Dead Man (Carry Me)

The way I interpret the song looks at a very wealthy and materialistic person who is having a heart attack on new years day which ironically is the day a lot of people choose to change something about themselves for the better.He has an outer body experience as those who's heart has stopped sometimes do hence the line"looking at my body through a new spy satellite".He tries to phone for help but can't move to dial for help and looks at himself in the second person lying on the carpet and watching to see if he moves because he can't feel anything.He asks to be carried or helped to breath believing he is dying or dead promising to be a new man because he is tired of the old one.( I presume he is talking to God). He survives and later dreams of his own funeral with none of his so called friends were there to mourn him but he was not worried because he realises they were never really his friends and the song refers to this.He knows the heart attack has changed him and he wants to be a better person but doesn't know how which is referred to in the line"There is something in my veins but I can't seem to make it work...wont work".He questions himself and asks God for help again or as the song goes "Can you find a beat,inside of me? Any pulse?Getting worse.Any pulse,getting worse? Inside of me...can you find a beat.The rest of the verses are self explainatory in relation to this interpretation.Anyway thats my thought on the song?? Who knows? Its a great song sung by a great band and thumbs up guys well done.Cheers Mick

"It’s the context of relationships that’s deeper, that’s much more vulnerable and honest. And being OK, that process has allowed us to accept who we are. It’s allowed us to accept that there are those dark places. I’m not so surprised anymore, and it takes a big weight off. We’re not secluded anymore. I’m not having to show people this rot of the controlled idea of me, I can show somebody the real me, and they have to contend with that. We call that “bringing the weight.” We bring our own weight into conversations, into our opinions, into our songwriting, we’re being freed up to say this stuff and not have carry the weight of how someone else has to deal with that." - Dan Haseltine (Jars Of Clay)

Pretty good for a Christian rock song. :)

I can relate!! I am tired of the old me, and I don want God to just get rid of my old self and make me brand new!! Just the way He would want me to be!!

This song is perfect for those person out there who wants to change, but somehow is hard for them...just like me.

It's a fun song.I love it. ^.^

typical rock lyrics "I'm just a dead man just a dead man lying on the carpet... Can't find a heart beat" Don't know what that means but I love the song anyways.

Ok, so I just found this song and really liked it, it makes alot of sense. Here's my own humble pov of what the song is about:

It's talking in the sense of a person looking down at himself through a "new spy satellite". It's as if he can see himself, but can't move or feel because he is in another place, looking down at himself. The whole meaning of the song in general is that he is tired of his old self, the "Dead man", meaning he is dead spiritually. This is why the phrase "I'm just a dead man lying on the carpet... Can't find a hearbeat" is used. It's more or less a metaphor using the physical self to describe the spiritual self. He's spiritually "a dead man lying on the carpet" who "can't find a heartbeat". He's wanting to be alive in Christ, and this is why He's giving his plee to God to Make me breathe, I want to be a new man, tired of the old one, out with the old plan". The "old plan" is his own ways at life, which he now realizes are in vain, and so he's ready to commit to the spiritual rebirth, so to speak. Btw, random comment: Jars of Clay seems so much like a Neo-Beatles Christian group, if that makes sense ;P Awesome group!!!

I dedicate this to Mr Bush our president...