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. anonymous
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     Dec 2nd 2006 !⃝

    My interpretation of this song is that someones mom got raped and then she died. That is why they say "how to save a life" because the husband felt really bad....................AND HORNY

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  2. anonymous
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     Nov 28th 2006 !⃝

    I think it has got to do with suicide like he is trying to help someone deal with it .. n not to do it .. n he ends up commiting ...

  3. Selo
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     Nov 26th 2006 !⃝

    "How To Save A Life" is definitely about a guy whose best friend is on drugs, now that I look over the lyrics again. He tries to talk to his friend about the situation in the first few lines, but the addiction has a strong hold on his pal and it's not easy to get his message through. Towards the middle of the song/conversation, he tells his friend to either wait until the drugs kill him or quit ("Drive until you lose the road, or break with the ones you've followed"). But sadly, the chorus suggests that his friend does end up dying despite the speaker's efforts ("I lost a friend" and "I would have stayed up with you all night had I known how to save a life"). It could also be a girl speaking to her boyfriend, but the drugs situation is the same, so there isn't anything different I could add if this were the case.

  4. anonymous
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     Nov 26th 2006 !⃝

    yeah I can see how this is what the song is about but I thought id share my interpretation anyway..

    i thought that it was about a person (the singer) who is giving a friend advice on there troubled relationship with there partner- "step one you say we need to talk.. Tell him you know best afterall you do know best, give him a list of what is wrong.. pray to god he hears you, hell do one of two things hell either admit to everything.. e.t.c"
    and teling them what to do aswell as adding in what actually happend when the friend takes the advice (e.g going to talk to the partner "she goes left and you stay right, you begin to wonder why you came e.t.c"
    -then I think obviously the advice didn't work and the relationship failed and the friend got so depressed over it and commited suicide or something along those lines and the singer is now saying 'why didn't I give beter advice or help more. I should have stayed with you all night and listened and helped save you form your troubles' e.g "where did I go wrong I lost a friend, I would have stayed up with you all night had I known how to save a life"..
    that was my basic interpretation.. does anyone hear what I'm saying or see hwere I'm coming from?

  5. anonymous
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     Nov 22nd 2006 !⃝

    In an interview Isaac said the song was written about a kid he was mentoring. He said that the kid was going through a lot and in the end he felt like everyone trying to help was saying "Change or you're on your own" when all he wanted was someone to stay with him and walk with him through all his junk. Apparently Isaac cried during the recording because his heart broke for the kid and everyone going through the same thing.

  6. anonymous
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     Nov 18th 2006 !⃝

    So it's about being a mentor to a recovering troubled teen, eh?

    Before I found that out, I thought that it was about a dad talking to his son.

  7. ndollaz1210
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     Nov 15th 2006 !⃝

    According to lead singer and songwriter isaac slade, the song was composed and influenced by his experience while working as a mentor at a camp for troubled teens:

    one of the kids I was paired up with was a musician. Here I was, a protected suburbanite, and he was just 17 and had all these problems. And no one could write a manual on how to save him. I got a lot of e-mails about it (...) one kid died in a car accident, and I guess it had been the last song he downloaded from his computer. They played it at his funeral, and some of his friends got save a life tattooed on their arms. The response has been overwhelming.[1].

  8. anonymous
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     Nov 14th 2006 !⃝

    I first heard this song a few days after I got out of the hospital after a motorcycle accident.
    The whole thing, to me, semed very medical. Then again, that's what was on my mind, so it could just be me.

    For the first stanza, I thought it was about a doctor and a friend or relative of a patient talking about the patient's death, or something like that.

    The chorus makes me think of someone standing alongside a dying friend. They didn't actually 'lose them in the bitterness', but when someone close to you dies, you feel like you didn't appreciate them and they died with bitterness.

    The 'drive until you lose the road' stanza reminds me of a car accident, and the split- second choices you have to make.

    Of course, this is just my interpretation. There is an official meaning, something about a drug addict..

    If anyone might have gotten wht I got from this song, please email me: morgborgx@yahoo.Com

  9. anonymous
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     Nov 5th 2006 !⃝

    "Bittersweet inspiration: the song how to save a life was influenced by slade's experience working as a mentor at a camp for troubled teens. "one of the kids I was paired up with was a musician. Here I was, a protected suburbanite, and he was just 17 and had all these problems. And no one could write a manual on how to save him. ..."
    ~i copied this from howtosavealife.Com, which I found from the fray's homepage. So apparently it's more than just one problem (drugs, etc) that he's talking about, but here's proof that it was about a young kid with problems and nobody knew how to help him.

  10. anonymous
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     Nov 3rd 2006 !⃝

    The song how to save a life was influenced by Isaac Slade's experience working as a mentor at a camp for troubled teens.

  11. anonymous
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     Nov 3rd 2006 !⃝

    Well apparently this song is about Isaac's experience with the troubled teens camp, but, if you look past that it does sound a lot like a girl is trying to tell a boy something very important whether it be, breaking up, cheating, or drugs, but she can't get what she really wants to say out because if she doesn't express herself right she will lose him. Thats kinda what it sounds like in my opinion

  12. anonymous
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     Oct 27th 2006 !⃝

    I think it's about the conversation he has with himself before and after the speaking with his friend or girlfriend.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  13. anonymous
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     Oct 27th 2006 !⃝

    Http://www.Howtosavealife.Com/ this is their own account of what the song is really about. For those of you who don't feel like visiting the ling I'll copy/past the response here. =)

    the song how to save a life was influenced by isaac slade's expereinece working as a mentor at a camp for troubled teens. "one of the kids I was paired with was a musician. Here I was, a protected suburbanite, and he was just 17 and had all these problems. And, no one could write a manual on how to save him. ... I got a lot of e-mail about it. One kid died in a car accident, and I guess it had been the last song he downloaded from his computer. Thy played it at his funeral, and some of his friends got 'save a life' tattooed on their arms. The response has been overwhelming."

    and, here's the direct link to the interview. Http://www.Usatoday.Com/life/music/news/2006-07-12-otv-the-fray_x.Htm

    have a great day! :)

  14. anonymous
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     Oct 11th 2006 !⃝

    The song is about a couple. The girl found out he cheated on her. She is going to confront him. He gets very defensive and they are breaking up. He cheated on her out of bitterness. The girl is blaming it on herself. Her friend (the person singing) warned her that he would either admit to everything or try to convince her that he's changed. The friend is trying to tell her its a waste of time to confront him because she's not going to hear anything she wants to.

  15. anonymous
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     Oct 11th 2006 !⃝

    To me, this song clearly goes through an intervention between friends. The singer is confronting a person about a problem (drugs). The friend can't admit to the problem, and is resistant to see the singer's points. It is frustrating to see someone hurting themselves and not able to do anything about it.

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