The song "Goodbye My Red Rose" by Colin Hay is a heart-wrenching ballad about lost love and regret. The lyrics tell the story of a man who didn't appreciate the love he had until it was gone. The woman he loved warned him not to give his heart away, but he didn't listen and ended up losing her. The narrator of the song looks back on the love he lost and realizes that he should have been more attentive and understanding. He describes the woman he lost as a "red rose", a symbol of beauty and fragility. He curses the day she saw into him and told him his eyes were forlorn, as this meant that she saw through his facade and knew that he wasn't truly committed to their relationship. The song is filled with melancholic imagery and poignant lines that characterize the pain of lost love. The narrator wonders where his love hangs her clothes, but never dwells on it for too long. He realizes that she has simply moved on with her life, and that he should have known this would be her way. Ultimately, "Goodbye My Red Rose" is a song about the regret of losing a great love and the understanding that sometimes it's too late to fix things. The man in the song has come to accept his loss and knows that his memories of his red rose will remain with him always.
