The Fray Lyrics
The Fray’s 2005 album How to Save a Life is filled with emotionally charged lyrics that any listener can easily follow and relate to on some level. Among all of the Fray lyrics is perhaps their most popular song “How to Save a Life”.
But what does this set of the Fray lyrics truly mean? It seems to be about two friends that have gone different ways and the singer is very regretful of that fact. The first verse of the Fray lyrics begins by the two people not even being able to talk to each other, although they desperately want to communicate. Although it’s never fully detailed what happened, it is clear that there is a lot of blame and fear between the two people but who has the most part of the blame is unclear.
These two people are clearly going their separate ways as is proven in the lyrics when they say, “As he goes left and you stay right.” Because the song has started off with the girl wanting to talk to someone, one is made to feel sorry for her when her efforts seem to be futile.
The chorus of the Fray lyrics makes things a little more clear when the singer says, “Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend.” This indicates that the singer at least blames himself for whatever happened. He talks at the end of the chorus of the Fray lyrics about how he would’ve stayed with his friend all night if he had only known how to save a life. This seems to be more symbolic than literal though as he continues to sing about his friend talking to someone else throughout the song.
In the second verse of the Fray lyrics, the singer talks about the same person talking to somebody else when he sings, “Lay down a list of what is wrong, the things you’ve told him all along, and pray to God he hears you.” This last line seems to indicate that whatever needs to be said is very important and, as the song’s title indicates, could actually save a life.
In the third verse of the Fray lyrics, there is one more attempt to get through to the friend that has been lost. There is something that the friend needs to admit to and if he doesn’t, it says, “You’ll begin to wonder why you came.” This is something that is so relatable to everyone as everyone at one time or another has tried to get someone else to understand their point of view and when they don’t, there is always a feeling of defeat.
The importance of the Fray lyrics in the chorus are brought to the forefront again at the end of the song as the chorus is repeated four times. What it means exactly, except that the singer has lost a friend, is really unknown.
The Fray has done a wonderful job of bringing out a song that everyone can make their own and interpret however is fitting to them. The Fray understands the universality of music and how everyone can make lyrics their own and they have done a beautiful job of bringing another one to their fans.