"Savin' Me"
Prison gates won't open up for me
On these hands and knees I'm crawlin'
Oh, I reach for you
Well I'm terrified of these four walls
These iron bars can't hold my soul in
All I need is you
Come please I'm callin'
And oh I scream for you
Hurry I'm fallin', I'm fallin'
[Chorus:]
Show me what it's like
To be the last one standing
And teach me wrong from right
And I'll show you what I can be
Say it for me
Say it to me
And I'll leave this life behind me
Say it if it's worth saving me
Heaven's gates won't open up for me
With these broken wings I'm fallin'
And all I see is you
These city walls ain't got no love for me
I'm on the ledge of the eighteenth story
And oh I scream for you
Come please I'm callin'
And all I need from you
Hurry I'm fallin', I'm fallin'
[Chorus]
Hurry I'm fallin'
All I need is you
Come please I'm callin'
And oh, I scream for you
Hurry I'm fallin', I'm fallin', I'm fallin'
On these hands and knees I'm crawlin'
Oh, I reach for you
Well I'm terrified of these four walls
These iron bars can't hold my soul in
All I need is you
Come please I'm callin'
And oh I scream for you
Hurry I'm fallin', I'm fallin'
[Chorus:]
Show me what it's like
To be the last one standing
And teach me wrong from right
And I'll show you what I can be
Say it for me
Say it to me
And I'll leave this life behind me
Say it if it's worth saving me
Heaven's gates won't open up for me
With these broken wings I'm fallin'
And all I see is you
These city walls ain't got no love for me
I'm on the ledge of the eighteenth story
And oh I scream for you
Come please I'm callin'
And all I need from you
Hurry I'm fallin', I'm fallin'
[Chorus]
Hurry I'm fallin'
All I need is you
Come please I'm callin'
And oh, I scream for you
Hurry I'm fallin', I'm fallin', I'm fallin'
Well the first thing I can say
about this video is that it’s fairly old. It was released on Nickelback’s third
album in 2005, and re-released with this video as a single in 2007. And while I
don’t particularly care for Nickelback’s music, I don’t think any of us can
deny that their music was the one consistency throughout Junior High. So
despite Chad’s reputation for cliché lyrics and seemingly repetitive sounding
songs, this video does have powerful meaning to me. You wouldn’t believe that I
first saw this video at a church-sponsored leadership conference a few years
back, but I did. I want to put less emphasis on the lyrics, and more on the actual
video.
It’s
pretty easy to figure out what is going on in the video: if you save someone’s
life, they are given the same responsibility. Wouldn’t it be nice if that was
how the real world worked? It’s an interesting contrast though, because in
reality if someone were to save you from a falling piano, you too would
probably be more aware of the fragility of life that is all around us, and more
likely to do something about it if you could. But in this video, there is an
involuntary appointment to this “guardian angel” status, which I think helps
serve as a metaphorical kick-in-the-pants for people who are too self-consumed
or ignorant to understand how ever-present this fragility is. If you read the
lyrics, it’s pretty obvious that the verses are the voices of the people in
need of saving and the choruses are the voice of the individual who must save them.
Every second of the day we are at war with the elements, and our lives are
always on the line. So do we live life differently knowing this? I think that’s
a no-brainer “Yes”. But I think the real question is do we really know this
truth as well as we think we do?
I absolutely love this song. I'm a huge Nickelback fan and Savin' Me was one of the first songs that I heard from them. The meesage in this song is so deep and I completely agree with you on the video. The way they literally show the seconds of everyone's life ticking away just gives a better picture of how life is passing by.
ReplyDeleteFor starters, Nickelback is on my top favorites band list and this song is up there as well. The song itself is quite meaning full, but the video is holly crap amazing. What gets me the most is how the job of saving someone gets passed from person to person. It's never the same person's job. Which makes the video have like a "pay-it-forward" effect. I think the video is saying it is a person's job , by human nature, to help someone when they need it. I agree with you Payton on the fact that this job gets passed to the people who seemed to be self absorbed; they are missing the bigger picture in life and are forced to see the fragility of it, as you said.
ReplyDeletePayton, I really enjoyed seeing this video. When I first read the lyrics (I had not watched the video yet because I did not see the link) I, because of my upbringing and mindset, saw it as a Christian song. As someone crying out for God to save them. Then I watched the video. It was a very interesting concept. I agree with what you said, we are often so self-consumed that we cannot open our eyes long enough to see the dying world around us. Father help us!
ReplyDeleteBefore I actually comment on your analysis, let me first say: "metaphorical kick-in-the-pants" = win.
ReplyDeleteIf we did live with the awareness that we may die at any time, humans would be so cautious that they wouldn't live but to fear death, which, to me, is not a life worth living. Such a life would be even worse than our current lives that consist of only wanting to see what the world has to offer us. Maybe, if people lived with at least a little concern for the people around them as well as their environments, the world would be much better off. Nevertheless, for that to happen there would have to be an involuntary mechanism, or "guardian angel" status, which is what I think Nickelback is trying to hint at in the video and what you said, except you worded it differently, in your analysis.