OK...I need your help. I am really digging one of Coldplay's new songs, Cemeteries of London. However, I often times have a hard time deciphering the meaning behind a song. So without access to Chris Martin I am turning to all of you creative minds out there for some help.
1. Go here and on the right side of the page click on track 2 and listen to the song.
2. Follow along below.
3. Comment what you think the song is about.
I know there are some pretty creative people out there reading this who could give some great perspective. So if that is you, don't be afraid to comment.
At night they would go walking ‘till the breaking of the day,
The morning is for sleeping…
Through the dark streets they go searching to see God in their own way,
Save the nighttime for your weeping…
Your weeping…
Singing la lalalalala la lé…
And the night over London lay…
So we rode down to the river where the toiling ghosts spring,
For their curses to be broken…
We’d go underneath the arches where the witches are in the saying,
There are ghost towns in the ocean…
The ocean…
Singing la lalalalala la lé…
And the night over London lay…
God is in the houses and God is in my head… and all the cemeteries in London…
I see God come in my garden, but I don’t know what he said,
For my heart it wasn’t open…
Not open…
Singing la lalalalala la lé…
And the night over London lay…
Singing la lalalalala la lé…
There’s no light over London today…
I am wondering if he is writing about how this world has become so turned off too God and what he has to say. It's in that last verse and the last chorus for me. He's says, "I see God come in my garden, but I don’t know what he said,
For my heart it wasn’t open…" and "There’s no light over London today…"
These lines to me are speaking of how London in particular has turned away from God. London could be a metaphor for this world. Or it could be all of England he is speaking of.
If you look at the first verse it sound like he is talking about vampires and witches that go out in the night. He is talking about how "we" have become like the rest of the world and are looking for something, not sure what it is, but something and we keep looking at night.
Anywho, there's my .02 cents. . . .
Posted by: Steveo | June 11, 2008 at 10:49 AM
the best thing about coldplay songs is that it gives the listener his own unique significance of the song and its meaning. as a medical student in London, this song reminds me very much about the body snatchers in the 18th and 19th century. back then, bodies for anatomy lessons were in short supply and some people dug up bodies to fill up the demand for cadavers. thus, the verses
" At night they would go walking ‘till the breaking of the day,
The morning is for sleeping…
Through the dark streets they go searching to see God in their own way,
for doctors, studying the human body is 'our way of talking to God', as we try to find meaning in the form and function of God's handiwork.
"God is in the houses and God is in my head… and all the cemeteries in London… "
the part about witches and ghosts, well that reminds me very much of my beloved London. google
'Highgate cemetery' and you would know why. it could also be talking about the London when the body snatchers were working: science then was in its infancy and mysteries were more attributed to witches and demons than to bacteria.
Posted by: khalid | July 07, 2008 at 12:07 AM
http://songscriptures.blogspot.com/2008/08/meaning-behind-cemeteries-of-london.html
Posted by: Kim | January 27, 2009 at 09:45 AM
Think of all the beauty that's still left in and around you, and be happy. Do you agree?
Posted by: Air Jordan | March 15, 2011 at 04:00 AM