| "Alive with the Glory of Love" | ||||
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| Single by Say Anything | ||||
| from the album '...Is a Real Boy' | ||||
| Released | September 11, 2006[1][2] | |||
| Format | Single | |||
| Recorded | 2004 | |||
| Genre | Indie | |||
| Length | 4:15 | |||
| Label | Doghouse Records DOG 108; J-Records |
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| Producer | Tim O'Heir, Stephen Trask | |||
| Say Anything singles chronology | ||||
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"Alive with the Glory of Love" is the first single off of Say Anything's second album ...Is a Real Boy. The song was a hit for the band, charting at number twenty-eight on the Alternative Songs chart.
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The song, described as an "Intense and oddly uplifting rocker about a relationship torn by the Holocaust,"[3] by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is actually semi-biographical in nature, telling the story of songwriter and vocalist Max Bemis's grandparents, both of who were Holocaust survivors.[3] The song documents the love between two individuals as they live their lives in the ghetto, in hiding, and in the work camp. In an interview, Bemis said: "I thought about what it would be like to be in love and be separated from the person you love, because these times are just as dire in a way. Anything can happen, in a war and terrorist attacks and cynicism and all these actors who oppose love."[3]
The music video goes between shots of the band playing in front of a tree and a preteen boy who is sleeping in what we are to believe is a camp. During the night the boy wakes up fully dressed, and equipped with a flashlight sneaks out of his bunk. At the same time, a girl in another bunk also awakes and steals off into the night. Running out of the camp he descends a flight of stairs while his female companion sneaks out of her cabin. Numerous official looking guards enter both former cabins doing a bed check, and upon finding the empty beds, the lead guard in the female cabin blows a whistle waking up the entire camp, suggesting that this is something other than an ordinary summer camp. All the lights are turned on throughout the camp including large spotlights on towers illuminating the scene while the guards spread out with flashlights. Both continue to run through the woods separated from each other while the guards follow until they reach a large chain link and barbed wire fence. Upon reaching the fence and realizing their situation, they kiss while lights from the other side of the fence illuminate the scene. Escaping through a gap they come upon the band playing to a small crowd. As the guards continue to search now accompanied by German Shepherds both the boy and girl easily blend in with the rest of the crowd. As the band continues to play they crowd surf and when the guards arrive they find a closed gate with no trace of either the children or the band.
The music video has a lot of Holocaust imagery in it, including the bed checks and the camp setting, reminiscent of the work camps that were dotted throughout Europe during the Second World War. The video along with the lyrics ultimately suggest the deeper meaning of this song, which is based on lead singer Max Bemis's grandparents' survival of the holocaust.
| Chart (2004) | Peak position |
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| US Billboard Alternative Songs[5] | 28 |
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