Death and All His Friends

"Death and All His Friends"
General information
Recorded	2007–2008
Genre	Art rock Alternative rock
Length	3:32 6:18 (with "The Escapist")
Labels
Producer(s)	Markus Dravs Brian Eno Jon Hopkins Rik Simpson
Album	Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends track listing
Strawberry Swing
"Death and All His Friends"

"Death and All His Friends" is a song by Coldplay from their fourth studio album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends. It is the tenth and final track of the album, sharing its position with next song, "The Escapist".

Background and recording

Will Champion revealed in an interview that the quiet bit of the beginning of the song (with Chris Martin on the piano and Jonny Buckland on the guitar) was originally a separate song called "School", which was originally intended to be an introduction to "Rainy Day", featured later on Prospekt's March EP. However, "School" was eventually re-worked into the current state of the "Death and All His Friends". About that decision, Will said: "It just seems they were on the same key, and it was a really lovely beginning to a song, and we thought we'd try squeezing them together, and it actually ended up really working." In the same interview, bassist Guy Berryman told that album producer, Brian Eno, was heavily involved with the song. "When we were working on it, he immediately jumped on it and said "we have to finish this, we have to finish this". And I think we worked on it for a while, and then it was buried a little bit, and then, we decided to resurrect it." He also explained the song was "recorded very live", with the band chosing the best takes from the recording sessions.

Chris said the song was "internationally recorded", in Barcelona, London and New York City, with a part of it being recorded eight months before the other. The vocals were recorded in an art gallery in Barcelona that was once the medical room of an ancient nunnery. About the its chorus, Will told Q magazine: "This is us singing all together and then another us singing together. The Coldplay Choir. And it had an echo that lasted for a long, long time. When we did a lot of group singing we just roped in whoever was around. Studio engineers, whoever."

Writing, theme and composition

The graphic image used for the song

Chris revealed to Rolling Stone magazine that it was producer Brian Eno who came up with the line "I don't want a cycle of recycled revenge". He explained: "I had this blank spot in the lyrics: “I don't want to battle from beginning to end. Something, something, something. I don't want to follow Death and all of his friends.” So we were all having a sandwich, and it's like. “I don't want to watch too many episodes of Friends? No, that won't do. I don't want to listen to Radiohead's The Bends? No. I don't want to eat any Jerry and Ben's? No.” And then Brian came out with the line, and he was like, “I quite like that. You should use that.”

In an interview for MTV, Chris told the name of the song is supposed to be the theme of the album, saying: "We're aware of all the bad stuff in life, but that doesn't mean you should ever give in to it, you know? So we all sing that bit together really loudly, as kind of a message to ourselves: never giving up and never focusing on the bad stuff too much."

It is the final track of the album, although not the last song, that one is the hidden track attached to it, "The Escapist".

The song was described as "a straight-up rock tune" with a "melancholy piano that segues into spangling guitars and a male choir". In a ranking of the band's entire discography, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the release of Parachutes, NME defined the song as "an uplifting two-parter that bursts into life as soon as Will Champion and Guy Berryman add their rhythmic might to Martin and Buckland's slowly-slowly instrumental build."

Lyrics

[Verse]
All winter we got carried
Away over on the rooftops, let's get married
All summer we just hurried
So come over, just be patient and don't worry
So come over, just be patient and don't worry

So come over, just be patient and don't worry
And don't worry

[Chorus]
No, I don't want a battle from beginning to end
I don't want a cycle of recycled revenge
I don't wanna follow Death and all of his friends

No, I don't want a battle from beginning to end
I don't want a cycle of recycled revenge
I don't wanna follow Death and all of his friends

Official Audio

Death and All His Friends

Critical reception

In a ten years later review of the album, Sam Reynolds of Medium praised the lyrics and instrumentation, saying: "Over lesser, more basic instrumentation, Martin's lyrics about death and revenge could easily read as preachy. But over the lulling piano and shimmering guitars — which eventually breaks into an explosive sing-along — the lyrics work as simple poetry, supported by genuinely moving musical ideas. At its best, Viva la Vida reaches the artistic heights the band aspired for at their beginnings."

Trivia

• The song is the second title track of the album, the first one is "Viva la Vida".