

They have also won many prestigious awards, were allowed to perform with none other than Bob Dylan during the Grammy Awards in 2011 and played for Barack Obama in the White House. On top of that, they have left lasting impressions on the audience at the festivals where they headlined. In an interview with Radio X the front man calls it ‘ rubbish’ and says: Why the name Mumford & Sons, you might wonder? It was supposedly chosen because Marcus Mumford was the most prominent band member in the early days and because the vibe of the name was that of an old-fashioned family business. “You never really think about it when you’re in the pub, you’ve done your first rehearsal, you’ve written your first song and someone’s like: ‘you need a band name now’”. They did, however, put a lot of thought into their lyrics. With that being said, we present an interpretation of five of their big hits: 5. Little Lion Man (Sigh No More, 2009)Īs mentioned earlier, Mumford & Sons’ breakthrough came with Little Lion Man. To this day, the meaning of this song is still a mystery, but we now know why. “It’s a very personal story, so I won’t elaborate upon it too much. You’re not as brave as you were at the start You can read that it is based on a difficult situation in the lyrics: Suffice to say, it was a situation in my life I wasn’t very happy with or proud of… and sometimes when you can’t describe a feeling with your own words, it’s almost easier to express in a song. It has been speculated that “Little Lion Man” refers to Yvain, the Knight of the Lion – a Knight of the Round Table.

He appears in a 12 th century poem in which he is rejected by his wife because he failed to keep his promise. As far as we know it has never been confirmed by the Mumfords that this is what the song is actually about, but it seems reasonable, right? The knight then performed several heroic deeds to win her back again. There was even objection from within the music industry on using the f-word and the band was asked to replace it, but in an interview Marcus states: The band actually had no intention of releasing this song on their debut album. “We tried it and it was just horrible, it didn’t work at all.

My mum’s justifying it to people: ‘There’s no other word that fits, it has to be that one!” But I now have my parents agreeing with me as well. Here, Mumford tries to persuade someone to choose him: Lover Of The Light is just as multi-interpretable as the previous song in this list, but seems to be more positive. Not a single interview can be found about this hit either, but Mumford did release a statement about the message in its accompanying video clip.
