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:

Viva la vida

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.