Lyrics for 42 as interpreted by rorow1

42 Lyrics
Those who are dead are not dead
They’re just living in my head
And since I fell for that spell
I am living there as well
Oh..

Time is so short and I’m sure
There must be something more

Those who are dead are not dead
They’re just living in my head oh…
And since I fell for that spell
I am living there as well oh…

Time is so short and I’m sure
There must be something more

You thought you might be a ghost
You thought you might be a ghost
You didn’t get to heaven but you made it close
You didn’t get to heaven but you made it close

You thought you might be a ghost
You thought you might be a ghost
You didn’t get to heaven but you made it close
You didn’t get to heaven but you oh oh
Oh oh…

Those who are dead are not dead
They’re just living in my head
Oh..

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captain amazo
06-05-2008

Rated 0 
What a great song hey guys. Builds so beautifully then bang hits you with the rock. Best song on Viva la Vida?

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2 Replies
tcaporale
06-05-2008

Rated -1 
Well captain-amazo, it's definitely a highlight. You can tell this'll be an anthem live. Some rather stoner-iffic lyrics from Martin. Maybe he should talk to someone. Seeing dead people probably isn't very healthy. Kidding, of course.

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leafvert
06-06-2008

Rated 0 
What does 42 mean? from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?
The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything?

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2 Replies
neovincci
06-06-2008

Rated +1 
Just a personal application probably, but I see the song beginning in Hell narrated by the devil who "fell for the spell" of sin. Then it moves to purgatory with the chord progression and tempo change, a place that's not heaven but where the potential to rise there is possible. Finally Chris speaks for God repeating the same line from the beginning but with a hopeful sounding end falsetto, as if he is speaking for Heaven, a mystery. 42 is the number of the meaning of life, meaning this song might have religious undertones. Completely out of left field, but precisely what I see.

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4 Replies
rorow1
06-07-2008

Rated 0 
The beginning of this song realy reminds me of Muse, stuff like Ruled By Secrecy.

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legoman163
06-07-2008

Rated +2 
I think the speaker when he says "those who are dead are not dead, they're just living in my head" means people who've died but who he still thinks about. They are all memories. And he is falling for that spell because he isn't living a full life. All he's thinking about is death. Don't understand the ghost part, but maybe this is how he resolves it. He will just be a ghost so he won't have to miss out on anything, but he made it close to heaven because he was good

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lalunacreciente
06-08-2008

Rated +2 
Coldplay is all about the music in this one... How it starts off so serenely and then just surprises you... Ah, it's f**king incredible.

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RJ10
06-08-2008

Rated +1 
I personally didn't think Coldplay could surprise me any more on this album after i heard Viva La Vida. This album is sooooo good! This song is just one of the high points on what is a fantastic album.

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bloc_party15
06-09-2008

Rated 0 
part 3 is my favourite!!

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ihatehatehaters
06-10-2008

Rated 0 
This song has really grown on me. At first I thought it felt kinda weird but the more I listen, the more I am liking the flow of the song. Like every song on this album, it has a real unique feel.

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SquishypuffDave
06-11-2008

Rated 0 
I'm on the same boat as ihatehatehaters. I was unsure what I thought of it at first, but now I love it. However, the lyrics are just as vague as any other Coldplay song, but they do sound cool. It is obviously about death, but rather than making a statement, it explores what death means to people.

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Zurby87
06-11-2008

Rated 0 
"Chris has a fascination with the supernatural and the part they play in people's destiny. He added: 'Ghosts are supposed to be people who haven't found their final place, right? And we just thought it would be funny to spend your whole life trying to get to heaven and then you get to the gates and they say, 'You didn't quite make it.' And that kept popping up in my head, the idea of not being on the guest list."

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*JoSIe*
06-11-2008

Rated 0 
epic, coldplay just cannot do wrong

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Tin_Man
06-13-2008

Rated 0 
I keep reading stuff on the internet about U2 comparisons (which I understand on ocassion0 and Radiohead comparisons (which I will NEVER understand...), but listening to this new stuff, another group comes to mind: The Police. Not the overall sound, necessarily, but it feels to me like Coldplay was influenced by them, especially at times like the guitar interlude in this song. DOes anybody else hear it, or is it just me?

Furthermore, this song is incredibly haunting. I love it, and the new stuff is really outstanding. I love the prominence of the drums throughout the album and Chris seems to have taken a new, darker, more complex approach to songwriting, which comes across in composition as well as mood.

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Justus71
06-14-2008

Rated 0 
The number 42 is the album length of Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends. It also is supposed to the number of life according to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

I think the song is really just a mesh up of ideas without any real meaning behind them, just how life can be a mesh of rather random and meaningless moments.

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HoliHallow
06-14-2008

Rated 0 
For the first part, I'll agree with legoman163 up there. The first part is about memories of people who are either dead, or have gone and left you, and people always say that 'You'll live on in our memories' but this person has became so grief-stricken, and absorbed with the memories, he's 'fallen under the spell' and is living in the past with them as well, and not living life in the present, to the full, and hasn't moved on from the loss

'Time is so short and I’m sure
There must be something more' -
is maybe his more logical view saying 'Life is too short' but also him asking himself 'is there anything more to life now that these people are dead and gone?'
The final part of the song, I'm not so sure about it, it's certainly Chris addressing the dead, or the ghosts. It might also refrence to the fact that 'those who are dead are not dead' cause their in his head, so the ghosts can't be free of the earth, and get to heaven, but they can forever be remembered by the people that loved them which will be almost a compensation, 'but you made it close'
You didn’t get to heaven but you made it close

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HoliHallow
06-14-2008

Rated 0 
Another idea that struck me as I was just listening to this, is that it's about Denial about someone's death, the people aren't dead and gone, they are alive and 'living' in the person's head, almost false hope to try and deal with their loss
Just another idea I just had

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Henneby
06-16-2008

Rated 0 
I instantly regarded the first two lines as a philosophical aspect, in which the dead are remembered in the heads of their relatives and not by material goods and furthermore that they "live on" only in our heads and not in an alleged heaven..

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cjscott24
06-17-2008

Rated 0 
This song instantly made me think of the LOST. Not the song that precedes it, but the television series.

42 is one of the numbers. If you know the show, you know what numbers I mean.

What really struck me was 'You think you might be a ghost/You didn't get to heaven but you made it close'.

There's been a long-standing theory about LOST that the island is actually purgatory and that everyone who crashed in the plane is really dead. Or in between worlds, in other words... they didn't get to heaven, but they made it close.

I'm probably wrong, but that's where my mind immediately went.

Cheers all.

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1 Reply
Brittie08
06-17-2008

Rated 0 
oh yeah i dig it! so so so so happy they are back!!!

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stillwater
06-18-2008

Rated 0 
Tin Man, I can see the police influences here and there on this album. This song especially.

I read a quote by CM saying they titled this song "42" because every great band has a song that is titled by just a # (and he did mention U2's 40 as well).


cjscott, your link to LOST makes a lot of sense but i just can't see these brits watching LOST. i dunno, just my opinion.

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1 Reply
fsm
06-18-2008

Rated 0 
Stillwater took my point about the song name (Coldplay joining the long list of rock bands with a song named after a number).

And sorry, cjscott, but the creators of LOST debunked the purgatory theory (I thought LOST was purgatory myself too, at first).

Best song on Viva La Vida? Close...for me, the best tracks are the title tracks (Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends).

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Twisted Logic88
06-18-2008

Rated 0 
This album is full of awesome songs... Different from their previous albums, but yet so Coldplay. Just incredible. I agree with legoman163, and HoliHallow made a thoughtful input as well. All the tracks are awesome... but I really love Lost!

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tessasaurusrex7355
06-19-2008

Rated +1 
42 is the answer to life, the universe, and everything (according to Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy) , so that must make this song.......?

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kurogin
06-21-2008

Rated 0 
The first part of this song sounds really Pink Floyd-Esque and it is really interesting, the style of the song, it is really different. The first thing I thought of when I heard the song was that this sounds like the beatles.

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