Ok so I first saw this video on Kanye’s blog over a week ago and thought it was cool, but it wasn’t until I heard the song a couple more times on the radio/tv that I completely fell in love with the song. I think this is one of the most genius songs this decade. It’s actually a song with meaning. I’ve had time to listen to the lyrics and get a better feel of the song and what it’s talking about. It’s basically about some leader who rose to high power and then falls to nothing after a dishones and wicked rule.
I searched the internet and found all sorts of ridiculous interpretations of the song. It’s funny how far fetched people’s opinions can be. Most of them we’re close to it and pin-pointed leaders like George Bush, Napoleon etc, but one very DUMM poster says here that the song is talking about Jesus Christ blah blah about how he was a king on earth and something about the temple and a decline from wealth and fame to a nobody. I mean how stupid could people be? When was Jesus ever wealthy?
Someone even inked the lyrics to King Henry VIII and King Louis XVI. Oh jeez…we need to put a leash on some people’s history perspectives.
The album cover almost gives the meaning of the song away as it depicts French battle/revolution.
Here is the answer to everyone’s dum interpretations (found here):
Bassist Guy Berryman explained to Q magazine July 2008 about this song that features lyrics about cavalries, missionaries and kings: “It’s a story about a king who’s lost his kingdom, and all the album’s artwork is based on the idea of revolutionaries and guerrillas. There’s this slightly anti-authoritarian viewpoint that’s crept into some of the lyrics and it’s some of the payoff between being surrounded by governments on one side, but also we’re human beings with emotions and we’re all going to die and the stupidity of what we have to put up with every day. Hence the album title.”
Drummer Will Champion told Q magazine February 2008 that many of the tracks on the album share a theme of “trying to remember what’s important in your life, rather than being carried away by the trappings of other things.”
So with that heard, even though I think this song mostly fits Napoleon’s story, I feel the aim was to leave it open to fit any world leader who misuses power, one of which we currently have in the US, some who might have existed in Europe, or anywhere else, and also to remind everyone listening to not get caught up with authority, fame & power.
