Clinger 1

Kieren Clinger

Dr.Cassel

Eng 1201. 2V3

23 February, 2022

“I Will Follow You Into The Dark”

"I Will Follow You into the Dark" by Death Cab for Cutie is their third single from their

2005 album, Plans. The song was written entirely by Ben Gibbard of the band. Years before he

turned 29, Ben Gibbard had never lost anyone in his life. As he got older, he started to reflect on

the importance of people in his life, and he wrote the song to deal with his problems focusing on

life." It's just this idea that what if somebody dies and we're just floating, just stumbling around

in infinite darkness, and I'm just trying to find some kind of spiritual kind of peace with myself

and the world (Ben Gibbard)." SayWeCanFly, also known as Braden Barrie, is a one-person

acoustic act that started on YouTube. Even after being contracted to Epitaph Records, he stays

true to his roots and plays guitar in every song. His fans are moved by his heartfelt lyrics and

unstoppable desire. In his version of "I Will Follow You into the Dark," released in 2017 in its

album single, he uses the song to elaborate on his interpretation of meaning for the lyrics Though

both versions of "I Will Follow You into the Dark" have the same lyrics, Death Cab for a Cutie's

performance is more about being alone and going insane in this world without your significant

other or the ones you love, while Braden Barrie's version is more about being lost in his career

and fame and feeling so hopeless and sad that the darkness takes over.

Ben Gibbard appears in the main music video, which was shot in Romania and directed

by Jamie Thraves, in a modest, simply decorated apartment, playing the song while sitting on his
 Clinger 2

bed when he sees a hole in the hardwood floor. Gibbard goes about his daily routine while

avoiding the ever-expanding hole, eventually sliding out of bed into it and clinging to the edge

with his fingertips. When he ultimately lets go, he lands safely on the firm ground within a void

of the same depth as his height. The song concludes with Gibbard disappearing into the darkness,

after which the camera pans back to show the entire room with the floor restored to its former,

undamaged state. "I think what it is about 'I Will Follow You Into The Dark that connects to

people is the fact that we are all going to lose everyone in our lives," Gibbard informed NME of

the song's meaning and inspiration. "Everyone in our lives is going to die. We, too, will die

someday, and people will mourn us."

In the cover done by Braden Barrie, we open to him walking on train tracks while

looking at his phone here and there and transitioning back and forth between him on the tracks

and him sitting in front of a campfire. He continues his walk on the tracks, all the while his

phone is going off with notifications. As the song goes on, he gets more emotional, and he looks

at his phone more often, causing his chest to start hurting or, more specifically, his heart. By the

end of the song, he is in so much discomfort that he takes off his shirt and holds his chest to ease

the pain. Yet as the last verse is sung, he drops to the ground, and we focus in on his phone,

showing it is out of battery or dead.

In both videos, they exhibit many similarities and differences. For instance, in the

original song by Ben Gibbard, he lets the audience know right away that this song is about

emotion and gives us an ethos appeal. He does this by the tone of the music and his body

language throughout; we feel for him and that in this simplistic room that he is in, he can leave

and enter at free will. He kind of just feels alone. This is all-important in the fact that it's stated or
 Clinger 3

instead shows the whole point about the song "everything lives and dies; everything is going to

live and die."

In Braden Barrie's Cover of "I Will Follow You Into The Dark," without exhibiting many

similarities, he takes a different approach to this song, its meaning, and its lyrics. For example,

he looks at his phone as it fills with all these messages from social media, which can sometimes

be overwhelming for celebrities. And doing this, he gives off an ethos appeal as well. We feel for

him because he is overwhelmed by all this stress from being a celebrity. More of The ethos

appeal comes out in the form of his phone at the end of the music video when he is shown to

have fallen to the ground lifeless with dead eyes while focusing on his phone flashes, saying it is

out of battery.

To sum up, both of these songs have different meanings for each person. There's no doubt

that in both take it off and ethos appeal. The more you watch the music videos, the more little

details you'll see and the more emotion you'll see. Both of them have a different meaning to the

song, but each piece was made amazingly.

 Clinger 4

Works Cited

Braden Barrie "I Will Follow You into the Dark" - Youtube.com.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSOphAQUf6k.

Death Cab for Cutie – “I Will Follow You into the Dark” - Youtube.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iV_1ESMHaI.