A-ha: Take On Me Meaning

Song Released: 1985

Covered By: Weezer (2019)

Get "Take On Me" on MP3:

Get MP3 from Amazon

Take On Me Lyrics

We're talking away
I don't know what
I'm to say I'll say it anyway
Today's another day to find you
Shying away
I'll be coming for your love, OK?
Take on me, take me on
I'll be gone
In a day or two

So needless to say
I'm odds and ends
But that's...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   deepblueyonder

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Feb 21st 2019 report

   When It finally clicked in my mind what the lyrics of this song truly mean, I cried. Perhaps one of the most genius love songs ever written and recorded, the entire song is a metaphor about your lifespan here on this planet, and trusting in fate to help guide you in finding your one true love, and living out your life…. Life and Love. Once you view the song in this light its meaning becomes crystal clear…. The song isn’t geared toward a singular guy or girl in particular… it just happens to be a guy that is singing it to us, but the song itself, is for anyone living out their life and seeking, finding, and losing their one fated true love. The song is beautiful… it goes like this:
   Verse 1 (The Search): In our lives, we start out unpaired. If we are lucky, we have our families… many don’t even have that. The point is… we grow, and all the while we are “all of us” constantly searching…. Searching for that certain someone that completes us. Our Soulmate. The song begins with an individual muttering to themselves, and tells us... I’m just talking away. I have no idea what I’m going to say to you when or “if’ I even find you, but it doesn’t matter. Because when we finally meet, you are my true love. We were fated together long before we were even born, and I know, deep in my heart, when the time comes, I will say whatever it is that needs to be said anyways… I won’t even need to try, it will simply happen naturally. I’m fumbling through my life and today is just another day for me to find you… you may escape me this day (shying away), but not forever… I am coming for you love… I will find you. Beautiful.
   Verse 2 (living out your life): This verse is clever and beautiful. It is a fast forward to a time in a person’s life when they have found their true love, and are living out their lives together. Good, bad, or indifferent, if you have the love of your life at your side it makes no matter if the two of you decide to play it safe, or live life on the edge, because fate is going to take you where it wants to take you regardless. You are powerless against it. So just go with it… life can be messy… the odds and ends, and we are going to stumble through it… together, and slowly figure out that everything will be o.k. If we are at each other’s side, it will be o.k. no matter what happens. Just live life and let it happen… together. Beautiful
   Verse 3 (the end): At some point, we reach the end of our lives. And here we see a person and the great love in his or her life having a conversation between themselves in private. This verse captures the essence of that conversation so brilliantly. Two lovers talking to each other at the end of their time together in this world (this go round), one or both dying. “Oh stop it, you are just saying those things to ease my mind and make me stop worrying. You know you are my entire world. You are everything I have worth remembering on this old rock. Every good memory I have is of you, and the life and family we have made together. Now you are dying (shying away) but don’t worry love… I found you this time, and where ever you are going… I will find you there… I’m coming for you, no matter what. I will find you again”. Heartbreaking and beautiful.
   The Chorus: It chimes in between each verse to remind us not to overlook opportunity. When you find your true love… Hold onto tight. “Take me on”, because life is so short, and it will pass by so fast. “I’ll be gone in a day or two”. And at the end of the song switches meaning slightly… “Take me where ever you are going… take me with you”. And works beautifully. Simplistically, It ties the verses of the song (stages of our life) together in elegant and brilliant fashion.

2. 2TOP RATED

   #2 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Dec 3rd 2018 report

   I believe that this song, in general, is about someone in a relationship in which they do not know whether a person or group accepts him or her.
   ‘Talking away, oh I don’t what, I’m to say – I say it anyway, today’s another day to find you’
   The person feels that it is awkward when they conversate with the person or group, because he or she feels like he or she needs to say something about their relationship but can’t get it out. ‘Today’s another day to find you’ means that it’s another day to find out what the person or group thinks of them – and that this process has become usual.
   ‘Shying away – I’ll be coming for your love, okay’
   ‘Shying away’ means that the person is starting to feel repelled off by the unsureness of this relationship, but ‘I’ll be coming for your love, okay’ means that the person is still trying, and still believes that the person or group may accept them.
   ‘Take on me – take me on’
   ‘Take on me’ means, essentially ‘accept me’, as well as ‘take me on’.
   ‘I’ll be gone – in a day or two’
   This shows that the time is running out for them. The person feels that his or her last chance with the person or group is coming very soon.
   ‘Needless to say, I’m odds and ends’
   Even though the person feels that their relationship’s time is running out, and feels like it should end soon, he or she still feels unsure. Their relationship is at ‘odds and ends’ – ups and downs. Sometimes, he or she feels that the person or group accepts him or her, sometimes, he or she feels like they are growing or have grown apart.
   ‘But I’ll be stumbling away, slowly learning that life is okay’
   This essentially means that whatever change happens between them, however hard it is, he or she will move on and start something new.
   ‘Say after me – it’s no matter be to safe and sorry’
   ‘It’s no matter to be safe and sorry’ means that there is no reason to keep on staying in this awkward, unsure phase, that the person or group needs to make his, her or their decision – and that he or she needs to as well. The chorus is then repeated, telling the other person or group that time is running out between them.
   ‘Things that you say – oh is it life or, just to play my worries away’
   The person wonders whether the relationship with the other person or group is worth trying for. He or she is unsure whether anything that the person or group says is just because of politeness, or if it is genuine. The person doubts that it is genuine through using the word ‘play’ to demonstrate that he or she feels that the other person or group is pulling strings on him or her.
   ‘You’re all the things I’ve got to remember’
   The person feels that he or she can’t remember a time when it wasn’t awkward between them – the unsureness of the relationship has been normal since he or she can remember.
   ‘Shying away – I’ll be coming for you anyway’
   Though the person feels very unsure about the future of a good relationship between them, he or she will still try if there is any sign of the relationship becoming any better.
   The chorus is then repeated a few times, showing that the time is running out, and that he or she will go if there are no more signs. He or she wants their relationship to be definite, and if there is no use in waiting, if their relationship is still unsure, he or she will go and start a new relationship – one that feels real.
3. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Sep 21st 2020 report

   So this song's meaning for me changed after the years.
   it's finding your other half, whatever completes you. But for me it's my soul mate.
   "I'll be coming for your love okay" is such a sweet line.
   "take me on, I'll be gone in a day or two"
   If we find that someone make sure to go for it, hold on. We don't know what life will be hold
   "slowly learning that life is okay"
   This a pretty sad line for me, I don't know why. After the roller-coaster ride you have with life you'll know how to be calm above it all.
   
   It holds a deep meaning for me that I can't completely explain in words
   This song is just beautiful
4. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Mar 18th 2020 report

   When I heard it in Deadpool 2 that's when I got a general idea on the song's meaning
5. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jan 31st 2020 report

   I believe this is a love song, mainly written by Paul Waaktaar when he became in love with Lauren Savoy, actually the entire album is.
6. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jan 13th 2020 report

   Don't overthink it. The guy just wants to get laid by a girl who's playing coy with him.
7. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Nov 24th 2019 report

   I think this beautiful song is about unreciprocated love.
   (Verse 1): A person is in love with someone who is not in love with them. The courter senses this (..shying away). The courter persists....& is uncomfortably unsure (..okay?).
   (Chorus): This person is pleading, wishing, wanting, asking for the affection to be returned but is losing hope & knows that the courtship timeline is limited (..I'll be gone in a day or two).
   (Verse 2): This person reveals personal vulnerabilities of being awkward / imperfect (...odds & ends...stumbling away) but is still trying to win affection nonetheless. The courter is also hoping that he / she will understand the Herculean pursuit & know that the absence of this effort would mean a lifetime of regret.
   (Verse 3): The courter questions whether the words he /she hears in return are genuine or just words that foreshadows 'being let down easy'. The courter senses the latter...but still will try...The courter is deeply in love & quitting is not an option just yet.
   (Outro): This is the courters final appeal: Asking, wishing, wanting, hoping that love will be reciprocated but he / she is losing hope & closer to giving up. This person's love will not be reciprocated but it will linger in the heart & mind & never be forgotten. I think most people can relate to this beautiful but sad experience.
   
8. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jun 12th 2019 report

   In my opinion, Take on Me is about someone dying and looking for God, only having a day or two left. Take on me means hold onto me in Norwegian. "take on me, take me up, I'll be gone in a day or two"
9. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Dec 25th 2018 report

   Take On Me by A-ha, nice voice and nice video with comics. Real interpretation seen at songfacts and wikipedia. Latest comment, explained their thoughts about this song. True, time is priceless.
   
   - Same person who made comments recently
10. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Dec 25th 2018 report

    Not knowing what to do but wanting it enough to try anyway.We don't have forever to work things out.in the end we discover its the things that we didn't do that haunt us and those things we did do that give our lives meaning.Everything you desire is just in the other side of fear.
    ( Don't waste time,it's priceless.
11. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Aug 16th 2018 report

    I believe it’s a guy trying to break up with his girlfriend who is giving him a hard time. “Talking away, I don’t know what I’m to say I’ll say it anyway, todays another day to find you shying away, I’ll be coming for you’re love ok?” This all means he is trying to explain what to say to his girlfriend and he feels but he just can’t, but in the end he will be coming for her love because he doesn’t want to let go of her at the same time.
12. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jul 13th 2018 report

    This song has deep meanings for me as it relates to a girl who I met in the Orkneys back in the 80s on my last night at the stromness hotel there was a disco where all of us divers went for our last night before leaving, that night I met Erica, we talked and talked (talking away) I didn't know what to say but all I know is that I never wanted to let her go, I fell in love with her that night , I kept in contact by letter an returned two years later ,(I'll be coming for your love ok) anyway the rest is history, I still love the memory and her but distance was too much. Love you Erica Lochrie X
13. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Oct 16th 2017 report

    Its a invitation/lament from one lover to another, at the end of their time, for a final moment of intimacy. The upbeat energy of the original recording belies the bitter-sweetness of the lyrics, which is more closely aligned in a-ha's 2017 version. https://youtu.be/-xKM3mGt2pE
14. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    May 9th 2015 report

    I believe that the song Take On Me is written about a guy who likes a girl and does not know how to express his love.

Latest Articles

• 
  That Time the FBI Went After John Lennon
• 
  Bikini Kill vs Weezer : The Revolution Will Not Be Reverbed
• 
  Song Analysis Corner : Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody
• 
  Cartoonist Robert Crumb : Vintage Music Hipster
• 
  8 Awesome Parts of Leonard Nimoy's The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins
• 
  The Forgotten Art of the Animated Music Video