Maybe I'm just too dumb to figure it out, but can anyone tell me what's so poetic about a tourniquet? Evanescence's song is the second one of that name I know, and I still can't make any sense out of it. I checked in my Oxford dictionary, and all I found was that it's a medical device, which I already knew. I first thought thast there was another meaning to it, but this doesn't seem to be the case. So why the heck is it "My God, my tourniquet, return to me salvation..."??? Any thoughts?

Something to do with drugs, perhaps? haven't heard the song but that's the first thing that came to my head.

Pearl are you sure it's Tourniquet and not Turn Key? the latter being a phrase used for a door keeper, one who lets you into something.

Nope, just googled it and it's tourniquet - just read the whole song and it's really quite depressing.

Quote:

---

I tried to kill the pain,
But only brought more.
(So much more)
I lay dying,
And I'm pouring
crimson regret, and betrayal.

I'm dying,
Praying,
Bleeding,
Screaming.

Am I too lost to be saved?
Am I too lost?

My God! My Tourniquet,
Return to me salvation.
My God! My Tourniquet,
Return to me salvation.

Do you remember me;
Lost for so long?
Will you be on the other side?
Or will you forget me?

I'm dying,
Praying,
Bleeding,
Screaming.

Am I too lost to be saved?
Am I too lost?

My God! My Tourniquet,
Return to me salvation.
My God! My Tourniquet,
Return to me salvation.

(Return to me salvation)
(I want to DIE!)

My God! My Tourniquet,
Return to me salvation.
My God! My Tourniquet,
Return to me salvation.

My wounds cry for the grave.
My soul cries for deliverance.
Will I be denied?
Christ! Tourniquet! My suicide.

(Return to us salvation)
(Return to us salvation...)

---

The band was originally marketed as a Christian band but the say they are Christians in a band and not really a Christian band. Quite a controvesial little group.

So Pearl, I'm even more confused than before - can't even begin to think why that word is used.

Well I was trying to see some optimistic interpretation of the lyric , but I see a tourniquet to the Carotid Artery is more appropiate reading that lyric!

I agree with you, Fosse. It's hard to believe, but apparently this is no metaphor here but just the plain fact that the narrator is dying and needs a tourniquet... Well, not exactly like that. She needs "you" LIKE a tourniquet... Ah, heck, I love this song. It's difficult to explain what I really mean... my aunt and my niece are distracting me, and I can't think of all the vocabulary I need

Ok, maybe I'm reaching a bit here, but bear with me. A tourniquet is used to stop the flow of blood. I believe, it can also be used to stop the flow of poison through the body (I may be wrong, a doctor I ain't.) Maybe the singer is speaking of a "poison" of sorts, she's asking her god to help stop the flow of the poison and bring her to back to salvation. It seems to me from reading the lyrics, that she's tired and needs hope. Maybe that's because I'm in one of my moods and I'm projecting, who knows. We songwriter types aren't always literal. It's much more fun to let people take their own meaning from the words than it is to spell it out. Why on earth did I put that much effort into a song by a band I hate? Chalk it up to insomnia folks.

Agree with IndieQueen here. Marilyn Manson also have a track of the same title.

There is a group who call themselves Tourniquet perhaps Evanescance are refering to them

Saying "My God! My Toruniquet!" is to use a metaphor in the same way the Psalmist does when he says, "My God, My Rock." It is a metaphor for God.

The Tourniquet saves you from bleeding to death, just as God saves you from eternal death. The singer is asking God to save her, to be her Tourniquet, to stop the slow spirtual death she is dying, to "return to her salvation" (or, as the Psalmist of the Bible says, "restore unto me the joy of my salvation.")

Ironically, she refers to Christ not only as the Tourniquet--which prevents her from dying spirtually--but also as "my suicide." This is because in the Christian view, you must die to your old self in order to be saved from spiritual death--that is, you die to be reborn: "He who loses his life for my sake shall find it."

This is clearly a Christian song, but I think this band--and any quality band--does well to avoid the "Christian band" label, since most Christian music is...well...pretty bad.

Skylarb,

I would respect this band much more if they had stuck to their guns and proclaimed themselves a Christian band. They were a Christian band originally. When they signed with a major label, they said they were never a Christian band. Their new label demanded that all of their previous albums be removed from Christian book and music stores and refused to ship the new album to these stores. Had they not denied that they were a Christain band, I'd respect them. As it is, I feel that they let the money get in the way of their beliefs. Obviously, there is a difference between a band made up of Christians and a Christian band, I think these guys really missed the mark and insulted Christains by claiming they never made Christian music.

No, I have not lost my mind. I'm not a Christian, but I think that standing up for one's views is important.

According to the other lyrics in the song, it might be "god". IndieQueen might bee right, they are a little er - gothy, aren't they?

I always assumed people used it as a metaphor for someone who seems to cut off your blood flow.

Post deleted by live5trivia

Not to be rude, but I don't know where you're getting that they aren't a Christian band. Every album before this one was sold in Christian record stores. That article was carried in Spin, Rolling Stone, Revolver and several other magazines.

I don't consider them goth or alternative either. I've never liked them, I'm not shy about that. You do like them and that's fine. But, there's no need to get so upset because others don't like them.

Edited to say, I did some digging and Here is one of the articles I was talking about.

live5trivia,

You didn't have to delete you post. There was nothing to apologize for in it. You're very passionate about what you like, so am I.

I had a reply for you, but it makes no sense now. Please don't feel like you were wrong or out of line or anything like that, you weren't.