What does Savin' Me mean?

Nickelback: Savin' Me Meaning

Tagged:   No tags, suggest one.
Album cover for Savin' Me album cover

Song Released: 2006


Savin' Me Lyrics

Prison gates won't open up for me
On these hands and knees I'm crawlin'
Oh, I reach for you
Well I'm terrified of these four walls
These iron bars can't hold my soul in
All I need is you
Come please I'm callin'
And oh I scream for...

  1. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Oct 24th 2010 !⃝

    It's about redemption and second chances. The video mirror's the lyrics. Whether it is addiction, depression, or whatever, our salvation lies in first find the true center in our lives and then helping others find theirs...

  2. RandomSelect
    click a star to vote
    Oct 9th 2010 !⃝

    Religious or philosophy or other. Maybe its just plain rock. This song is however you think its expressed and as been said it can be interpreted in several ways. Since there had been most religious interpretations, I'm not going add another. I'm not going to agree or disagree with anybody else's interpretations either. I am just going to state, based upon the complex and different opinions of friends and family, my shaky and maybe misguided interpretation.
    1.Prison gates won't open up for me these hands....A person who maybe ashamed of the things that they had done and are also punishing themselves. This punishment whether by starving or tormenting themselves has left them weakend. I might be wrong.
    2.Well I'm terrified of the 4 walls these iron....this person believed so strongly that their faults were greater than anyone else's. Especially others this person may have sought vengeance upon for doing him/her wrong. And now others exiled this person in solitude,forgetting about the fact this person is human and has a soul. Taking the punishment to another level. All for his crimes less, as great, or greater than their own.
    3.chorus.And all I need is you come please....Now the life this person had lived is believed to be collapsing or falling down. This person does not want to be alone anymore and wants to be forgiven for what they may have done before they accept what they feel is a new fate.
    4.chorus.Show me what its like to be the last one....This person wants to be saved from their loneliness. Willing to be enslaved rather than alone, this person desperately wants sanctuary with this other person or people. This person is willing to sacrifice all of their beliefs for companionship. Hence leaving their lonely life and the life before that behind. This person is willing to let the other fill their heart with the other persons beliefs which would be doing the wrong thing from the right thing to do. After all, the wrong and the wicked are always the last ones standing and the good die young if they are not corrupted first. The rest of the song seems to imply roughly the same interpretive context. Just my opinion. I hope it may help in some way.

  3. cityflavah
    click a star to vote
    Aug 12th 2010 !⃝

    I don't see how anyone could see this song as anything more than a man in jail either speaking to a woman or god.

  4. lyriclistener
    click a star to vote
    May 22nd 2010 !⃝

    These nickelack videos are amazing.. Im a person who doesnt usually feel stuff but these videos are wow.. Before seeing the video it makes me think of someone whos made mistakes like getting into drugs and is trying to escape that life then decides to try to pull them into a better life.. but after seeing the video it makes me think after one man saved his life he could see the time left in a persons life but not his own and passes it on to the woman when he saves her.. i think the message is that if you have something you can do for someone dont wait till its to late because unlike him 'you cant see until its to late

  5. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    May 12th 2010 !⃝

    I want to believe that this song is about a boy who's made bad decisions in life and is looking for a new drug and that being love for a girl instead of the abusive ones of his past.

  6. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Apr 13th 2010 !⃝

    I actually saw a performance to this song. it was at a Catholic retreat. it began with a young man, and one by one four actors walked towards him. each of them stated a struggle the young man was dealing with, and they tied a rope around each of his wrists. when the song began, they started pulling him in all directions, trying to break him down. Jesus then stepped in and offered to take away his struggles- the young man refused. the same thing happened again and finally he gave in. Jesus took on the ropes and began to suffer. they portrayed Him being crucified, and at the end the young man came to his knees in front of Him. It went along with the music very well and gave me a new way to look at the song.

  7. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Oct 1st 2009 !⃝

    "Prison gates won't open up for me" Could be a real prison or feeling mentally imprisoned. "On these hands and knees I'm crawlin, Oh, I reach for you" When most people are really desparate, even the most "sin" ladened individuals, they will reach out to a religious higher power (not necessarily God/Jesus). "These iron bars can't hold my soul in, all I need is you" The song seems chock full of religious meaning, but does not have to be necessarily christian.

  8. HowCouldYou
    click a star to vote
    Jun 3rd 2009 !⃝

    A phone call and I did not know what to do, so I got a hotel room, and left it there paid for, and then I looked for a building and I tried to get in a little after seven, I was puzzled frazzled, scared, and I knew I could not save someone that called me, and the song says basically all we can do is save ourselves because the song is a self talk song, and I do not have words for that someone that can help, but I will try, the strongest individual I have ever known in my life, praise, obsess over admittedly, how can I not I am drawn to her 'without even trying' and yet every time I am called or try to get close we 'push away' or I do it seems as if to say I am strong enough remember I promised you that I would be strong and stay strong and do it without even 'knowing' and not wanting to admit that I have things in me that I can not explain, I have some decisions to make as to whether I am being fair to her by continuing this way, so selfish, for instance, there is a married Woman at work that I flirt with without sexual nuances kidding her, she has a thirteen year old boy, and she asked me if I had a girlfriend and I got really embarrassed and said yes, and she started asking all kinds of questions details about her, like can you tell me who she is and where she works and I said no, but I don't know, I don't know a lot about her, but I know she is out there, and I finally turned around to the Woman and said that she (the Woman) was the 'girlfriend' I was referring to, now the part that is even worse, The Woman has an ailing husband at home, many operations, on the strongest antibiotics available even now all because he fell out of a tree over a year ago, I want to tell the Woman to kiss her husband every day and to tell him she loves him every chance she gets, but I couldn't, because I knew that if I did she might say that a man at work said she should, she can not keep secrets from what I can tell, and the husband might get jelous, but now, now that I have told her basically that I have a 'crush' on her, now she is going to tell her husband and he is going to question some things, like can he be the man she needs when he is now much less physically capable then before and I worry something I had thought about a long time ago that he might take his own life and that I might be a part of that decision, and even that thought is selfish, so I look at myself and wonder, am I helping or hurting and sometimes it seems like everything I do, each mistake confirms no, but I have not given up, I am human with human needs and desires and fears and aspirations and some day, I will get to tell the Woman I have had in my heart for so long thought about every day more than anyone would guess that she makes me want to be a happier man, someone that encourages others to look upon the better things in life and how to control our own demons that want to bring us to our knees with each mistake, I have to do the work, but the feelings she provokes in me stir me to act and I am greatful and still so selfishly disgusted with myself at the same time, and I self talk the song and ask the question will she come to me and save me, after all I have not done for her myself and my family as she asked me to to save her as I promised I would then and within the last week again then look at the brightside and say at least I can share something with her so sick and tired and seeking balance and losing my fight to stay awake feeling like I fail her by trying to save myself by betraying myself and everyone around me at the same time the words do not bring you closer, they push you into someone elses and I ask why would she say you should have never quit that job and the reason is that I am not positive, but negative, and that is the same self talk in the song, saying I can not depend on myself, I need someone or something to save me

  9. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    May 27th 2009 !⃝

    In the last 20 minutes, I've listened to this song three times, closing my eyes and allowing me to be taken by the music. My interpretation is this. Kroeger is a man desperate and broken, not wanting the life he's living, in need of a savior. Feeling rejected by the world, and even feeling as though he's expecting to be rejected by the one he truly needs. The song is a prayer, and a cry to God for salvation.

    "By grace, you (Chad) have been saved, through faith. And this is not of your own works, it is a GIFT from God." ~Eph. 2-8

  10. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Dec 13th 2008 !⃝

    I think its about a guy thats a real badass and sort of an emo kid and then meets a girl that doesnt love hhim but he wants her to. n he gets all depressed just wnting her to say i love you to save him from commiting suicide

  11. danniboi
    click a star to vote
    Dec 6th 2008 !⃝

    I dont think this has religious overtones, the video is just saying hes had a near death experience or possibly died, and hes become a angel (which I know generally has religious overtones but its not intended as such) or something and becomes free after he saves someone.

  12. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Oct 18th 2008 !⃝

    I think that this might be giving everyone a chance to do something good. And in this case that good thing is saving someone who's not supposed to die or who's time is coming too quick. At least that's what I got from the music video. And it keeps going so the cycle doesn't end. In a way saving that person is like giving them a second chance and in order to pay for the second chance they have to give someone else a second chance as well.

    For instance when they say "And teach me wrong from right
    And I'll show you what I can be" It's like the lyrics are saying because of that second chance I learned a lot and know let me show you what I learned.

  13. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Oct 17th 2008 !⃝

    The song means exactly what the video meant. He was about to die, but the man saves him, thus interpreting: "Show me what it's like to be the last one standing, and teach me wrong from right and I'll show you what I can be." Telling us that the man that saved him, showed him what it was like to be saved/to survive, thus somewhat being "the last one standing". The man that survives, teaches him wrong from right, by saving him, instead of standing idly by. The rest is pretty straight forward. But what's up top was basically the whole meaning of the song. Save others, instead of standing idly by. And that chain of being taught, and saving others will continue on, as shown in prior to the end of the video, where the man saves a girl from a falling object that was headed for her car she was opening the door to get in to.

  14. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Oct 6th 2008 !⃝

    Its someone who has done a lot wrong, he's in a prison. All he sees is someone he cares about. All he wants to have the person by his side, he wants to show her that he can change. (I'll show you what I can be)

    When he finally gets out of prison, he life doesn't get much better and he's about to commit suicide (on the ledge of the 18th story), and again he just sees her.

    Again, all he wants to do is to prove that he can change, all she has to do is save him from bad times

  15. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Oct 4th 2008 !⃝

    I don't think the song has much of a relationship to the video as Ryan said in an interview that they couldn't decide what the video would be about. He said they thought they could just make it about nothing, and then Ryan's wife suggested the concept of knowing how long people are going to live for.
    I had always interpreted the song as being about a relationship and calling out to his soulmate, who ever that may be, for love. But now that people have suggested religious meanings I can see what they mean...




More Nickelback songs »


 


Latest Articles

 


Submit Your Interpretation

[ want a different song? ]




Just Posted

Steve's Going to London anonymous
Yes I'm A Mess anonymous
Droppin' Plates anonymous
Rat anonymous
Cry for the Moon anonymous
And the Snakes Start to Sing anonymous
Gingerbread Man anonymous
Not Like the Movies anonymous
This Masquerade anonymous
Birthday Suit anonymous
Dollhouse anonymous
Death anonymous
Copy Cat anonymous
I Hate Jimmy Page anonymous
I Hate Jimmy Page anonymous

(We won't give out your email)