In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
You're watching everything you ever held on to
Slip away from you
And all you're running from well it's catching up to you
Got you looking for a lifeline
Swimming in the high tide
Waiting for the daylight
To bring you home
The world is too big to never ask why
The answers don't fall straight out of the sky
I'm fighting to live and feel alive
But I can't feel a thing without you by my side
Send me out a lifeline
You're watching everyone you ever belonged to
Walk away from you
Maybe all along you've been running from the truth
Got you looking for a lifeline
You're swimming in the high tide
Waiting for the daylight
To bring you home
The world is too big to never ask why
The answers don't fall straight out of the sky
I'm fighting to live and feel alive
But I can't feel a thing without you by my side
Oh send me out a lifeline
There's nothing I would change, I'd give it all away
For you again and again and over again
Everything I own is in your control
I'm looking for a lifeline
Swimming in the high tide
Waiting for the daylight
To bring me home
The world is too big to never ask why
The answers don't fall straight out of the sky
I'm fighting to live and feel alive
But I can't feel a thing without you by my side
Send me out a lifeline
Won't you send me out a lifeline
Send me out a lifeline
Slip away from you
And all you're running from well it's catching up to you
Got you looking for a lifeline
Swimming in the high tide
Waiting for the daylight
To bring you home
The world is too big to never ask why
The answers don't fall straight out of the sky
I'm fighting to live and feel alive
But I can't feel a thing without you by my side
Send me out a lifeline
You're watching everyone you ever belonged to
Walk away from you
Maybe all along you've been running from the truth
Got you looking for a lifeline
You're swimming in the high tide
Waiting for the daylight
To bring you home
The world is too big to never ask why
The answers don't fall straight out of the sky
I'm fighting to live and feel alive
But I can't feel a thing without you by my side
Oh send me out a lifeline
There's nothing I would change, I'd give it all away
For you again and again and over again
Everything I own is in your control
I'm looking for a lifeline
Swimming in the high tide
Waiting for the daylight
To bring me home
The world is too big to never ask why
The answers don't fall straight out of the sky
I'm fighting to live and feel alive
But I can't feel a thing without you by my side
Send me out a lifeline
Won't you send me out a lifeline
Send me out a lifeline
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
Standing On The Edge Of Summer
Thursday
Thursday
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
i think he's singing about a girl who is confused, insecure, and searching for answers, for her purpose in this world. and she never seems to be settled because she never can find that answer. so she's always lost and wandering, running around. she's invested her life in things that don't last, and she's seen that "everything she's ever belonged to" has left her. and so she's always run away from her life, from facing reality and truth. and he wants her to see that her answer and life purpose should be find in God. i don't know. that's just how i interpret this song.
In a recent interview, this is what Mat Kearney had to say about Lifeline:
"Lifeline was actually one of the songs that I wrote with one of my friends from Nashville and that's something on this record that I'm really proud of. Like, my last record I wrote almost everything by myself. For some reason in this record, being in Nashville, being in the community, I really wanted to invite people in to the process. It's like, it's very much in the history of Nashville music, you know. Johnny Cash could write the greatest song in the world, but he would also invite Kris Kristofferson, and his wife. And something about Nashville and just the rich, the wealth of songwriters, I wanted to invite friends in. And I didn't go after big names, I just went after like, the local artists that I really respected, you know the guys that work at the coffee shop, or the guys that I met at some show. Lifeline started out in my living room and we just started writing it and I liked it. So I recorded it."