If I could name a single song that best exemplifies the greatness of Coldplay, it would be “Viva La Vida”. Musically, it was unlike anything they had done before, lushly orchestrated, hardly a rock song at all. But the musical power is evident. And the lyrics were easily the best they (or anyone else) had ever written.
“Viva La Vida” is, without a doubt, one of the most heartbreaking songs I’ve had the “pleasure” of listening to… and it’s not even a love song! Even the song/album title is heartbreaking. “Viva La Vida,” which means “Long Live Life,” was chosen after vocalist Chris Martin saw the words on a painting of Frida Kahlo, a Mexican artist who survived polio, a broken spine and years of chronic pain.
The song is just as daring and unusual. The singer is someone who was once so powerful that his greatness conquered the world, or as bassist Guy Berryman explained to what magazine, “It’s a story about a king who has lost his kingdom” The man who sang the song was a colossus, a king, almighty, almighty. It was awesome holding it. His military might could reduce the splinter-resistant doors. His worst enemies were very afraid of him. Even the seas themselves were under his command.
But now his power has been stripped away and he has become the meanest and lowest creature in the realm, or (as the singer himself puts it so simply) he now “sweeps the streets he used to have”. He discovered that his strength was as fragile as it was immense. Bells and choirs now announce his fall. And though he can’t accurately describe What he knows it to be true, he is sure that when he dies he will be denied entry to heaven.
Some of the lyrical power comes from the use of biblical imagery. In the Old Testament, Lot’s wife becomes a “pillar of salt” as she looks back to see the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. In the New Testament Jesus tells the parable of a wise man who built his house on rock while a fool builds his house on sand; wind, rain and floods destroy the latter but spare the former. Add to that the references to Jerusalem, the Roman cavalry, and Saint Peter.
Did the band members have someone specific in mind when they wrote the song? Obviously not. Although the album cover is a painting by Eugène Delacroix Liberty leading the peopleInspired by the French Revolution of 1830, the band members have been adamant that they were talking about kings in general, not one monarch in particular. Still, as vocalist Chris Martin described the lyrics about Saint Peter to Q Magazine, “I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of ending your life and then being scrutinized in it. And that’s what happens in most religions… That’s the scariest thing you could say to someone. Eternal curse… It’s still a bit scary for me.”