I’ve been asked to play Christina Perri’s “A Thousand Years” as the bride walks down the aisle at a wedding on Saturday. I was also asked to play it at the last wedding I went to, and I think it’s quite possible that I’ll play it at the next as well.
I have to admit that I love this song. Everything about it is perfect: the stately introduction, that delicious Eb bass under the Bb chord when the vocal comes in, the hesitance of the verse which moves so delightfully to confidence when the tonic chord is struck in the chorus… And the lyrics. Oh my. The lyrics.
I have died every day waiting for you
Darling, don’t be afraid I have loved you
For a thousand years
I’ll love you for a thousand more
Those impatient with the genre might not appreciate what’s going on here, but believe me, if romance were your drug, then you’d know that this is Class A stuff. You’d rob banks for the hit that it affords. Twilight fans know what I’m talking about. “A Thousand Years” was taken from the Breaking Dawn soundtrack and Perri has brilliantly captured the wonder, the impossibility, the inevitability of Edward and Bella’s love. They were made for each other. No, more than that. The universe was made for them. Time itself.
Every breath
Every hour has come to this.
One step closer.
…
All along I believed I would find you
Time has brought your heart to me
I have loved you for a thousand years
I’ll love you for a thousand more
It’s fantastic. Isn’t it?
As I’ve been watching the youtube clip, supposedly preparing my arrangement for the wedding, my 15-year-old son has been sitting nearby telling me mockingly that he has died, every day, waiting for me. My 13-year-old asks if I’d like him to point out the logical inconsistencies in the song. A friend hears it and claims that he’s lost interest after the fourth bar. My husband in the next room thinks that I’m only listening to it because I need to prepare my arrangement for the wedding.
They don’t get it.
Maybe you don’t either.
I’m aware of all the logical inconsistencies, the unreality, and the silliness of “A Thousand Years”, but the truth is that I just like it. And I know I’m not alone in liking it because the official music video has had 2.1 billion views. 2.1 billion!
I’m aware of all the logical inconsistencies, the unreality, and the silliness of “A Thousand Years”, but the truth is that I just like it.
I could write an essay on how songs like this cause women to have unfulfillable romantic expectations, about how they encourage you to ‘follow your heart,’ making decisions based on feelings rather than truth, or about the dangers of believing that there is one god/universe ordained perfect match for you out there.
I could write one of those essays, but I don’t want to. Instead I’d rather think about why it is that this song works for me and for so many others. Some of it, of course, is the romantic content. I love a good love song. A lot of it has to do with the fact that it is masterfully written: the melody, the chords, the instrumentation, the lyric progression, and the vocals are all so cleverly done. It’s a great pop song. But above these things, I think it is the song’s expression of longing and anticipation which make our hearts throb.
It is the song’s expression of longing and anticipation which make our hearts throb
Because the feeling of longing is something that we all carry around with us. We know it.
Teenagers, young adults, and immature grown-ups mistake this feeling of longing for romantic or sexual desire. You can hardly blame them for this—the books we read, the movies we watch, and the songs we listen to (like this one) constantly direct us this way. Christians too, generally fail to offer an alternate interpretation. But the truth is that even if we found our Prince Charming (or Edward Cullen) then the longing would still be there.
Because this longing we feel isn’t actually a longing for a fairy tale dreamy lover. It’s for the one who really has loved us for a thousand years. The one who engineered history so that we would come to know him. The one who takes away our fears and plants us in a world where dreams will come true, where we’ll find the happily ever after that we so desperately want, where we’ll live known and loved and perfected through an ageless eternity.
Christina Perri’s song works because it brings that innate longing to the surface and it promises us that fulfillment is coming.
We are one step closer.
Almost there.
