Who said viva la vida

The song is of great interest to many, not least because of the quality of the artistry, but also because of the lyrics themselves. 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. 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.

Revolutionaries wait For my head on a silver plate Just a puppet on a lonely string Oh, who would ever want to be king? A variety of interpretations have been proposed for this song, and here are a few of them this list is of the most quoted, not exhaustive : 1 The Catholic Church : some say that this song is about the decline of the Roman Catholic Church. Keys to this view are the references to: the keys Matt.

Apparently, the band developed the album while touring Latin American and Spain, some of the most densely Catholic places on Earth. Some think it refers to the death of Napoleon. He is going to lose his head to the guillotine. Let me state upfront that I do not believe there can be certainty on this question. The band has not told us, though they have given some clues.

Given the themes of the song and the album, I would like to offer an explanation that sees this song as fitting in the biblical storyline of dominion, life and death in the Cosmos itself. That does not mean that I believe the writer consciously wrote the song to fit in the biblical storyline, though certainly he does intentionally include much biblical imagery. Rather, I think he is discussing things that are in every human heart: fear of death and love of life.

The song is about a man with power who loses everything, even his own life. It fits well in the biblical story of the fall of humanity Adam in particular from its his status as king over the cosmos into the curse of death. Now, he sweeps the streets he used to own. He is a slave not a king. Now, he is a dead king, and there is a new king, Satan, over the World cf. One minute he had the keys of the kingdom, then his kingdom collapsed because it was on shifting sand cf.

In the first chorus, we see that when he ruled the world there were honest words, but since then there are not honest words anymore reference to sin? But, it appears that in the last chorus he says that Peter will call his name, and there is hope of a reversal of his fortunes.

Humanity may not be doomed after all. I was a naughty boy. And this idea runs throughout most religions. Eternal damnation.

I know about this stuff because I studied it. I was into it all. I know it. And this is serious. Our consciences ultimately condemn us all cf. The fear of death and judgment is common to all cf.

Losing everything, including power and riches, before an ultimate death in which you can take nothing with you is the lot of every man. Mark 4. Indeed, we need to understand that it profits nothing to gain the whole world and lose your life! It should not surprise us that pop culture will write on these things in ways that intersect with the biblical storyline.

There is a grand meta-narrative of which ALL humanity is a part and tries to find ways to make sense of it all. The conclusion to that Grand Story that makes sense of reality is something that I hope Coldplay and others will find. His name is Jesus. Humanity failed to rule the world and put all its enemies under its feet cf. But, Jesus has succeeded as King over the Cosmos and is having all his enemies put under his feet Psa. Humanity brought death into the world. Jesus suffered death and then overcame it through resurrection from the dead Heb.

Those who are found in Him will not follow Death and all his friends! They are freed from this fear of death that held them in bondage. We live in a culture where the fear of death and the love of life fills our songs, our sitcoms, and our movies. We have an answer for those fears and we have hope for the longings. The answer is more than a message. The answer is a person who is the Resurrection and the Life John Viva La Vida! Long Live the King! NT Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God it spends a lot of time dealing with these themes and is a very important book.

What a blessing to have great theological minds that are not afraid to be relevant and engage the culture. Thanks Baptist 21! I thought the song was a backhanded reference to the U. Must have read that in Rolling Stone. Just kidding.

Nice work. During the next few years, Van Halen became one of the hardest working and most profitable bands in the recording industry, releasing a string of multi-platinum albums in quick succession; 's Van Halen II, 's Women and Children First, 's Fair Warning and 's Diver Down.

But it was the album , released on New Year's Day of that year that solidified the band's superstar status. Glory and gore go hand in hand The artists who focused on idealistic and patriotic themes wrote mainly at the beginning of the war, prior to the point where its full horrors, and its futility became apparent. On the other hand, we had poets like Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, and the German novelist, Erich Maria Remarque, who became famous for their cynical and even bitter approach to war.

He further enlarged the military and entered into many wars in which he lost a great deal of her newly acquired territories and increased the national debt even more. His liberal spending, appointing of easily controlled people to court, revoking the freedom of religion, and poor decision making sparked the economic burdens and resentment of the aristocracy that were major factors in the French Revolution and the eventual downfall of the French monarchy.

Using the sun as his symbol of power enforced his belief that he was the center of all things. Louis XIV in the beginning of his reign was starting to show signs of his enormous, greedy intentions and his belief in divine rule. The song and album were christened by Martin after he saw the phrase on a painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Shortly after the song was released on iTunes on May 7, , it quickly reached the top spot of the UK Singles Chart and Billboard Hot , and became the band's first number-one single.

Many people have interpreted the song as a portrait of King Louis XVI, or perhaps Napoleon, but I feel that the song's purpose is much more generalized and universal than that of a retelling of an influential dictator who lost his power. By skillfully manipulating literary techniques, Chris Martin retold another version of history that provokes thought. French Absolutism and the French Revolution During the period between through , the French Monarchy had risen to its height of absolute power and then was destroyed by the French Revolution.

Class struggles were a major problem throughout the reigns of each king. France was broken into three estates that were; the clergy, the nobility, and the common people. They were each striving for more power. The peasants wanted to overthrow them as they made France bankrupt by overspending. He spent a little less that million livres in the span of 15 years.

King Louis had sent huge amounts of money, military equipment and soldiers to America during the American Revolution because he wanted to help them beat Britain.

He also spent a lot of money to build his palace, the Versailles. This album alone sold 12 million copies worldwide and is still hailed as one of the best rock albums. Not only. The early twentieth century was a time filled with great anguish.

This repression fostered a sense of dislocation amongst the citizens, and a rebuttal in the Christian faith. Virginia Woolf and D. Since forming, Metallica has been one of the most successful bands in history. With the release of their first five albums, Metallica geared closer and closer to becoming superstars. The band then lost a portion of their audience with a shift in image, but regained the audience upon going back to their roots.

Since then Metallica, has achieved nothing but success. Open Document. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. Coldplay dissatisfied with their sales from previous songs decided to do something different: out of the ordinary.