Death and life “vive le Roi!” French for long live the king is what the people of France cheer when a new king comes to power. When they chant this they wish that their king has a long healthy life, a life filled with great success and remembrance. In his song “Viva La Vida” Chris Martin brings together generations and cultures with emotional, personal and religious connections. The title “Viva La Vida” just with his title he shows his purpose for a connection, when translated from Spanish to English Viva la Vida means “Long Live Life”. This Correlates life with the French saying “vive le Roi!” Martin wants this song to worship life wishing it a long and well lived existence for everyone. This song comes from the album released by Martins band Coldplay in 2008, Death and All His Friends. The album in a whole is about the different parts of death and life and how together they make life worth living even after so much has happened to someone. The opening of the song is: “I used to rule the world| Seas would rise when I gave the word” Martin hits that he had all this power and that the “seas” meaning the masses of people rose with him and stood at his side when he needed them (1). In the second half of this quatrain “Now in the morning I sleep alone| Sweep the streets I used to own” meaning he lost everything including his love in the one second it took to transition from the first two lines to these (2). In one quatrain he went from having all this power and being able to have seas of people stand with him to being alone and doing what is seen as the dirty work, just to make a living. He is already making a personal connection to everyone who would feel on top of the world then all of a sudden lower than the lowest. Starting out with a bold connection Martin is setting himself up for a powerful message and meaningful one.
Martin follows with the second quatrain saying “I used to roll the dice| Feel the fear in my enemy’s eyes| Listen as the crowd would sing| ‘Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!’” the speaker is talking about taking risks, not caring crossing paths that are forbidden when people break out of their shells and go out into the world. Rolling the dice is all about taking that risk that scares their enemies to the point where they feel it just from looking at what risks they are taking. When someone takes a risk that is a complete gamble the people that they are going against will fear them or fear the sight of what they are doing making it possible to “feel the fear in their eyes”. The crowd that the writer speaks of is not a real crowd but his mind and thoughts happy that they are finally free from the fear that they were trapped by. That fear that is surpassed is the old king and who the speaker becomes after taking risk is the new king they are happy to have; wishing the new path that he is taking a long existence and a strong rule over the thoughts that will try to bring him down. The celebration and new kings life does not last long.
The quatrain that follows the speaker writes about holding the key and seconds later having walls close of him unaware of what he had done to be trapped in a collapsing room (Martin 9). The walls are the thoughts that he had to overcome to be happy again and live life how he wanted and get out of his gutter the key was the way he had been able to get out of the trap once. When the walls started closing in he is confused as to why he was becoming trapped again by what he had done to life the pain the first time. He then discovers what he has used to build himself up and get himself out was not a strong support, it was nothing but salt and sand, which it was falling apart under him. These lyrics have a religious connection to the Biblical story Genesis Verse 19 line 26: “26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.” This directly connects lines 11 and 12 because the speaker says that he discovered that his life he views as a castle of his kingdom was built on his the pillars of salt and of sand that symbolize his past and weak supports (Martin 11). These collapsing walls and weak supports within his life lead the speaker into thought that is instrumental and is followed by realization.
Within his fourth quatrain the speaker writes about how he has had his moment of realization and what he hears within himself as he comes to this climax in his rebuilding. The speaker writes about hearing Jerusalem Bells ringing and the Roman Cavalry choirs singing both of which symbolize the realization of evil that had been done and confession of it within their religions (Martin 13). These lines make it believable that he has realized what he has done and has had his realization of sin and confession and because of this the proceeding lines “be my mirror, my sword and shield| my missionaries in a foreign field” the speaker is asking for the listener to protect him and remind him of who he truly is to keep him safe while he goes out into a new world to spread a new belief (Martin 15). The new belief that the speaker wishes to spread with the listeners protection is the new him. He wants the people who hate and despise him to know that he is a new person and has grown from his past. This poetic ballad about life’s success and disappointment and loss closes with a meaningful quatrain of “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” (Martin 29). Why Martin chose to close with these 4 lines I do not know but I do know the person listening to this song would go straight to asking why this Saint would not call their name and why when they had power why they would not be getting called to come with him. Why when they were so powerful and worshiped they still did not have everything when they thought they ruled the world they still did not rule the heavens and who was and was not called.
As a song that can mean so much within so little “Viva La Vida” can truly bring together generations with its combination of language and symbolism, from the religious connection to the story of Genesis to everyone’s constant battles in life of rebuilding and building up form their past. Chris Martin has truly shown that it doesn’t take much to bring different cultures together into one master piece. Music is poetry set to a beat allowing an even wider span for the speaker to connect to than just the average reader.