Switchfoot - Meant to Live

"Meant to Live" is a single by alternative rock band Switchfoot. It peaked at #5 on the US Modern Rock chart, #6 on U.S. Top 40 radio, and #18 on the U.S. Hot 100. It is the first track on the group's 2003 major-label debut album The Beautiful Letdown, and was also featured in a UK version of a Spider-Man 2 "inspired by" album. In April 2005, the song was certified gold in the United States. The single is generally regarded as the song that helped the band achieve mainstream success.



Switchfoot -"Meant to Live" (Spider Man 2 OST)
Songwriters: Foreman, Foreman, Jonathan; Timothy David
Copyright owner: Sony/BMG


Lyrics:
Fumbling his confidence 
And wondering why the world has passed him by
Hoping that he's bent for more than arguments
And failed attempts to fly, fly

[Chorus]
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside
Somewhere we live inside
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside

Dreaming about Providence
And whether mice or men have second tries
Maybe we've been livin with our eyes half open
Maybe we're bent and broken, broken

[Chorus]

We want more than this world's got to offer
We want more than this world's got to offer
We want more than the wars of our fathers
And everything inside screams for second life, yeah

We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
We were meant to live
We were meant to live 

Background

Lyrically this song was inspired by T. S. Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men." About the song, singer/writer Jon Foreman has said, "Maybe the kid in the song is me, hoping that I'm meant for more than arguments and failed attempts to fly. Something deep inside of me yearns for the beautiful, the true. I want more than what I've been sold; I want to live life." According to Foreman, this song was also inspired by U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."

It also refers to John Steinbeck's novella Of Mice and Men, in the lyric "Dreaming about Providence and whether mice or men have second tries."

Music videos

There were three music videos made for this song. The first video features live performance footage, the second is a concept video depicting the band playing inside a house while the walls and insides are slowly being torn down, and a third video is mixed into clips from Spider-Man 2, and was released exclusively in the UK.

The first two videos featured audio mixed a key higher than the album version.

Chart positions

Chart (2003)	Peak position
AU ARIA	5
US Billboard Hot 100	18
US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks	5
US Billboard Top 40 Mainstream	6
US Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks	36
US Billboard Pop 100	5

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