anonymous September 2nd, 2009 01:13PM  
my teacher had us do a report about it relating to immigration and how eh never got to say what he wanted to the women he loved and didn't realize how important she was until she was gone and that he wishes he could bring it back to teh start and tell her how he really feels about it.

anonymous September 7th, 2009 03:54PM  
in an interview chris actually said the sientist is about a soccer team, playing and losing..about his team and how it makes him feel to see them lose, i know it sounds crazy, but if you know anything about soccer and relate the lyrics to a soccer game it makes sense

anonymous November 9th, 2009 12:27PM  
My take on this song is that the singer has always been able to reason through all of his science with logic, but then love baffles him because love is illogical...I think the "shame for us to part" is about his parting of logic with his love life...His overthinking destroyed the relationship was trying to create, and after he blows it, he wishes he could just "take me back to the start"

idk, just my take
its a kickass song too
very powerful

Matt

anonymous November 14th, 2009 08:37PM  
See the definition of "(Transatlantic) Romanticism" and then consider the definition of "sublime." The song is about dismantling complications and returning "back to the start", when things were simpler. This is a key theme in Transatlantic Romanticism, uncomplicated life. The works of such writers as William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge can be compared to these lyrics through the lens of nature. Although life itself is complicated, we can accept that nature has a certain simplicity over science. If you watch the music video for this song, pay close attention: the video begins (although it is not the "start") in a graffiti-filled city park. It is dirty, chaotic, and very symbolic representation of the structure forced upon us by civilization and human invention. The science of humanity is better represented as the video progresses by following the protagonist through the rest of the city. The buildings endorse straight lines, the sidewalks are perfectly square, the railroad tracks are perfectly parallel; all a result of human development in the sciences. Without the science of concrete, we would not have sidewalks that tell us where we can walk, of metals for train tracks to determine what path we take, or the architecture of stiffly structured buildings that separate us from the outside world. By the end of the video, the protagonist makes his way out of the city and into a forest area. Sure, this appears as though he is escaping science and getting back in touch with nature, but even the forest is structured with replanted trees. (This brings up an interesting question: are we at a place in time where we cannot escape science?) After the forest, the man enters a field--a simple, quiet pasture at the bottom of a cliff--and we see a woman lying on the ground next to a car. She appears to be sleeping peacefully, but then the man (who has actually been moving backward through the video) gets into the driver's seat. We then come to understand that the woman on the ground was actually ejected from the vehicle through the windshield after a car accident forced them over the cliff. The progression of the video is a reverse chronology of events; it does what the lyrics declare and goes back to the start, before the accident. It makes a suggestion that we all return to the more simple things in life, and aspire to experience the sublime. Shake off the science which has littered our world, minds, and relationships with others.

This is a nutshell. A university course on Transatlantic Romanticism spent several days going over these lyrics and watching the video: GREAT for discussion and identifying literary devices and concepts. I can't forget to point out one more thing: notice the change from I/me to us/we in the lyrics. It speaks to relationships but also speaks to the separation of humans from nature--changing from an isolated individual to become one with natural world again. This is the way it was at the start of mankind...before fire, before we insisted on living in boxes. (PS: I apologize for spoiling the video for anyone, but hope you will still watch it!)

anonymous November 16th, 2009 12:10PM  
Taken alone, The Scientist is already a powerful song - Martin ably juxtaposes the contrasting ideals of 'soft' love and 'hard' science and melds them into something so much more. The expressed persona, while being adept at numbers and figures, and the pulling of puzzles apart, has no power in the dominion where love holds sway, where the tangibles fade away into the intangibles, where the definites become anything but.

He refers to esoteric metaphysical constructs (running in circles), physical objects where he feels that he has a modicum of control over, a place which he isn't so alien to. Ultimately though, he realises that love isn't as clearcut as flipping up tails (or heads, with his obstinacy in the power of science and exactness setting them apart), and that science isn't the be-all end-all, especially where love is concerned (questions of science... do not speak as loud as my heart)

- which leads to his confession and ofcourse the realisation of its importance, that he's sorry that he isn't able to fully grasp the notion of love through his rather unimaginative ways (tell me your secrets, and ask me your questions - kinda like in a mentor-mentee relationship, where there are answers to be found), and while he realises that it was never going to be easy, he is still willing to make sacrifices and step into a whole new ball game as he knows that it'd be such a shame for [them] to part.

thus, he is led away from the familiar with only his blind faith and trust in this newfound love, the opposite of everything he has ever stood for hitherto. He thus finds the strength to ask for affirmation (tell me you love me), validation (come back and haunt me), and forgiveness (coming back as we are),

and in the process asks the simple, innocuous, but the most powerful question of all - whether they can go back to the start. Beautiful stuff, this.

kgome100 December 2nd, 2009 01:32AM  
This is my interpretation... (my relationship)


I think It's about a person who has had very rough times in his relationship,
(Come up to meet you, tell you I'm sorry.... nobody said it was easy...)


and is letting his partner know that he loves her and that life is not as easy and neither is love but they have to fight for their relationship because they love each other...

(You don't know how lovely you are....
i set you apart...
Oh tell me you love me
Come back and haunt me
Oh and I rush to the start)




I don't really think it's about a breakup, and I also think that when he's trying to "start" again but this time better than ever. To trust each other and not make the same mistakes again. He probably thinks that all of this is not making any sense but that is how life and LOVE are...

(Tell me your secrets
And ask me your questions
Oh, let's go back to the start...
Questions of science
Science and progress
Do not speak as loud as my heart)




When I listen to this song it makes me reflect and remember how much I love my boyfriend and that we will always have ups and downs but we will always be together.

anonymous December 10th, 2009 06:09PM  
I know everyone thinks this is a relationship song, but I think this is a religious song from God's point of view - the relationship of man and woman is used as metaphor for this relationship.

There aren't too many lyrics, but just consider this one:

", Tell you I set you apart..."


and from Jeremiah 1:5

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart;

I was listening to this one day and it felt like God was speaking to me through the song, since then I couldnt hear it any other way

anonymous January 2nd, 2010 04:27AM  
Chris Martin is singing of a man, trying to rationally figure out everything possible, to work things out in a very meaningful relationship. This song is not necessarily about a break up, but a couple painfully on the verge of a break up-"No one ever said it would be so hard". He does not want things to end so he has become a scientist. "Running in circles, Chasing our tails, Coming back as we are." Is his frustration of going round and round and not coming up with any solutions and nothing is changing. "Tell me your secrets and ask me your questions, Oh lets go back to the start" Means he wants to go to the beginning of where things went wrong. The second "Oh, take me back to the start" after the first chorus, is him wanting what they had in the beginning. The last chorus "I'm going back to the start" refers to him not coming up with a solution. He painstakingly starts over and over with his scientific process of trying to figure out how to fix things between them. "I was just guessing at numbers and figures, Pulling the puzzles apart,Questions of science, science and progress, Do not speak as loud as my heart." Says that he is trying to look at things factually and analytically... But now it is only his heart that makes sense to him. The Scientist is a powerful and endearing song of love and not giving up easily, in a relationship when all else has failed.

anonymous January 2nd, 2010 11:43AM  
All Of Us Have A Different point Of view... Igonre the viedo for some time. Just hear the song. It Does not only mean about breakups with Boy frnd n Grl Frnd ... I see it from a True Friends point of View... When Two Friends Have a good relationship between them, there may occour a problem in their relations. Sometimes They may Part for some reasons... AND THE SONG HOLDS EVEN BETTER IN THAT SITIUATION. AND SAME GOES FOR TWO TRUE LOVERS... Its just the point of view... For Me It Is More EMOTIONAL WHEN WE PUT TWO FRIENDS WHO've PARTED AND ONE OF THEM WANTS TO START IT ALL OVER AGAIN AND FEELS FOR THINGS HE HAS DONE... Any one who wants their love or friends back can sing this song.

anonymous February 18th, 2010 05:00PM  
Honestly, this makes me think of someone with amnesia, and a close loved one who they don't remember -- sister, brother, parents, girlfriend/boyfriend, etc. The struggle to remember for the person who has forgotten, and the heartbreaking mind-block that has separated said person from their loved one.

But that's just me. ^^'

GallileoGirl March 3rd, 2010 02:07AM  
I think this song is about a man who finds out that a previous relationship produced a child. The thing is, he's only just heard about the child years later, now that he knows, he meets up with the girl and is interpreting his meaning of the situation:

"Come up to meet you, tell you I'm sorry
You don't know how lovely you are
I had to find you, tell you I need you
And tell you I set you apart"
He finds out that he's a father, wants to apologize to
her for having to raise this child alone. He realizes
that seeing her, knowing they're bound by child, he
remembers her love and how he finds that her beauty is
overwhelming--being the mother of his child. He sees
that their lives are joined and he "sets her apart" from
all of his other lovers.

"Tell me your secrets, and ask me your questions
Oh let's go back to the start
Running in circles, coming in tails
Heads on a science apart"
He now needs to know about everything he has missed in
the years that they've been apart. He wants to
reminisce about that last night they were together. His
emotions are overwhelming.


"Nobody said it was easy
It's such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be this hard
Oh take me back to the start"
He understands that the relationship between him and
this girl and his child is going to be difficult to
comprehend and establish. He wishes the relationship
had never ended and wants to relive the beginning,
regretting the split.

"I was just guessing at numbers and figures
Pulling the puzzles apart.
Questions of science, science and progress
Don't speak as loud as my heart.
Tell me you love me, and come back and haunt me,
I want to rush to the start
Running in circles, chasing tails
coming back as we are."
Now, he's thinking about the child's age and realizes
that this is real...he is a father. His logic of the
relationship is outweighed by his emotions for the
mother of his child and his child. He's remembering
how when they last parted, she told him she loved
him...knowing that she was about to have his child. He
wishes he would have tried to make it work rather than
to have walked away... Running in circles of emotion,
he has come back to the true love of his life, only
there is this added feeling of love for their child
that they created together.

"Nobody said it was easy
It's such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy.
No one ever said it would be so hard
I'm going back to the start."
Now, he wants to just start anew with it all and try
to start as a family....

anonymous March 14th, 2010 11:45PM  
this song about a relationship between a man and woman they have their problems like all couples do but it seem to be an on going thing but he loves her too much to let the relationship end and he is trying to get the relationship back to how it was when they first got together.. i think this song is absolutely beautiful =]