my imaginary conversations with Owen Wilson (because we all know that if we actually MET, he'd be TOTALLY IN LOVE with me). At least in YOUR fantasies, they might take you to the temple.
hey! i never had an ACTUAL crush on any of those boys.
i dream of Owen and Jake, just like the rest of you.
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