Mr. Mayor, the mission burns
The zombies are marching
They close on the square
Families are cold, look down at their souls
Huddled in camps on the old marble steps of city hall
Faith in their God is all that they've got

Across the room, beyond the pane
The whole world is churning,
Bleeding and burning, hailstorms and ash,
The moon is as blood over the soldiers who sag in the mud

Save our city
Keep our souls, Lord
Through the rapture of this world

Little boy, I'm just a man, a mere civil servant,
Against this tyrant God
I've allied with our king, salvation he brings,
Protecting the city against all the troops Heaven sent but the dead walk again
This is the end

"Oh I'm just a man, my time has come,
Long live King Simius!
May he deliver us
From this nightmare!"
And with a blast like the sun, his lips are unwrapped from the barrel of his gun.

Save our city
Keep our souls, Lord
Through the rapture of this world

Fought and fell for our great king
We burned alive and boiled
The dragon red and wrathful calls
We rise and march once more
Cursed in death, we starve for flesh
Our skin is cooked and curled
We'll eat our kin and smash them in
In Hell we'll grind their bones

Save our city
(Fought and fell for our great king)
Keep our souls, Lord God
(We burned alive and boiled)
Through [the mayor's ruined head, the boy steps through the window] the
rapture
(The dragon, red and wrathful calls)
of this world. [and cries out from the ledge to the people below.]
(We rise and march once more.)

Save our city [There's a time to pray and there's a time to fight]
(Cursed in death, we starve for flesh)
Keep our souls, Lord God [Anything can be a weapon if you're holding it
right]
(Our skin is cooked and curled)
Through the rapture [Defend what is yours, they will not take our souls]
(We'll eat our skin and smash them in)
and so we [it's time now to] rise and fight!



Lyrics submitted by Ghost33

Save Our City song meanings
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11 Comments

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  • +2
    General Comment

    The album is simpler than people are making it. It's brilliant, but Andrew (Lead singer and writer for Ludo) is a straight-forward writer. I will clarify the important stuff:

    Part 1, Broken Bride- The Traveler has been struggling for fifteen years to build a time machine, and finally comes to the night when he will attempt to use it to save his dead wife - who died in a car crash in 1989. It malfunctions, and he is sent to prehistoric times. He is attacked by dinosaurs and retreats safely inside a cave.

    Save our City- Meanwhile, after the Travelers departure, humanity is assaulted by zombies, King Simius (a kind of anti-Christ) and the imminent end of the world.

    Part 2, Tonight's the Night- The Traveler has been trapped in his cave and basically chances the raptors and makes an attempt to get to his machine and try to save his wife once more.

    Part 3, The Lamb and the Dragon- Barely escaping the predators, The Traveler starts the machine and once again it malfunctions, sending him all the way to the apocalypse - which had started in "Save our city". King Simius summons (an assumption on my part) The Dragon, which unleashes destruction upon the last of humanity. The Traveler, witnessing the awful events around him, makes a decision to sacrifice his time machine to save the world, and uses "his own dragon" to zap the Beast to another time - destroying the machine in the process. The Traveler is then visited by some kind of celestial beings (angels or the like), who are confused at his broken heart. He tells them of his sorrow at not being able to prevent his wife's death in the end. In payment of saving humanity, the celestials send him back to May, 1989, the last morning he spent with her...

    Part 4, Morning in May- The Traveler finally sees his sleeping wife again after all of his effort and strife, and lies down with her. Soon though, she readies herself and leaves for her fateful car ride. Terrified that her fate will only repeat itself, he stops her from leaving at the last moment and gets in the car with her. Like before, the accident happens, and the Traveler dies with his wife.

    Thus, concluding what is likely the best album written in the history of music.

    Laito21on June 20, 2008   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    "There's a time to pray, and there's a time to fight. Anything can be a weapon if you're holding it right."

    SO BADASS, fucking love the build. Sorry to swear, but it's that good.

    rbf737on January 20, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    This song really grew on me. The only song from Broken Bride I liked at first was Broken Bride, but now I love most of the album, and especially this song.

    princessKATIE, it's about like some guy who builds a time machine to save his wife who died some time earlier, but he goes too far back in time, to prehistoric times. He makes a break for the time machine and I think he goes too far into the future, and this is the situation. Zombies or whatever are like taking over.

    Calexicoon May 27, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I love this song so much.

    "Through the mayor's ruined head, The boy steps to the window, And cries out from the ledge, To the people below:

    There's a time to pray, And there's a time to fight Anything can be a weapon if you're holding it right Defend what is yours, They will not take our souls It's time now to rise and fight"

    Man. So inspiring and beautiful and just plain awesome. I love this song and the entire Broken Bride album.

    gogettergirlon July 13, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    This song is about the mayor of this town giving up hope of wining against the anti-christ, King Simion and his Zombie army and dragon. He give sup and kills himself in his hopelessness. Meanwhile Zombies are killing all the civilians who pray to have their city and souls saved. The little boy who the mayor denounced his faith in winning to then steps out and yells to the crowd that they must fight and defend themselves against the coming Apocalypse. One of the most powerful songs i have ever heard.

    rent907on September 06, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    A great song. Only song I've personally heard where zombies get a chorus. I love the last bit, with the boy speaking out to the people from the ledge, though the bit with the bells and such at the very end makes me think they fail shortly after, like each chime is the death of some of the remaining citizens...

    IAmPlatypuson January 06, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I heard this song for the first time yesterday. I was in school in what is called Open Arts (from 12:30 - 3 p.m.) where we just do whatever art we want to do and we were listening to music and everyone got to choose one song and my friend picked this song and I just fell in love with it.

    roryattackon April 04, 2009   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation

    The song: the Lamb and the Dragon goes pretty much exactly as Laito21 posted, except for one point I disagree on. When the time machine activates, it explodes, thus killing the rest of the people alive on Earth and saving their souls from being claimed and reanimated by the Dragon. This explains the whole "I have a dragon (a.k.a. humanity-ending device) of my own." In heaven, the Traveler is congratulated by the heavenly beings for saving the souls of the remaining people, but is still sad. He asks for one last day to go back and be with his lover. Then he is granted this boon, for the day, and then gets in the car to join her in death and return to heaven. He doesn't stop her because he only has one day.

    Alexmercer3on May 08, 2012   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation

    I'm a little confused with the time machine business. Can someone show me where in this song a time machine is referenced? From what I can tell it's about zombies in the tribulation times from Revelations.

    dustmonkeyon September 20, 2012   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation

    A lot of people I've spoken to, and on here say that King Simian is some kind of antiChrist that is causing all of the havoc, but to me, it's obvious that he's the "savior". I believe that this is all the work of an angry God, who rose the dead and the demon Dragon. Maybe a hell God? Who knows. But a couple of the lines seem to prove this... "Against this tyrant God, I've allied with our king, salvation he brings, protecting all the troops Heaven sent but the dead walk again. This is the end." I see here that the Mayor is talking about how he's joined forces with the King, who is protecting the people of his city against the "troops" (which I think is referring to the Zombies) that the angry God sent. He's saying that yes, he allied with this King, but now that the dead walk again, what hope do they really have? He believes this is the end of the world. "Long live King Simius, may he delivery us from this nightmare". "Fought and fell for our great king" He and the ones who died obviously have/had faith in this king to save them, but the Mayor ends up taking his life because of cowardice and hoplessness, and the dead can't help but rise to the call of the demon Dragon the angry God has summoned, and fight on the other side after they die.

    Along with all that, I think the people are praying to a good God, asking him to help them and keep their souls safe from the angry God. They keep referencing a rapture, so I think the angry God is creating a rapture of their world, and they're praying to the good God to save them from it.

    Zsaidaon July 03, 2013   Link

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