The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
Come ride with me
Through the veins of history
I'll show you a God
Who falls asleep on the job
And how can we win
When fools can be kings?
Don't waste your time
Or time will waste you
No one's gonna take me alive
The time has come to make things right
You and I must fight for our rights
You and I must fight to survive
No one's gonna take me alive
The time has come to make things right
You and I must fight for our rights
You and I must fight to survive
No one's gonna take me alive
The time has come to make things right
You and I must fight for our rights
You and I must fight to survive
Through the veins of history
I'll show you a God
Who falls asleep on the job
And how can we win
When fools can be kings?
Don't waste your time
Or time will waste you
No one's gonna take me alive
The time has come to make things right
You and I must fight for our rights
You and I must fight to survive
No one's gonna take me alive
The time has come to make things right
You and I must fight for our rights
You and I must fight to survive
No one's gonna take me alive
The time has come to make things right
You and I must fight for our rights
You and I must fight to survive
Lyrics submitted by Jayknight, edited by Caliginous, Grifsgames
Knights of Cydonia Lyrics as written by Matthew James Bellamy
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
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In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
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"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
Mountain Song
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
No Surprises
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Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
To quote someone else (a review of somekind):
'Knights Of Cydonia - The soundtrack to some medieval space battle with an intergalactic cosmic knight galloping at a million light years per second on a star horse, slaying space demons with wild swipes from his atom powered nuclear lightsaber.'
Dialectics is what this song is about Nobody teaches Dialects because rulers are scared of losing there power If everybody knew about Dialects there would be No Fools As Kings to begin with.
@BubblesBliss Dialects? As in any variety of language?
The music video gives more clues to the meaning behind the song. It is in reference to 1981 — “Continuity of Government” or “REX84” was brought to light at the Oliver north trial (Iran Contra) and silenced by Daniel Ken "Dan" Inouye the now current President pro tempore of the United States Senate. He is second in line for presidential succession in the event both President and Vice are not able to carry out their duties. Readiness Exercise 1984, was a secretive "scenario and drill" developed by the United States federal government to suspend the United States Constitution, declare martial law, place military commanders in charge of state and local governments, and detain large numbers of American citizens who are deemed to be "national security threats", in the event that the President declares a "State of Domestic National Emergency". This plan was implemented at 09:59 on11 Sept 2001. The song title "Knights of Cydonia” is a reference to a region on the planet Mars known as Cydonia. Richard Charles Hoagland an American author and a proponent of various theories about NASA, lost alien civilizations on the Moon and on Mars and other related topics speculated that the Face of Cydonia was a Pyramid not unlike those found on earth and was possibly related. The woman being hung was a symbol of the truth of our origins and the intentional attempt to destroy that evidence by the institutional bureaucracy of our time. The statue of liberty half buried is the symbolic of the loss of our liberties after 1981. Cydonia - Pop: 143 is there blog. The Russian dolls represent the different levels of secrecy within government ie…a government within a government. The children throwing dung at the cowboy locked in the stockade symbolizes the corruption of our youth buy the media. The woman on the unicorn holding the CD represents and the kung fu master freedom of speech is our weapon and technology our medium. This whole song is riddled with cryptic innuendo. To sum it up, the song is about taking the power back from the shadow government that runs the world from behind closed doors. “Propaganda Due” - Masonic or "black" or "covert" lodge operating illegally from 1976 to 1981.
That intro... I mean DAT INTRO.... just sends me back to when I was 4, sitting on our T-0 apartment in Maputo - Mozambique, watching my father playing air-guitar, while listening to Jethro Tull. Which song, I cannot remember. The only thing I remember was me saying: "Pai, Pai, toca a música dos cavalos outra vez" (Daddy, daddy, play the horse song again).
Today, 30 years later, I have a special USB pen, with ONLY this song on my car and I created a batch file on my PC, so that every time I switch it on, the song is played and all my problems are AWESOMED away.
MUSE - the next best thing, after QUEEN!
Side note:the Jethro Tull song was probably Heavy Horses. It also uses a drumming rhythm for hoof beats, in the section "Standing like tanks on the brow of the hill; Up into the cold wind facing ..." Like this song, it's one of my least favorites musically from the album.<br />
@ruidurao You just reminded me one of the most incredible times in my life: White Monkey's concert in Maputo, while they were playing my favourite music group ever, MUSE!
Crazily good track! Muse sure know how to sell the drama. I dig the mix of the galloping hi-ho-silver feel with the whole classic overblown Muse space madness.
Lyrics are awesome too - I take them as an encouragement to fight against mediocrity.
Actually, I think the first lines go:
come light with me for your (something) of history i'll show you the god falls asleep on the job
And damn, the studio version has trumpets and HORSES.
its <br /> Come ride with me through the veins of history<br /> I'll show you a God who falls asleep on the job<br /> :P
Yeah, I really liked the sounds of the horses, too. The begining of the song, up until the repeated choruses, reminds me of an old, grainy western movie, like back in the day~ Cool imagery!!~ But then you have the sounds of "space ray-guns" in there, so then it reminds me of a battle between the old, dusty west vs the new-age technologic 'guys'...lol! <br /> But I do like the way they make the beat sound like galloping horses- instead of using a heavy 2-beater or the usual 4-8, they use 3. 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, and it soungs like hoses running. Try it- drum your fingers on something. <3
Supermassive Black Hole is far away from the best song on the album... this might be the one... So powerful! I want to see Muse live *cryyyyyiiiiiing (They made me listen to other music than heavy-metal...God i love muse..)
this song is another reflection on bellamey's intrest in the new world order conspiricy, here he speaks a message of people making their own decisions and fighting for their rights and liberation
It just struck me... I've seen some the the theories as to the true meaning of this song... Some very interesting ideas... I don't know if someone has already mentioned the points i'm about to mention, but i think it sounds pretty logical...
The title "Knights of Cydonia" itself is a huge clue... It seems to be a direct reference to the illuminati and freemasonry... Those who belong to these secret societies are ranked with different degrees... Some are given titles like the "Knight of Malta" or the "Knight of Eulogia"... So that's the "Knight" part... What about "Cydonia"? ... Well cydonia is a place on mars which is said to occupy pyramid like shaped objects on the surface... Pyramids are very closely linked with freemasonry... So i guess Matthew was just trying to be indirect, yet direct at the same time with his title...
"When fools can be kings"... I loved that line!... I think it's a direct line referring to George Bush... A complete imbecile... How would someone like him became president? ... A few easy steps... One of which is, join the illuminati...
Matthew seems to have written many songs about political conspiricies... I think the whole "resistance" album is based on the same foundation... Mk ultra is a classic example...
The rest of the song is pretty simple and straightforward... Basically all he is saying is revolt!... Pretty much the same as Green Day's "Know your Enemy" track... We must fight to survive... Overthrow the government... At least mentally... Physically that may be impossible, or maybe not... But in reality, the governments have got every living creature in bonds and chains... We need liberation and right to freedom from this corrupt pyramid like scheme which only truly benefits those on top and not at the bottom... A world where child labour in china is supported by americ and even funded... Injustice has to end. But who can stop it?...
It just struck me... I've seen some the the theories as to the true meaning of this song... Some very interesting ideas... I don't know if someone has already mentioned the points i'm about to mention, but i think it sounds pretty logical...
The title "Knights of Cydonia" itself is a huge clue... It seems to be a direct reference to the illuminati and freemasonry... Those who belong to these secret societies are ranked with different degrees... Some are given titles like the "Knight of Malta" or the "Knight of Eulogia"... So that's the "Knight" part... What about "Cydonia"? ... Well cydonia is a place on mars which is said to occupy pyramid like shaped objects on the surface... Pyramids are very closely linked with freemasonry... So i guess Matthew was just trying to be indirect, yet direct at the same time with his title...
"When fools can be kings"... I loved that line!... I think it's a direct line referring to George Bush... A complete imbecile... How would someone like him became president? ... A few easy steps... One of which is, join the illuminati...
Matthew seems to have written many songs about political conspiricies... I think the whole "resistance" album is based on the same foundation... Mk ultra is a classic example...
The rest of the song is pretty simple and straightforward... Basically all he is saying is revolt!... Pretty much the same as Green Day's "Know your Enemy" track... We must fight to survive... Overthrow the government... At least mentally... Physically that may be impossible, or maybe not... But in reality, the governments have got every living creature in bonds and chains... We need liberation and right to freedom from this corrupt pyramid like scheme which only truly benefits those on top and not at the bottom... A world where child labour in china is supported by americ and even funded... Injustice has to end. But who can stop it?...