Coldplay: The Scientist Meaning
Song Released: 2002
Covered By: Willie Nelson
The Scientist Lyrics
Tell you I'm sorry,
You don't know how lovely you are.
I had to find you,
Tell you I need you,
Tell you I set you apart.
Tell me your secrets,
Ask me your questions,
Oh, let's go back to the start....
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I had this song played at my partner's funeral. He died in the Asian Tsunami and I was saved, albeit badly injured by a local person.
My first thoughts were "I had to find you tell you I need you"
"Lets go back to the start"
When realisation set in - I found comfort in these words
"Nobody said it was easy its such a shame for us to part
No one ever said it would be this hard
Take me back to the start"
Trying to understand the scale of the disaster.....
"I was just guessing at numbers pulling the puzzles apart"
Tell me you love me
Come back and haunt me
No one ever said it would be so hard
I'm going back to the start.
This is the first time I've ever written about it x -
So theres lots of different opinions about what this song means, of course, what a song really means doesn't matter, it's all about what it means to us. To me it's about a man who has an over-analytic personality (that's why it's called The Scientist). He still doesn't know exactly what went wrong in the relationship, but he knows it was because of his analytic or overly-thinking personality (notice how he says "I WAS just guessing"). While the lyrics take place after the breakup and he is still trying to figure out what exactly went wrong, he is mentioning the fact that he knows it was because he relied on his head and not his heart. He knows that he shouldn't have done that, but notice how in the song itself he's still doing it. Even after he realizes that it was because of his overly-thinking personality, he keeps analyzing. Why? Because he can't help it. That's who he is, that's how he works, that who he is: he's The Scientist. But it's love, not science.
-
My sister passed away a year ago. She had struggled with a drug addiction for ten years and died as a result of that addiction. Our relationship had deteriorated over that time and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't help her. I heard this song a few months after her death and actually had to stop my car because I was sobbing so hard. It is like someone wrote exactly what was in my heart. I know this was probably written about a failed romantic relationship but it is also a poetic tribute to the love lost when a family member, friend or lover passes away. I wish so much that I could "go back to the start" with my sister. To the songwriters and to Coldplay, thank you for this hauntingly beautiful song. It will always be my love song to my sister.
-
this song for me is about how Ive personally messed up and now Ive got to go back home and face the things I was scared of the most like dissapointing my dad or being a failure...yea sometimes I wish I could just go back to the start of everything and not be so immature
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My interpretation of The Scientist is bigger than just a relationship. Its your relationship with life and those that walked through it with you. I want this song played at the end of my life to all of those that are to say goodbye. Because this song says I want to go back to the start. Its a thank you for all the ups and downs, but for being there through them all. We all waver. We all crash. We all forgive. We all begin again.
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Here's a story that I think fits this song in a lot of ways:
There were two people, a girl and a boy. The boy was a scientific mind. He explained everything through logic. He rarely showed emotion and NEVER acted on it.
The girl was emotional and volatile, but in order to talk to the boy she pretended to be just as cold and analytical and he was.
She grew to like the boy. But every time she got close to him, he reminded her that getting close to people only gets you hurt.
So she gave up. She ran away from him. She needed someone with emotion. Someone who could be human.
The boy also had feelings for her, but stifled them so he could analyze everything. So he wouldn't have to go through the ordeal of loving someone.But when she ran away, the boy realized that he had hurt her, and went after her. He tried to explain that he had never meant to seem so cold, that he was just scared of falling for someone. But it was too late. He had spent so much time pushing the girl away that she couldn't believe that he loved her. She thought it was just another science experiment. That she was just a puzzle to him.
So both of them regretted not playing things differently, but because of the previous damage, their relationship could never be repaired.
I know this isn't the perfect fit, and that some people will dismiss this as petty, but this is what happened to me, and it's what I personally get out of the song. -
As I see the video......He wants to protect someone he loves. I would go back in time and change anything for the someone I love. If she died and years later they made a time machine or a thing that reversed time I would do anything for her. She is the star of his heart and would do anything to stop the death of her. He couldn't live without her. He had to find out some way to save her life from this terrible happening.
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The scientist is about an intelligent man who is in love, and cant really understand it in the same way he understands lots of other things scientifically because it seems so irrational. So he begins to neglect this love without even realising, then in doing so, his lover begins to fall out of love and the relationship begins to crumble. And as the love starts to fade, the scientist thinks as to what went wrong, what he did or didnt do, and he realises that he actually is madley in love and begins to accept the fact the he and everyone else, no matter how smart, will never be able to understand love, and that "questions of science" will never speak as loud as the heart.
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This song, like all songs, is how YOU, the listener interprets it. Noone can put themselves in someone elses shoes and know what they are feeling so you have to take every song and use it for your own situation. I personally use this song to help get me through the loss of my father. I dont need to see the video to know he is talking in general about someone passing away and how he wished he could have spent more time with them. Came up to see you (heaven), come back and haunt me (ghost) is really deep and helps let me know I'm not the only person going through grief, which makes the process a little easier.
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This song is about a scientist who is so caught up in his work that he neglects his girlfriend, but realizes it eventually and wants to "go back to the start" and begin fresh.
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the deep dude whats to make ammends after he sees that grass is not greener. He;s right its not easy. amen and koudos to the meaning of the strong.... Music, vocals are excellent
Alot of their songs are proufound enouph (or simple) that they resonate with us (humankind]
Love them and I am maintaining my love in human beings from this class act -music team.
PS. Their ability is amazing!! however the rest of us have insane and awesome talents some more than others Let me know when you ready for an US chick duet(-: -
I wish i become a scientist then i would make time to go backwards where you and me were together and every thing was perfect.
-
Well, as a basement dweller, I tend to abandon my friends and family for the recluse of my favorite space, so I intpreted this song very differently from others.
I think the song is about a scientist who abandons his girlfriend for his work and this song is his way of apologizing to her [Pretty much the while first verse] He was raised to be a great mind, so he never learned how to love [Nobody said it was easy/Nobody said it would be this hard] and he's asking for a do-over [Let's take it back to the start.] He then proceeds in explaining that thier whole relationship was an experiment to him [I was just guessing with numbers and figures/Pulling the puzzles apart] but in the end she taught him how to love [Questions of science/Do not speak as loud as my heart.]
Every time I hear this song it always makes me want to cry and at this rate, I probably will (most likely on a subway.) It also sort of reminded me of Near from Death Note (yes, I'm the same person who did the DN interpretation of Lost!) and what would happen if he found a permanent girlfriend but didn't tell her he was L. I may use this as Songfic fodder now that I'm thinking about it. -
They want to show that love and life can't be based on calculus. The protagonist of the song understood it too late... Or, in my opionion, he doesn't understand it yet.
L.C. -
this has been my favorite song since i was a sixth grader. by that time, i knew nothing at all but the immense feeling of Chris, i do feel how he lamented over a relationship; which will make no sense at all since they parted their ways. and he always over think about the facts and chances, thus applying the so called "mind-over-matter principle".
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