| Its about Lucifer's fall from grace and his kingdom (earth) not really his because of Gods impending judgement. He mocks Jesus saying "the old King is dead, long live the king". | | |
| I think it is about the decline of the Roman Catholic Church. At one point the church was the major world power. It had total control and during the crusades the crusaders were thought of as missionaries which would help to make sense of the chorus. | | |
| When I listen to it...it almost seems like a poetic account of George W. Bush. I mean if you apply the historic references to our world today...Just a thought. Sharing what I thought when I really listened to the lyrics. Anyone else thought the same? | | |
| Well since the cover of the CD is the French Revolution, I would guess the person is King Louis XVI, but the song can applied to any disposed political powerheads... | | |
| I think it best that you interpret the song for yourself- how it makes you feel and what it means to you. The is the biggest complement you could pay an artisit! | | |
| Given that this album seems to revolve around the theme of celebrating life (Viva la Vida) and revolutions (the cover art depicts the French Revolution by Delacroix), I think this song embodies the nature of revolutions. The lyrics to this song seem to refer to revolutions in history thus far, about kings, queens, emperors, and other rulers who fall from high places after revolutions from below. The French Revolution, the Chinese Revolution, the Russian Revolution, and the British Civil Wars in the 17th century all come to mind when I hear these lyrics. Each revolution overthrew a powerful central government, with a powerful head of state in a violent and bloody fashion (think "heads on a silver plate"). These lyrics are telling their stories from the point of view of the fallen leader, in a very poetic way, but the message is essentially "Oh, who would ever want to be king?" Because revolutions have occurred over and over in history, and they will continue to occur, but such is the story of life and of humanity. | | |
| I believe it's about Louis XVI, not Napoleon. This would best coincide with the French Revolutionary cover art, La Liberté guidant le peuple (Liberty Leading the People) commemorating the revolution. There are several similarities between the lyrics and Louis XVI. | | |
| There is a TON of spiritual imagery in this song. One that particularly caught my eye was when he refers to his castles standing "upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand". I think this possibly is a reference to the sermon on the mount where Jesus speaks of a wise man building is house on a rock while the foolish man builds his house on the sand, only to be washed away. I am not sure on most of the meaning of this song but I do think that there is a link between total power and foolishness, contrasted with the loss of power (dependence on something else?) and gaining wisdom of your situation. | | |
| I think the song is about Bin Laden, actually.... leading a bold revolution, but sweeping the floors in Afghanistan-Pakistan caves wondering about the days when his company ruled the Saudi construction industry? | | |
| you're interpreting it too deep. the whole song is just using all these great beautiful images as metaphors | | |