Cream: SWLABR Meaning

Song Released: 1968

SWLABR Lyrics

# Coming to me in the morning, leaving me at night.
# Coming to me in the morning, leaving me alone.
# Youve got that rainbow feel but the rainbow has a beard.
#
# Running to me a-cryin when he throws you out.
# Running to me a-cryin, on your own...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Oct 7th 2011 !⃝

   The girl in the story is cheating on her man. She is coming to the singer each day, but having to return to her husband at night.
   
   While the tryst is enjoyable to the singer (many fantastic colors, great moves, etc), he cannot disassociate himself from the fact that she has a man.
   
   Thus, the rainbow has a beard. The picture has a mustache.
   
   No matter how he tries to see her, he can't escape the guilt of knowing she is committed to another.
2. anonymous

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   Sep 7th 2021 !⃝

   Tranny. I mean...c'mon. Isnt royal orleans about a new orleans tranny? Seems fairly obviuos...buuuut....shemales usually go to pretty good lengths no pun intended to not have a beard. It could mean she has a boyfriend but seems a weird way to decribe that situation. Or maybe its just a guy who is great in bed and its uncomfortable for Jack because its not what he's used to?! Lol. Great guitar fuzz.
3. anonymous

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   Aug 1st 2019 !⃝

   Maybe it was a man with a beard and a mustache.
   
4. anonymous

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   Mar 23rd 2019 !⃝

   The title of a Cream song on the Disraeli gears album which, even though it doesn't look like an abbreviation, stands for a lyric from the song, "She was like a bearded rainbow."
   
   The story goes that Felix Pappalardi, the producer on the album, had broken up with his girlfriend and was drawing mustaches and beards on photos of her. Pappalardi was also a musician, and later formed the band Mountain.
5. anonymous

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   Jun 8th 2018 !⃝

   Nobody is saying it is about her bush? I see it as a double entendre for the woman's husband as well as her hairy bush.
6. anonymous

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   Apr 12th 2018 !⃝

   It was their take on the Stones "She's Like A Rainbow" She cums in colors everywhere, she's everwhere, she cums in colors. She makes a dead man cum. She cums like a bearded rainbow. She'll be riding four white horses when she cums. She'll cumming around the mountain when she cums. In rainbows.
7. anonymous

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   Nov 25th 2017 !⃝

   Of course this is a Jack Bruce acid dream just as "The Green Manalishi" is a Peter Green acid dream. I thought that SWLABR was an acid sojourn when it came out and I still stand by that interpretation.
   
   Cheers,
   Spindrifter
8. anonymous

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   Aug 1st 2014 !⃝

   From straightdope.com:
   
   "SWLABR" means "She Was Like A Bearded Rainbow." The following explanation is offered for this: "Think about looking up into the light with someone's head in the way--a rainbow effect but with a beard!" Get it? I didn't either, but remember it was the 60s.
9. anonymous

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   Nov 18th 2012 !⃝

   S.peed W.ith L.ysergic A.cid B.rings R.ushes
10. anonymous

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    Jul 16th 2012 !⃝

    Thats a good idea but it could be general. A girl who looks pure and beautiful like a rainbow on the outside but has secrets or has an 'evil' side on the inside, so the pretty rainbow has an ugly beard.
    
    The second interpretation is that it is about drugs as Jack Bruce states. While my first analysys still stands, add an lsd trip to it, and imagine how a womans face can transform into something hideous under the influence of hallucinations combined with the bad charachter of the lady.
11. anonymous

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    Feb 5th 2011 !⃝

    S.W.L.A.B.R. = She Was Like A Bearded Rainbow. It is supposed to be a somewhat spacey reference to the girl in the song. She is described (albeit indirectly and abstractly) in the lines: "You've got that rainbow feel, but the rainbow has a beard;" and "You've got that pure feel, such good responses, but the picture has a mustache."

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