"Puppets on a Kremlin String?" - Marsh Family adaptation of Coldplay's "Viva la Vida" on Trump/Vance

One of our favourite Coldplay songs is "Viva La Vida" - with its nod to Frida Kahlo, its lavish strings, its rotation and roar, its bells and history, and its heel-thumping singalong harmonic personality. It means "Long Live Life" and was released in 2008.

Our version takes the sense of history, the pain, the trauma, and the notion of world rule, and applies it to the most disgusting media spectacle to date - with already several to choose from - of the new US administration. Like many around the world, as well as disheartened friends in the US, we watched the undignified ambush of Zelensky's trip to the White House with dismay and pity. It was a very unbecoming sight - just at a human level - even without all the higher stakes, deals, implications, and nightmares unfolding as another win is handed to Putin, and more pressure placed on Ukraine.

Like many we are hoping for a miraculous path forward that can somehow turn Trump's intensity into an outcome that can transform into a lasting peace - but given how misdirected the fury and energy and narrative is at the moment, it's quite hard to see it turning out other than a quickfire US withdrawal of support. If that happens, we're in a cowardly new world.

#slavaukraini #dontabandonthem

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LYRICS:

You used to rule the world Choosing sides, being undeterred Now after Putin, in secret, phones In a week that world’s disowned!

Now who controls the skies? It’s not clear who are really allies Listen as the sirens ring When diplomacy’s dead, nobody wins One minute “Land of the Free” Next assaulting Zelensky As he discovers that he had no chance Shouted over by Trump, and bullied by Vance

To hear it, made you spit out your dinner Oval Office to Jerry Springer! Hero here with broad appeal Hijacked over a minerals ‘deal’ For some reason, with such disdain Set upon – there was never, never an honest word And that was when they screwed the world

It was a sick and a vile thing Invited all the media in Shattered leader in his second tongue People couldn’t believe what they had done How can such a pair berate? Look at what he’s got on his plate! Are they puppets on a Kremlin string? Or – why’d they never badmouth Putin?

We hear abuse and the mud they’re slinging Two men safe by the fire are swinging ‘Neath the pictures of luminaries They’re twisting friends into adversaries Now indulging in calling names While appeasing a tyrant’s gains Watching the curtain fall When there’s a nuclear arsenal

[Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh, oh]

We hear their actions delighted Putin Forced surrender - can put the boot in See democracies brought to heel Thanks to Vance for his Wormtongue spiel Zelensky struggled to make it plain: You know Pearl Harbor could come again?! Every hackle stirred We need your help to save the world

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THANKS SO MUCH TO PATREONS AND ESPECIALLY OUR HOWLERS:

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