Thrice: The Artist In The Ambulance Meaning

The Artist In The Ambulance Lyrics

Late night, brakes lock, hear the tires squeal
Red light, can't stop so I spin the wheel
My world goes black before I feel an angel lift me up
And I open bloodshot eyes into fluorescent white
They flip the siren, hit the lights, close the...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Apr 17th 2014 !⃝

   This song is directly inspired by a passage out of the book "Burn Collector" by Al Burian. In the liner notes of Vheissu, Dustin tells how Riley brought him the book and this passage struck them. It's about dealing with the feeling of the helplessness of an artist in the hands of an ambulance driver. A fictional situation used to draw a picture of regret, shame and realization.
   
   Here's an excerpt from "Burn Collector":
   
   "The question of the artist versus the ambulance driver, I’ve come to realize, isn’t a simple question of how to live. It’s a question, too, of how to promote living, how to stave off dying. The ambulance driver does it by simply entering the fray, plucking the wounded off the pavement and trying to sew them up. This is a noble thing. It’s this nobility which makes the artist look bad, because how do you pluck the wounded off the pavement abstractly? How do you pluck yourself off the pavement? In order to live, in order justify living, we can’t just fill the space of our lives with empty amusement, with pointless light and sound and words- we’re going to have to try harder now.'
   
   – Al Burian
2. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Feb 9th 2020 !⃝

   First of all, I grew up with these guys and really don't know why there needs an explanation to this song... they were always open about it. It's about not drinking and driving because one of the current members caused the death of a former member when he drove drunk and had an accident. The "artist in the ambulance" saved him but the other was doa. The lyric "I will not let you down" is about the band mate, not the medical worker. He has remained sober since the accident.
3. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   May 31st 2018 !⃝

   I have always thought that its meaning is about (character) getting into a car crash but whoever saved him/her gave him/her a second chance. After that he/she owes their life to the person that saved him. Also when it says "my world goes black before I feel an angel steal me from the greedy jaws of death and chance, and pull me in with steady hands" means that god or in this case the angel would be the EMT.
4. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Sep 19th 2012 !⃝

   The beauty of the song is that there is duel meaning. The artist is literally an EMT, but is also a metaphor for Jesus.
   
   The main theme of the song is that he has learned to live life whole-heartedly, instead of just talking the talk.
   
   e.g. "There's a difference between sleight of hand, and giving everything you have."
   
   "Rhetoric can't raise the dead"- Words alone have not power. They must be reenforced with action and a heart behind them. "raise the dead" is also a biblical reference to Jesus raising the dead. You can also view it as EMTs saving lives, but they don't really raise the dead (not on a usual basis).
   
   "I'm sick of empty words, lets lead not follow"- Its a call for people to lead by example, and not just do what you're told. Applies to Christians also.
   
   The "Artist in the Ambulance" can be an EMT or God. Or God through the EMT. However you want to look at it, I think its pretty cool.
   
   If you want a biblical verse that sums up the song nicely here you go:
   
   1Corinthians 13:1- "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal." (Flashing Lights and Sound)

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

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Nov 1st 2011 !⃝

   I think there is no hidden meaning of the song i think its flat out talking about the medical personel that has helped him in his accident and calling the emt the artist and or angel
6. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Dec 24th 2010 !⃝

   I think he is talking about a relationship he wasn't expecting to have. He "crashed" into a relationship with an angel. A sort of friend's with benefits relationship or even one night stand with an innocent "angel" that became far more to him than he expected.
7. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Aug 9th 2009 !⃝

   They got into a car accident on tour, I believe he's referring to his medic as the stranger.
8. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Feb 9th 2009 !⃝

   I agree with almost everyone's interpretation, but i have always assumed that when he says "the artist in the ambulance" i thought he was referring to himself, a musical artist. I don't know...
9. kel333

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Dec 23rd 2007 !⃝

   The part where he says "owing my life to a stranger" that stranger is probably God. Because he never knew him before that crash, & he knew that that's why he was alive, he was given a chance to change his life around.
10. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Dec 23rd 2007 !⃝

    I think this song is more about the symbolism of music, or just art in general, and how the art itself doesn't save people or make up for lost lives.
    It sounds like a story of a car crash where someone dies and the one who survives doesn't know how to repay them. Maybe the person they hit stopped them from getting in a worse accident--who knows? But the man feels he owes something to the stranger who sacrificed his own life to save his, though he doesn't know how to repay him. He thinks of writing a song, but he knows that isn't enough.
    
    "I hope that I will never let you down
    I know that this can be more than just flashing lights and sound"
    
    "Rhetoric can't raise the dead
    I'm sick of always talking when there's no change
    Rhetoric can't raise the dead
    I'm sick of empty words, let's lead and not follow"
11. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jun 11th 2007 !⃝

    Well....
    For me this song is just...
    About a person who lied very often. He didn't care about other more than he cared for himself.
    An then he has an accident and is brought into an ambulance (I think that part has been made clear from the first stanza)
    And then there is this part:
    
    "Now I lay here owing my life to a stranger
    And I realize that empty words are not enough
    I'm left here with the question of just
    What have I to show except the promises I never kept?
    I lie here shaking on this bed, under the weight of my regrets"
    
    He realizes that he barely did something meaningful, something important in his life. That he was not that good to the persons who loved him and that he loved.
    I think he is near death in this ambulance. And there is this stranger and he/she saves his life WITHOUT EVEN KNOWING HIS NAME.
    And that impresses him. He realizes that he had never been really happy in his life. That he has to change his life. He wants to become a better person, wants to give his life some weight.
    
    That „Artist“ in the ambulance saved his life, he/she gave him a second chance to life, even though he hadn't been a good person.
    („They've given me a second chance, the artist in the ambulance“)
    
    (I didn't know how to express my thoughts a better way, I hope it's understandable, because I'm German.)
12. RoadWhacker

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Apr 22nd 2007 !⃝

    No brainer, it's about the lead singer having some sort of realization and finding belief in God. He compares the event to a car crash, or maybe he really had a crash but whatever the event was he compares it to being "More than flashing lights and sounds" as in there is something else there not visible to the naked eye. I love the last verse where he says "Late night breaks lock hear the tires squeal. Red light can't stop so I spin the wheel my world goes black before I feel an angel steal me from the greedy jaws of death and chance. They pull me in with steady hands. They've given me a second chance. The artist in the ambulence." Yeah that's just him saying how an angel saved him from dying and how God has given him a second chance and he say how he hopes he will never let him down.

Latest Articles

• 
  Anime to watch for the soundtracks… and other reasons you’re undateable
• 
  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)
• 
  Let’s Go to the Hop - Ignore That Door’s Four Bunnies and a Beatbox