But I’m thinking of what Sarah said:
“That love is watching someone die.”
Whose gonna watch you die?
“What Sarah Said” by Death Cab for Cutie takes on a topic you don’t hear often in music: death in a hospital. “What Sarah Said” is unique just in that sense alone. The waiting, the powerlessness, the antiseptic environment feels like an alien world. Yet it is often an important time and place for people.
Families come and say their goodbyes to loved ones and reminisce; it is sad. But consider the alternative. Imagine if no one came to see you or if you had no one close to you to watch die. That is the message of the song. While Death Cab for Cutie tries to put a happy face on with their words, the melancholy tone of the song says that death is painful.
The music and vocals are gorgeous. The piano is particularly well done. The outro is powerful in a surprising way, even if the lyrics might sound nonsensical out of context. The song makes you think about the people in your life and your own mortality and how many songs have the ability to do that and sound good as well?
What Sarah Said Lyrics
And it came to me then
That every plan
Is a tiny prayer to father time
As I stared at my shoes
In the ICU
That reeked of piss and 409
And I rationed my breaths
As I said to myself
That I’d already taken too much today
As each descending peak
On the LCD
Took you a little farther away from me
Away from me
Amongst the vending machines
And year old magazines
In a place where we only say goodbye
It sung like a violent wind
That our memories depend
On a faulty camera in our minds
And I knew that you were truth
I would rather lose
Than to have never lain beside at all
And I looked around
At all the eyes on the ground
As the TV entertained itself
‘Cause there’s no comfort in the waiting room
Just nervous paces bracing for bad news
And then the nurse comes round
And everyone lifts their heads
But I’m thinking of what Sarah said
That love is watching someone die
So who’s gonna watch you die
So who’s gonna watch you die
So who’s gonna watch you die
Songwriters: Benjamin D. Gibbard / Christopher Ryan Walla / Jason Patrick McGerr / Nicholas Scott Harmer