Live: Lightning Crashes Meaning

Song Released: 1995

Lightning Crashes Lyrics

lightning crashes, a new mother cries
her placenta falls to the floor
the angel opens her eyes
the confusion sets in
before the doctor can even close the door

lightning crashes, an old mother dies
her intentions fall to the floor
the...

1. anonymous

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   May 7th 2007 !⃝

   I feel this song is about a women who wanted an abortion. Instead her baby is born and lives, but the mother herself is the one who dies.
   
   Ironic

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
2. anonymous

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   May 2nd 2007 !⃝

   This song is awesome. It's about new life and the tragedy of death.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
3. anonymous

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   Mar 11th 2007 !⃝

   http://www.radcyberzine.com/text/interviews/live.html interview with the band
4. anonymous

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   Mar 11th 2007 !⃝

   http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1862 it's about a mate who died in a crash
5. anonymous

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   Dec 8th 2006 !⃝

   i really love this song but I can't find it anywhere the OKC bombing version...with the newsclips and all...my husband was one of those in the military who helped pull people out of there and I am tring to find the song for him does anyone know where I can find it?
6. anonymous

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   Nov 10th 2006 !⃝

   I read that the song is about a friend of theirs from high school who died in a car crash and donated all her organs. All the people she saved are interpreted in the video.
7. anonymous

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   Nov 9th 2006 !⃝

   Uhm.
   
   
   The band dedicated the song to Barbara Lewis, a friend of the band who had been killed by a drunk driver who was fleeing from the police after a robbery. Barbara had many of her organs donated, and the song lyrics reflect how her death enabled others to continue living. After the 1999 columbine high school massacre, Ed Kowalczyk would frequently dedicate the song to the victims at live shows.
   
   
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/lightning_crashes
8. Kiets

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   Oct 19th 2006 !⃝

   Ed says on the best of live album that the song is about reincarnation. End of story.
9. anonymous

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   Oct 19th 2006 !⃝

   It's kind of depressing to think that the first verse is about a woman giving birth to stillborn, or herself dying. It may seem that way because of what people are saying about the dedication to the 20 year old woman who died...
   I don't see that interpretation working simply because the "new mother cries"- she's a new mother, that means the baby is alive. Crying happens in childbirth doesn't it? The angel is the baby, not a literal angel from heaven. When the placenta falls to the floor- that's a normal thing that happens after childbirth, when the placenta detaches from the uterus and is expelled.
   The angel in the second verse is an old woman down the hall.
   And yeah the thunder is death...Inevitable...We're all the wind...
   Dust to dust. The circle of life.
   Great song.
10. anonymous

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    Sep 3rd 2006 !⃝

    It's about coming back to life again -- in the guise of a newborn. No longer just an energy being he is now subject to the forces of gravity etc. I.E. Re-incarnation. Imho
11. anonymous

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    Aug 6th 2006 !⃝

    In my opinion, this is a very beautiful song. And I have thought about the meaning of the lyrics, probably not so productive. That is why I love music. Everybody who listens can have their own interpretation. I have several. Today, it's about birth and life. Tommorow, ?
    
    The beaty of interpreting.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
12. anonymous

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    May 2nd 2006 !⃝

    Here's my 2 cents.
    
    We're dealing with 3 families each of some circumstance.
    
    Lightning Crashes and Forces Pulling are symbols for life in general and the things we can't control that will or won't happen.
    
    The first woman has a miscarriage and the angel opens the "mothers" eyes to see the sorrow but to help her cope through it.
    
    The second woman dies suddenly and the angel closes her eyes as well so that she will not be sad about her own passing and she knows that her life is over before she can accomplish all she wanted. Her confusion is passed onto the third woman's child.
    
    The third woman cries, but of happiness at the birth of her baby. This time the angel opens the babies eyes which completes life a new. One dies, one is born. It lends to spirituallity.
    
    One person wrote that this could be from a bombing but like in all bombings, not everyone dies. This child could have been born early but ok from the explosion. The lightning crashing could be any occurance of anything. There is still happiness and sadness both, in events that shake our world.
    
    This song has a powerful undertone. The more you listen to it, the more you like it.
13. Ssheska77

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    Apr 27th 2006 !⃝

    Live is Awesome. I have experienced in my life that lightning strikes three times in the same place. I guess lightning being the harbinger of death for this young mother. I feel this song is about rebirth, life and death. I think the thunder, which always follows lightning, telling us how close danger is, is the affect upon the lives of the people we touch with our own. And the wind always conjers memory in my mind. Death and life are always confusing, we never know were we have been or what is beyond life?

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
14. apoeticheart

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    Apr 21st 2006 !⃝

    Ok people... I've read numerous times that this song was written about a 20 year girl who was pregnant during the Oklahoma City bombing back in '94. "Lightning crashes" is a euphamism to explain the sound of the bomb going of. The song is about loss of life. End of story.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
15. anonymous

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    Mar 25th 2006 !⃝

    Since on the album next to these lyrics there's in memoriam writing for a woman who died only at age of 20 I would guess this song is about dying at the child birth.
    
    I might be wrong.

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