The Band Perry: If I Die Young Meaning
If I Die Young Lyrics
Lay me down on a, bed of roses
Sink me in the river, at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song
Uh oh, uh oh
Lord make me a rainbow, I'll shine down on my mother
She'll know I'm safe with you...
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1TOP RATED
anonymous Aug 7th 2011, 22:54 report
My wife passed away at age 31 about 3 months ago and at her funeral everyone wore pink. Every time I hear this it reminds how everything we did together we had no regrets and that life can always be cut short. Great song!
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2TOP RATED
anonymous Dec 17th 2010, 16:28 report
it means that if she were to die at that moment, she would have no regrets about her life and would be content with it. The band also said in an interview that the song can mean different things for different people, people can interpret the song in their own way that relates to them in their life. :)
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3TOP RATED
anonymous Sep 21st 2010, 11:11 report
This is just an amazing song. Haunting, sad, and beautiful. It makes a person think about life, and how quickly it can be ended at any given moment. I'm only 15 and if i were to die right now, I think this is exactly the way i would feel. If I die any time soon, I want this played at my funeral!
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anonymous Feb 9th, 07:50 report
This song for me is about being ready to die at any time, and how even if you didn't achieve all your biggest dreams and hopes, being content with what you did do, and not wanting anyone to be sad over your death. Wanting others to keep living even if you're gone, because their life could end abruptly just like yours. So beautiful but haunting :)
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anonymous Oct 12th 2012, 08:30 report
This is such a beautiful song. Its sad and happy at the same time. I can see how so many people can have different meanings depending on where their life is. This reminds me of my sick daughter and I can only hope she can be happy and get what she wants out of life. Life is too precious to worry about what others think or say. Take hold of your life and enjoy every single moment you have while you are in it!!
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anonymous Aug 4th 2012, 18:23 report
i think its about a girl who's really sick and shes sort of writing down her feelings and its also kind of prayer that her family knows shes in heaven.
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anonymous Jul 21st 2012, 00:15 report
Hey there,
Anyone who really wants to get into the interpretation of this song should consider this aswell as all the other great interpretations above. The music video in particular is based on a poem by Tennyson, called lady of shallot. Any Anne of Green Gables fans out there will have heard this poem. It was written in the mid 1800's I believe, based in mideavel times. In a literal terms, the Lady of Shallot is cursed and held in a tower in which she can only see shadows of the world through a basket she weaves, but when Lancelot passes the tower she dare looks and then curse comes upon her. She leaves the tower and floats in a river in a boat where she dies before reaching land. Lancelot finds her and deams her the most beautiful in the land. The Lady of Shallot was not truyly noticed until she was dead, as you can pull the parallel to the song 'If I die young'. And the lyrics do follow a similar scheme as well to the poem. The rest of the interpretations can be added too, as it is a modern version discussing death and more specifically suicide, as in the old tales often, curses represented a deathly form of sorrow leading to suicide by the curse.
You should read the poem and Meagan Follows [anne] reads it absolutely beautiful in the movie.
enjoy! -
anonymous Jul 17th 2012, 17:35 report
The song is, undoubtedly, a beautiful song. But the song doesn't mention anything about killing yourself, or being killed, as others are saying.
If I Die Young is a song about taking advantage of what you have, of the time you can spend on the Earth. Sure, it may be troublesome, it may be lonely - it may be short - but take advantage of that. Live life to the fullest, because you never know, tomorrow may never come.
I think the songwriter speaks about how life is a gift, with its ups and downs. "Funny when you're dead how people start listenin'" - this says, frustration may be overpowering, but remember, that your time is short, so take advantage of that. There's no time in life for grudges over little things - forgive and forget.
"It sure felt nice when he was holding my hand" - that talks about the pleasures of life, such as young love. The things that keep you on this Earth when everything else turns against you. Those little treasures, those guilty pleasures.
Overall, the song is a basic walk-through of life. It presents the ups and downs, the goods and bads but in the end, the message is - don't take anything for granted. It may just disappear before you know it. -
anonymous Jul 10th 2012, 00:37 report
With the past I have, I can easily interpret this. Adolescents especially are at the age between child and adult. For most, that is a time of needing to be heard. You speak but people don't listen or don't take it to heart until you die and others finally realized/thought about the meaning of your words. ''Funny how you're gone, people start listening.'' For a girl (like myself), I would want to be lavishly buried. Kind of lossing myself/my dead body in girlish fantasies: still young after death. That explains the words: satin, roses, and love song. However, when a young person dies, it's harder on the parents than when the parents die. No mother wants to bury her own child before her own death. The 'girl' feels sad and guilty about 'leaving' her mother so she's asking God to send a sigh to her mother, hence the rainbow which symbolizes peace and safety (in the bible, God creates a rainbow after the flood to symbolize peace and never a flood like that again). The mother's hair isn't even turning gray when she puts her child to rest. That shows how young the girl is. ''Sharp knife'' relates to her comitting suicide. ''Wearing white when I come into your kingdom'' symbolizes her girlish fantasies again. She dreams of going to heaven; heaven symbolized with the color white. However, it is known that when you commit suicide, you end up in hell. Her version shows her fantasies, naivity, and innocence. She has never slept with a man but she has enjoyed the gentle touches when he holds her hand. The boy in town says he will love her forever but the forever was shattered by the moment she ended her own life. And the last ''put on your best boys and I'll wear my pearls'' means the boy from town and everyone else coming to her funeral will be wearing their best and so will she (in her casket of satin, roses, and a pearl necklace). So to sum it all up, cherish life and listen while the person is still alive because when she/he's dead, there will be no second chance.
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anonymous May 25th 2012, 18:09 report
huh such a beautiful song.. i am 23 not and i am going to die in 1hr at least somebody has to know the reason..i am so peaceful and happy now..except love for everyone nothing is there in my mind..my mom and dad started having fights before i was born.when mom was pregnant she hit me with a stone but unfortunately i was born on the way to hospital ...when i was 5 she dragged me near fire to kill..my grand ma saved me..i do remember my 8th birth day i was beaten up by my mom and admitted in hospital..i don't have
any friends ..i always managed my pain with my fake smile...till 23 i was abused and beaten up by my mother and brother now i am 24 with full of all kind of psychological problems .i have a boyfriend he is very nice and he pampers me like a kid always but with all my problems i am making his life hell...i love him so much but my past killing me..he is the only one i am thinking about right now(tears)..dear parents i am very good child ,completed my graduation with full scholarship with 2 jobs in hand see what my family did to me..but still i love them...yeah it's funny when your dead how people start listening ..living here is so painful ..gudbye world -
anonymous Mar 29th 2012, 19:40 report
For me the song is about someone with sickness who has "had just enough time" to make amends for their bad deeds, to apologise to people etc etc. She's already asking god to watch on her mother and the song itself is peaceful and has a sense of acceptance from the person passing. She knows her time has come and reassures people to not shed tears on her death, that she is content now and ready to go.
- Tabs x -
anonymous Mar 17th 2012, 16:16 report
I think that its a song about a girl who's boyfriend kills her.
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anonymous Mar 15th 2012, 14:40 report
i lost my 5 year old daughter and this song disgusts me and makes me cry so hard i cant get away from it it is everywhere :(
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anonymous Mar 10th 2012, 12:29 report
I think the song, "If I Die Young", is about getting the fullest experience in your life before you die. I think it is a very beautiful song.
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anonymous Mar 6th 2012, 11:39 report
I believe that anyone at least once in their lives think of dying (from any causes including suicidal) especially when we face problems. This song is a very good song and a good example for life. The Band Perry (Kimberly) imagines what if she dies at a young age, what would she wanted to do or had someone do couple things for her in her funeral. What she would miss in her life after she has gone. The most important thing is that she wants her death to be a lesson for someone else who's left behind. And if she dies, she will die in peace with full of loves, so don't cry for her death because she thinks that you should save your tears for other things that are sadder than her pass-away.
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anonymous Jan 20th 2012, 07:03 report
I think this song is about a girl who wants to commit suicide, but she doesn't want people to feel sorry for her. "Lord make me a rainbow, I'll shine down on my mother". She wants her mother to know that she's alright. But it's also a bit angry: "Life ain't always what you think it oughta be, no." or "maybe then you'll hear the words I've been singing, funny when you're dead how people start listening." She doesn't want people to cry for her, just to accept the fact and move on. But she thinks they will anyway, because they haven't ever really noticed her.
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ariiburgen Jan 10th 2012, 18:43 report
this girl who committed suicide and a mom who has 2 bury her baby before she does. and she committed suicide by a knife which is why it says "the sharp knife of a short life"
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anonymous Jan 1st 2012, 14:05 report
Ever heard the phrase "Good people die young" I think it means life doesn't last forever. . . especially now-a-days where teens are getting killed in car accidents and commiting suicide. Life is fragile and it can be taken away in the blink of an eye even at a young age.
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anonymous Nov 27th 2011, 13:06 report
OMG this is my favorite song. It's beautifully haunting. A girl is explaining about how she wants to be properly dead and buried. This is also a love kind of song. It's like she never got to marry the man she loved. It's so sad, yet very beautiful.
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anonymous Oct 30th 2011, 11:16 report
it means that you have to look at what you have and be thankful for it. this song changed my ways and affected alot of my thoughts this song was played at my bestfriends funeral and i am 13.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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roz Aug 28th 2011, 06:57 report
This song is beautiful and sad at the same time, but reflective -trying to raise awareness. I agree this song describes how small or unimportant young people may view their lives and that nobody will notice them until they are gone. She believes her thoughts will be worth more after she's a goner and that people will realize what she was trying to say when she was alive. Perhaps a reason many young people take their own lives. She does though recognize the impact her death would have on others, especially her mother. She's describing how her mother, how any mother really, would feel losing a child at a young age.
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anonymous Aug 27th 2011, 15:23 report
I think it's about the life and the shortness. You've always got enough time as long as you do the best of that moment or situation. When I'm listening to this Song it makes me think about life. At the end of the Song she sings: "Funny when you're dead how people start to listen." And this is truth. If you remerber the old artists.... you'll see they've all got famous after they died.
Sad, but truth. :)
More The Band Perry song meanings »
If I Die Young is considered:
Songs about Death
Songs about Dying Young
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