Away

By Breaking Benjamin

On We Are Not Alone

Released on June 28, 2004

20K Views

Thumbnail


[Verse 1]

Cold am I

I'm beside myself

Because there's no one else

Have I grown

So blind

Only God could save you

If you knew your way to the light


[Pre-Chorus]

So fly away

And leave it behind

Just stay awake

There's nowhere to hide


[Chorus]

I see you, 'cause you won't get out of my way

I hear you, 'cause you won't quit screaming my name

I feel you, 'cause you won't stop touching my skin

I need you, they're coming to take you away


[Verse 2]

Frail and dry

I could lose it all

But I cannot recall it all

Wrong, don't cry

Clear away this hate

And we can start to make it all right


[Pre-Chorus]

So fly away

And leave it behind

Return someday

With red in your eyes


[Chorus]

I see you, 'cause you won't get out of my way

I hear you, 'cause you won't quit screaming my name

I feel you, 'cause you won't stop touching my skin

I need you, they're coming to take you away


[Chorus]

I see you, 'cause you won't get out of my way

I hear you, 'cause you won't quit screaming my name

I feel you, 'cause you won't stop touching my skin

I need you, they're coming to take you away

“They’re coming to take you away”
👍 1
×

Possibly an allusion to a 1966 song “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!” by Jerry Samuels. The author means being taken away to a mental hospital in the wake of his going insane.

“Just stay awake There’s nowhere to hide”
👍 1
×

He can’t hide from his addiction, it is always there taunting him.

“So fly away And leave it behind”
👍 3
×

He wants to leave his fears and anxieties “fly away” like a bird. He wants to be free of his paranoia. Interestingly, birds are often used as symbols of freedom.

“Frail and dry I could lose it all But I cannot recall it all Wrong, don’t cry Clear away this hate And we can start to make it all right [Pre-Chorus] So fly away And leave it behind Return someday With red in your eyes”
👍 4
×

A person who changes dramatically for the better will reflect on that situation with anger toward the people who were bad for them I think that’s the meaning of the red eyes here.
So he is convincing himself that the addiction is wrong..all wrong and he’s encouraging himself to change to the better.

“I see you, ’cause you won’t get out of my way I hear you, ’cause you won’t quit screaming my name I feel you, ’cause you won’t stop touching my skin”
👍 2
×

The chorus details his struggle to stay sober and fight his alcoholism. He personifies his addiction as an abusive individual that follows him where ever he goes and goads him into drinking again.

‘I see you…’ everywhere he goes he sees alcohol, ‘I hear you…’ his mind is screaming at him to drink again, ‘I feel you…’ it’s a constant presence that he can’t escape from.