Snow Patrol: Run Meaning
Run Lyrics
Then we really have to go
You've been the only thing that's right
In all I've done
And I can barely look at you
But every single time I do
I know we'll make it anywhere
Away from here
Light up, light...
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I love this song and think it is about losing, or the fear of losing, someone you really love. No matter what the reason. I believe the singer is encouraging that person to carry-on even if they aren't together. I heard this same song sung by a female vocalist, it really seemed to take on the meaning of loving someone despite an impossible relationship.
Lead singer Gary Lightbody said of the song in Q Magazine April 2007: "I've never told anyone before and I don't want to spoil it for people because it has its own meaning for them. But in 2000 I was on a massive bender and one night I was drinking in the bar of the Glasgow School Of Art. I fell down a full flight of stairs. Jonny Quinn (Snow Patrol's drummer) found me in the stairwell with blood coming out of my head. He said I looked like a police chalk line and he thought I was dead.
I was very lucky. A fall like that could easily finish you off. I split my head open and my eye was closed and I lost a few teeth. I was put on a plane to see my mum and dad and they were terrified when they saw me. I wrote Run soon after...The words 'Light up, light up' gave this sense of a beacon. There had to be a light at the end of a tunnel." -
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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-While I agree This song is about love in the face of drug abuse. I think, perhaps, the lover is dying from extended drug abuse.
I'll sing it one last time for you
Then we really have to go
You've been the only thing that's right
In all I've done
-Obviously this introduction is just to get us into the song. They are somewhere and it's time to go. He's telling her he'll sing a song and reminding her that his relationship with her was the only thing he's ever gotten right. This is, perhaps, before they realize she is going to die and they are at a party or something.
And I can barely look at you
-Looking at an addict who is dying from drug use can be a hard thing.
But every single time I do
I know we'll make it anywhere
Away from here
-This is about hope and escapism even in the face of the horrors that are going on. It is also, perhaps, a way to tell the lover that their time together is not done. She'll get better, and he is perhaps beliveing his own lie.
Light up, light up
-He's telling her to go ahead and light whatever drug she is taking up
As if you have a choice
-At this stage she has to use drugs, she's dying anyway so she may as well dull the pain. Really, she doesn't have a choice now. It's a spiteful line, 'as if you have a choice', at one point she did.
Even if you cannot hear my voice
I'll be right beside you dear
-When high, she doesn't even know he's there. But despite that he'll stay.
Louder louder
And we'll run for our lives
I can hardly speak I understand
Why you can't raise your voice to say
-This is just the desire to keep fighting. To not give up to death. To scream and kick and make death work for it.
To think I might not see those eyes
Makes it so hard not to cry
-This is pretty obvious, not wanting to live without her.
And as we say our long goodbye
I nearly do
-At this point in the song I think he is resigned that she will die and that all he can do is say goodbye while she is living.
Light up...
-Chorus. Again, the desire to fight.
Slower slower
We don't have time for that
-I'm, not sure about this. Perhaps talking slower, or taking in each moment carefully so they will be special, perhaps wanting her death to take longer because there are still things to say.
All I want is to find an easier way
To get out of our little heads
-This is another desire to escape. To find an easier way to forget whats going on. 'to get out of our little heads' might be a reference to taking something that'll make them high. He says he wants to find the easier way, which makes me think he is an addict as well who might be in the same predicament she is in.
Have heart my dear
We're bound to be afraid
-this, I believe is to let her know that he understands her fear of dying and he's comforting her.
Even if it's just for a few days
Making up for all this mess
-This is saying that, even if they only have a few days he will spend it with her making up as best he can for everything they have lost.
-We go back to the chorus at this point which is quieter and yet more intense. I can image she is nearly dead at this point and he's giving one last hit as he stays with her even while she dies in his arms. -
My nephew just died of cancer at 15 years old, he loves this song and now we know why... He was is so much pain, but didn't lead on to anyone that he was suffering inside.
We love him and miss him dearly!! -
To me it's about still being with the love of your life in spirit, even after death.
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I listen to this song over and over and want to go with the idea that it's about love, leaving love and everlasting love but do think there are drug related undertones to it. I still believe it's about love to the extent its a love addiction likening it to the evils and power of drugs. It is still essentially a love song showing how much a person loves and relies on the other person that they are all consumed by them. It is beautiful and has brought me to tears many times that someone must have felt so powerfully in love to write this. Its awesome.
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Run is about someone leaving a special person, but s/he is afraid of leaving them, because of the pain it will cause. S/he promises to be back with them as soon as they are in trouble of pain. "Light up, light up, as if you have a choice, even if you cannot hear my voice, I'll be right beside you dear." This is the most repeated verse of the song, and probably the most significant. It is saying, I can feel when you are in trouble or pain, even if I cannot hear you, and I will be there in spirit if not in soul.
It is a really touching song, that can relate to anyone and anybody in any situation. I'd listen to it if I were you.
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