Broken

[City]

I know this song has been discussed before, but now that the video is out, i guess it would be nice to have it all contained in one topic.

video

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The Broken clock is a comfort
It helps me sleep tonight
Maybe it can stop tomorrow
From stealing all my time
And I am here still waiting
Though I still have my doubts
I am damaged at best
Like you've already figured out

I'm falling apart
I'm barely breathing
With a broken heart
That's still beating
In the pain
There is healing
In your name
I find meaning
So I'm holding on
I'm holding on
I'm holding on
I'm barely holding on to you

The broken locks were a warning
You got inside my head
I tried my best to be guarded
I'm an open book instead
And I still see your reflection
Inside of my eyes
That are looking for purpose
They're still looking for life

I'm falling apart
I'm barely breathing
With a broken heart
That's still beating
In the pain (in the pain)
Is there healing
In your name (in your name)
I find meaning
So I'm holding on (I'm still holdin on)
I'm holding on (I'm still holdin on)
I'm holding on (I'm still holdin on)
I'm barely holding on to you

I'm hanging on another day
Just to see what, you will throw my way
And I'm hanging on, to the words you say
You said that I will, will be okay

The broken light on the freeway
Left me here alone
I may have lost my way now
But I haven't forgotten my way home

I'm falling apart
I'm barely breathing
With a broken heart
That's still beating
In the pain (in the pain)
there is healing
In your name (in your name)
I find meaning
So I'm holding on (I'm still holdin on)
I'm holding on (I'm still holdin on)
I'm holding on (I'm still holdin on)
I'm barely holding on to you

So I'm holding on (I'm still holdin on)
I'm holding on (I'm still holdin on)
I'm holding on (I'm still holdin on)
I'm barely holding on to you

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So when I suggested the return of Song Discussions, this was the song I mainly wanted to know why most of you liked it. Let's pretend we didn't know anything about the back story of Jason visiting his friend with the kidney problems. When I first heard it, I just felt like it was their insurance song to satisfy all the people who were hungry for another slow building climactic song. Instead, it felt boring and formulated. The music is flat and hardly moves and the addition of strings felt like a complete waste and made made it cheesy. The verses are super vague and the choruses just tried way too hard to be overly emotional. Then the bridge disappointed me so much. Simple 1-syllable words use to rhyme. Day. Way. Say. Kay. lame. sounds like something I would sing when I made up words in the shower. Also, he said "holding on" so many times, it loses its meaning and becomes laughable. Jason doing backup for himself is horrible. Why couldn't they get a female to do it.

So why do you like this song? Does it mean anything to you?

[sylviagrace]

I definitely see what you're saying. I felt sort of like that when I first heard it, especially with the rhyming in the chorus. Those words do seem like they're forced in an awkward way. But now that I've heard the song so many times, I just love it. I don't know why I love it so much more now than I did then - maybe because I've heard it live so many times, and the radio version made me love the song even more. And partly because most people love it, and I tried to see what they loved about it. The awkwardness of the chorus doesn't bother me anymore - I'm accustomed to it and I think it's natural now. The repetition of "I'm holding on" never bothered me at all, in fact I think it adds something.

When I first heard it, and before I knew the story behind it, I thought it was about a struggle of faith in God, and I still see it that way. The surface of it might be about a guy who needs a kidney transplant, but I see something deeper in the song - the will to continue living even when everything seems hopeless, the blind trust in God, even when everything seems to be going terribly. And the holding on, over and over again, I think just emphasizes the drawing out of struggle, like you continue to fall over and over again but you never completely lose heart. So personally, I think it's a really powerful song in its meaning.

I just wrote a blog post about how I'm really happy this song is on the radio, because all the other radio hits have been love songs, and I don't think Lifehouse stands out in MY mind because of their love songs. The songs I like most are the ones about the struggle between faith and despair.

[fairychild]

ahhhh, i love this song!!!! and the video is awesome too!

[LHfanMI]

This might be random, but it reminded me of LH and Jason's writing.
I want to find the actual quote and post it, but I'll sum it up.
When asked about the meaning of one of his poems, Robert Frost said he knew what it meant when he wrote it and God knew... but now (after becoming popular and well-known), only God knows....

Just remindeds of how we hear different stories from Jason sometimes about the same song; he refers to a different time when it was written, and what it means. I guess the way I interpret it is that all of his writing adapts and changes and takes on new meanings to each of us. It has no single meaning or interpretation, but countless interpretations.

Plus it gives me an excuse to parallel Jason's writing with the likes of Robert Frost.
Good stuff

[Shawn]

Nov 3, 2008 16:40:51 GMT -5 LHfanMI said:

Plus it gives me an excuse to parallel Jason's writing with the likes of Robert Frost.
Good stuff

Good comparison

[klein]

I like this song mainly for the awesome live and acoustic versions. Also, I find the repetitiveness goes away in the new radio version and of course the live version because of how he changes up the melody of the words.....
But I can definitely see what you mean. The first time I heard this song was the Columbus live video from before the album came out. I loved it... But the album version disappointed me a bit because it didn't sound nearly as emotional as the live version. I think this is definitely a LIVE song and not so much a studio song.

[Shawn]

I agree with Klein. This song is much better live. The music video was good but bland. Jason had some good acting but it didn't seem like much emotion coming out. Maybe if they kept the video coinciding with the truth behind the song (a hospital theme at least) and showed Jason emotionally upset (crying/throwing things) and really expressed things with bodily motion, I think it would have improved the video a lot... just my two cents though!

[revolutioncrylh]

I thought the video was good, but it would have been better if it was more emotional, since we know Jason as a emotional person and the song ties in with that, but it didn't stop me from crying when I saw dead Jason in the car. Definitely a live song though, I love it live!!!

[YesNoMaybe]

I get what you mean when you say it would have been better if the video had been more emotional and I agree. But I think the director wanted to go for the "frozen" feeling. The feeling you get when you don't really know how you should react so instead you just do stuff that you are supposed to do. Just doing stuff like a zombie, without really feeling. I guess the easiest way to explain this is by comparing it to when someone close to you passed away and you switch into this mode to get things arranged without dealing with your emotions immediately.

But even if this was the intention, I think they could have made the running back to the car in the tunnel more emotional. What I miss there are some good shots of Jason's face showing emotions. The few shots that are in the video are either too dark or too zoomed out to really emote and get the emotions across to the audience.

Still LOVE the song. I can't really explain why, I just do.