Friday, August 22, 2008

My new favorite song

Coldplay's Viva la Vida is my new favorite song. It's everywhere right now, and that mildly drives me nuts, because I'm afraid I'll tire of it too quickly, but I don't listen to the radio in my car, so I should be okay. I've liked the song since it was released, but then I read the lyrics, and now it's my favorite:
I used to rule the world
Seas would rise when I gave the word
Now in the morning I sleep alone
Sweep the streets I used to own

I used to roll the dice
Feel the fear in my enemy’s eyes
Listened as the crowd would sing
Now the old king is dead, long live the king

One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand

I hear Jerusalem bells a-ringing
Roman cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can't explain
Once you'd go there was never
Never an honest word
And that was when I ruled the world

It was a wicked and wild wind
Blew down the doors to let me in
Shattered windows and the sound of drums
People couldn’t believe what I’d become
Revolutionaries wait
For my head on a silver plate
Just a puppet on a lonely string
Oh who would ever want to be king

I hear Jerusalem bells a-ringing
Roman cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can’t explain
I know Saint Peter won't call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world

Hear Jerusalem bells a-ringing
Roman cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror my sword and shield
Missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can’t explain
I know Saint Peter won't call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world

When I first heard it, and before I actually knew the lyrics, I just enjoyed the song - it has a catchy beat and it's kind of fun. Now that I know the lyrics to it, though, I can't seem to stop listening to it or humming/singing it constantly. I'm not sure what the draw is, but I really like it. Conveniently, the song after it on the CD is Violet Hill, which has a fantastic beat that I can't seem to get enough of either.

I think part of the reason I like Viva la Vida so much is due to the fact that I just finished reading World Without End by Ken Follet (LONG awaited follow-up to Pillars of the Earth, which is the best book I have ever read. Ever.), which is a kind of medieval saga/historic fiction kind of novel, starring kings, knights, earls, bishops, and the whole chess board cast of characters, and I feel like the song is sort of related. If not entirely in meaning and plot, at least in topic. Maybe it's just that my mind is in that set - medieval chessboards and the like, but something about the song just struck me once I paid attention to the lyrics.

It's about a king that seems to have yearned for power and is ecstatic to finally achieve it, who then loses power, but seems okay with that. I like the dichotomy of the phyched attitude ("feel the fear in my enemy's eyes . . . people couldn't believe what I'd become") against the "I'm over it" sort of feeling ("never an honest word . . . who would ever want to be king"). I'm a big fan. Big.

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