Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol

We’ll do it all, everything, on our own
We don’t need anything or anyone

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

I don’t quite know how to say how I feel
Those three words are said too much
They’re not enough

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we’re told before we get too old
Show me a garden that’s bursting into life

Let’s waste time chasing cars around our heads
I need your grace to remind me to find my own

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we’re told before we get too old
Show me a garden that’s bursting into life

All that I am, all that I ever was, is here in your perfect eyes, they’re all I can see
I don’t know where, confused about how as well
Just know that these things will never change for us at all

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

I could leave that as is and it will be the most beautiful article ever posted on this blog. Sadly, and obviously, those words are not mine. I am nowhere near that gifted.

In an ethics class in university (I was in Strathmore. Enough said) we were given an assignment to use a song/movie/book to describe one of the virtues. You could either go with one of the three theological virtues as named in 1 Corinthians 13: And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. Or with one of the four cardinal virtues: prudence, temperance, fortitude and justice. I chose love (I am a hopeless romantic after all) and used the lyrics of Chasing Cars. No intro, no outro, just the lyrics as they appear here. The lecturer, who was Opus Dei, gave me 9/10. That should tell you how pure the love emanating from these lyrics is.

I first heard Chasing Cars on One Tree Hill during the buildup to Nathan and Hayley’s wedding in the season three finale. How I wish I had Shazam back then. The CW is very on trend with the music it has in its shows and before I got a phone that was Shazam enabled I had to use Google to identify a song. So inconvenient.

Quick digress – OTH was my shit! Every Wednesday at 8pm I would be tuned to KTN, ready for the week’s episode. This was way before DVD vendors became the norm obliterating scheduled viewing, and definitely way before torrents (should I say that?) and streaming, which are the norm now. From time to time I would catch the show with my mum. I remember her commenting how Lucas Scott (Chad Michael Murray) has such arresting eyes. Of course she did not use the word arresting, but that is what she meant. Lucas was everybody’s #MCM way before #MCM became a thing.

The song is by Snow Patrol, a Northern Irish rock band formed in Scotland in 1994, consisting of Gary Lightbody, Nathan Connolly, Paul Wilson, Jonny Quinn, and Johnny McDaid. As per Wikipedia the phrase “Chasing Cars” came from Lightbody’s father, in reference to a girl Lightbody was infatuated with. “You’re like a dog chasing a car. You’ll never catch it and you just wouldn’t know what to do with it if you did.”

I found this out for the first time on Rick Dees, but of course he did not put it like that. Rick stays clowning. I will never forget it, it was all very dramatic, sound effects and all. After teasing that one of the upcoming songs was inspired by dogs, he went on to play Chasing Cars after the break. Once the song was through, he offered this explanation.

Rick: Did you know that this song is about … DOGS!

SFX: Woof! Woof! Woof!

Rick: (laughing) Yeah. No kidding. About how dogs like to chase cars.

SFX: Vrooom! Vrooom! Woof woof woof … screeeeeeech!!

For a very long time I wondered how this most beautiful song is about dogs 😐 I am glad to know it is deeper than that.

The song has also been on Grey’s Anatomy. First in the season two finale then later in the musical episode. Following its airing in the season two finale, the song gained such popularity it was made into a music video for the show, serving as a promotion for its third season. Till this day when I hear Chasing Cars Grey’s almost immediately comes to mind. RIP Denny Duquette. Over the years the show has played a few covers of the song and in last week’s episode it debuted a Spanish version. While researching this article I came across an interview showrunner Krista Vernoff did with The Hollywood Reporter. Below is an excerpt where she talks about commissioning the Spanish version.

Grey’s is a show that is dear to my heart for so many reasons and the music it has played over the years will stay with me forever. This is the first post tagged in The Music of Grey’s Anatomy. Stay tuned for many more.