Violet Hill
Producers
It was a long and dark December
From the rooftops, I remember
There was snow, white snow
Clearly I remember
From the windows, they were watchin'
While we froze down below
When the future's architectured
By a carnival of idiots on show
You'd better lie low
[Chorus]
If you love me
Won't you let me know?
[Verse 2]
Was a long and dark December
When the banks became cathedrals
And the fox became God
Priests clutched onto Bibles
Hollowed out to fit their rifles
And a cross was held aloft
Bury me in armour
When I'm dead and hit the ground
My nerves are poles that unfroze
And if you love me
Won't you let me know?
[Interlude]
Oh, oh
[Bridge]
I don't wanna be a soldier
Who the captain of some sinking ship
Would stow far below
[Chorus]
So if you love me
Why'd you let me go?
[Outro]
I took my love down to Violet Hill
There we sat in snow
All that time she was silent still
So if you love me
Won't you let me know?
If you love me
Won't you let me know?
About
“Violet Hill” is off of Coldplay’s album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends. It was their first attempt at a protest/political song.
The first line “It was a long and dark December” was actually the first line the band ever wrote, but they could never finish the rest of the song. The rest of the song came about after watching Bill O'Reilly rant, and Chris thinking about a musician friend who worked in a bar and struggled with his boss, leading to lyrics about having your life run by people you don’t like.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
Berryman: It was one of the older songs we had been working on, and we had sort of moved it to one side from the list of songs that were going to be on the record. And there’s this secret fifth member of the group, [manager] Phil Harvey, and he really championed it, as well as a few other people, so quite rightfully so, we dragged it back into the short list. And we had great fun making the video for that song in Sicily, on top of Mount Etna.
Martin: We made two videos for that song; the other one’s on the Internet, which is our favorite video we’ve ever made. We just thought it was funny that in the run-up to elections, everybody dances. … And we thought, “Wouldn’t it be great to make a video of just politicians dancing?” So we did.
From a 2008 interview with MTV.
According to Songfacts, Will Champion explained to Q magazine how the sound was made:
We really tried to make it sound like this great big machine that was slightly knackered. Something that’s slow and grinding. I’m sure people won’t get that! A psychedelic title? Violet Hill is a road in St John’s Wood (North-west London).
Yes, the video consists of politicians dancing, and used a lot of jarring imagery (mostly from wars). In intervals, the snippets from official music video would glitch up.
- 3.Lost!
- 4.42
- 6.Yes
- 8.Viva La Vida
- 9.Violet Hill
- 10.Strawberry Swing
- 12.The Escapist
- 15.Glass of Water
- 16.Rainy Day
- 18.Lost+ (Remix)