Lyrics for Burn Out Brighter (Northern Lights) as interpreted by reginakitteh

Burn Out Brighter (Northern Lights) Lyrics
Live; I wanna live inspired.
Die; I wanna die for something.

Racing towards the heavens, I fell into a pitch black.
I'm moments from landing, and I'm shaking like a heart attack.

Lose no time; cannot survive.
I made mistakes in the past.
Need a chance; can't take it back.
Wish I could set things right tonight.

Live; I wanna live inspired.
Die; I wanna die for something higher than myself.
Live and die for anyone else.
The more I live I see, this life's not about me.

All I know spins out of control.
Wonder what's next for heart and soul.
Nothing I have can save me now.
Here in what maybe my final hour.

It's my time, cannot survive.
I made mistakes in the past.
Need a chance; can't say goodbye.
Wish I could set things right tonight.

Live; I wanna live inspired.
Die; I wanna die for something higher than myself.
Live and die for anyone else.
The more I live I see, this life's not about me.

Don't wanna leave this world, knowing I've lived in vain.
No time for myself; so sorry, so ashamed.
Don't wanna leave this life, knowing I've barely tried.
Chase down all my dreams that I've hid away on the inside.

Live; I wanna live on fire.
Die; I wanna burn out brighter.
Brighter than the Northern Lights.
Wanna live to feel the daylight.
The more I live I see, this life's not about me.

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Northern Lights
08-24-2008

Rated +1 
Thios song is about what it means to be a Christ Figure, giving up your life for someone else. Similar to what Paul says about love in 1st Corinthians, I believe all of us can live with passion and conviction in our lives, but if we stray from our first love and what we are called to be, we are nothing. Hence, true love would compel us to step out of nothingness and die for a higher cause, a living truth that binds all of us together in fellowship. If you think this is too Spiritual, realize that it is a Christian song, though Anberlin is technically not a Christian band. You can't give up your life for yourself, that is impossible. Yet it cannot be foreshadowed other than foretold to be true that in all casses of essence in what is meant to be that in dying we are born to eternal life. Always the opposite is lived to achieve the greater.

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taboo_angel
09-15-2008

Rated +1 
yeah i agree with thhe above.
our life should mirror christ's life.. and his was a life of sacrifice. we should be willing to sacrifice our time, our patience and whatever else to help others and show them christ..
what good is our life if we save it all for ourselves? will it save us? no. will it save someone else? no.
this life's not about me. i need to be reminded of this everyday... im so selfish... luckily i listen to every anberlin song everyday ;]

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lindsdeal
10-04-2008

Rated +1 
I really like this song, especially the Live; I wanna live inspired.
Die; I wanna die for something lines and their variations.
I think this song is about someone nearing the end of this life (All I know spins out of control.
Wonder what's next for heart and soul.
Nothing I have can save me now.
Here in what maybe my final hour.)

They are facing the unknown with a bit of fear and anticipation. Part of this song is about regretting time spend on mistakes and foolish things, while the other part is very hopefully and talks about making the most of the time we have left and living like Christ.

I also love this line "Racing towards the heavens"
1 Cor. 9:24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.

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yeee_son
01-04-2009

Rated +1 
"In the past, my humanitarian efforts would rarely inspire my lyrics, but on New Surrender, it became a very prominent topic. "Burn Out Brighter (Northern Lights)" is about the regrets of a person going down in an airplane crash and wishing that he had spent more time concerning himself with the affairs of humanity as a whole as opposed to selfish green and gain."

from the February 2009 issue of AP Magazine

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woc2oom
01-12-2009

Rated 0 
Hahaha. I love how everyone jumps to the Christian explanation and it ends up not being the case at all.

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soccero15
01-26-2009

Rated 0 
woc2oom - I like how you were able to take a song with ambiguous lyrics and decide for yourself that it had no Christian meaning at all just because someone pulled a quote from AP. Did it ever occur to you that the singer may have been toning down the purpose of a song as not to bias or categorize the song topics?

I've noticed that a lot of the most talented artists can take lyrics that have a Christian undertone, and yet still write them to appeal to non-christian listeners.

This song is a perfect example. The basic idea of the song is to live your life to the fullest, but not for yourself. Sacrifice is the greatest gift you can give. Yet, the funny thing is that that is a major idea throughout Christianity.

Even if Christian wrote the songs with a focus on helping under privileged people, again you hit a idea that originated with Christianity. Christians are "supposed" to help one another including the sick and less fortunate.

Don't close your mind down.

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caiti all over.
02-15-2009

Rated 0 
does this have any relation the the Switchfoot song Burn Out Bright?
cause the titles are kinda the same.
just a thought..

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emmad123
03-29-2009

Rated -1 
this song is about being in the last moment of your life, and realizing that you havn't lived your life the way you should have.
the person wants another chance, they want to live past this so they can turn their life around and live to help other people
to truly be happy we can't be selfish

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1 Reply
fdillich
04-19-2009

Rated 0 
I'm not Christian but I have defilitely identified with these lyrics... they are just like my life right now, recovering from depression, realizing that life is about helping other people and having a good time and finally finding your soulmate (or God)

@emmad123; It's definitely not a song about regret, everythign in is the present of future tense, they about changing your outlook on life and having a positive attitude.

also i think the last stanza chorus is

Live; I wanna live on fire.
Die; I wanna burn out brighter.
Brighter than the Northern Lights.
Wanna live to feel the daylight.
The more I GIVE I see, this life's not about me.

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Aeetos
07-16-2009

Rated 0 
I can see how it identifies with Christ's life but I won't go so far as to say that it's all about him. If we all lived Jesus's life the human race would die off in a single generation - just kidding ;-)

But Jesus lived a life a sacrifice, he was a beggar for lack of better term - the lowest of the low - and thus could associate with everyone on earth at the time, which is also why he was able to so successfully deliver his message back then as well as to today's times.

Basically what this song is saying is to get up off your butt and start living a life worth living so that when you are on your deathbed you will have no regrets.

Did Jesus live a life like that? In my opinion yes but that really is one's own perspective. Also this set of lyrics here seem to talk to something more specific:

Lose no time; cannot survive.
I made mistakes in the past.
Need a chance; can't take it back.
Wish I could set things right tonight.

I think that whatever that mistake he he made is the reason he's singing this song and deciding that he needs to change his life around.

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bradsh
07-20-2009

Rated 0 
I agree with fdillich. I've listened to the last line a number of times and I'm pretty sure it is:

"The more I GIVE I see, this life's not about me."

Which fits with the theme of the song, really.
Also: LOVE this song.

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invalidusername86
08-10-2009

Rated 0 
I just imagine this guy sitting in his seat, watching the engines on fire as his plane screams toward the ground, and for one moment realizing how pretty it would look from the ground if it weren't tragic---and then thinking that THAT'S how he'd like to live---on fire, with no hesitation and no regrets.

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