Be My Escape
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| “Be My Escape” | |||||
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| Single by Relient K from the album Mmhmm |
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| Released | 2005 | ||||
| Format | CD | ||||
| Genre | Christian rock | ||||
| Length | 4:00 | ||||
| Label | Gotee Capitol |
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| Writer(s) | Matthew Thiessen | ||||
| Producer | Mark Lee Townsend | ||||
| Certification | Platinum | ||||
| Relient K singles chronology | |||||
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"Be My Escape" is the first single from Christian rock band Relient K's fourth full-length album, Mmhmm. It was certified a platinum single in November of 2005 and is usually referred to as Relient K's most popular mainstream song.
"Be My Escape" was featured in the 2006 Men's U.S. Open Tennis Championship, with the song's opening guitar solo playing as the event headed into a commercial.
[edit] Song
The song is the singer's plea for "escape" from his past mistakes. Although the lyrics avoid directly mentioning God, given the band's Christian background, the song is usually taken to refer to Him. "Be My Escape" uses guitars, drums, and keyboards, and the pace is varied effectively to give a sense of longing and desperation. The last forty seconds or so are a slow epilogue, with no instruments other than the drums, vibraphone and piano.
The song's lyrics at the beginning of the verses are often mistaken. Many have thought the first lines of the two verses to be "I'm giving up, I'm giving up slowly" and "I'm giving up, I'm doing this alone now". The actual lines from the beginning of the first two verses are "I've given up on givin' up slowly" and "I've given up on doing this alone now".
An acoustic version of the song was released in November 2005 on the Apathetic EP. It included the addition of a mandolin.
The song is Relient K's #2 song on iTunes in popularity.
[edit] Music video
The music video shows the band playing in a room where the walls are slowly closing in on them. At the end, a burst of light appears and the walls of the room fall down, but away from the band. The band then plays in an open field with the album cover's sunflowers in it, with the background shot on a blue screen. Lead singer Matt Thiessen has been quoted as not being happy with it, and claimed that the band wanted more animation other than clouds. The moving walls were simply stagehands pushing them inwards. Some fans wondered about the inclusion of a girl in this video when the song has Christian themes, but others have pointed out that it still works as it could be asking Jesus for escape from a problem with the girl in the video. This video was the first Relient K music video to feature bassist John Warne and guitarist Jon Schneck.
In addition, the piano solo at the end of the song was removed in the video, and an extra vocal line was added during the second and third refrains to add to the harmony. The opening guitar riff was also shorter, repeated only once instead of thrice unlike the original song. Exclusions visually include Dave Douglas singing background vocals, and Matt Thiessen playing the piano. The video debuted at # 67 on iTunes top 100 music videos and soon progressed to #27. It stayed on the list for 12 weeks. The music video entered TRL's Top 10 in 2005, reaching as high as #9 on the countdown.
It is believed that a picture of C.C. Sheffield (The girl in the "Who I Am Hates Who I've Been" video) is in the house. As the house caves in, the pictures fall and break. The girl is not confirmed to be her, however.
The video has over 1,800,000 viewings on YouTube.com.[1]
Click here to watch the "Be My Escape" Music Video.
[edit] Video credits
- Matt Thiessen - Lead Vocals, Guitar, Piano
- Matt Hoopes - Guitar
- Dave Douglas - Drums, Backing Vocals
- John Warne - Bass
- Jon Schneck - Guitar
