“The Cave” by Mumford and Sons

song info

    “The Cave” by Mumford and Sons (official video) is a modern alternative rock song.

    The 2011 MTV Video Music Awards nominated this song for Best Rock Video.

    The lyrics are based on G.K. Chesterton’s “St. Francis of Assisi” Chapter V: Le Jongleur de Dieu

link to the static song information page for this song:
http://www.thissideofsanity.com/music/songs/ca/thecave.php

    Summary quotation from Wikipedia:

    “The Cave” is the third single by London folk quartet Mumford & Sons, released from their debut album Sigh No More. It was released in the UK on 26 February 2010. It placed 81 in Triple J Hottest 100, 2009 before the single had been released. It was the second single in the US, after “Little Lion Man” and has gone on to sell over 1,000,000 digital copies there (1,657,000 digital copies by September 2012). On November 30, 2011, the song received 4 nominations in 54th Grammy Awards including Song of the Year and Record of the Year.

    Inspiration for “The Cave” is often attributed to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, however, it can be argued that a stronger case can be made for G.K. Chesterson’s remarks on St. Francis of Assisi inspiring the song’s use of the cave as a metaphor. Chesterton compares St Francis of Assisi’s transformation to a man who “looked at the world as differently from other men,” and came out of his dark hole, “walking on his hands”. It also references Homer’s Odyssey and The Iliad.

Chart performance

    “The Cave” first entered the Australian Singles Chart on 12 February 2009, almost a month before its release. The song peaked at number 31 making it Mumford & Sons’s second single to make an impact on the Australian Singles Chart.

    On 19 February 2010 “The Cave” debuted at number 43 on the Irish Singles Chart, making it Mumford & Sons’s second single to make an impact on the Irish Chart. The following week the single climbed to No. 29, and on 5 March 2010, “The Cave” reached a new peak of No. 20, beating Little Lion Man’s peak placement of No. 21. “The Cave” then debuted in the Irish Top 10 on 26 March 2010 at No. 10.

    The song was also featured on VH1’s top 40 video’s of 2011

    “The Cave” first entered the UK Singles Chart on 7 February 2010, at No. 88. The following week, the single climbed eighteen places to No. 70 and then climbed a further 7 to No. 63. The single then climbed to No. 51, and on 7 March 2010, following the physical release of “The Cave”, the single climbed to No. 37, making it Mumford & Sons second Top 40 hit in the UK. The single remained at a fixed position of No. 37 for three weeks. On 28 March 2010, the single climbed five places to No. 32, then reached a peak of No. 31.

    As of April 2013, the song has sold 1,778,000 copies in the US.

Use in popular media

    In May 2012, the song featured on a Lastminute.com advertisement and on the ITV World Cup 2010 coverage in England. It was also featured prominently in the pilot episode of the Fox Network’s new drama Lone Star. The song also featured on the first episode of the fourth season of British TV series Skins. The song is referenced in the song “All My Lows” by British musician Example with the lyric “Lost in a cave like sons of Mumford”.

Music video

    The official music video for “The Cave” features each of the four band members driving on scooters through the roads of Goa while singing the song in tandem with four Indian men in marching band uniforms to whom they gave their instruments at the start of the video.

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