Dissect Lyrics Thread

**Ristaron** · #1 (**permalink**) 09-03-2008, 11:32 PM

Ever see a song and can't figure out what the lyrics mean? I make it a sort of past-time to figure out the meaning behind lyrics, and I decided to make a thread where we could all participate.
I'll start:

Viva La Vida - Coldplay
I'm trying to figure out the meaning to the song. The lyrics are replete with metaphors, and from what I've so far gleaned it's just so brilliant...

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 enemies' 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 were ringing
Roman cavalry choirs were singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can't explain
Once you'd gone 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 were ringing
Roman cavalry choirs were singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can't explain
I know St Peter won't call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world

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

Obviously he's singing that he built his world out of meaningless things (pillars of salt and pillars of sand), and in this world he was king (I used to rule the world). Then he met someone who showed him that his life was nothing special (be my mirror) and helped him through his fall from grace (my sword and shield; that was when I ruled the world) to be what he much prefers being (who would ever want to be king?)

I'm mainly trying to figure out the reference to Jerusalem. I'm thinking because it's an empire built on blood... but then, why its bells? Maybe the bells of the Tower of David? They were destroyed and rebuilt at least four times (by the Christian, Muslim, Mamuck, and Ottoman conquerors). That same idea of rebuilding...

**SARS-expl0ted** · 09-04-2008, 06:18 AM

Great idea for a thread!
I think you are right about the bells though. That makes perfect sense.

I want to post another song but I cannot find one that is hard to read and figure out exactly what they are talking about but I am on a hunt.

Come hear the voices in my head
They say you wanna hurt me
and they want you dead
It's scraping the bottom of the barrel of life
There's a million different voices
And there all synchronized
Into one real army that will kill you all
Injecting my brain with adrenaline
They're marching They're squirming
They wanna get out
There armed to the teeth
It's the Blut Royale

For some reason a lot of people do not get the point of this song but I saw it as self explanatory.
It is about the governments and how everyone that runs anything is just saying the same thing and people just eat it up.
"There's a million different voices and they're all synchronized" is my favorite line.

**Opunaya** · 09-04-2008, 06:25 AM

I was going to post "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen, but I found a different song for you to work on.

The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning -- The Smashing Pumpkins

Send a heartbeat to
The void that cries through you
Relive the pictures that have come to pass
For now we stand alone
The world is lost and blown
And we are flesh and blood disintegrate
With no more to hate

Is it bright where you are
Have the people changed
Does it make you happy you're so strange
And in your darkest hour
I hold secrets flame
We can watch the world devoured in its pain

Delivered from the blast
The last of a line of lasts
The pale princess of a palace cracked
And now the kingdom comes
Crashing down undone
And I am a master of a nothing place
Of recoil and grace

Is it bright where you are
Have the people changed
Does it make you happy you're so strange
And in your darkest hour
I hold secrets flame
We can watch the world devoured in its pain

Time has stopped before us
The sky cannot ignore us
No one can separate us
For we are all that is left
The echo bounces off me
The shadow lost beside me
There's no more need to pretend
Cause now I can begin again

Is it bright where you are
Have the people changed
Does it make you happy you're so strange
And in your darkest hour
I hold secrets flame
We can watch the world devoured in its pain
Strange
Strange
Strange

I know a little what it's about, but I want to see what you say about it. Personally, I don't think it really works for Batman & Robin (the film they wrote it for), it's suppose to be about Batman, but I don't really see it.

**SARS-expl0ted** · 09-04-2008, 06:38 AM

More then half of the songs out there that are made for movies don't really have anything to do with the movies themselves.

In the first stanza he is talking about how she has become cold and 'heartless' and how he wants her to be the person that he fell in love with again. Then they are both alone since they separated and he [or she] has nothing left to hate now that he [or she] has left him [her.]

The second stanza [not the chorus] is about the girl. The kingdom is a metaphor for what he thought they had and she was the ruler of it. She was what made him happy and ran their 'kingdom' but she changed and left so now he rules nothing anymore.

The third stanza is basically about how he wanted to stop time back when they were happy and keep going on together and never fall apart like they did but then he realizes that it is for the best so he can finally move on again.

**Opunaya** · 09-04-2008, 06:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by [ Jew Blaster ]

More then half of the songs out there that are made for movies don't really have anything to do with the movies themselves.

In the first stanza he is talking about how she has become cold and 'heartless' and how he wants her to be the person that he fell in love with again. Then they are both alone since they separated and he [or she] has nothing left to hate now that he [or she] has left him [her.]

The second stanza [not the chorus] is about the girl. The kingdom is a metaphor for what he thought they had and she was the ruler of it. She was what made him happy and ran their 'kingdom' but she changed and left so now he rules nothing anymore.

The third stanza is basically about how he wanted to stop time back when they were happy and keep going on together and never fall apart like they did but then he realizes that it is for the best so he can finally move on again.

...No wonder I like that song, huh?