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My Gen X Playlist: Fix You – Coldplay

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Mount Whitney is the highest peak on the continental US. We had been training for a backpacking trip to the summit and back. This would be a pretty big accomplishment for us city boys to tackle. We were looking forward to the challenge.

Right before the trip, our friend’s father passed away. The trip automatically took a back seat. Our friend was clearly more important and Whitney could wait. It wasn’t going anywhere. We’d postpone it for another time.

No, I need this. We have to go.

I didn’t completely understand why he insisted on going until my father passed away. When we lost him, it felt like the sky was falling and I needed something to grab hold of to keep my sanity. I suspect our friend was going through the same thing. Mount Whitney must have been his hand-hold, his lifeline. So yeah, now in hindsight, I get it. He needed to go.

Over the years I thought about my friend and that trip. I would later begin privately dedicating treks to people I’d lost. Mental walks side by side during long stretches on the trail. Sometimes in conversation, other times in silence and appreciation. It made the trips more meaningful and gave them a higher purpose.

We haven’t gone on a backpacking trip in years. Maybe it’s time to give my friends a nudge to dust off our gear once again. It’s been way too long. I think we are long overdue due.

Coldplay released Fix You in 2005. It’s a song about Gwyneth Paltrow after she lost her father.

According to Gwyneth Paltrow, she was the one Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin was trying to help fix. Patrow met Martin in 2002 just a few weeks after her father . . . passed away. When she appeared on The Howard Stern Show in 2015, she explained: “‘Fix You’ was about him trying to put me back together after my dad died.”

In USA Today, Chris Martin explained where the song started: “My father-in-law Bruce Paltrow bought this big keyboard just before he died. No one had ever plugged it in. I plugged it in, and there was this incredible sound I’d never heard before. All these songs poured out from this one sound. Something has to inspire you, and something else takes over. It’s very cloudy.”

Songfacts

I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard that one sound after my father died. Over the years, I have felt his voice and presence. That’s the hand hold that I hang on to years after that difficult time. And I suppose I don’t really need to wait for another trek to have another conversation with my dad. I know he’s always here with me. I just have to make sure to listen and feel.

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For a complete playlist, please click here.

For the Spotify playlist, please click here.

When you try your best but you don't succeed
When you get what you want but not what you need
When you feel so tired but you can't sleep
Stuck in reverse

When the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can't replace
When you love someone but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

High up above or down below
When you're too in love to let it go
If you never try you'll never know
Just what you're worth

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

Tears stream down your face
When you lose something you cannot replace
Tears stream down your face
And I

Tears stream down your face
I promise you I will learn from my mistakes
Tears stream down your face
And I

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

23 thoughts on “My Gen X Playlist: Fix You – Coldplay”

  3. Beautiful post and song choice. Don’t think I knew the song’s origin. I especially love the bridge into the final section in the official video he’s running through the streets of London and onto the stage… as it builds into that crescendo and the outro, it sounds so hopeful.

    Yes, your friend needed that trek. It’s tough losing our fathers, it feels like we’ve lost direction. I often wish mine was around when important things happened like a child’s birth, a promotion, or retirement, and to ask all the questions I never put out. Coming up on the 24th anniversary of his passing and still missing him as ever. Thank you.

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  4. I love this song by Coldplay. It’s always been one of my favorites. Beautiful post. I love my adoptive father in 1993. He was 69 years old. He visited me in a dream, I think to say good-bye. I remember waking up sobbing. How lovely to dedicate treks to people you’d lost.

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  7. 😎 Great post. Love the idea of dedicating a hike to someone you’ve lost and thinking/talking about them as the miles roll away. My dad passed away in the autumn and only three months later me and my (only) brother decided to take his son and my daughter (about 21) on a long road trip along the PCH. It helped to rehash fav stories from the old days. ❤️

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  8. This kind of trip seems so life reframing, refreshing. Good for you, and yes for sure you should plan a new trip!

    Wonderful song to hear live, with the whole crowd singing. ❤ I've written about the minor trauma inflicted upon my kids having to listen to Coldplay over and over on a road trip, but at that time especially, the blend of the band's depth and innocence struck such a unique cord.

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  9. Wow
    I never knew this. It’s such a perfect song and a perfect response, much like your friend and your back packing trip. There is something very healing about being around people who care deeply about us in the toughest of life moments.

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