What do you think How to Save a Life means?

The Fray: How to Save a Life Meaning

Album cover for How to Save a Life album cover

Song Released: 2006


How to Save a Life Lyrics

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...

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  1. KensGirl
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     Mar 3rd 2007 !⃝

    I think, that while this song has specific meaning to Isaac, it was meant to relate to a variety of meanings and feelings specific to the listener.

    I can see in so many cases how it could relate to any number of different feelings that people have, including my own. I would relate it to my relationship with my boyfriend and the troubles we face together. Its amazing what a good songwriter can do and how he or she can make it relate to many people, in many different situations.

  2. anonymous
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     Feb 27th 2007 !⃝

    I think the song is about many different things firstly about a close friend with a drug addiction and then possibly also about the way in which a partner or friend may feel about the problem and the regret that they are unable to help someone they feel so close to.i think the song makes you think is there someone you could of helped or could now help, I had a good friend who killed themself and it's the hardest thing in the world to come to turns with, I will always feel some guilt and feel as tho maybe I could of done more but maybe not some people just don't want the help but that's just my feelings about the song.

  3. anonymous
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     Feb 26th 2007 !⃝

    I think it's about someone who turned away from God. The singer needed to "save him" by letting him know he needs Jesus in his life.

  4. anonymous
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     Feb 26th 2007 !⃝

    Its obviously a girlfriend who's having trouble with her guy friend she feels he's done something behind he back and he's in denial & doesn't want to talk to her the course is basically saying its hard to save your love life when you don't give your partner the time yall need.

  5. anonymous
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     Feb 24th 2007 !⃝

    The chorus means so much to me because it expresses my feelings about my best friends suicide. He killed himself five years ago, he was just sixteen. He had been depressed for a long time and one night when we were getting high together he said he was going to kill himself. I thought it was just the drugs talking and didn't take him seriously. I will hate myself forever for that because the next morning he was gone, he had hung himself. I still wish that I could turn back time to that one night. Then I would have listened and I would definitely have stayed up with him all night to get him through. I truly hope he forgives me for not being there when I should.

  6. soccerkitten101
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     Feb 20th 2007 !⃝

    I think the song would be good to put on the show Smallville, because I don't think of it as a drug like song, but I do think it is is advice for Lana Lang and Wittney in Smallville. I also think Clark Kent (Tom Welling) in Smallville is a hotty!!!

  7. anonymous
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     Feb 19th 2007 !⃝

    I think that the song has to do with and intervention, like with drugs or something. But really it could mean whaterver you feel it to mean. That is the beauy of music, there is no right or wrong. However you feel, go with it. Who know how it could make someone else feel...

  8. anonymous
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     Feb 19th 2007 !⃝

    I believe the song is describing a married couple who are having problems. The wife is trying to talk to the husband but he doesn't want to listen. The wife then tries to tell the husband everything that is wrong (lay down a list of what is wrong, things you've told him all a long), but the husband begins to get frustrated and raises his voice so the wife lowers hers to try to calm him down. The husband can then either admit to everything or say he's just not the same and the wife starts to regret bringing up the topic in the first place. The chorus is saying that the couple started as friends but somewhere a long in the bitterness of their marriage they lost each other. The lyric "I would have stayed up with you all night had I known how to save a life" suggests the things the husband would have done if he had known how to save their marriage.

  9. anonymous
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     Feb 18th 2007 !⃝

    I think that the person who was singing this song (Isaac) had a friend who was suicidal. In the song, he is reminiscing over what he could have done to save his friends life, but yea, it could also have something to do with a drug addiction or some other problem with his friend.

  10. anonymous
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     Feb 15th 2007 !⃝

    Mark Pellington: "I've been thinking about the videos I've made since my wife passed and how they have been watersheds in my healing process. The Keane video I did was only eight months later, but this one was about two years and four months since she passed. There was quite a difference in energy, but the main difference was that when I heard this song I thought more about my daughter than myself.

    All of these videos I've made in the past couple years have been partly about me and my interests. With this one I wanted to make something more directly for the band's audience and something that would reflect the world my daughter was growing up into. I wanted to make a video that was earnest and open. I don't want the band to hide. I wanted them to connect and I wanted to give the kids in the video a safe place to emote. Whatever emotions they had: Grief, rage, joy, despair.

    For the casting process and the video we had kids come in and listen to the song and they would just relate to it. When I saw the casting tapes I thought I could have even used those in the video. They were all actors, but I wanted kids that were natural and open. The emotion they brought was all real. We'd start listening to the song and we'd let them go where they wanted to go. I just gave them some basic spatial arcs. This Asian American boy brought in a picture of his brother who is involved in gangs. He's still alive, but he had this anger, love and frustration that he couldn't reach him. One girl had a picture of her stepfather who passed away. The song just does something to people. It did the bulk of the work. Each person who listened to it went to their own place."

  11. anonymous
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     Feb 13th 2007 !⃝

    This song can have so much interpretation... At first, the name of the song suits perfectly to it. My best friend had huge suicidal tendencies and problems with overmedication and all she needed was someone to go on with her through this.

    Also, my other best friend just broke up with his girlfriend and he is destroyed. (Not to a suicidal point at all lol... just sad and angry) and with other things pissing him off. I also think that he doesn't need someone to change him or tell him he is wrong, he just need support.

    Although, this is not the interpretation I have from this. I generalized it. I think about friendship and how it is supposed to be. When you're not well all you need is somebody who is there whatever what happens, who won't let you fall. You don't need somebody to tell you you're wrong, just someone to support you. It's not just how to save a life, it is how to keep someone sane and well. It is about friendship, for me. I really love this song, especially the clip (2nd one, with white, crying ppl and butterfly) just because... just because of what it is. Amazing. This clip makes me want to cry and laugh at the same time and only increase the love I have for my friends. All those mini-quotes are woahhh //8.hold still//1.Love//etc...
    To you two, the pearls of my life
    Ant
    PS: xD that was friggin emo loll!!! Anyways that's just how I feel. That's a subjective interpretation! :P

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  12. anonymous
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     Feb 4th 2007 !⃝

    To my best knowledge, the song is about how the singer knew somebody who commited suicide. Now he wishes that he would have done something to stop that person from taking their own life. But maybe I'm wrong.

  13. anonymous
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     Jan 30th 2007 !⃝

    I believe it is about losing a friend to suicide and how maybe if someone had been there that night they could have saved a life. One of my close friends committed suicide over night and we found out early in the morning and it kinda makes me think, if I had been there maybe I could have saved his life... but that's just what it means to me.

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  14. anonymous
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     Jan 27th 2007 !⃝

    I thought it was about a mom who is concerned about her teenage son and is trying to save him from the reality of life and death.

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  15. anonymous
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     Jan 22nd 2007 !⃝

    My interpretation of the song was that there was a kid who went to someone (a counselor, teacher, friend ect.) about suicidal feelings, or depression but, they didn't want to listen, so they "begin to wonder why you (they) came". The kid eventually kills him/herself, and the person who knew is left. They "would have stayed up with you(the kid) all night, Had I known how to save a life". That is just my personal thought of it, I love the song.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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