The Band Perry: If I Die Young Meaning
Song Released: 2010
If I Die Young Lyrics
Lay me down on a, bed of roses
Sink me in the river, at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song
Uh oh, uh oh
Lord make me a rainbow, I'll shine down on my mother
She'll know I'm safe with you...
-
I think this song is about a girl and she is just telling everyone that she is ready to die. She is happy with it and she wants everyone to know she'll remember them and that she wants them to just think positively, not negatively. When I hear this it reminds me of all those kids and young people who have been killed or have taken their lives.
-
Definitely teenage suicide.
-
This song for me is about being ready to die at any time, and how even if you didn't achieve all your biggest dreams and hopes, being content with what you did do, and not wanting anyone to be sad over your death. Wanting others to keep living even if you're gone, because their life could end abruptly just like yours. So beautiful but haunting :)
-
i think its about a girl who's really sick and shes sort of writing down her feelings and its also kind of prayer that her family knows shes in heaven.
-
Hey there,
Anyone who really wants to get into the interpretation of this song should consider this aswell as all the other great interpretations above. The music video in particular is based on a poem by Tennyson, called lady of shallot. Any Anne of Green Gables fans out there will have heard this poem. It was written in the mid 1800's I believe, based in mideavel times. In a literal terms, the Lady of Shallot is cursed and held in a tower in which she can only see shadows of the world through a basket she weaves, but when Lancelot passes the tower she dare looks and then curse comes upon her. She leaves the tower and floats in a river in a boat where she dies before reaching land. Lancelot finds her and deams her the most beautiful in the land. The Lady of Shallot was not truyly noticed until she was dead, as you can pull the parallel to the song 'If I die young'. And the lyrics do follow a similar scheme as well to the poem. The rest of the interpretations can be added too, as it is a modern version discussing death and more specifically suicide, as in the old tales often, curses represented a deathly form of sorrow leading to suicide by the curse.
You should read the poem and Meagan Follows [anne] reads it absolutely beautiful in the movie.
enjoy! -
The song is, undoubtedly, a beautiful song. But the song doesn't mention anything about killing yourself, or being killed, as others are saying.
If I Die Young is a song about taking advantage of what you have, of the time you can spend on the Earth. Sure, it may be troublesome, it may be lonely - it may be short - but take advantage of that. Live life to the fullest, because you never know, tomorrow may never come.
I think the songwriter speaks about how life is a gift, with its ups and downs. "Funny when you're dead how people start listenin'" - this says, frustration may be overpowering, but remember, that your time is short, so take advantage of that. There's no time in life for grudges over little things - forgive and forget.
"It sure felt nice when he was holding my hand" - that talks about the pleasures of life, such as young love. The things that keep you on this Earth when everything else turns against you. Those little treasures, those guilty pleasures.
Overall, the song is a basic walk-through of life. It presents the ups and downs, the goods and bads but in the end, the message is - don't take anything for granted. It may just disappear before you know it. -
With the past I have, I can easily interpret this. Adolescents especially are at the age between child and adult. For most, that is a time of needing to be heard. You speak but people don't listen or don't take it to heart until you die and others finally realized/thought about the meaning of your words. ''Funny how you're gone, people start listening.'' For a girl (like myself), I would want to be lavishly buried. Kind of lossing myself/my dead body in girlish fantasies: still young after death. That explains the words: satin, roses, and love song. However, when a young person dies, it's harder on the parents than when the parents die. No mother wants to bury her own child before her own death. The 'girl' feels sad and guilty about 'leaving' her mother so she's asking God to send a sigh to her mother, hence the rainbow which symbolizes peace and safety (in the bible, God creates a rainbow after the flood to symbolize peace and never a flood like that again). The mother's hair isn't even turning gray when she puts her child to rest. That shows how young the girl is. ''Sharp knife'' relates to her comitting suicide. ''Wearing white when I come into your kingdom'' symbolizes her girlish fantasies again. She dreams of going to heaven; heaven symbolized with the color white. However, it is known that when you commit suicide, you end up in hell. Her version shows her fantasies, naivity, and innocence. She has never slept with a man but she has enjoyed the gentle touches when he holds her hand. The boy in town says he will love her forever but the forever was shattered by the moment she ended her own life. And the last ''put on your best boys and I'll wear my pearls'' means the boy from town and everyone else coming to her funeral will be wearing their best and so will she (in her casket of satin, roses, and a pearl necklace). So to sum it all up, cherish life and listen while the person is still alive because when she/he's dead, there will be no second chance.
-
huh such a beautiful song.. i am 23 not and i am going to die in 1hr at least somebody has to know the reason..i am so peaceful and happy now..except love for everyone nothing is there in my mind..my mom and dad started having fights before i was born.when mom was pregnant she hit me with a stone but unfortunately i was born on the way to hospital ...when i was 5 she dragged me near fire to kill..my grand ma saved me..i do remember my 8th birth day i was beaten up by my mom and admitted in hospital..i don't have
any friends ..i always managed my pain with my fake smile...till 23 i was abused and beaten up by my mother and brother now i am 24 with full of all kind of psychological problems .i have a boyfriend he is very nice and he pampers me like a kid always but with all my problems i am making his life hell...i love him so much but my past killing me..he is the only one i am thinking about right now(tears)..dear parents i am very good child ,completed my graduation with full scholarship with 2 jobs in hand see what my family did to me..but still i love them...yeah it's funny when your dead how people start listening ..living here is so painful ..gudbye world -
For me the song is about someone with sickness who has "had just enough time" to make amends for their bad deeds, to apologise to people etc etc. She's already asking god to watch on her mother and the song itself is peaceful and has a sense of acceptance from the person passing. She knows her time has come and reassures people to not shed tears on her death, that she is content now and ready to go.
- Tabs x -
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
-
i lost my 5 year old daughter and this song disgusts me and makes me cry so hard i cant get away from it it is everywhere :(
-
I think the song, "If I Die Young", is about getting the fullest experience in your life before you die. I think it is a very beautiful song.
-
I believe that anyone at least once in their lives think of dying (from any causes including suicidal) especially when we face problems. This song is a very good song and a good example for life. The Band Perry (Kimberly) imagines what if she dies at a young age, what would she wanted to do or had someone do couple things for her in her funeral. What she would miss in her life after she has gone. The most important thing is that she wants her death to be a lesson for someone else who's left behind. And if she dies, she will die in peace with full of loves, so don't cry for her death because she thinks that you should save your tears for other things that are sadder than her pass-away.
-
I think this song is about a girl who wants to commit suicide, but she doesn't want people to feel sorry for her. "Lord make me a rainbow, I'll shine down on my mother". She wants her mother to know that she's alright. But it's also a bit angry: "Life ain't always what you think it oughta be, no." or "maybe then you'll hear the words I've been singing, funny when you're dead how people start listening." She doesn't want people to cry for her, just to accept the fact and move on. But she thinks they will anyway, because they haven't ever really noticed her.
-
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
More The Band Perry songs »
Latest Articles
-
A new era for Millennial favorite, Linkin Park -
Anime to watch for the soundtracks… and other reasons you’re undateable -
.jpg)
Dolly, we need you -
The Stranger Things Effect: How new media is drawing Gen Z and Alpha's attention to aging media -
The most underrated soundtrack of the early 2000s -
Buy the Soundtrack, Skip the Movie: Brainscan (1994)
Trending:
Just Posted
| Amnesia | anonymous |
| Your Smiling Face | anonymous |
| You Should Be Dancing | anonymous |
| Washing Machine Heart | anonymous |
| Souvenirs | anonymous |
| Art Deco | anonymous |
| Let It Go | anonymous |
| The Greatest Show | anonymous |
| Vampire | anonymous |
| Vampire | anonymous |
| Sippy Cup | anonymous |
| A Place For My Head | anonymous |
| I Hope You Dance | anonymous |
| Metaphor | anonymous |
| Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now) | anonymous |
