Run, Hurt, Chocolate lyrics

V and I have the same current favourite song. It was not a weird coincidence.
I never really paid much attention to the lyrics until the day I saw this track being plugged by cowboycaleb on his blog entry about the passing on of his grandmother.
Think about the lyrics....

Run ~ Snow Patrol

I'll sing it one last time for you
Then we really have to go
You've been the only thing that's right
In all I've done

And I can barely look at you
But every single time I do
I know we'll make it anywhere
Away from here

Light up, light up
As if you have a choice
Even if you cannot hear my voice
I'll be right beside you dear

Louder louder
And we'll run for our lives
I can hardly speak
I understand
Why you can't raise your voice to say

To think I might not see those eyes
Makes it so hard not to cry
And as we say our long goodbye
I nearly do

Light up...

Slower slower
We don't have time for that
All I want is to find an easier way
To get out of our little heads

Have heart my dear
We're bound to be afraid
Even if it's just for a few days
Making up for all this mess


Recent Yugin attended the U2 concert in Dublin
Snow Patrol - support act for U2's concert in Dublin Croke Park 24 June 2005
And guess who was the supporting act? snow patrol of course!
the radiators were the other supporting act.

While eating spicy steamboat, V wondered what the song meant. Which was something I wanted to ask her. I listened to it over and over again but never really wanted to dissect the song too much for fear that it may become meaningless to me. In a bad way.

Photos used without permission from http://www.flickr.com/photos/gin/

It was too easy to think of it as a love song. or rather, a song about a love's demise. The situation surrounding the breakdown of a relationship. That if given another chance, in another place (I know we can make it anywhere, away from here), another time, would have worked magically. Maybe the parties involved were at different points of their live. Maybe they were going to be apart - one's leaving for studies/posting far far away, maybe they were drifting apart - either or both not ready for a lifetime worth of committment. It's always nervewrecking and saddening to see something beautiful dying. Under such circumstances, when the inevitabilities of cessation burdens both parties, it is difficult to look at the other without feeling that it's a case of hope against hope (as in The Flaming Lips' Race for the Prize). Hope, is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength and your greatness weakness - Matrix Reloaded. And for those who might feel the same way....when you've becomed disillusioned, the mess that is left behind will hurt just a few days. So light up, be happy, cause you don't really have any way to salvage the situation you are in.

But.....I remember a similar sad song.

Hurt ~ Johnny Cash

I hurt myself today
To see if i still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing thats real

The needle tears a hole
That old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything

What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end

And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liars chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair

Beneath the stains of time
The feelings disappear
You are someone else
I am still right here

What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end

And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

If I could start again
A million miles away
I will keep myself
I would find a way

Most people know that Johnny Cash covered Nine Inch Nails' Hurt. The original song by Trent Reznor version was all about heroin addiction attempts of getting out of the depression rut, seeking salvation. Hence the allegories to needle tearing holes, old familiar sting and asking if given another chance, to find an alternative way. But after Johnny Cash sang it, and changed the crown of shit into crown of thorns (more messianic) the song took on a whole new meaning. Retrospective. And the "everyone one I know" became his wife and old friends who have passed on, so "goes away in the end". But it is still about drug addiction.

Set me thinking about Run ~ Snow Patrol.

What if it's about wanting to get rid of an addiction. Light up Light up, as if you have a choice? Hmm... All I want is to find an easier way, to get out of our little heads. It's hard kicking the addiction. It'll always be right here beside you dear.

So I went on the look at another of their song.

Chocolate ~ Snow Patrol

This could be the very minute
I'm aware I'm alive
All these places feel like home
With a name I'd never chosen
I can make my first steps
As a child of 25

This is the straw, final straw in the
Roof of my mouth as I lie to you
Just because I'm sorry doesn't mean
I didn't enjoy it at the time.

You're the only thing that I love
Scares me more every day
On my knees I think clearer
Goodness knows I saw it coming
Or at least I'll claim I did
But in truth I'm lost for words

What have I done? It's too late for that
What have I become? Truth is nothing yet
A simple mistake starts the hardest time
I promise I'll do anything you ask, this time

So what? Someone admitting to another that, yeah, I lied, I took drugs, I told you I'd quit but I never reall did. Am I sorry about it? Yeah, sure, but hell it felt good at the time. Or it could be about infidelity. And the down on my knees, begging for forgiveness routine and the promises to do anything in return for your forgiveness. Hmm....I dunno. People are addicted to Chocolates you know?