out." During an interview with MTV News, bassist Guy Berryman revealed that the song was one of the older songs that the band had been working on and that they had to move it to one side from the list of songs that were going to appear in the album. Phil Harvey, the band's manager, urged them to include the track in the album, which led to the band to drag it back to the shortlist. The first verse of the song was taken from an unreleased song named "December", written by frontman Chris Martin and guitarist Jonny Buckland in 1997. An early instrumental of the song from the Viva la Vida sessions was leaked into the internet in 2009, it contained an excerpt from a previously performed song named "Solid Ground (Until the Water Flows Over)" as the intro, but it was scratched and the song remained unreleased. The song is the first anti-war protest song from the band. "Violet Hill" derives its title from a street of the same name near Abbey Road. Composition "Violet Hill" features an atmospheric synthesizer intro, which gives way to a piano melody played by Martin. The rest of the band then joins in and the song's prominent guitar riff, characterized by a jagged, fuzzbox distortion effect, enters. Martin sings about medieval imagery of carnivals, cathedrals, religion and war, culminating in a soaring chorus with an anthemic theme. The momentum of the song builds around guitarist Jonny Buckland, who plays a solo. The lyrics start off with Martin recalling: "Was a long and dark December/From the rooftops I remember/There was snow". Martin emphasizes towards the thoughts of a soldier going into battle. The line "If you love me, why'd you let me go?", talks about a man's love of a woman, who does not reciprocate his love. The song ends with Martin playing the piano and singing, and pleading in nearly spoken-words: "If you love me, won't you let me know?" In live performances of the song, he plays the piano part on his acoustic guitar. According to Neil McCormick of The Sydney Morning Herald, he writes that the lyrics "I don't want to be a soldier", is a way that Martin can conjure John Lennon into the song's melody. McCormick, however, notes that Martin "adds his own poetic twist" to the lyric "Who the captain of some sinking ship would stow, far