No matter how many times that you told me you wanted to leave
No matter how many breaths that you took
You still couldn't breathe
No matter how many nights did you lie
Wide awake to the sound of the poison rain
Where did you go?
Where did you go?
Where did you go?

(Hesitates go by
The night’s on fire)

Tell me, would you kill
To save a life?
Tell me, would you kill
To prove you're right?
Crash, crash
Burn
Let it all burn
This hurricane’s chasing us all underground

No matter how many deaths I die, I will never forget
No matter how many lies I live, I will never regret
There is a fire inside of this heart
A riot about to explode into flames
Where is your God?
Where is your God?
Where is your God?

Do you really want?
Do you really want me?
Do you really want me dead?
Or alive to torture for my sins?

Do you really want?
Do you really want me?
Do you really want me dead?
Or alive to live the lie?

Tell me, would you kill
To save a life?
Tell me, would you kill
To prove you're right?
Crash, crash
Burn
Let it all burn
This hurricane’s chasing us all underground

The promises we made were not enough
(Never play this game again)
The prayers that we had prayed were like a drug
(Never gonna help me here)
The secrets that we sold were never known
(Never sing a song a second time)
The love we had
The love we had
We had to let it go
(Never giving in again, never giving in again)

Tell me, would you kill
To save a life?
Tell me, would you kill
To prove you're right?
Crash, crash
Burn
Let it all burn
This hurricane’s chasing us all underground

Oh, oh, woah
This hurricane
Oh, oh, woah
This hurricane
Oh, oh, woah
This hurricane
Oh, oh, woah

Do you really want?
(Oh, oh, woah)
Do you really want me?
(Oh, oh, woah)
Do you really want me dead?
(Oh, oh, woah)
Or alive to torture for my sins?

Do you really want?
(Oh, oh, woah)
Do you really want me?
(Oh, oh, woah)
Do you really want me dead?
(Oh, oh, woah)
Or alive to live the lie?


Lyrics submitted by emotionalvamp, edited by MCR30STM, giangle, TashaMarie1, xXFlamey25Xx

Hurricane song meanings
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77 Comments

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  • +9
    General Comment

    The song has nothing to do with religion. In my opinion, the lyrics are a monologue where the author expresses the psychological conflict that he had and still has to deal with the life choice he made when had to leave behind the love of his life to concretize his life purpose.

      I think God here means the Center of Your Life or Purpose of Your Life, in other words, the most important or sacred thing in one's life. For example, for many people, their true God is the money and the power, because their lives revolve around these things. For extremists and fanatics, their true God is not the God of their religion that they use as justification to do their own will and so commit violent acts against others. Their true God is war, the desire to dominate and impose their will on others.

    In the lyric, he asks himself "Where is your God? Which means" Where is the center and the purpose of your life? The idea of these lyrics is that he is experiencing contradictory feelings within himself. These feelings are related to a love that had to leave behind to meet his purpose in life (which here is metaphorically exemplified as God.)

    Here he refers to this great love that was left behind:

    "The promises we made Were not enough The prayers That We had prayed Were like a drug The Secrets That We Were sold never known The love we had, the love we had, we had to let it go, oh"

    Note: In the video clip when he sings this last verse, he is faced with three children blondes, drawing symbols on the floor. Once they see him, they get up and run away from him. Immediately, many symbols of the band are tattooed on his body. In my opinion, this scene symbolizes the resignation of a dream to achieve another dream. The children who run away, symbolize the lost dream of having a family with the woman he loved. This dream was replaced by another dream - 30 seconds to Mars.

    "Tell me would you kill to save your life?"

    This verse is a metaphor. He is questioning himself if he was able to go to extremes to save his life which here means "his dreams and his life purpose".

    "Tell me would you kill to prove you're right?" In this metaphor, he questions how far would he go to prove himself.

    "This hurricane keeps chasing us all underground."

    It´s about the psychological conflict within us and the fact that we question the choices we make in life. At one point in our life, we question our life choices and wonder if we had made different choices how our life would turn out to be.

    This song is full of metaphors and that's why it's so hard to decode.

    In Songfacts, Jared said this about the song "Up in the Air" - "I think that lyric is really important for us as a band because it's a conversation that started with 'Hurricane'

    "I'll wrap my hands around your neck so tight with love, love"

    I think he is killing that LOVE inside him so he can move on...

    [Edit: Improvement of the comment as it had some flaws.]
    Marmarson February 09, 2015   Link
  • +7
    My Opinion

    I am really tired of people assuming that this song is about a boy-girl relationship ending on a bad note. I've read at least one page of every song by Thirty Seconds to Mars and there is at least one if not more comments expressing that the song is about a relationship between a boy and girl. It makes me want to throw something. People can have their own opinion for sure, I'm not saying that they can't at all - its just very frustrating and disheartening that people can conclude such a pointless meeting by these lyrics.

    For starters "Hurricane" has absolutely NOTHING to do with a romantic relationship - even though yes Jared does mention "the love we had, the love we had, we had to let it go", but so what?. He is talking about love in a relationship, I think he means the love that we had for each other. The song obviously is questioning religion and the affects religion has on so many people and how people allow it to rule their lives. The 'hurricane' is supposed to symbolize religion itself, and I think hits it dead on. Thirty Seconds to Mars's music isn't meant to be taken literally - it's meant to thought about, and read between the lines to discover the true meaning. Anyone who thinks thinks Hurricane or any other 30stm song is about a romantic relationship between two people seriously need to re-listen to the song and really listen because it will become very apparent to anyone who takes the time to. Also another thing to be taken into consideration - lyrics are only half of the song. The actual music tells the other half of the story.

    MariMARSon December 21, 2009   Link
  • +5
    General Comment

    Is anyone else getting a Saw like feel here?

    The music in the beginning kind of sounds like the song from Saw, and then some of the lyrics

    "Tell me would you kill to save a life Tell me would you kill to prove your right"

    How is that NOT Saw?

    SO weird.

    alltherightmoveson December 02, 2009   Link
  • +5
    General Comment

    Damn, Kanye West pretty much destroys what would otherwise be an OK song.

    Vasaon April 04, 2010   Link
  • +5
    My Interpretation

    I see this song as a conversation between the American leaders and Al Queda.

    "Tell me would you kill, to save a life?" This is Al Queda asking the westernised countries would they kill their terrorist group for the sake of saving the lives of their own.

    "Tell me would you kill, yto prove you're right?" This is the westernised leaders asking them if they would kill for the sake of what they believe in... to prove to everyone that they are right about what they believe in.

    "crash, crash, burn. let is all burn. This hurricane's chasing us all underground." Jared is basically saying here that were are in a vicious circle ("hurricane") they we cannot get out of. we are running round in circles trying to find the answer to make everyone happy with their beliefs... but while these westernised countries are trying to keep the peace, everything is crashing and burning around us (eg 9/11, 7/7, going to war in afghan...)

    "where is your God?" this could be both sides asking that question. the westernised leaders could be asking them where is their god to prove they are right about what they are saying? where is their god to show them they will go to paradise when they carry out their plans (suicide bombing). but they could be asking the westerns where is their god to look after them while they are attacking them?

    "do you really want me dead or alive to torture for my sins?" they are asking the westerns... do they want to killthe terrorists, or keep them alive and torutre them for their sins first... this was definitly questionable during the capture of bin laden and sadam hussain.

    I dont know.... I think im pretty on key with this... would be nice to know what you think about my interpretation anyways :)

    EllieElectriicon April 24, 2012   Link
  • +4
    My Opinion

    Is it just me or would this song be about 10 times better without Kanye's digitized voice? It just ruins it for me.

    beyondclarityon December 01, 2009   Link
  • +3
    My Interpretation

    ok so heres the deal

    hurricane is, in my opinion, about the holocaust in palestine, 30 seconds to mars are very politically active as most of us kno, but palestine is a very sensitive issue, hear me out...

    No matter how many times that you told me you wanted to leave No matter how many breaths that you took you still couldn't breathe No matter how many nights did you lie Wide awake to the sounds of the pausing rain Where did you go? Where did you go? Where did you go? As days go by the nights are on fire

    ...the entire gaza strip works like a refugee camp, its claustrophobic and rather like hell, if you are a palestinian you are stuck there, any attepts to escape merit a bullet hole or two, people have been trying to escape for years, most are killed. the nights on fire is ofcourse refering to the shelling of gaza

    Tell me would you kill to save for a life? Tell me would you kill to prove you're right? Crash, crash, burn, let it all burn This hurricanes chasing us all underground

    ... this part is war in a nutshell, all conflict in the modern world is derived from the need to protect or asscert dominance over another social group, usually because of some misconception concerning xenophobia but whatever i digress... the israelies who were promised land that was devid of any natural inhabitance were ofcourse lied to, there was a population there and the government massacred them, most of the israeli population didnt kno this, most of the world didnt untill recently. the reference to underground is literally of some escape attepmts by palestinians to get out of the refugee camps

    No matter how many deaths that I die, I will never forget No matter how many lives that I live, I will never regret There's a fire inside of this heart in a riot about to explode into flames Where is your God? where is your God? where is your God?

    ...this is referring to the palestinian in general, they, as a people have a close relationship with the land and would kill protect it, no matter what happens they are still patriotic and this is still their land, they are also a religious peple, but that was crushed by th eethnic clensing which destroyed their culture, it is also a biblical reference, the roman soldiers said to jesus as he died "where is your god now, is he asleep" etc, and therefore represents the murder of palestine

    Do you really want..do you really want me? Do you really want me dead or alive to torture for myself? Do you really want..do you really want me? Do you really want me dead or alive to live a lie?

    ... this part is really interesting, it is in reference to to the lies the people of hte middle east were told, the palestinians asked questions to their western conquors; what do you want with us? they were first killed during the ethnic clensings of 1947, then pushed into refugee camps and told eventually they could go back to their land (50 years on still they are detained), then more recently they have been told that none of this happned (the nakba denial) and to speak of it is a crime against the ruling israeli government

    ...

    The promises we made were not enough The prayers that we had prayed were like a drug The secrets that we sold were never known The Love we had, The Love we had, We had to let it go

    ... refering to the way palestinan nationals tried to get the UN to help, to no avail, and to a series of other attepts to free themselves and claim "the right of return". and the "love" is referring to the land they had but had to leave or risk death of themselves and their families

    the song lacks any of the optimism and hope of all the other songs, this is done purposefully to portray the absolute destitude of the palestinian people, who have lost their land, their rights, dignity and their identity

    I AM NOT A RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALIST, cristian, muslim or athiest I DO NOT BLAME THE JEWISH PEOPLE FOR THE SECOND HOLOCAUST it was entirely the fault of european powers seeking control over the arab people to secure oil and keep the Soviet Union out I DO NOT SUPPORT THE WAR ON TERROR OR THE 'TERRORIST' MOVEMENT, peace brother this is simply my interpretation of a brilliant song, i hope it helped

    ubbaon June 03, 2010   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    this song is very clearly about the dispute about religion(whether god exists or not). Jared not believing in Religion/God questoins God and the morals of people that believe in religion (would u kill to save a life). i could go more in depth if u like.

    nirvana9188on December 08, 2009   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    i guess there were made two versions of this song and I want to add the lyrics to the other version I think the version without kaney is so much better :) those who haven't heard it, I recommend you to check it out :)

    No matter how many times that you told me you wanted to leave No matter how many breaths that you took you still couldn't breathe No matter how many nights did you lie Wide awake to the sounds of the pausing rain Where did you go? Where did you go? Where did you go? As days go by the nights are on fire

    Tell me would you kill to save for a life? Tell me would you kill to prove you're right? Crash, crash, burn, let it all burn This sorry can't change things, I so long to cry

    No matter how many deaths that I die, I will never forget No matter how many lives that I live, I will never regret There's a fire inside of this heart in a riot about to explode into flames Where is your God? where is your God? where is your God?

    Do you really want..do you really want me? Do you really want me dead or alive to torture for myself? Do you really want..do you really want me? Do you really want me dead or alive to live alone?

    Tell me would you kill to save for a life? Tell me would you kill to prove you're right? Crash, crash, burn, let it all burn This hurricane's chasing us all underground

    The promises we made were not enough The prayers that we had prayed were like a drug The secrets that we sold were never known The Love we had, The Love we had, We had to let it go

    Tell me would you kill to save a life? Tell me would you kill to prove you're right? Crash, crash, burn, let it all burn This sorry can't change things, I so long to cry

    Do you really want..do you really want me? Do you really want me dead or alive to torture for myself? Do you really want..do you really want me? Do you really want me dead or alive to live alone?

    blackpeacefromhopeon December 06, 2009   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    I like both version's but I intend on listening to Kanye's version also.

    Crownedhopelesson December 22, 2009   Link

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