Aiming at suicide and its effects on the people who are left behind, this song explores the thoughts of a loved one that a victim of suicide has left behind. Though death is an inevitable truth in life, humans can not seem to overcome this, specially when it comes to someone they are close to. The grief of losing someone you love is unbearable and painful. Though there is a saying that goes “time heals everything” it is not true at all. Time just makes you get used to the pain and teach you how to live with it. The ones who left end their pain by killing themselves once, but the people who remain die every day by the fact that they are gone forever. The memories you have with them kill you every day, giving you immense pain you can not bear. When you lose someone you love, it leaves a wound. That wound does not heal completely, rather it leaves a scar. With memories, that wound might bleed again no matter how much time passes. Thus it is clear that time can not heal everything.
The song mainly deals with the guilt of the person who is left behind.
"So, before you go
Was there something I could've said
To make your heartbeat better?
If only I'd have known you had a storm to weather
So, before you go
Was there something I could've said
To make it all stop hurting?
It kills me how your mind can make you feel so worthless"
He wonders if he could have done something to prevent this and blames himself for not doing so. He deeply laments about not reaching out to that person. This guilt tortures him even after years. He tells the listeners not to do the mistake he did. He asks us to value every moment we have with our loved ones. In the second verse it says, “Was never the right time, whenever you called, Went little, by little, by little until there was nothing at all, Our every moment, I start to replay, But all I can think about is seeing that look on your face”. It is true that we get busy with our lives and forget to check on people we love. But this would make us regret it more when they leave someday. "Cause now that they're gone, All I hear are the words that I needed to say".
So if you could say one last thing to someone, what would it be?
The general solution for this is to talk with each other. Be more open to each other. Tell people how you really feel and take care of them if you feel like they are having a hard time.
“Would we be better off by now
If I'd let my walls come down?
Maybe I guess we'll never know
You know, you know”
If you do not talk, you will never know and there will be only regrets left. No matter how much time passes the pain of losing a loved one will never heal. According to him if he had just talked and reached out he might have been able to save that person. He has written this song to encourage people to open up more and reach out to people around them, so they might prevent this kind of tragedy. Even a little thing would make a difference in another individual’s life. Because once something is done we can not do anything about it except for suffering as time does not heal everything. "Well, time can heal but this won't".
I agree with Pavani. Time is just a lie which we used to overcome the pain. According to my point the more you try to forget the pain of loss it increases more. As you put efforts on forgetting someone it invites to the memory with that person. Memory plays a significant role in human life as it can build you or ruin you. As long as you attached with the past no one even time can not heal the pain and forget the memory. I think if closest one dies atleast we remember his/her name because of the memory, that single word (name) can change your whole life with a one second. So how can we say that time can heal everything. it's a lie that we think " we'll be okay somehow by the time" it's a lame excuse to disguise ourselves as it gives a temporary solace to the mind. Though time heal, it leaves the scar forever. So Time is nothing when comparing to the loss and the effects of pain.
ReplyDeleteEveryone has one or two painful memories buried in his/her heart. I'm not saying time can HEAL wounds, but with time the pain gets numb and get bearable. on the other hand, isn't is better to keep someone's memories than forgetting them completely. I think the same situation is portrayed in "Titanic". Rose could carry on her life even after she witnessed Jack's death before his eyes. She valued her life given by his love. I assume she protected their beautiful memories together than dishonoring them with sad ones. So, I think we should not try to forget someone we made memories because they leave us. It hurts, but at the same time we should be grateful since we made love and happy memories together before it is too late. <3
DeleteAnd again, as long as the problem is not our, the answer is philosophic.
yes I agree with you completely. TIME is just playing with emotions and it adapts us to face the loss. As long we trying to forget Time made us more vulnerable to the pain. Yes not forgetting someone who passed away or left you according to my point it's the best way to respect their existence in our lives and it keeps our lives connected with the memories of those people.
DeleteI agree with you dear paani... Cheers to those who live with unhealed wounds and scares yet standing on their feets steady... those are the once who are not only the sweetest but also thestrongest.
ReplyDeleteSo if I look at the video and your interpretation by keeping them side by side , I agree that the lyrics and the video both interprets how people feel when their loved ones leave them . But if we do not deeply analyse this song we will never understand that the base of this song is suicide and it's effects on people. I didn't understand it at the first place too. I hope you agree. So how well do you think that these lyrics and the visuals help the audience to recognize that this song is all about how the people around feels when a person closer to their heart suicides. Do you think that these lyrics helps to reinforce this idea completely ?
ReplyDeleteAnd then I have to mention at the end of this song there is this one thing which caught my interest , which is the telephone recording : "
"Sorry leave a message at the beap." , Though I did not really feel that this song interprets about effects suicide has on other people , what I felt from this recording in the end was that , though people tend to lament after their loved ones attempts suicide saying things like "Was there something I could've said To make your heartbeat better?" And "Was there something I could've said To make it all stop hurting?" Yet People are so busy in reality they are unable to or they do not even try to make time for others , and the only response they give is a simple 'wait' just like the way a person is not available when a depressed person feels like talking to them.
So how can talking to someone be the general solution, because people are never available when we need them. And in my opinion this is what Lewis capaldi wants to highlight from his song.
Yes, I do agree with you that people do not try to interpret the meaning of this song, and would not know that this is about suicide. But then again which songs directly express the message of the song. Don’t you think so? It is all in people’s hands. If one just tries to listen to a little bit carefully, they might understand.
DeleteAnd about the second point, I do agree with you to a great extent. Because people do tend to lament after they lose someone but do not care for them when they are alive. This is the typical nature of humans. But it is also true that people can not just text or call everyone every day to check upon them. It is just how this world has built up. But I believe that one should check up on their close ones like family and friends atleast. And the people who are having a hard time also should tell their close ones if they are having a hard time instead of hiding it. If someone actually checks upon them and they refused to open up it is hard to say who’s at fault then. That is why I can not agree completely with your statement “because people are never available when we need them”.
This does not apply to everyone as some people are actually out there trying to make someone’s life better. I can say this because I have friends who check up on me when I feel down or even if I feel fine.
Dear Pavani, we cannot generalize people and say that people are opportunistic and never available for us when we need them. Still there are people and friends who are in need and in deed.Yes, I love your way of proving.
DeleteAs a sum up, it is all about two punishments received for loving unconditionally and neglecting or devaluing that love. I do not know you will agree with me... When people are receiving love unconditionally they lacks the value of that love because they know they can get back that love although the other party suffers a lot for it. They do not know how important them and their attention or concern for their partner. At least they do not understand how suffer such a person because of that negligence. I think, that pain is being experienced by the speaker now for the sake of underestimating such a love. On the other hand "love is a beautiful offense- adaraya sundara waradaki". The more you love something the more you suffer, leading yourselves to the destruction. Thus, isn't that the way this death person has been received the punishment for holding particular soul tightly. Thus, nothing to add more but to mention that live with understanding about people and how much you are valuable for others.
ReplyDeleteLife is filled with arrivals and departures. But it is easy if we make ourselves proud and happy instead of expecting others to control our lives. There is no need to worry about departures. But it is better if we learn something from painful experience to make our mind stronger. Yes, time is helpful to realize the reality of life.
ReplyDeleteNobody cares until you are dead" is a famous quote and it is true.They do not understand the value of you and feel lonely or sad when you are not with them.We should not devalue any single soul in the world because one person is like one world that there is not anyone like him in the world.When we live,our first priority should be our family, friends and close relations.So,here in this song,"was there something I could've said,to make it all stop hurting?It kills me how your mind can make you feel so worthless" shows that boy hadn't much concern over the girl.So,now he wants to make it right but it is too late.Whatever you have,make your associates feel happy and do not let them feel they are worthless.If you have problems, can talk them openly because in a relationship, communication is essential.Otherwise it will lead to misunderstanding.May be in this song,the girl had a misunderstanding on him.So.share everything,your happiness or pain with them.On the other hand,if you are going to create bonds with people,you have to remember that at one instance you have to suffer.From the pain you gain,can be strong and make it an experience to life.I agree that time cannot heal those pains,it only helps you to bear the pain.Pain never leaves from mind,it leaves a scar behind and it will emerge until you die.What you have to do is,make those pains,a strength.
ReplyDeleteHere I partly agree with you Pavani.According to my personal experience sometimes time heals our wounds but sometimes it is not. If the subject matter is too close to our heart and if it is a deep rooted feeling time has nothing to do with that wound.Time only gives temporary solutions for deep wounds of heart. Time can heal us to a certain extent but time cannot heal us fully. Time brings us different people and take away some people. It is inevitable. Only thing we have to do is to accept the situation and go ahead. We cannot wait and regret all the time as it is just a part of our lives. We should have the power to go ahead with the scars and memories.Sometimes time CAN heal us because we encounter different things in our lives. Pain of loosing someone encourages us to do more new things and it might be helpful to reduce our pain with the time
ReplyDeleteI love the way of grabbing the main message to the audience. However, I'd say time can heal certain circumstances and can heal the wounds temporarily. Although it is a temporary solution we can make our minds to move on.In my personal note what I believe is regretting on something is no the wise decision beacause as Prabavi said the pain of losing can be utilized as a key to open up new thoughts and to start a new life.
ReplyDeleteAs Dinithi have mentioned above it's true that without a deep analysis of the song we will never understand that the basis of this song is a suicidal event and the aftermaths of it on the people who are left behind. The singer admits that he is at fault for not paying much attention to the one who is died. I think this song is a good instance which demonstrates inner sufferings and frustrations of people for not being active at the exact moments when that step was obligatory to make something better. Every single time I hear this song,
ReplyDeleteSo, before you go
Was there something I could've said
this couple of lines hearts me so damn. So as you've mentioned in the witting being open and closer to our loved ones whenever possible will give a solution to this even to a certain extent.
To comment on your point of convincing that time does not heal things, I'd partly agree with you, because some heartbreaks are healed by time while some are not. Sometimes time totally heals the wounds of bad memories and experiences, while sometimes time provides a temporary healing and help us to tolerate what happened and let us move on.