Some of my Good Blog Buddies have been discussing Worship Songs/Singing lately and i heard this song for the first time today on a talkback radio show that was offering music for the ‘hip and cool’
Something caught my attention and i sought out a copy of the lyrics to check it out. There was a link to YouTube on the lyric site.
Judge for yourself – here are the lyrics and the amazing clip with some (i find) amazing symbolism within it. If this is for the young ( at heart) Hip and Cool there just might be some chance for the world?
Pay attention now.
The original lyrics i copied i think mis-typped a line or two; originally it was showing as ‘Don’t be afraid, of taking my (blank), i have shared but i’m me.’. Upon listening to the song and looking at the rest of the verse context i’m sure the current version is truer to the song.
I dreamed I was missing
You were so scared
But no one would listen cause no one else cared
After my dreaming
I woke with this fear
What am I leaving when I’m done here?
So if you’re asking me I want you to know
When my time comes
Forget the wrong that I’ve done
Help me leave behind some reasons to be missed
And don’t resent me
And when you’re feeling empty
Keep me in your memory
Leave out all the rest
Leave out all the rest, don’t be afraid,
i’ve taken my BEATING
I’ve shared what I made.
I’m strong on the surface
Not all the way through
I’ve never been perfect
But neither have you
So if you’re asking me I want you to know
When my time comes
Forget the wrong that I’ve done
Help me leave behind some reasons to be missed
Don’t resent me
And when you’re feeling empty
Keep me in your memory
Leave out all the rest
Leave out all the rest
Forgetting?
All the hurt inside you have learned to hide so well
Pretending?
Someone else can’t come and save me from myself
I can?t be who you are
When my time comes
Forget the wrong that I’ve done
Help me leave behind some reasons to be missed
Don’t resent me
And when you’re feeling empty
Keep me in your memory
Leave out all the rest
Leave out all the rest
Forgetting?
All the hurt inside you have learned to hide so well
Pretending?
Someone else can’t come and save me from myself
I can’t be who you are
.
Question 1: – Who do YOU think the singer is talking to?
Question 2: WHO do you think is actually ‘singing’ the words ( or if you prefer who is he singing them on ‘behalf’ of ?
Are you sure about that? 😉
BLob's Blog 
funny: my best friend from high school used to LOVE this band, listened to them all the time, and said that there was such a subtle connection or symbolic nature to the christian walk.
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about your questions:
#1 not sure. it seems like it might be one of those songs/poems that addresses several beings at different moments throughout, but with no clear transition. could be a close friend, people in general, Jesus.
#2 no clue here. at one point (where you pointed it out), it does seem for a small second that he’s almost speaking from the point of a Savior.
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J-R i LIKE the way you think, Homey 🙂
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Interesting and I will have to listen again to answer.
One thing I do like is the creativity. One thing that tires me with Christian music is the lack of creative lyrics. Some of the best players, singers and performers on the planet but yet they find it difficult to string a story together through their lyrics.
I will get back to you on the others
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Question 1: – Who do YOU think the singer is talking to?
He is singing to someone he has a close, loving relationship to. It could be husband to wife/son/daughter. Perhaps son to father.
Since your comment leads me to believe the song has some religious significance it could be intended to be written as Jesus speaking to mankind.
The problem I have with that is the lyrics “Forget the wrong I have done.” What wrong did Jesus do to mankind? Also the lyrics “I’m strong on the surface, not all the way through” Wouldn’t Jesus appear more weak in the surface, but be stronger on the inside. I don’t see where Jesus could be speaking to God if “I’ve never been perfect, but neither have you”
Question 2: WHO do you think is actually ’singing’ the words ( or if you prefer who is he singing them on ‘behalf’ of ?
The singer could be a father, son or lover.
Overall, on a scale of five(best) to one(worst) I would give the performance a 3, the lyrics a 2. Not that you asked. 🙂
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I’ve always had a fondness for Linkin Park. Curiously, so has my mother in law – haha
Personally, I think he’s singing to himself…occasionally switching between grammatical persons. Knowing some of LPs other music, this would fit in with how their lyrics are often written.
Naturally, I could be very wrong about that. There are some spiritual overtones for sure, as there are in a lot of their songs. Less overt than U2, for instance, but written from a seeker’s perspective … perhaps?
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Joseph – i agree with the creativity – i tend to see a lot of ‘worship songs pretty much all ending up the ‘same’ – Creativity is ‘stifled’ somewhat when you are constrained to such a single ‘theme’, only seeing things from a particular ‘perspective’ – but i’m no great expert on Worship music – ask J-R 😉
Ed – you got it spot on i’d say – this is definitely a love song and the singer is singing to someone who (perhaps imperfectly and who is imperfect) loves Him.
As for being strong on the surface – not all the way through, many people see only the ‘outside’ of the man and attribute to him God-like abilities and can over-extend that a little perhaps? 😉 Have you ever been ‘strong’ for someone else ‘on the outside’ but been shaking like jello on the inside? – do you think many men are like that? 😉
As to him needing to have forgotten the wrong that he’s done – could it not be that even though we do no wrong others still think we have ‘done it’ to them? Should we not ‘forget’ such ‘wrongs’?
And do not forget HOW Jesus died. He was tried and convicted of serious crimes by those of His own people (but who had so little true understanding – ‘Forgive them Father, they know not what they do’) and was crucified as a wrong-doer with two convicted robbers.
i appreciate your honest rating of the song – i’d give the lyrics a 5 and the performance 4 and a half 😉
Since you didn’t ask 🙂
David – your MIL has some good taste it seems? 🙂
‘Perhaps’???
i have listened to the song over 10 times now the last 24 hours each time more ‘meaning’ becomes evident.
in my dream you were so scared because no-one else listened to you, no-one else cared about you.?
what am i leaving behind when i’m done here?
if You are asking Me?
When My Time comes.
forget the wrong i have done (by not taking you with me and leaving you all ‘alone’)
Help Me – leave behind some reasons to be missed (fondly thought about by yourself and others)
Don’t resent me (leaving you behind)
and when you are feeling so empty
Remember Me.
leave ‘out’ all the rest…
i could go on – and on 😉
Perhaps?? it could be written from a seekers perspective?
just perhaps? 😯
<B
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Love, you are right I was thinking of Jesus as a “God Like” being and not the man he was on earth.
As you say he was convicted of a serious crime, and condemned by many of his contemporaries.
I agree that many of the lines, such as the ones you mentioned in response to David, are very thought provoking.
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I couldn’t answer for the group singing this song because the lyrics never come out and name a concrete connection. Which of course, is one of the problems that I see with a lot of the new-age praise and worship songs. They could just as easily be sung to Little Susie or Bad Bobby from down the street.
I love the lyrics from the old hymns because they were concrete in their knowledge and doctrine. We may have moved on in music styles but I don’t know that we had to dumb down the lyrics.
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Ed – the thing i think that connects me/to Jesus most strongly is the fact that he was made VERY human, born of woman just like everyone else – He was AS us ( in that respect).
He had very human feelings and emotions so that He could relate to us and us to Him.
While in some ways i believe he was very special, he was also very ‘ordinary’ in ways also – sometimes today that gets a little ‘lost’ i fear?
To me the whole point of Jesus being ‘the Way’ is that we as ordinary humans have the potential to be as He was while down here (ordinary human, but who overcame His ‘ordinaryness’ ) so we can receive His reward also ‘up there’ 😉
Basically we all have it ‘in’ us – it is just up to us to make the Choices He made.
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Tony – i agree with you – the song could VERY easily be sung to little Susie the prostiute or bad Bobby the drug dealer down the street… that makes it quite a powerful song of worship to me I don’t think either of those two would normally care listen to most songs of worship. The way i heard this song was on a non-christian radio talkback show segment that played a song for the young, hip and cool – not for a church community.
If Linkin Park mentioned Jesus in this song it would kill their ‘street cred’ and the song would probably never be heard on popular airplay. 😦
Last time i checked our connection to Jesus and God was something far from ‘concrete’ or set in stone 😉 That does not mean it is not ‘rock’ solid. Or that we cannot sing about it in a rock song. 🙂
I have been made to sing the hymns you mention in school as a young boy and the lyrics were as you say VERY doctrinal. They might have meant something to me i cannot day definitely that they did not, but i never felt they were written about or ‘for’ me and i don’t believe i sang along to them outside of the strictly regimented place of worship we were made to attend, mostly against our will as children (we wanted to be anywhere but in a hall singing ‘old’ songs to God).
i confess to not being so sure about the true value of those (heavy, concrete doctrine) songs – i think many people only sing them because they ‘have’ to rather than because they love to – perhaps that is a little like reading the Bible also – especially the Latin or KJV ‘versions’/styles?
What value is there if we don’t FIRST put our heart into it?? To love what we do/read/sing?
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Let’s assume I love my wife very, very much. Now let’s assume someone writes a song for me about that love but never mentions my wife by name or provides any descriptions about my wife or any concrete connections to her. They could assert the song is about my love for my wife but who is to really know. The song that they write is done in my favorite music style.
Now lets say that a 1000 artists decide to use a thousand different mediums to describe the things that attract me to my wife. Some of the styles may not be styles that I would normally choose or even like.
If I have been on a long trip separated from my wife and want to hear something that reminds me of her, where am I going to find satisfaction?
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Tony – to answer your question literally i would say in whichever song YOU felt meant the most to YOU – which spoke to YOUR heart and of your ‘love’ the way YOU related to ‘best’ – certainly not the one someone told or ‘forced’ you to have to listen to because that was the ‘right way’ to for you to get the satisfaction of the love you feel for your wife ‘doctrinally’ – no?
A thousand writers writing in a thousand different styles is the most practical way of geting the songs that mean the most to ALL people – not a ‘one size fits all’ sort of thing or making everyone follow a ‘set’ Guideline that can never be minimalised or expanded upon.
I understand a part of your ‘proposals’ behind your comments here and i DO value that you make them available here for consideration. I think there does need to be a ‘wider;’ approach than the one many individual church types offer to reach the wide variety of human ego’s that exist in us all today.
if, one day, we are to let lovebringustogether. in One.
If i can see Jesus contained somwhere in the song ‘directly’ i believe others will see Him also – if perhaps indirectly – and that is better than never seeing Him at all.
it might just lead to a more ‘direct’ connection if enogh ‘subtle’ connections are made within an individual.
i understand there is no guarantee of that and perhaps it might be ‘nice’ if life came with more directness and guarantees – but often it doesn’t – or is that just ‘me’? 🙂
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this is so similar to what was being talked about in some of my comments 2 posts ago.
k – i love this band. always have. kass and kota have the bleeped out versions of their music on their ipods. why? because we are a musical family that enjoys pure creativity, dynamics, great writing.
i think if you try hard enough and switch around a few words this could be a song to, about our relationship or an experience with God….sure.
i can sit and listen to this an identify with it on a personal basis and be moved to a place of worship in 2 seconds flat. its how i look at it i guess.
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Tam? – your face seems familiar – have you ever been to Perth??
for some weird reason you and i seem to have posted on a virtually identical theme at exactly the same time (allowing for PST time zones) completely independent of one another – strange, that?
Joy-Renee’s posts from the preceding week were my ‘inspiration’, she posted a couple of times on ‘Praise’ Singing, then on my Tuesday i heard this song and there was definitely ‘the Hand of God working in it as i saw (heard) it.
The first time i just heard the song it’s influence on me was ‘small’, nothing particularly Awesome about it.
When i saw the clip and heard it a second time after finding a copy of the lyrics – BOOM! – that 2 second thing you mentioned? – Even faster for me 😉
As for trying hard enough…??? i so don’t get that – how can any Christian not see it instantly?? 😯
Have your minds been ‘conditioned’ in some weird way – is that possible??
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Love, the reason I put perhaps is that I’ve seen him in interviews and he can verge on being mocking of faith…but then, not always. So, without doing stacks of research, I’m not sure of his intentions…to mock, or to seek
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David – Ahhhh, that makes sense.
As for mocking religion i can assure you – before my thirties (and quite possibly a fair bit afterward) i did more than my fair share of that 😉
Nowadays i fight to protect the Concept of ‘Religion’ – it is the pathetic attempts some men ( or women – but largely it is men) make and claim the defense of ‘religion’ that i mock.
Even so – i think anyone who can write those words and sing them in that fashion and put them to that video script has to be given the benefit of any doubt and it is more ‘in the eye of the beholder in popular music than what the originator has in mind i feel.
To me (only, perhaps? – well no aparently Tam feels it some too) 🙂 this IS a great song of Worship and it gets me each and every time i see/hear it.
Your comments have set me to thinking more about ‘Authenticity’.
Is it being authentic to write a great song that millions of people relate deeply to in one way when you don’t believe the thing those people are believing about your song?
Should that ‘matter’?
i need to ponder some more.
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