Foo Fighters: Come Alive Meaning

Come Alive Lyrics

Seems like only yesterday

Life belonged to runaways

Nothing here to see

No looking back

Every sound monotone

Every color monochrome

Light began to fade

Into the black



Such a simple animal

Sterilized with...

1. anonymous

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   May 3rd 2022 !⃝

   Beautiful. The animal sterilized with alcohol is the person singing the song. No telling what goes through an artist's mind unless he tells you. He was probably brimming with emotion when his daughters were born. Accept the song as a poetic expression of deep feelings. Accept how the song makes YOU FEEL. That is all that you need. Mission of creativity accomplished. Interpretation not required.
2. anonymous

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   Oct 25th 2018 !⃝

   Dave Grohl said that this song is about fatherhood in an interview. The exact quote is: “This is about reawakening after becoming a father. Anyone who's a father understands how the world becomes a different place when your child is born. I just feel and see everything differently now.”
3. Fabio

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   Nov 13th 2015 !⃝

   My take is this song is about total desperation. The built up enhances that feeling - the many times "come alive" is repeated to me feels like someone crying desperately for a dying person to reanimate. That same person was so important to him that "saved" him when he/she was born originally.
   
   So instead of birth of a child, this might be the death of one.
   
   OR, the Christ ressurrection option. Also a good one.
4. Leslie_P

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   May 1st 2015 !⃝

   First off, the lyric in question is, "your life into me...", not "you're laughing at me". Secondly, this song is pretty powerful...both lyrically and musically. The arrangement is intoxicating. After listening to the song time and time again, it was obvious to me that the lyrics were about having a child. BUT - I then watched the video and now I'm not so sure. If the song's interpretation is in conjunction with the content of the video in any way, the lyrics are actually about a relationship...having that special someone come into your life (or "come alive" for you) to bring you out of the proverbial lonely, miserable rut. HOWEVER - in the video, this relationship is really just a mere "dream" of this man, while in a drug-induced coma. The beginning of the video shows a self-destructive, lonely man (drinking, drugs, etc.) and when he shoots himself up with heroin, it shows him passing out (with a strange rabbit in the background watching him...Donnie Darko reference, perhaps?), then he's outside, puking on a park bench and all-of-a-sudden a woman "comes to his rescue", so-to-speak. There are a few different women who are depicted and I'm unsure if it's meant to show memories of past relationships, or drug-coma dreams. Either way...it's a beautiful song and one of my FF favorites.
5. anonymous

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   Jul 7th 2014 !⃝

   I can't find any "official" lyrics for this song. In fact I've found several sites with different lyrics to different verses on the internet. What I always heard Dave sing in the last verse (and I did find this on the lyrics website linked, below) is: "your life into me, I can finally breathe, come alive". This lends a very different meaning than: "you're laughing at me…"
   
   I think this is clearly about Christ's resurrection, and Him coming alive in the lives of people who need to be saved from whatever (in the case of this song, alcohol and depression, etc.) - every day.
   
   Pumps me up to no end whenever I hear it and realize God is in our corner - most evidently when we need him most.
   
   http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/foofighters/comealive.html)
6. Anaclara M?rquez

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   Sep 19th 2011 !⃝

   As a person who has gone through depression,and I'm a mother myself, I can tell you that is clearly about him being at a low point in his life, but that all those things didn't matter anymore when he became a father. I relate to this song and I really didn't "understand" it until the birth of my child. The "Knew that it was time to say goodbye" feeling immediately goes away the moment you know you're becoming a parent because you have a extraordinary reason to be strong, be the best you can be and you realize that life is more than worth to live. "You saved me the day you came alive" is obviously dedicated to his daughter.
7. anonymous

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   Sep 19th 2011 !⃝

   Could it be about when Taylor Hawkins "came alive" after his over dose induced coma?
8. anonymous

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   Apr 19th 2011 !⃝

   This song is so easily translated into a giving up everything and realizing that you need Christ. BUT I doubt that is what it is about. If Dave wrote it this way that is awesome! It seems to either be one of two things...
   1. Finding Christ after losing all hope, "you saved me the day you came alive", referring to the resurrection. His life was dull and black, no color, alcoholic stupor basically hiding the pain and hurt, then realizes there is someone out there who died and "came alive" for him.
   
   2. Is the birth of a child, which other people agree is the other way. That is the Laughing at me part that would make sense, anyone who has had a child understands the realization that you are now not only living for yourself and your needs but now need to take a look at their priorities and resolve their past issues in order to deal with raising the child.
   
   Either way it's a great song of hope and redemption!
9. anonymous

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   Apr 9th 2010 !⃝

   I think the song is parted in two parts.
   In the first part, it's about a person who is depressed: (s)he connects with a dead animal in a cold liquid - ''Such a simple animal, sterilized with alcohol, I could hardly feel anymore''.
   
   Just when this person wants to give up about everything - ''bittersweet surrendering, knew that it was time to say goodbye'' - the person wants to commit suicide.
   
   What happens in the second part, holds two options I think. Either this person realized (s)he's going to be a parent and taking the part of the lyrics ''you came alive'' as a birth of a child. A meaning to go on with life, a ray of light.
   Option 2; this depressed person found hope in another person. This person is happy when his/her new found person is happy too: ''You're laughing at me, I can finally breath, come alive''.
10. Pluger

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    Dec 18th 2009 !⃝

    I can relate so well to the parts about depression. But what came alive to save him? That's what I need to know. Is it sobriety? Or the birth of a new baby? Religious Epiphany?

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