How to Save a Life

Let me start out by saying what I don't like about the lyrics, even though I will put it up, and I think the lyrics do match the melody in a sort of "the music is still going on" sort of way.

What I don't like is the sheer technicality of it - you just don't create a rhyme using the same word that you're trying to rhyme with. It's just not done. What sort of lyrics go "some sort of window to your right, as he goes left and you stay... right". That's not a valid rhyme. It just isn't. Two incidents of this sin turn up in the lyrics, but otherwise, it's pretty emotive.

Somehow I keep having that image in my mind of a boy and a girl, sitting at opposite ends of a room after an argument, staring blankly at each other. There is a simple, wooden table in the middle of the room, the rest of the room is industrial, grey walled, cold colours. The girl has long, brown hair, straight cut, center parted, dark blue eyes. Slightly gaunt, skinny. The boy has scruffy dark blonde curls, the colour turns up only slightly in the light.

Step one you say we need to talk
He walks you say sit down it's just a talk
He smiles politely back at you
You stare politely right on through
Some sort of window to your right
As he goes left and you stay right
Between the lines of fear and blame
And you begin to wonder why you came

Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life

Let him know that you know best
Cause after all you do know best
Try to slip past his defense
Without granting innocence
Lay down a list of what is wrong
The things you've told him all along
And pray to God he hears you
And pray to God he hears you

Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life

As he begins to raise his voice
You lower yours and grant him one last choice
Drive until you lose the road
Or break with the ones you've followed
He will do one of two things
He will admit to everything
Or he'll say he's just not the same
And you'll begin to wonder why you came

Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life