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Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Ender Will Save Us All/Dashboard Confessional


You may hear a couple of different stories about the origins of the Dashboard Confessional song Ender Will Save Us All, originally recorded for their 2000 debut album The Swiss Army Romance and re-recorded for the 2002 EP Summers Kiss.  Some believe the song is closely based on Orson Scott Card's 1985 science fiction novel Ender's Game, and draw comparisons between the lyrics and Card's story of a young boy who is inducted into a mysterious program in which he must play simulated war games against a hostile alien race.  Others believe the song is about how lead singer Chris Carrabba and a close friend had drifted apart, and how their friendship was saved by a shared affection for Card's Hugo and Nebula Award-winning book.  However, in an interview with Blender.com, Carrabba explained that the connection to the novel is far more tangential:  "I remember I was given a book called Ender’s Game, which I love; I went on to read the whole series.  And then I wrote a song that came at the end of our set, so it was called 'Ender' before it was officially titled.  One night, my friend Amy was making fun of each of the songs on the set list. She wrote 'Ender will save us all.'  I went on to title the song that because it was so funny."  Spoiler alert: In the novel, Ender does save the world.  However, part of the humor also lies in the fact that Carrabba's middle name is Ender.  "Not entirely sure what it means," he said when asked about the significance of the name.  "That's someone else's story to tell."

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