Furthermore, when they say It was the wicked and wild wind Blew down the doors to let me in. Shattered windows and the sound of drums People couldn't believe what I'd become Revolutionaries Wait For my head on a silver plate Just a puppet on a lonely string Oh who would ever want to be king? This speaks of the french peoples discontent with Louis. The french women stormed his palace at Versailles looking for Marie Antoinette so that they could have her head on a stick and the line who would want to be king is just another reference to Louis xvi belief that he was not ready to be king and that he never wanted to be king for he was so young.;

To me, the point of the piece is to deviate from the status quo. The rigid nature of the status quo is choking the individual causing them to wan to get away regardless of what is going. It is the status quo which allows terrible things to happen because it is so rigidly uniformed. He wants people to look around and see how crazy the world it yet, we as individuals, have the ability to change those horrors. The person is trying to gain enough courage to break away from the status quo but it is a very long process.

For all of us who have studied European history, the song Viva la vida is a direct reference to the French revolution. That is why the cover of the album is lady liberty and the revolutionaries. Before the french revolution monarch louis xvi had everything going for him. That is why the song says that people would say "Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!." People viewed the reign of the new french monarch as a sign of the end of the economic troubles France had faced under the previous monarch but Louis xvi was only 19 years of age when he inherited the thrown. Thus, he had no clue in regards to domestic policy. To add on, because of the economic situation, lack of break and inflation, and the installation of a non-habsburg queen(Marie Antoinette), the ruling dynasty, the people soon turned against him. The people were all starving while Louis and his wife lived decadently in their palace; Versailles. When they say For some reason I can not explaini know Saint Peter will call my name, that is a direct reference to Louis belief that he would be killed and later on, he was beheaded. That is the definite meaning of the song!