Doesn't come down when she calls
"It's time for breakfast."
Mama can't get down those halls
Fast enough to see
Glass is sprayed across the floor
From the broken window
She can't breathe anymore
Can't deny what we know

They're gonna find you, just believe
You're not a person; you're a disease

[Chorus]
All these lives that you've been taking
Deep inside, my heart is breaking
Broken homes from separation
Don't you know it's violation?
It's so wrong, but you'll see
Never gonna let you take my world from me
The world outside these walls may know you're breathing
But you ain't comin' in

(But you ain't comin' in)

Posters hung on building walls
Of missing faces
Months go by without the calls
The clues, or traces

They're gonna find you, just believe
You're not a person; you're a disease

[Chorus]

Shed the light on all the ones who never thought they would become
A father, mother, asking why this world can be so cold

Doesn't come down when she calls
"It's time for breakfast."
The memories begin to fall
She asks, "When will I be free?"

[Chorus]

All these lives that you've been taking
Deep inside, my heart is breaking
All these lives that you've been taking
Deep inside, my heart is breaking
All these lives that you've been taking
Deep inside, my heart is breaking
The world outside these walls may know you're breathing
The world outside these walls may know you're breathing
But you ain't comin' in



Lyrics submitted by xthatxkiddx

Track duration: 03:23

"All These Lives" as written by Mitch Allan, Chris Daughtry

Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Universal Music Publishing Group

Lyrics powered by LyricFind


All these lives song meanings
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47 Comments

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  • 0
    My Opinion:This song makes me think of everything Joseph Kony is doing. It describes everything perfectly. So impactful!
    Flag jesusfreak3214on May 02, 2012   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:The interpretation of this song covers a wide array of topics ranging from child abduction and drug abuse to Alzheimer disease and Christianity. Yet, the individual element analysis in relation to each other characterized the song with one more plausible focus- child abduction. Combination of both in depth line by line reading and a broader stanza by stanza interpretation, the shadow of child abduction can be detected in the lyric.
    Throughout the whole song then interpretation can be farfetched, but the stanza regarding the missing faces narrows the topic (Posters hung on building walls/ Of missing faces/Months go by without the calls/ The clues, or traces). Starting from that line if we interpret it as photos of missing children, then the whole song can be interpreted fully. First stanza relays an imagery of a terrorized mother finding her child gone, left with only empty room with shattered glass from the window from which the abductor enters and escapes. The imagery here not only acts as the beginning of the narrative of a family suffering the pain of child abduction, but also serves as an immediate strong emotional impact. The next stanza which repeats through the song serves as warning to the abductors that one day they will be found and also a sign of disgust that the abductor as a kind of disease. It is an interesting choice of word- “disease”- because the word conveys both the negative notions and the fact that diseases, though sometimes may seem incurable, almost always become curable, foreshadowing the capturing of the abductor. The third stanza contains multiple elements including condemnation from the first five lines. Then, it introduces the mentality that abductor will not enter the life of singer in the next four lines.
    The forth stanza, the center of the song within this interpretation, clarify the topic for the listener. The posters on the wall pulls out the memory that almost everyone experiences: seeing picture taped to the wall of missing people. Then the song repeats until stanza seven and eight. In stanza seven, the question of the cold world is posted to the listen to promote the sympathy which is further developed with another question in stanza eight- “When will I be free [from memories]?” The song ends with a final stroke with the repeats of the line “heart is breaking.”
    The interpretation of this song varies from each listener. As long as the song connects with you in specific ways, then that’s your interpretation of the song.
    Flag wangweichungon November 30, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:“All These Lives” by Chris Daughtry is about abduction. In just the first stanza, the lyrics imply immediately that something is wrong since the child does not answer to the mother’s call, and key phrases such as “glass is sprayed” and “broken window” lead to the consensus that there is an intruder that has taken the child. The rest of the song falls along the same theme, describing the excruciating heart break that occurs when such a tragedy erupts such as “broken homes from separation” and the hopelessness of time passing by without any trace of the kidnapped. The words “Shed the light on all the ones who never thought that they would become” is a warning to others who may lose loved ones in the future, and a way to evoke awareness of the crimes that may affect them. At the end of the song, the singer states that this kidnapper “ain’t comin’ in,” which may be interpreted as not allowing the evildoers affect the singer’s life.
    Flag dcdebbie93on November 29, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I think the song All These Lives by Chris Daughtry is a song about kidnapping. The mother calls for her kid’s attention to come downstairs and get breakfast. As soon as she realizes that her house has been broken in she sees glasses shatter everywhere. The mother is worried to the point that she is not able to breathe. The posters of missing children are hung on building walls. These posters are signs to beg the kidnapper to please return the kid. “They are gonna find you” because the police will not let the kidnapper to keep causing crime. All these lives the kidnapper has been taking and all the homes that have been broken in, it is so wrong to break the laws. As most parents think that this will not happen to their children, they question the world why these things would happen.
    Flag yitingzh92on November 27, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Chris Daughtry wrote this with Mitch Allan, who is lead singer of the band SR-71. Daughtry said of the song: "We didn't want to write about the same old thing. He brought up the theme of child abduction and it became a really deep and emotional song. A song shedding light on the people out there that do that sort of thing. As a parent, this hit close to home because no parent would want to go through that."
    Flag FloridaGuyon October 20, 2011   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:"I didn't get abduction at all when I first heard it. I'm going through a messy divorce, so I feel I've been interpreting songs through my hurt and getting a much different meaning than most. The same was for the Sunday's Here's where the story ends. I interpreted it like this: Dosn't come down for breakfast when she calls because he hasn't come home again from the night before and the running seeing the broken glass is the last time she can handle it needing to face the reality, "Can't deny what we know," Everyone around her knew all along, but turned the other way not wanting to get involved. She can't breathe anymore and go on with this life of infidelity and alcoholism and disrespect. They're gonna find you just believe, you're not a person you're a disease meaning people are beginning to figure you out and know who you really are with your closest friends always seeing through him and he hates them the most because he knows I trust them and listen to them. A sociopath can't handle being figured out and will go to many extremes for the truth not to come out to the woman he thinks he loves. He only loves himself and is incapable of loving anyone else and in a divorce he will take all down with him, including his children because it then only becomes about winning and money. Hurting and torturing and spreading lies about the person since she dosn't want him anymore he has no use for her anymore. He broke her family along with her heart and she almost gave up until he used the children to get back at her and it's wrong and violated them that way. Because he messed with her babies it gave her strength and he will no longer take her world and your breath is all you have left to her and you will not come back in her life ever. Outsiders who I define as anyone who won't care to really know what life is like with a person who has this incurable disease had to be shut out completely, hence the posters and unanswered calls, no clues or traces....no one knew where I was mentally or physically. I have to believe one day they will be able to come to terms with who he really is and shed light on what has become of me, because I never thought this is what it would become with him and instead of holding on to your anger of me not able to speak anymore I needed your silence for once. I call myself for breakfast, but I can't face it, the memories are all lies. Look what he has done to so many lives and all without a care or thought and I am broken, can't you see? He caused so much pain for me, it seems to never end and just when I think It can't get any worse it does, not knowing if I will ever be free of his pain. There has been so many people supporting me, but not one being a family member and all because for the first time in my life I finally stood up to them and shut them out for not just doing one thing for me and that's shut up and just hug me! They couldn't do it and now I feel betrayed and as they call me selfish and unforgiving they should look in the mirror. Although he will be a part of my life forever he aint never coming in because I know he's not a person but a disease that will try to continue to fool the world. I hope my children will be fooled because I don't want them knowing who he really is and break them too. Please God don't let them be broken like me. That's how I interpreted this song and I love it, it speaks for me.....thank you."

    Flag jennyblockon September 29, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:ok people listen up. im going to explain this song the way i percieve it... here it goes...

    Doesn't come down when she calls,
    "It's time for breakfast."

    ok so here the kid could be doing drugs.

    Momma can't get down those halls
    Fast enough to see
    Glass is sprayed across the floor
    From the broken window.

    so the drug pusher they owed broke in. or their pimp or whatever and either beat the hell out of them or took them as callateral. or possibly killed them. i personally think one of the first two.

    She can't breathe anymore.
    Can't deny what we know.

    now this is what could either mean the mother cant breathe or the child. i personally think its the mother who cant breathe.

    they're gonna find you just believe;
    you're not a person you're a disease...

    alright well here i think it means the person who did this to the parents kid is gonna pay. whether the parents find them and hunt them down or the police.

    All these lives that you've been taking,
    Deep inside, my heart is breaking.
    Broken homes from separation.
    Don't you know it's violation?

    most people who do drugs at a young age is because they had a bad childhood. whether their parents seperated, their parents abused drugs, got raped, whatever. there are many reasons for why people turn to drugs. all the lives that DRUGS and ADDICTION have been taking. Or ATTEMPTED SUICIDE. DEPRESSION. many many reasons.

    It's so wrong, but you'll see.
    Never gonna let you take my world from me.
    The world outside these walls may know you're breathing,
    But you ain't comin' in.
    You ain't comin' in.

    again i think its drugs or some sort of addiction to something. people dont want to let it in. for all the christians out there, its of the devil and to let the addiction in is to let satan in. so you refuse it all. it aint comin in.

    Posters hung on building walls
    Of missing faces.
    Months go by without the calls
    The clues, or traces.

    again, people go missing more often from drug pushers and pimps than almost anything else. their posters are hung on walls just as much as kids gone missing. i still personally believe its people addicted to stuff that have gone missing because they have let it run their lives.

    Shed the light on all the ones who never thought they would become
    A father, mother asking why this world can be so cold.

    this is why i think its addiction. i cant define this feeling ive never felt it and maybe CHris has.

    Doesn't come down when she calls,
    "It's time for breakfast."
    The memories begin to fall.
    She asks, "When will I be free?"


    again, someone addicted to ANYTHING never really feels free until they are completely away from it for so long, and even then there is a chance they could fall right back into it. so technically youre never really free from it. i used to be a tad on the suicidal part and sometimes those memories begin to fall back on me too, and sometimes i wonder why im still alove. but i am. and i deal with life just like eveyrone else and im past it now.

    anyway this is my two cents. :P] hope this helps~!
    Flag gixxaliciouson October 08, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:The part were it says "All these lives that you've been taking" I've always thought that ment all the lives she has effected by her going missing. When something big happens like that it will effect many lives and often takes a big part out of it. It also sounds like this has happened many times to the same person.
    Flag Randomnumberoneon August 30, 2010   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:See everyone thinks this is about kidnapping, and altough I think that could be true, I feel like it's about a girl who is tired of her parents fighting or just issues at home, so she runs away. I know it seems like a strech, but I feel like that's what it's about.
    Flag LoveIsTheAnswer2on June 25, 2010   Link
  • 0
    My Opinion:i think its about divorce and the child, being the mother's "world", being taken by the father.
    it can also be about child abduction in general, but the divorce card speaks more to me. then again, my parents are divorced. my father never tired to kidnap us, but i think thats probably why i'm leaning more to the divorced theory.
    Flag sheadarlinon June 13, 2010   Link

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