“I used to rule the world
Seas would rise when I gave the word
Now in the morning, I sleep alone
Sweep the streets I used to own”
I will always remember the first time I was introduced to Coldplay. 103.3fm was the PREMIER hits station back in the day – Yeah, I KNOW most of the people who read this still have their preset radio stations forever burned into their brains like a HOT BRAND, baby – (103.3, 97.5 and 105.3 will ALWAYS BE THERE FOR ME IN MY DREAMS!!), I digress.. back in 2008 The band released “Viva la Vida” as a single from their album also titled “Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends”. An absolute radio hit – even to this day it still gets airplay and has an ASTOUNDING 2.8 BILLION streams on Spotify, holding the 36th spot on Spotify’s most streamed songs of all time. . I remember hearing Viva on daily morning drives to school and just associating it with an etherealness that I hadn’t heard in any music prior to that (Try and remember I was 12 at the time and really just starting to cement my music taste)
from that point on I went on to devour the rest of their discography with a fervor I had not felt in my life up until that point. There were a handful of bands from then until my early 20’s that would go on to make me feel that way like I was a frontiersmen discovering America.
The last time I truly felt that was when I was 22 or 23, discovering “Toad the Wet Sprocket” for the first time(yeah, I know—basically 30 years late to the party). I haven’t felt that ethereal sense of discovery since then. I haven’t gotten that headrush, like I was being awakened to a new flavor of something I’d never tasted before… I honestly haven’t felt much of that from anything in a while.
What causes that loss—and how do we get it back? Are there folks out there who still get goosebumps when they hear a new tune? Who still feel like they’re uncovering gold from some long-sunken pirate ship?
Maybe chasing that feeling is what leads people to have what we call a “mid-life crisis.” Maybe the people who go through those are just 18-year-olds at heart, looking to reignite that fire in their belly—the same wonder they once felt about everything, including their favorite bands, when they were still just kids.
I’d like to think I still get those emotions organically, but maybe it’s my frame of mind that needs to shift. Maybe even the lyrics to Viva La Vida are a callback to that time when you felt like you ruled the world—when every experience felt fresh and new and scary and exciting, all at once.
I’ll let you know when I get that next spine-tingling feeling.
Until then, Viva La Vida.
– Love Wyatt
Wyatts Hobby Photos 