Savin' Me

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"Savin' Me"
"Savin' Me" cover
Single by Nickelback
from the album All the Right Reasons
Released Flag of European Union April 27, 2006
Format Digital download (NA)
CD single (Elsewhere)
Genre Rock
Length 3:39
Label Roadrunner
Writer(s) Chad Kroeger,
Nickelback
Chart positions
Nickelback singles chronology
"Far Away"
(2006)		 "Savin' Me"
(2006)		 "Rockstar"
(2006)

"Savin' Me" is a rock song written by Canadian band Nickelback. It was released as the third major single (fourth overall) from their fifth album All the Right Reasons (2005). The song has reached number one on the Canadian charts and number nineteen on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Contents

[edit] Music video

In the music video, directed by Nigel Dick, a man is saved by a random stranger before he blindly steps onto the street and almost gets struck by a bus. He begins to see timers above the heads of other people, but he appears not to have one of his own. He attempts to figure out what the timers represent, yet he is unable to until an old woman's reaches 0:00:00 and she dies. When he notices a pregnant woman with a timer above her abdomen, he understands: the numbers within the timers are an indicator of how long the people have to live. At the end of the video, he manages to save a woman's life from getting crushed by a falling stone-statue as she approaches her car (her timer suddenly began to deplete extremely quickly the closer she got to her car, until only 2 seconds remain, whereupon he pulls her out of the way); it is then that the woman begins to see timers over people's heads. Although not explicitly presented, the implication appears to be that once the person has saved another, they are "released" from their burden and can no longer see the timers (and so the stranger who saved the protagonist may have been seeing the timers until he did so) . It becomes the newest person's job to save another.

Part of this video was shot outside Oceanic Plaza, which is on Hastings Street, Vancouver. The video also features brief shots of the band performing the song casually in an apartment that appears to be above the street where the main part of the video is taking place.

[edit] Interpretation of Timers

The timers, as mentioned earlier, are an indicator to the remaining lifespan of a single person. There are two main interpretations of the timer's readings.

  • The first interpretation follows the standard format of year, month, day, hour, minute and second. Although conventional, the interpretation results is that everyone appears to have a relatively short lifespan remaining, including the main character in the video, who is shown to have about 21 years to live, despite being (at least in appearance) a man of about 25.
  • The second interpretation suggests the timer shows the amount of minutes a person has remaining. This interpretation has been lauded as more rational, as the main character, rather than having around 21 years to live, instead has around 41 years to live. It appeared that this interpretation will not work on those who are close to dying, as in the case of the old woman who the protagonist saw wheeled into an ambulance. However, it seems that as the timers count down, unnecessary digits disappear. The best illustration of this is just before the woman is saved from being crushed. As she approaches her car, the 9 digit timer suddenly starts decreasing rapidly and losing digits until only 3 digits remain, showing her to have about 2 seconds left. In the case of the old woman, she had about 10.00 seconds remaining when we first see her - when she has 2 seconds left, the display is 2.00, not 02.00.

However, it also appears that the timers display differently depending on how much time is left - normally, it goes minutes.hundreths of seconds (MM.HH or MM,MMM,MMM.HH). If less than a minute remains, it goes seconds.hundreths of seconds (SS.HH or S.HH)

The timers also seem to self-centre themselves over their person's head at all times.

  • It should be noted that the main character (presumably) has a timer before he is saved, yet when he can see the timers, he has none. This is to indicate that his life is on standby until he saves someone else. This is supported by the fact that he is chattering away on his cell phone before he gets saved, then as soon as he saves the woman, he's talking on his cell phone again; apparently continuing the conversation he was having earlier.

[edit] Track listings and formats

UK 3-track single (June 13, 2006)

  1. "Savin' Me" [pop mix] – 3:39
  2. "Animals" [live] – 3:52
  3. "Follow You Home" [live] – 7:08

EU CD single (April 27, 2006)

  1. "Savin' Me" [pop mix] – 3:39
  2. "Animals" [live] – 3:52
  3. "Follow You Home" [live] – 7:08
  4. "Savin' Me" [Video] – 4:49

[edit] Charts

Chart (2006)[1] Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 19
U.S. Billboard Top 40 Mainstream 6
U.S. Billboard Pop 100 14
U.S. Billboard Pop 100 Airplay 11
U.S. Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks 29
U.S. Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks 11
U.S. Billboard Hot Digital Songs 15
U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks 2
U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks 29
U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Top 40 Recurrents 1
VSPOT Top 20 Countdown 1 (1)
Australian Singles Chart 18
Austrian Singles Chart 43
Canadian Singles Chart 2
Dutch Singles Chart 25
German Singles Chart 72
Irish Singles Chart 47
New Zealand Singles Chart 9
Swiss Singles Chart 82
United World Chart 20

[edit] Trivia

  • It is interesting to note that that almost everyone at the end of the video, protagonist included, has their death time at 21.245.541.00. It is not yet certain if this was symbolic or if the repeated number was simply a time saver for the video editors.

(Note: assuming that the timer figure is 21,245,541 minutes, that means they each have approx. 40.21 years of life left. 21,245,541 minutes /60 = 354092.35 hours /24 = 14753.85 days /365 = 40.21 years. (all figures to 2.d.p))

  • The song was used as the advertising and theme song for Surgery Saved My Life on the Discovery Channel
  • On September 11, 2006, a 9-11 version of sorts could be heard on the radio in which the song is accompanied by various clips pertaining to the 9-11 hijackings. An example is when the lyrics "I'm up on the ledge of the eighteenth story" play, there are clips of people screaming about others jumping from the windows of the Twin Towers.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Chart peak positions:
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