Finding God in Coldplay

Let me put this out there as a disclaimer before I begin writing: The only things I know about Chris Martin’s religious beliefs or the beliefs of his other bandmates in Coldplay are from what I’ve read in different articles or interviews with them. I am simply deriving my beliefs from those interviews and from what I interpret of the band’s lyrics. All of this is simply my opinion as both a Christian and a Coldplay fan With that being said…

Shortly after the release of Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends in 2008, I picked up the Rolling Stone edition that featured Chris Martin on the cover. The article obviously focused a lot on the new album, the style of the music, and the meanings of the lyrics, but what interested me the most was how the article also highlighted Martin’s trepidations about Christianity in his young adulthood. He’d been raised in a strict Christian environment where he said he greatly feared God, but not in the way that Christians are to fear God, but in the way that he was afraid any slip up or wrong-doing would doom him straight to the fires of hell. Dan Kimball’s article here highlights some of the interview since I’m unable to find the full text online (sidenote: Dan Kimball spoke at my university for a week last year. He’s phenomenal.) The most important part of the interview and Chris’ experiences with Christianity can be found in these questions:

According to the Wikipedia page about Chris, “In a 2005 Rolling Stone magazine interview, Martin said of his religious views: “I definitely believe in God. How can you look at anything and not be overwhelmed by the miraculousness of it?” In the same interview he spoke of going through a period of spiritual confusion, stating ‘I went through a weird patch, starting when I was about sixteen to twenty-two, of getting God, religion, superstition, judgement all confused.’” The more I thought about Chris and his experiences with faith the more I understood the lyrics in many of Coldplay’s songs both on the Viva album and the former albums as well. I tend to like bands for their lyrics and how poetic they are and Coldplay’s lyrics have always had such an impact on me. After the Viva album and reading this article I began to appreciate their lyrics even more and understand more where those lyrics were coming from. Let me give you some examples.

1. First, from Viva La Vida, the song “Cemeteries of London” has lyrics that read: “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” I think these particular lines have something to do with a search for God and an attempt to try to understand what God is saying, but an inability to because, as he said “my heart it wasn’t open.” I’m not sure if he laments that he hasn’t opened his heart, or is struggling to open his heart to God now. Regardless, he still feels a presence of God as he sees him in the house, garden, and in his head.

2. Secondly, from LeftRightLeftRightLeft, the song “Death Will Never Conquer” offers up lyrics that mention heaven (which is a pretty big theme in Coldplay’s lyrics). Part of the song reads “One day death is gonna conquer me/ I’ll be down where the waters flow/I hope sweet heaven is the place for me/ Let me know boys let me know.” Sure many people (even non-Christians) desire going to heaven after they’ve died, but I think this  rings even more poignant in Coldplay lyrics because of the fear Chris admitted to having of going to hell for his sins. I think it’s also worth it to note that the lyrics say “I hope heaven is the place for me” as opposed to “I know heaven is the place for me.”

3. From their third album X&Y, in the song “White Shadows” part of the lyrics say “When I was a young boy/I tried to listen/Don’t you wanna feel like that?/We’re part of the human race and/All of the stars and the outer space/We’re part of the system plan/All this noise, I’m waking up/And all the space, I’m taking up/I said I cannot hear you, you’re breaking up/Maybe you get what you wanted/Maybe you stumbled upon it/Everything you ever wanted/In a permanent state/Maybe you’ll know when you see it/Maybe if you say it, you’ll mean it/And when you find it, you keep it/In a permanent state/A permanent state/Swim out on a sea of faces,/The tide of the human races,/An answer now is what I need./See it in a new sun rising/See it break on your horizon/Oh, come on love, stay with me…” I think this song is about searching for some truer meaning. He notices the stars and the outer space and that he’s part of a plan, or something bigger than himself. He’s searching for meaning but doesn’t know how it will come to him: “Maybe you stumbled upon it/ Maybe if you say it you’ll mean it” I think the most poignant lyrics are “An answer now is what I need/See it in a new sun rising/See it break on your horizon” As many people see God through nature and the beauties of the universe, so too does he find the answer to living in sunset breaking over the horizon. The white shadows that are mentioned frequently throughout the entire song  are the representations of trying to grasp the unknown and understanding what you cannot see.

4. From Viva La Vida the song “Glass of Water” deals particularly with Heaven and wondering whether or not they will go there. Part of the song goes “Oh they say you could see your future,/Inside a glass of water/With riddles and the rhymes/Will I see heaven in mine?” Obviously he’s searching for some answer about his fate, but it seems that perhaps he’s trying to decipher that answer through “riddles and rhymes” Another part of the song says “So he wrote it on the wall/The hollowest of halos/Is no halo at all/Televisions said and past/In figurines and leaders/saying nothing at all/And he chimed stars in heaven aligned” The imagery of a hollow halo I think represents a empty faith or lack of faith altogether. The image of the figurines on TV could represent televangelists and how their words don’t mean much to him as he says  that say “nothing at all.”

5. The most well-known track from Viva la Vida is, of course, “Viva la Vida” and though many would say the song has to do with revolutions and war as the album as a whole was inspired by the French revolution, but after reading that Rolling Stone article, I couldn’t help but see connections in Chris’ relationship with God with the lyrics in the song. In the article he discussed how he turned away from organized religion and struggled with the idea that he might go to Hell. I think that idea is shown in this song when he says “One minute I held the key/ Next the walls were closed on me/And I discovered that my castles stand/Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand” The pillar of salt is a Biblical image as Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt, and I think the image of the castle standing on the salt/sand refers to Matthew 7:26 in which Jesus talks about the “foolish man who built his house on the sand” The metaphorical key that he once held could represent some sort of key to Heaven or salvation, and after he turned from faith “the doors were closed” on him. Further, the lyrics “Revolutionaries wait/For my head on a silver plate” is a reference to when Herod in the Bible commanded that John the Baptist’s head be brought to him on a plate. The song also references Jerusalem bells and Roman calvary choirs, but I think the most telling lyric in the song is “For some reason I can’t explain/I know Saint Peter won’t call my name”  In the Bible Jesus called Peter as a disciple, one of his followers, so to me, this lyric evokes an image of not being ‘called’ to follow Christ. It seems that he is saying he is not called for Christianity. Also, though Peter was a disciple and loved Christ, he denied him three times before his death. I can’t help but wonder if Peter’s denial or questioning of Christ is why he’s mentioned in this song. 

Those are just a few of the songs where I hear hints of God and Christianity in Coldplay’s lyrics. I think a lot of musicians who write their own lyrics include the theme of religion or faith into their songs, and Coldplay is no exception. I think Chris’ past concerning the church as well has a lot to do with the lyrics found in Coldplay’s lyrics. I love thinking deeply about the meaning of lyrics, and I feel like I could do that all day long with Coldplay  

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