Song for a Friend Lyrics

Lyric discussion by _MRAZ_2708 

Cover art for Song for a Friend lyrics by Jason Mraz

One of my favorites too! Here's what my dad and I guessed it was about, could be completely wrong, but we tried:

At first, we thought Jason Mraz was talking to himself in this song, someone was telling him he was "magic" and he didn't want to become to full of how well he was doing. Then I started to think it was about either Jason talking to a friend or a good friend helping Jason through a hard time. It sounds stupid, but I assumed Mraz was helping a friend get through depression, or a time where he was feeling unconfident...or had a low self-esteem. Someone's saying things to hurt this guy, and Jason's trying to tell him that we all have problems, don't let it go to your head, without problems we wouldn't have a reason to "get out of bed" every morning, this guys got a problem for bugging you and you've got a problem for listening to what he's saying. So without this guy around, it's getting "easier" and now that he can stand up for himself, he can laugh at this guy's problems. So no matter who bails out on you in life or what happens, you've always got one person, and if you don't love yourself, you will have absolutely nobody.

So now in the second verse the guy is getting over his depression or "hard time", so he shouldn't mumble when he speaks but keep your "tongue up in your cheek" as in, don't take yourself TOO seriously. He's telling this guy that he's got "all the skills he needs" and he's perfect just the way he is, he shouldnt feel bad about himself. So now with the help of this "friend" he's learning to love himself, he's fooling everyone else to believe that he's perfectly happy with himself, the first stage in TRULY having a high self-esteem.

Then he's saying he'll take a break from fame and luxory and go back to the "old garage" where everything he is now probably all started. I think he's now finding someone to enjoy himself with, someone who likes him for who he is and so now he can like himself too. He's got a friend now, someone to help him if he ever feels down, and Jason is there (or someone was there for Jason) to remind him that theywill always love him for who he is no matter what anyone else thinks.

Later when the choir deal comes in, they talk about like rising up, taking a chance, you've got nothing to lose, you never know how good you are until you really try...so I think that's like concluding this song and saying that with confidence and willing to try and go for things, you could get unexpected fortunes?

For all we know, this could be about a recording artist that really liked Jason's music, but thought he needed more confidence or something...sorry if this is completely wrong but this is how we saw it.