| Sting – This Cowboy Song Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| This is a song about living on the edge, experiencing depression, transgressing social norms for survival, and ultimately finding redemption in religion. | |
| Coldplay – Viva la Vida Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| I should have clarified regarding the Arab Spring overthrow: I meant that limited foresight and long-term aims upon governance led to disorder, rather than a new tyranny, and that the people power in this instance is not dangerous, but powerful. | |
| Coldplay – Viva la Vida Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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This song encapsulates the reality of how unpopular leaders and tyrants can experience falls from grace more easily than they expect when they appear to be at the peak of their power. '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 ...' - those who live under dictatorships have more potential than they initially realise to bring about freedom and justice, and once they unite to achieve these objectives, change can occur rapidly, but if there is no long-term aims/order, events can become 'wicked and wild' and descend into anarchy. This stanza can also be read as how military coups are often 'wicked and wild' in having a dictator's traditional means of enforcing their power turned against them, and so experiencing the full power of the puts dictators' real power in perspective; and 'wicked' in how military coups demonstrate how absolute power corrupts absolutely, as these are often orchestrated out of a second-in-command's desire to experience full power themselves, rather than to improve their countrymen's lot. 'I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing Roman Calvary 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 ...' - this stanza discusses how absolute monarchs traditionally employed religion to justify their right to rule so that no-one could legitimately challenge their actions during their lifetime, or at least during their reign. After the Enlightenment, and the French Revolution, divine birthright became a questionable defence of power in the face of growing belief in the will of a ruler's people, rather than the will of a ruler's divine patron(s). It also discusses how absolute monarchs used religion to bolster their prestige amongst their people and their foreign opponents, and on the same token, their beliefs that they were obliged to promote and instil those values that they regarded as objectively good for all (ie, the Crusades) 'Once you go there was never, never an honest word/ That was when I ruled the world' - this stanza has a double meaning which reflects both: 1. how dictators who come to power after a coup or power struggle against their opponents manipulate official records of their predecessors/past events so as to ensure the support of those people they rule over (full stanza) 2. how once a dictator is removed from power, the true nature of their actions while they were in power is revealed. Looking through a dictator's usually narrow, objectified world perspective, facts seem like false, defamatory statements. This song reminds me of past revolutions which have unseated rulers for good intentions but owing to limited foresight and long-term aims upon governance led to another kind of evil (the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution the Arab Spring in Egypt and Libya); those led from the outset with self-interested intentions (the English Civil War and the Ethiopian coup of 1974) in contrast to those few with good intentions, appropriate foresight and a noticeable absence of religion as a factor (the Romanian Revolution). This song ultimately shows how power can be just as dangerous in the hands of the inexperienced as those who are ill-intentioned/self-interested. |
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| Crash Test Dummies – Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| I'm personally cynical about this song, because although it highlights how individuals with personal or physical disadvantages are unfairly stigmatised, it doesn't actually examine how to deal with the actual problems, or the prejudice arising from these. | |
| Crash Test Dummies – Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| I think Brad Roberts is discussing how certain physical defects and disadvantageous situations are unfair for those individuals involved and beyond their control, and the humming in the chorus is a philosophical reflection upon these thoughts. He demonstrates his point through using the perspectives of children, as they are in a subjective position and cannot wholly control what happens to them. | |
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