The Fray - How to Save a Life - Real meaning to the lyrics *mentions suicide*
 

I never realised this until the other day. During one of my yr 9 lessons, they were studying popular songs and looking in detail about why songs are written etc, and reading some reviews. I was reading a review about this song, and it appears that it was written after the lead singer had been helping at a summer camp for troubled teenagers. Most of which were struggling to help themselves and saw little future ahead of them. The song is actually written about how he tried to talk a young person out of suicide.

'You' refers to the singer, 'he' refers to the youth:

Step one you say we need to talk
He walks you say sit down it's just a talk
He smiles politely back at you
You stare politely right on through
Some sort of window to your right
As he goes left and you stay right
Between the lines of fear and blame
You begin to wonder why you came

Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life

Let him know that you know best
Cause after all you do know best
Try to slip past his defense
Without granting innocence
Lay down a list of what is wrong
The things you've told him all along
And pray to God he hears you
And pray to God he hears you

Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life

As he begins to raise his voice
You lower yours and grant him one last choice
Drive until you lose the road
Or break with the ones you've followed
He will do one of two things
He will admit to everything
Or he'll say he's just not the same
And you'll begin to wonder why you came

Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life

Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life
How to save a life

You learn something new everyday - that song means a lot more to me now.

I heard it was about helping a friend with a drug problem...

good song.

I already knew what it was about.. I guessed by the lyrics and the video to the song!

yeah thats what the songs about, but i guess everyone can get thier own meaning from it.

i really like this song.

thats Blue October HATE ME.

i found this in the frays website

"The title track, "How To Save A Life," was inspired by Slade's experience as a mentor to a crack addicted teen. "I was a sheltered suburban kid when I met this guy. He was a recovering addict, coming out of a really tough teenage life. Thankfully, he was on his way out of that life, so he was able to really look back with some objectivity. The song is more of a memoir about his slow motion descent and all the relationships he lost along the way." Destined to be one of the band's greatest hits, Slade isn't worried about getting tired of performing the song: "It is the easiest one for me to sing every night. I constantly get emails from people who relate to it."

I'm probably the only person who hates that song, and the band.

Sometimes, I don't like it when singers/bands tell the meaning of their songs because it can throw off your own personal meaning. I think it was Karen O from Yeah Yeah Yeahs that said she doesn't like speaking about the meaning behind songs.
I write songs, and I don't know if I ever could explain what they mean to someone. Sometimes, it's up to the individual. Having your own meaning makes the song more personal I think.

yeah i heard the singer talking about it meaning something about a friend with a drug problem - but i think its one of those songs that everyone canfind their own menaing from, which is always the best, cause sometimes the real meanings suck!

Everyone can find their own meanings to songs. I think it works better that way.
Like... what did you think the song was about before hand?

Some songs I guess it can make it more meaningful.

Some, such as this one, the meaning just comes with it. And that's not what I personally relate it to.

oh dear i thought this song had gone away and died :-s as for it's menaing i don't think you need the spesifics of it semms it's obvious roughly what it's getting at :-s it's hardly written in code :-s

It's nice to know what things really mean... I'm glad it means more to now love *nods*

Chloe xx

Whatever it's about, I love it.

i never really know what songs mean, just cause i listen more to the music aspects rather than the lyrics. i probably couldnt even sing all the lyrics to my favorite songs.

No, you're really not. *Joins you*

x

I always thought it was about probably about drug addiction, and maybe similarly self-destructive behaviors, rather than suicide. All the quotes I could find from the guy who wrote it said it was based on his experience working with a troubled teenager at a summer camp, but didn't say specifically what he was working with for. But I don't think the kind of intervention he's talking about in the song quite applies to suicide really, since it's more about getting the person to face up to their problems and start working on getting better, which is more of a long-term thing, whereas suicide is more of an immediate crisis, and he could call the parametics/police to take the kid to the hospital if he needed to, so the kid's life wouldn't depend on him getting through to him. I don't think that listing the all the things that are wrong, and hoping they'll admit to their problems is helpful to someone who's immediately suicidal, since it would probably make them feel worse at the momement, and it's more about getting past denial of having a problem at all, which I would associate more with a drug problem (and other long-term self-destructive behaviors), whereas someone who's suicidal probably isn't thinking that nothings wrong, and is a lot more likely to think that everything's wrong.

I don't know - I was just going on what my music teacher was suggesting to the yr 9's.

I freaking love this song.<3

i don't care what its about, man.