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Our Lady Peace

Naveed

It really was one of those songs we wrote in pre-production and no one really got it. That was one of the times where we felt like this was our calling card, like that song meant the most to us out of any we’d written and we had to fight tooth and nail to even record it. Our producer was like, ‘Yeah, I kind of get it.’

There was a cool groove. I remember we were in that space in Mississauga and we were listening to a lot of Robbie Robertson and he had that song, 'Somewhere Down the Crazy River,' and the drum beat to that song and the groove on that record were really amazing, kind of these Delta, soulful New Orleans-type grooves. Jeremy [Taggart] started playing, then the bass and guitar locked into it. It just had this power and this energy.

The story to me is very personal. It’s not so much an insight into me as it is talking to somebody else in my family, but it was definitely one of those songs where even after it was recorded, no one wanted to put it out as a single. It was the last song on Naveed that came out and that’s what really clicked for us. I think it was one of those times where we were like, we always have to trust our instincts, because we were kind of right. It was a bit of a feather in our cap because we knew all along that the song would connect because it did with us.- Raine Maida, CBC, 21 Mar. 2014

Lyrics

Central Themes

Come, come Naveed, come, come stay

Are you there, and is it comfortable?
Did you want to escape, try to escape the population?
The pressure is deceiving for you particularly
To let a young man die

Let him die if he wants to
I can't live here anymore
It's hard when you reach for that floor
There's something that tears me inside, so I can't go

Brother are you there? Now tell me is it wonderful
Or were you hoping to find something a little more?
Climbing down the hours and I need to know now
Do the hands of time only rule this chapter?
I'll have to try once again, I'll have to try when I want to

There he's on his knees again trying hard to understand
Why Naveed would let a young man die
Convinced that he might break he reaches for that phone
And then another day is gone

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