Not long ago I made a rather long post about the graceful music styling of Josh Groban, and all his writers and composers. The other day I received a comment from a lady asking the meaning behind one of Josh’s songs I had not mentioned in my previous post. A song called Awake.

Awake is a bonus track featured on some of the special edition cd’s entitled… get this… “Awake”. Duh. I don’t really understand why the song the album seems to be named after is only a BONUS track on SOME of the cd’s. PFFFT! I odviously don’t own the “special” cd or I wouldn’t be calling them out on it. LOL

Never-the-less I’m getting off track (no pun intended). Up until I got the comment asking the meaning behind Awake, I had never heard. Thanks to You Tube and all those pop-up sponsored sites that give you song lyrics, I am now well versed.

Listen to the song… 

…And read the lyrics here: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/joshgroban/awake.html

A lot of Josh’s songs seem to have dual meaning. I find easy to apply many of them toward two different relationships: One being between yourself and God, and the second being between yourself and the love of your life. Occasionally maybe a close friend/family member? Let me remind you, that this is all just my own interpretation.

On first listening to Awake, I thought for sure it was about one’s relationship with their wife or girlfriend, but then again came in that dual meaning. The song also seems to have a spiritual meaning in the background, but it takes second place to the relationship between what seems to be a couple.

Here comes the lyrical breakdown. Josh’s lyrics are in purple. My comments remain in black.

A beautiful and blinding morning
The world outside begins to breathe
See clouds arriving without warning
I need you here to shelter me

In the first two line He’s talking about waking up in the morning with the person you love and how beautiful it can be. The second two he moves into how troubles (“clouds”) can sometimes sneak up on you and how he needs her there to help him trough the trials.

And I know that only time will tell us how
To carry on without each other

To carry on without each other…. now that could mean a couple things. A death, a divorce, or in this case it’s probably being in a relationship where neither party communicates with each other.

So keep me awake to memorize you
Give me more time to feel this way.
We can’t stay like this forever
But I can have you next to me today

You can’t take for granted tomorrow, so savor the time you have together…. memorize each other.

If I could make these moments endless
If I could stop the winds of change
If we just keep our eyes wide open
Then everything would stay the same

“If I could stop the winds of change, If we just keep our eyes wide open, Then everything would stay the same…” — Here he seems to be walk about the changes that take place throughout people’s lives. Both parties in a relation ship need to “keep their eyes wide open” and make sure to change together. Communicate with each other, talk about what is going on in each others lifes and each others needs. If you grow/change together, everything will stay the same. But if you change apart, you will become separated from each other.

And I know that only time will tell me how
We’ll carry on without each other

So keep me awake for every moment
Give us more time to be this way

We can’t stay like this forever
But I can have you next to me today

We’ll let tomorrow wait, you’re here, right now, with me
All my fears just fall away, when you are all I see

Changes in life are sometimes scary, but they’re not so bad when you have somebody to confide in and who is there for you.

We can’t stay like this forever
But I have you here today
And I will remember
Oh I will remember
Remember all the love we shared today.

So, there…. to me it seems like a sad sort of love song about how many couples today forget to enjoy each other. They get so busy with their separate lives that they dont share with their “other half.” They lose touch with each others dreams, their wants, their needs, and their life. Together time and communication are very important in keeping a relationship in tact. Without it couples easily fall apart and get used to living in separate worlds. So much so that they can’t learn to live with each other anymore. It appears that in this song Josh, or whoever, is trying to cherish some together time that he has with his girl and use the little bit of time that they have to keep their relationship strong.

That’s one way of looking at it. After writing this and thinking more about it, it seems there are alot of different meanings it could take on. The spiritual meaning relates more to being aware of the beauty in the world and seeing God in it. When he says “[I] See clouds arriving without warning, [and] I need you here to shelter me,” he could be talking about how God is always there for us in times of trouble and can help us through them. Coming from that point of view, go back and look at the song… see if you can put together more pieces of the puzzle. Sometimes I think it’s more beneficial to interpret a song by yourself. It is more versatile when no one is telling you it means this or it means that. When interpreting it yourself the song can mean more to you and be more impactful. If you’d rather not though, that’s fine, just post a comment… “hey what could this mean.”

I think the video above does a good job of portraying the spiritual side of the song. There’s alot of pretty pictures showing God’s amazing creations.

I challenge you to listen to the song and post what you think it means!