~Cool guitar and drum intro:

When i am scared
you are my father...
when i can't breathe
you are the air
when i can't swim
you are the lifeboat
when i am tired and weary
you are there...

Chorus:
And my times get high and my times get low
you always let me in all that you know
i can give you time alone and then
you always ask me where have you been

when i am weak
you are my shoulders
when i'm poor
you give me a hand
when i can't swim
you are a lifeboat
you carry me
to dry land

*Chorus

When i'm not sure
you are my maker
speaking words
that keep me awake
when i can't swim
you are the lifeboat
when i'm tired and weary
you are there....

*Chorus
Ah ah ah ah ah ah.....


Lyrics submitted by esoteric_catharsis

Lifeboat Lyrics as written by N Mcclutcheon Graham Pleeth

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Capitol CMG Publishing, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

Lifeboat song meanings
Add Your Thoughts

1 Comment

sort form View by:
  • 0
    General Comment

    this song is so awesomely pretty and powerful.. i'm not a christian, but i can relate to this easily, and i think everyone who's ever felt love can. the first two lines of the chorus are the best, the reference to eternal wisdom, like God is sharing a subtle secret with us all constantly, i like that idea, like really we're just guided by all these little subtleties that God has put on earth to guide us. 'when i can't swim you are a lifeboat' is obviously more about drowning under everyday stress and personal problems than swimming, which just really adds to my subtlety of the song; it's easy to point out what it all really means, but you can't take it literally. i like the way it's called Lifeboat, not Saviour or something because it prepares you for something demanding a little thought. the song is ultimately a pop punk hymn, and it's lovely. ^_^

    tommyjazzon June 18, 2005   Link

Add your thoughts

Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.

Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!

More Featured Meanings

Album art
Step
Ministry
Both as a standalone and as part of the DSOTS album, you can take this lyric as read. As a matter of public record, Jourgensen's drug intake was legendary even in the 1980s. By the late 90s, in his own words, he was grappling with massive addiction issues and had lost almost everything: friends, spouse, money and had nearly died more than once. "Dark Side of the Spoon" is a both funny & sad title for an album made by a musical genius who was losing the plot; and this song is a message to his fans & friends saying he knows it. It's painful to listen to so I'm glad the "Keith Richards of industrial metals" wised up and cleaned up. Well done sir.
Album art
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines: "Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet" So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other: "I had all and then most of you" Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart "Some and now none of you" Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship. This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Album art
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Album art
Magical
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
Album art
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.