Chris Martin himself called "Yes" a "sexy" song, but "written for another character", saying that he's "just pretending to be someone else in there." "Chinese Sleep Chant" Lyrically the song is about love, sensuality, temptation (as in the passage: "'Lord lead me not into temptation' / But it's not easy when she turns you on / Sin, stay gone") and loneliness ("I've become so tired of this loneliness"). In an article for Rolling Stone anticipating the album, Evan Serpick writes: "Martin’s vocals take center stage like never before: sounding more aggressive and strong than ever, they sit on top of an irresistible North African string-and-tablas arrangement and ache more convincingly than all the lilting falsetto in the world", describing the piece as Coldplay's freshest song since their debut album. "Yes" also features strings arranged and played on an electric violin by musician Davide Rossi, a frequent collaborator of the band. Its main characteristic are the low vocals by Chris Martin this was suggested by producer Brian Eno, to add to the variation between the songs on the album. The title song, especially its tuning, was originally inspired by The Velvet Underground. The first release from the album was “Don’t Panic”.- Will Champion in an interview for MTV "Yes" Parachutes was a success, topping the charts in the United Kingdom and reaching 51 on the Billboard 200. The album featured the song “Yellow”, which would become their ticket to success. Safety was followed up by The Blue Room a year later in 1999, featuring some of the tracks from the first EP, with a run of 5000 copies.Ī year later in 2000, the band released Parachutes under the Parlophone label. The rest were given away to record companies, family, and friends. The EP was a demo for record companies, and featured the tracks “Bigger Stronger”, “No More Keeping My Feet on the Ground”, and “Such A Rush”.įrom a run of about 500 copies, only 50 copies of Safety were sold in record shops. The recording cost roughly $2000 and was financed by Harvey and the rest of the band.
It took ten live gigs before the band was signed to their first record label.Ĭoldplay went on to record an EP titled Safety, which they recorded over the span of a weekend. Phil Harvey used the promo cassette to get the band gigs which, despite the slightly strange nature of the song’s lyrics, actually worked. The lyrics are a literal interpretation of the title: “Here’s an Ode, ah, to deodorant/It’s my thing, ah it’s my favourite hygiene/It keeps me through the day.” The name Coldplay comes from a book of poems: Child’s Reflections, Cold Play by Philip Horky. The name originally belonged to a friend, Tim Crompton’s, band, but when the other band decided they no longer wanted it, the members of the then Starfish asked if they could adopt it. The band went through further name changes, from “Pectoralz” to “Starfish”, then eventually to “Coldplay”. Over the next year, they planned to form a band and eventually did, naming the group “Pectoralz”. The two first met at University College London (UCL) during their orientation week. Origins of ColdplayĬoldplay was first formed in 1996 by Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland. “Ode to Deodorant” wasn’t the song that spurred Coldplay to the level of fame they enjoy today, but it was certainly a step in their journey. It was recorded to cassette tape and used as promotional material by their manager, Phil Harvey. The song is accredited to “The Coldplay”. What was their first song?Ĭoldplay’s first recorded song is “Ode to Deodorant”, recorded in 1996 when the band first changed their name to Coldplay. Coldplay is a world-famous British rock band, formed over twenty years ago.