Lyrics to
Self Portrait

This version of Self Portrait was released by Rainbow in 1975.

Our About Rainbow page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Self Portrait from 1975 as well as all of the other lyrics from Rainbow that we have in our lyrics database.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Rainbow or about the 1970s in general.

Paint me your picture and hang it on the wall
Color it darkly, the lines must start to crawl

Down, down, down
Spin me around and around
Draw me away to the night from the day
Leave not a trace to be found
Down, down

Nothing is real but the way that I feel
And I feel like going down, down, down, down
Down, down, down, down, down

Paint me a picture of eyes that never see
With flashes of lightning that burn for only me

Hey hey hey
There’s only the devil to pay
I’m ready to go
Pull me down from below
Give me a place I can lay

Hey hey
Nothing is real but the way that I feel
I feel like going down, down, down, down
Down, down, down, down

Hey hey
Nothing is real but the way that I feel
And I feel like going down
Down, down

Nothing is real but the way that I feel
And I feel like going down, down, down, down
Down, down, down, down
Down, down, down, down
Down

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Rainbow has released many songs over the years besides Self Portrait. Rainbow released songs from 1975 to 1995 spanning across albums like Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, Rising, Long Live Rock'n'Roll, Down To Earth, Difficult To Cure, Straight Between The Eyes, Bent Out Of Shape, and Stranger In Us All. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Rainbow.

If you're a fan of 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1975 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Self Portrait by Rainbow

The lyrics to Self Portrait are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that Rainbow used when the song was created in 1975. The lyrics to Self Portrait have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only Rainbow and any collaborators know all of the inspirations for the song.

If you like etymology or breaking apart phrases and words, it is easy to understand the lyrics to Self Portrait by Rainbow. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Self Portrait" means the words set to the music of Self Portrait, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Rainbow. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Self Portrait and the lyrics to Self Portrait are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Rainbow who came here looking just for the lyrics to Self Portrait, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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