Time can't fix it fast enough so we won't notice what it was that
Went wrong
I saw something there much too familiar
A butterfly with a broken wing
She's fallen under, she's past the end, communication is down
The scars have healed but they're back again
We've got to believe the man must bend
Because if you could you'd try and destroy her and there we'd be
With nothing at all
Is it safe to be a man when you're tired and lonely?
Only the confident know where to stand
Is it safe to be man when the world is loaded?
Thousands can't figure out just what they did
Time can't fix it fast enough so we won't measure
Just how far below you kept on pushing her
You'll have to pay back all of the years that you stole
She's walking backwards, she's spun around
Her ears are ringing loud, she's on her knees
Please understand it's obvious this man, he must bend
Our Lady Peace
Is It Safe?
I think that was my first venture into feminism. It was kind of looking at a man in terms of what our role is with women and in terms of how that interplay should be and if that was right, everything I’d been taught.
It felt like kind of a brave topic, but I know I didn’t do a great job at it, but at that point in my life, I don’t know why, but it just struck me that traditional roles didn’t mean much to me and trying to figure out what a man should be....
All my relationships growing up, when I was a teenager and into my early 20s, when I was thinking about that stuff — maybe ‘cause my parents got divorced and I went through that, that maybe was a bit of a lightning rod for me when I was writing this record. It wasn’t fresh, but it was the first time I was maybe able to express that stuff through lyrics. Obviously not literally but in themes.... Maybe there was a little bit of guilt, too, in being a man and in terms of not pulling your weight and what a real relationship needs. You know, the typical roles. I’m a first generation Italian and my dad, he’s old school that way, and just watching that. This was a bit of me trying to come out that way and make a statement, even just to myself, that I wanted to evolve.- Raine Maida, CBC, 21 Mar. 2014
The song ‘Is it Safe?’ [is the most underrated on the album.] I love that song. I’ve always wanted to remake that one. I thought Raine sang it great; I thought the song had such an interesting delivery; it was never picked as a single; and I don’t know if many people know the song. But that song could come out today and compete.- Arnold Lanni, riffyou.com, 24 Mar. 2014