The song "How to Save a Life" by The Fray...what's it about?

Question

my friend told me it's about a friend of his that committed suicide after a break up, but i'm not sure...anyone know?

Answer 1

No, that's way off . . .

how many times is this question going to get asked?
It's about a teen Isaac Slade, the lead singer, mentored at a church camp who was over his head in drugs and alcohol. He told Isaac that he only wanted someone to come along side him as a friend to help him solve his problem, instead of as an enemy with a change-or-I-won't-talk-to-you-... attitude, which he never really got. Isaac wrote the song about what the kid really wanted and how Isaac would want someone to approach him if he were doing something wrong. It is told from the point of view of one of those people with the negative attitude and them realizing their mistakes after he's gone.
The name of the song comes from a sign at a swimming pool that Isaac saw with directions on CPR titled . . . How To Save A Life.
Last I heard, the kid was still alive though . . . and Isaac had just recently talked to him

what your friend was talking about sounds more like their song "Vienna", which the lead singer wrote about a tough break up that he went through, but there are no Fray songs about people killing themselves over a break up

EDIT:
The kids who had "save a life" tattooed on their arms as mentioned by a previous answerer were not friends of the guy the song is about, they were friends of a kid who died in a car acciedent. his parents let his friends go through his computer after his death, and they found that HTSAL was the last song he had downloaded online, and they started a foundation and got the tattoos.

Answer 2

[edit] About the song
According to lead singer and songwriter Isaac Slade, the song was composed and influenced by his experience while working as a mentor at a camp for troubled teens:

“ One of the kids I was paired up with was a musician. Here I was, a protected suburbanite, and he was just 17 and had all these problems. And no one could write a manual on how to save him. ”

Slade claims that the song is about all of the people that tried to reach out to the boy but were unsuccessful. As Slade says in an interview, his friends and family approached him by saying, "Quit [the problem behavior] or I won't talk to you again," but all he needed was some support.

The verses of the song describe an attempt by an adult to confront a troubled teen. In the chorus, the singer laments that he himself was unable to save a friend because he did not know how.

While this was the original intent of the song, the band has opened the song to interpretation. They created a website[1] where fans were welcome to submit music videos they had made for the song. This arose from the response that Slade got from the song:

“ I got a lot of e-mails about it (...) One kid died in a car accident, and I guess it had been the last song he downloaded from his computer. They played it at his funeral, and some of his friends got Save a life tattooed on their arms. The response has been overwhelming.

Answer 3

According to lead singer and songwriter Isaac Slade, the song was composed and influenced by his experience while working as a mentor at a camp for troubled teens:

“ One of the kids I was paired up with was a musician. Here I was, a protected suburbanite, and he was just 17 and had all these problems. And no one could write a manual on how to save him. ”

Slade claims that the song is about all of the people that tried to reach out to the boy but were unsuccessful. As Slade says in an interview, his friends and family approached him by saying, "Quit [the problem behavior] or I won't talk to you again," but all he needed was some support.

The verses of the song describe an attempt by an adult to confront a troubled teen. In the chorus, the singer laments that he himself was unable to save a friend because he did not know how.

While this was the original intent of the song, the band has opened the song to interpretation. They created a website[1] where fans were welcome to submit music videos they had made for the song. This arose from the response that Slade got from the song:

“ I got a lot of e-mails about it (...) One kid died in a car accident, and I guess it had been the last song he downloaded from his computer. They played it at his funeral, and some of his friends got Save a life tattooed on their arms. The response has been overwhelming.

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also you can go to songmeanings.net and look it up there.

Answer 4

basically, 1 summer, the singer was at this camp for troubled teens and was a mentor for this kid. this kid died in a car crash so all his ffriends got a tattoo on their arms saying"save a life" and the singer and the kid got pretty attached so...

Answer 5

No sorry I don't. I just watched the video and I don't get it lots of crying, then smiling then blank faced kids??