My personal favorite

Yes definitely a great song, but a very sad one too..

love

Zeynep

Zeynep:
It is a very sad song, indeed!
I read in the customers' comments section of DoOH in Amazon.com a (sort of) discussion about the meaning of 50/50 Chance: Is the song about a victim of a terminal illness, or of a failed attempt of suicide?
One person said that the character had suffered a heart attack ("...in the cardiac room..."), but my guess is that she is too young to suffer this sort of illness ("Her little heart...").
Another person suggested it was an attempted suicide, derived from the final line ("...The question is will she try it again?").
Even though I agree that the second opinion makes more sense, I am inclined to believe that the meaning of the final line is "will she keep trying to hold to her life, one day at a time?".
I am the type of person that believes that if I suffered an accident/illness, that deteriorated my way of living to the extent that I would become a burden to my loved ones, I would prefer to give up my life and leave them with a better, briefer memory of me. By this I am not meaning that I would prefer that a person I love just died if he/she became a burden to me. I would lovingly and patiently take care of him/her.
It is just that, after losing three loved and close persons (five, if you consider that one of them was expecting twins when she left us) to unexpected illnesses, I feel like I identify myself better with my interpretation. I just believe they preferred not to cling themselves to life, and decided to leave us, probably, for the better. 50/50 painfully makes me picture myself, staring helplessly at them, kneeling at the edge of the hospital bed. Talking to them, and receiving as a reply, the mechanical breathing of the artificial respirator. Hoping they could hear me, never knowing if they ever did.

Dear Adonai,

Same question used to fill my mind too. I wondered if the girl in the song had a heart illness or did she commit suicide, but I always find the second interpretation more true. (like you said, because of the last line)
But the things you wrote really make sense too.I believe that the listeners fill the songs with meanings as well as the song writers and your interpretation definitely brought me shivers.
Thank you..

lots of love;

Zeynep

I am almost positive that it is about an attempted suicide. whe she talks of "a pan on the floor filled with something black" that is charcoal, its what they use to pump your stomic. and the last line confirms it when she sais "will she try it again"
but everyone has their own interpratation.

Hi Alese, thanks so much for the information about the charcoal, I had been wondering what that black stuff in the pan could be for ages!!!!

I'm pretty convinced the song is about an attempted suicide too, by the way, and it's great how you only learn about it at the very last verse.......wonderful song.

Miki

It is great that Suzanne writes about such uncomfortable stuff sometimes. Like Men in a War, and Widow's Walk, she isn't afraid to open up these subjects of loss and pain.

LS

What was lost in Men in a War? A limb? Wasn't that metaphorical? I know she mentioned people (including herself) linking it to a real event, people losing limbs and all....

So... was 50/50 chance just dreamed up or was it from Suzanne's life... or the life of somebody close to her? I've often wondered.

And yes, I always wondered about that black stuff too!

Suzanne wrote;

"50-50 Chance" is based on a real incident. Someone I'm close to had that experience last year. A suicide attempt. She's okay now. She hasn't tried it again.

Spikey}

Thanks again, answer man!

Thanks vega.net for that one, Pat.

Spike

Hi,

although I've had DoOH for a long time, I only recently discovered this song for me and listened to it a lot during the last months. The lyrics are sad, and yet wonderful, very intimite.

And yet it's the music that I love in this song more than the words. I just love that string/violin arrangement - both the rhythm part and the melody line. For me I find that both the sad/dramatic aspect of the song (that would be the rhythm part) as well as the emotional part, in which you find hope, caring, love (the melody line), are reflected.

The song really gives me goosebumps!

Cheers,
Annika