Have you ever noticed that Coldplay always tells a story in their songs? If you only listen to the sound and don't care about the lyrics, some important details may have gone unnoticed. In this video, we're going to reveal how Paradise music is much deeper than you ever imagined, and it brings a strong message that few have the courage to hear.
I'm Ingrid, and you're on the DecifraHITS channel. No one better to explain the lyrics of Paradise than the band's lead singer, Chris Martin. In an interview with MTV News, Chris said that it's easier to understand the song's meaning if you look at it within the context of the album.
So let's do this. Paradise is the 2nd single from the band's 5th album, Mylo Xyloto, released in 2011. The album tells the story of a man and a woman who grew up apart in a huge and oppressive city, and who were quite lost in life.
The plot, based on a series of comics created by Coldplay himself, unfolds in parallel with the album, where the man (Mylo) and the woman (Xyloto) lived on a planet called Silencia, and fought against a totalitarian government. According to Chris Martin, the song Paradise is about Xyloto, a girl who is lost in the world, and uses her dreams to try to escape reality. In the clip, Xyloto is represented by an elephant, who appears at the beginning trapped in a zoo cage.
Ironically, the place, which is in London, is called “Paradise Wildlife Park”, On the wall Xyloto draws three other elephants, probably members of his family. She also draws several lines, indicating that she was trapped for a long time. And not taking any more captivity, Xyloto tries to find a way to escape.
And with the help of a stone she manages to escape, but is pursued by the zoo guards. Luckily, she finds a bicycle lying on the ground, climbs on it and runs towards the big city. And with no resources to return home, she starts asking for money at a subway station.
And at that moment, the first verse of the song begins: “When she was just a girl, she expected the world”. When we are children, we tend to have grandiose dreams about the future, but they are often lost as we mature and with the difficulties of real life. The character tries to escape the frustration of reality by seeking refuge in her dreams, where she can be and have whatever she wants, including paradise.
At that moment, a poster appears for a movie called "Screwed", perhaps indicating the complicated situation of our elephant protagonist. Just above we see the name of the station: Belsize Park, the same neighborhood where Chris Martin lived at the time of this clip. A curiosity about the station scene is that the passengers were not extras.
Mat Whitecross, the clip's director, revealed in an interview: "Londoners, with their classic style, weren't surprised to be sitting next to an elephant on the metro, and they didn't even care about the presence of the camera. . .
" Back to the clip , our protagonist takes the metro towards London's Heathrow airport. Which would be about an hour's drive. Arriving at the airport, she takes advantage of a moment of distraction from the employees and manages to sneak onto the plane.
The image we see next is of Table Mountain, a thousand meters high mountain on the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, which is where the plane is going with Xyloto. If you're enjoying the video so far, please like and subscribe to the channel, so you don't miss more analyzes like this. In Cape Town, she continues to ask for help to return to her home, which is located in a savannah close to Johannesburg, about 1400km away.
And after a little reference to Michael Jackson, our protagonist finally gets some coins as a donation, and goes back to his hometown, passing over the Nelson Mandela Bridge, one of the postcards of Johannesburg. Here, he refers to the expression "Bite The Bullet", and is used when someone needs to face a difficult and uncomfortable situation, instead of running away. That is, we often need to face the problem head on to survive and evolve.
This sense is stronger in the next lines, when he says: "Life goes on, it gets so heavy; The wheel breaks the butterfly. " Here is another metaphor, where the wheel represents the difficulties of real life, and the butterfly represents the fragility and innocence of the child, which is lost as we become adults. Another important point is that the butterfly represents a symbol of change and transformation.
This metamorphosis is often accompanied by physical or psychological pain. Which explains the line: "Every tear, a waterfall" This phrase, in addition to being the title of another song from the same album, means that when we mature, we may not even cry as much as a child, but each tear of an adult can carry so much weight that it would amount to a waterfall. And in tears, she closes her eyes during a stormy night.
expression that can represent the darkness and confusion of her mind and the difficulties of her life. Xyloto goes through such a deep melancholy, that the only thing she wants to do is close her eyes and sleep, 'cause in her dreams she can escape reality. Back to the clip, our protagonist needs a way to get back home.
She finds a bike shop and tries to buy one with the coins she's been given. Unfortunately, the coins is only enough for a unicycle. And so she goes, pedaling down the road alone.
Xyloto even asks for a ride a few times, but is ignored. Determined and resilient, she keeps pedaling towards her dream. This makes her finally reach maturity, and as a reward she manages to find her group of elephants in the savannah.
The group is actually formed by the members of Coldplay, who then appear performing in the same costumes at the FNB stadium in Johannesburg. Well, now you might be wondering: If the song and the album develop in parallel with the Mylo Xyloto comic, what does the elephant and South Africa have to do with all of this? In fact, Chirs Martin could have used the same artwork from the comic, as he did in the video for “Hurts Like Heaven”, from the same album.
But the truth is that the video for Paradise that we know today is very different from what Coldplay had planned. Director Hype Williams, who had directed the video for “Viva La Vida”, had been in charge of producing “Paradise”. The problem is that the clip had a date to be released, but ended up delaying two weeks.
And to make matters worse, the band didn't like the end result of the project at all. Also, they were on tour in South Africa at the time, and couldn't stop to try another alternative. With no way out, and in the middle of the night, Chris Martin called director Mat Whitecross, who was in London, and who had already done some work with Coldplay.
Chris then asked if Mat was able to catch a plane to South Africa the next morning, as he had an emergency, and needed to shoot a video for Paradise in two days. Mat accepted the proposal, hung up the phone, and spent a lot of time trying to come up with an idea in record time. Mat says that, just as he was about to submit the ideas he had, he got an email from Chris saying, “Don't worry, I already have an idea.
I need you to bring four elephant outfits and a unicycle with you. ” Mat thought Chris was joking, but he was serious. The question is: how would he manage to buy all this and travel to South Africa in just a few hours?
Mat imagined a realistic and sophisticated elephant costume, and remembered an acquaintance who worked in clothing, who might be able to help him. He passed the situation to his friend, who replied: "Of course! No problem!
It should take about 2 months to get ready, how much time do you have? " and Mat replied, "Man, I've got like three hours, and I'm on my way to the airport right now. " Clearly, it was time for a plan B.
The Coldplay team's assistants had found the unicycle and costumes on the internet, but there were only 3 units available . The fourth costume had to be rented from another supplier. And that's why, in the clip, you can see that the bassist is dressed a little differently from the others.
Have you noticed that? Comment there #elefante and we'll give you a little heart All Xyloto scenes are played by Chris Martin, and he made sure to keep his mask on during every scene. Mat even tried to convince Chris to take his mask off, so people would know he wasn't an actor, but he just accepted to do it just once, which is in this scene And when asked why the elephant, Chris Martin replied that he wanted to portray the sad reality of zoo animals, and that freedom for them would be like Heaven In this way, he maintains the narrative of the album creating a parallel with Xyloto, who sought freedom by fighting the totalitarian government on the planet Silencia.
In addition to the band, the only extras in the clip were the 2 zoo guards, who were played by Phil Harvey, Coldplay's manager; and Tim Crampton, from The High Wire, who agreed to work in the scene for free. Despite everything being improvised and at the last minute, the clip worked out very well and was such a huge success that in 2012 it won the VMA for best Rock video, and currently has more than 1 billion views on Youtube. In the final scene of the clip, the lyrics say: "And so, lying underneath those stormy skies, she said: I know the sun must set to rise so it can rise again, this could be paradise.
" In other words, Xyloto learned that we often go through painful trials that destroy our dreams and frustrate our desires, but if we learn to deal with these adversities, we will be becoming more resilient, mature and evolved. And this evolution can be the paradise. By the way, as the writer Steve Maraboli said: "Happiness is not in the absence of problems, but in your ability to deal with them.
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