Song To Say Goodbye

I think this song is talking about subjects once close friend (''Someone to whom I could relate'') who is drug addict and who introduced subject into a world of drugs and the subject hates him because of that. In this moment his friend is dying from an overdose while subject is trying to save his life (''Now I'm trying to wake you up To pull you from the liquid sky Coz if I don't we'll both end up With just your song to say goodbye.''), despite the fact that he hates him right now because all the damage he's done to him (''Now I'm breaking down your door To try and save your swollen face Though I don't like you anymore You lying, trying waste of space...''). Subject thinks that his friend was lucky and probably had great career as a singer (''You were always one of those Blessed with lucky sevens And the voice that made me cry'') before he start doing drugs. Now when the drugs destroyed his life, he is comminting suicide and leaving suicide note in a form of a song (''...With just your song to say goodbye My Oh My A song to say goodbye...It's a song to say goodbye.'')

I THINK this song is definetly about drug use, singer of the band has admitted to tryign heroine...'your needle and your damage done,'....i think this song is about a heroine addict.

i think the song is about how drugs CHANGE a person, and the kid is the ghost of the mans old personality and refelects the innocence of that character, he now has a dual personality, and the 'kid' hates the other side of the man, and i think nethier do his friends who have tried to help, 'Though I don't like you anymore You lying, trying waste of space'. i think though the narrator/voice of the sogn IS the innocent part of HIS personality as he says he knows exactly whats going on has been through it...it started of as himself being the user, but then a second half of the personaality developed which was the addict and user who NEEDED them, and this first half desperatley wnated to stop...and the two sides of the eprsonality are fighting each other. 'You are one of god's mistakes. You crying, tragic waste of skin. I'm well aware of how it aches. And you still won't let me in. Now I'm breaking down your door, To try and save your swollen face. '

halfway through the video i noticed a bruise on the kids face: the user is hurting him...its damaging them both. and also i think its the same person from the use of 'our' when it talks about how its effectign them and its both their song to say goodbye, and how the first verse says the voice/narrator knows what is happenign from personal experience. 'A song to say goodbye, A song to say, Before our innocence was lost You were always one of those blessed with lucky sevens, And the voice that made me cry. '

Now I'm trying to wake you up, To pull you from the liquid sky. Cause if I don't we'll both end up with just your songs that say goodbye. .

EVERYONE READ THIS! the song is actually a conversation between heroin and brian that is heavily addicted to it and chraing to fight his addiction the opening is heroin's words:

"You are one of God's mistakes, You crying, tragic waste of skin, you see brian is chraing to fight his addiction I'm well aware of how it aches , but heroin tells him "look at your self you tragic waste of skin" And you still won't let me in" i know who much you suffer but you still dont shoot me in your vain

heroin continues: "Now I'm breaking down your door, now im shooting my self to make you feel bether, To try and save your swollen face the face of brian is swollen becouse of all the tears Though I don't like you anymore, and cryings.. also shows how the heroin is actually in controll when you are addicted. like it is in controll of you.(just like in the video the little kid who is behind the wheel of the car he is heroin and the wierd looking guy is a heroin addicted pesron,i will explain the video in the end) and heroin dont even likes brian any more,(drugs like you when they effect at theyr best on you but with heroin is usualy only in the first time and the more you use you are alweise chraing to achive this first time perfect feeling wich is very rare...so heroin dont even effects so strong on brian anymore(trough he still need it very much.)

now brian answers to heroin:

You lying, trying waste of space.. lying becouse of heroin dont really makes everything good, but just makes you feel as if everything is good "illusion of happines" trying to make you feel good pice of sh*t.... and a waste of space becouse of even trough its just a milligram dose of it in your pocket it is still a waste of space becouse it would be so much bether without it.

brian continues:

"Before our innocence was lost, You were always one of those , before the first time i used you i though that you are the one Blessed with lucky sevens , that with him i will never be sad, the perfect one. And the voice that made me cry"

My Oh My........ just if looking on it from the side....my oh my really..

brian again:

"You were mother nature's son" - heroin is made from opium or Papaver which are plants. "Someone to whom I could relate" - its like they are brothers, both of them are from the saim mother.. "Your needle and your damage done" -(from this neil young phrase you can actually understand that this remains a sordid twist of fate. song refers to a drug addiction in the first place, i read it in wiki)

now heroin sings again:

"Now I'm trying to wake you up,"- "heroin shoots him self again" To pull you from the liquid sky"- now brian is crying and looking into the sky so it looks liquid, (that is also what happens to the addict in the video clip in this moment of the song while the kid who is heroin runs to him so he could calm him down) heroin continues:

"Coz if I don't we'll both end up , With just your song to say goodbye"-brian will end up cuz heroin is hes inspiration and without him he
is nothing, and heroin will end up becouse brian just wont use him and willjust throw him away. and the thing that they will end up with is a goodbye song written by brian molko (heroin tells it to brian "with just YOUR song to say goodbye" so clearly from this phrase you can understand that someone is sayng that to brian,just proving that im right in my interpretation.)

A song to say goodbye, A song to say goodbye,and now we all can see that this is that goodbye song that heroin was talking about A song to say... its official now this is the end.....

in the end brian sings it like for eight times to prove that this is the end, that this is that goodbye song.

the video clip of this song helped me to figure out the meaning of this song.

the little kid is heroin and that weird autist guy is a heroin addict. the heroin is absolutely under control of his life he drives him and goes with him hand by hand and always there for him to calm him down and make him feel like he's not alone to the point it gets ridiculous like in the scene with the supermarket cart.

so heroin drives him trough life and the person just watch it goes by the window and ends up in a rehabilitation house "like that's where heroin brought him to"

in the end of the song you can see the heroin sitting in a back of someone's car, i think that its like now he's entered into someone else's life but this person is still under control of the drug, through you can guess that its not for to long and soon the heroin will be the one who's sitting in the driving sit. i have to admit that this song is ginious, to show drug addiction in such way is.... like the whole thing with the conversation and the video that heroin is a little cute boy who calms you down and looks so harmless but really kills you, placebo is no doubt the best band in the world and in meds there are few songs that are actually conversations between brian and heroin like pierrot the clown. the album it self is about failing relationship with drugs thats why it called meds duhhh

I think he means that the person was always a lucky bastard but yet despite that he has still ended up fucked up. There's always those people who fall in a bucket of shite and come out smelling of roses, so although he was his mate i sense he could have been a bit jealous of this person, but not anymore just feels pity.

On the album Brian sings exactly this variant:

You are one of God's mistakes, You crying, tragic waste of skin, I'm well aware of how it aches , And you still won't let me in. Now I'm breaking down your door, To try and save your swollen face , Though I don't like you anymore, You lying, trying waste of space..

Before our innocence was lost, You were always one of those , Blessed with lucky sevens , And the voice that made me cry . My Oh My.

You were mother nature's son , Someone to whom I could relate , Your needle and your damage done, Remains a sordid twist of fate. Now I'm trying to wake you up , To pull you from the liquid sky , Coz if I don't we'll both end up , With just your song to say goodbye. My Oh My.

A song to say goodbye, A song to say goodbye , A song to say...

Before our innocence was lost, You were always one of those, Blessed with lucky sevens, And the voice that made me cry.

It's a song to say goodbye.

I always connected it to the video, I think it could be interpreted as a conflict between either the inner child x the person one has become (It was someone else's idea and made sense), or the singer x an idol, or especially a father. It doesn't relate to a love or friendship, if you ask me - there's a loss of idolisation and love for someone that's supposed to protect and guide you.

Things like addictions (especially for this song; "your needle and your damage done"), a family going dysfunctional etc. changes both of the parts that are involved;

I'm well aware of how it aches. And you still won't let me in.

And the child loses the love and respect he had once felt for him, along with his innocence which he left behind after learning how cruel the world can be and that even his primary source of love and trust can act like this, and growing way too fast to help his father and himself (remember in the video how he drives the car, picks the man from a hospital-rehab centerlike place etc?)

Now I'm breaking down your door, To try and save your swollen face. .. Before our innocence was lost You were always one of those blessed with lucky sevens, And the voice that made me cry. (The last line can also be connected to the drunken, or high periods of a father).

And, well, being in a family sort of like that (change addictions to emotional abuse), I can relate. Hope you like the interpretation.

I've put an old article extract at the end where he explains why he wrote this song. In a few lines, he's talking to himself. How he was pure before, how he's kinda broken now, and how he's trying his best (get rid of what he has become) in the memory of his former self.

"The theme of Song To Say Goodbye is keeping only the best aspects of your life. It's the first track I wrote in India. I went there for a lot of reasons, one of them being to try and change my lifestyle. I wanted to make me understand that I should not become a rock'n'roll cliché and that the world doesn't need another dead rock star. I've written it as a letter to myself."

source http://traductionsetparoles.over-blog.com/article-15919042.html

This song could either be about a protagonist talking to himself or to a dear friend.

The accusations that are made in the first lines probably aim at getting the attention of someone who's so lost in their delirium because it's very hard to get to them.

So you insult them to use their emotions as a gateway for what you have to say hoping some things will make their way into your friend's consciousness.

So after getting their attention, the protagonist relates with them which shows his empathy 'I'm well aware of how it aches'.

He tells his friend that he knows what they are going through but is left out 'And you still won't let me in'.

'Now I'm breaking down your door' refers to him having to use insults to break into their consciousness because he wants to help them get out of the misery they're stuck in.

And to keep their attention, the protagonist insults them some more: 'You lying, trying waste of space' showing for the first time how the protagonist himself is feeling about the situation of his friend 'Though I don't like you anymore'.

Then the protagonist reminds him of the luck and happiness they once had until something tragic happened 'Before our innocence was lost' that they both had to get through.

The second verse starting with 'You were Mother Nature's son' highlights the person they once were as addressed in the chorus.

And once again the protagonist confesses what he's doing: 'Now I'm trying to wake you up' (same with breaking down his door).

But what changes is that he tries to get his friends empathy now too: 'Cause if I don't we'll both end up With just your songs to say goodbye'.

So he tells his friend basically the ending and that his actions do not only affect him but everyone around him.

It's a song about how friends could and should save each other's life when you see that your friend's life is threatened by the things he does (be it drug abuse, alcohol or depression.)

Could it be about a well-known person, a singer, perhaps someone that Brian doesn't know personally?

This has quickly become one of my favourite Placebo songs, I can't seem to bring myself to take it off repeat. :P

Though on a sidenote, isn't it 'you were always one of those blessed WITH lucky sevens'?