http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/08/16/how_the_boy_wizard_won_over_religious_critics/?page=2

Great article here, though unfortunately, the Viva La Vida lyrics are “won’t” and not “will” according to Coldplay’s Web site. Gives entirely different meaning to the song – one that I’m not sure I like as much. I do think it’s interesting how many religious references are in the song though. Aside from the obvious one about St. Peter, you have Jerusalem bells, missionaries, pillars of salt, heads on silver plates…

“Those who are dead, are not dead, they’re just living in my head.”
The person who has passed away is living on in Martin’s memory. When our loved ones die, a part of them, the part that had an impact on our lives, lives on within us. Indeed, memories made with a loved one can be a source of peace and relief when grieving, but they can also cause more grief, as the next line indicates.

“And since I fell, for that spell, I am living there as well.”
This line deals with the difficulty of letting go. By refusing to deal with the reality that his loved one is gone, Martin is living in/clinging to the past, a world that now only exists in his mind. Grief is interfering with his every day existence and he is having trouble facing up to the pain. Whoever it is that died was loved so profoundly that he subconsciously thinks that it is better to stay in this dream world, moving through real life in a numb trance (hence the slow, heavy, almost eerie instrumental part), rather than making peace with the situation by balancing the desire to keep the loved one’s memory fresh and the need to move forward with life.

“Time is so short, and you’re sure that there must be something more.”
This is the turning point. Martin “wakes up” from the “trance” and realizes that he can’t keep living that way. Maybe he realizes that God has other plans for him and that to accomplish them he can’t keep wallowing in his grief because if he continues to do so, his opportunity will be lost.

“You thought you might be a ghost, you thought you might be a ghost. You didn’t get to heaven but you made it close.”
The tempo shifts here and the whole song becomes upbeat, almost optimistic. The change to a major tonality is gradual though. At first the music is aggressive, almost angry. Martin is trying to get free, but is still being held back, perhaps feeling torn/guilty about moving on. The addition of the guitar countermelody kind of clashes with the aggressive bass line, representing some kind of inner struggle. The addition of keyboards and vocals, the transition from a minor key to a major one, and the cessation of the bass/guitar clash signal that he’s finally done it; he has broken free of his all-consuming grief. The music is moving forward, symbolizing Martin’s new will to move forward with his life. He’s looking back now, seeing that while he was mired in grief, he wasn’t really living. He was a “dead man walking”, if you will, probably wishing that he had died along with his loved one. He didn’t get to heaven because he didn’t really die, but he came close because he wasn’t really living either.

The repetition of the first line and the abrupt return to the original musical style might represent those waves of grief that come over us occasionally, like when some little thing brings up the memory of a lost loved one unexpectedly. Even though he’s moved forward with life, the memory of the loved one is still there and still just as cherished. The difference is that it doesn’t hang over him like a cloud anymore, preventing him from living a full life.

I think Martin is singing this song to himself. It’s introspective, almost as if he is pacing in an empty room and thinking aloud. I still have no clue why the song is called “42″ though. Maybe the band will clear that up at their show in November…

I think it’s true. For me, the last album to do so was Switchfoot’s 2003 album The Beautiful Letdown because it totally spoke to me and what I was going through as I was struggling to find a job and an identity to a certain extent.

I’m looking forward to losing myself in this album. Thanks A!

Have a great rest of the weekend!

“Derived from many sources is Delacroix’s concept of Liberty. He shows liberty as a half woman of the people and half goddess. One source was form the summer of 1830 from a popular ode. The ode described Liberty as “this strong woman with powerful breast, rough voice and robust charm”.

In Liberty Leading the People the half draped woman shows the allegorical figure of liberty. The woman is wearing the traditional Phrygian cap of Liberty. Liberty is holding the tricolor in one hand and a gun in the other.

To use Lenormants word Liberty is said to be “a young, strong brilliant woman, dressed like one of the people, but shining with an unknown light, odd, however, in the nudity of her shoulders, the bonnet on her head, the standard that moves in her hand”. The static position of Liberty makes the entire work more dynamic.

There are three men to the left of Liberty. They are in different categories of workers. The man with the saber is the factory worker. The man with the gun, sometimes called a student or a bourgeors, is the foreman, artisan or the chief of the workshop. The man kneeling at Liberty’s feet is the worker from the country. He is employed in the building trade. A cavalryman and a Swiss guard are the two dead soldiers to the right of Liberty. They belong to the royal guards’ regiment.

Perfectly identifiable are the weapons and bits of uniform. With the greatest accuracy is how they were painted. Easily missed is a beautiful touch, a glimpse of old Paris through gun smoke, flying from the Cathedral of Notre Dame is a tiny tricolor flag, and washed and weathered by history is a row of ancient houses.

Shown at the Salon of 1831, the painting was understood in various ways. Working class, a fishwife, and a whore is what the figure of Liberty was called by some people. Critics said that the painting was “A slander” of the five glorious days that Liberty was “ignoble” and that the insurgents represented a rude class of people, urchins and workmen.”