U2's "breakthrough" album. Arguably their best. Contains many hits (With or Without
you, Where the streets have no names, I still haven't found what I'm looking for).
If you don't own this album you're missing out.
This is a song that came about after Bono and his wife took a "missionary trip"
to Ethiopia. Bono said of the trip - he and his wife didn't experience culture
shock when they went to Africa, they felt culture shock when they came back. He
said that the people he met had a strong spirit, and when he came back to the
world he was used to, that spirit wasn't there. This song is also believed to
possibly be about Heaven.
In the first verse Bono says "I want to run, I
want to hide, I want to tear down the walls That hold me inside". He
has mentioned being surrounded by walls before in "I Will Follow". Probably not
physical walls, but barriers in his life.
The second verse seems like a place of refuge that Bono longs for - "I
want to feel, sunlight on my face, See that dust cloud disappear without a trace,
I want to take shelter from the poison rain, Where the streets have no name".
He may feel very safe in his place of desire. He feels that everything will work
itself out "where the streets have no name".
In the next verse Bono tells how things are where he is. "The
cities a flood, And our love turns to rust, We're beaten and blown by the wind,
Trampled into dust, I'll show you a place, High on a desert plain, Where the streets
have no name". Times are hard where he is. He is probably talking about
the state of the world. He wants to escape. He wants to show the listener a "high"
place, a place of residence that leaves the trouble of the world behind.
This song paints the picture of a place of happiness, where the worries of the
world don't matter. Bono wants to go there. He feels that going there with (you)
is all he can do.
Bono has described this song as "a gospel song with a restless spirit".
This song is kind of like the mule who is being led by a carrot on a stick. The
mule keeps walking towards the stick with the carrot hanging down from it, but
every step the mule makes moves the carrot that much farther away. That in a small
way is kind of like the Christian life, well, sort of anyway. One must understand
that a Christian can never become content, and can never say I am exactly where
I want to be. If a Christian isn't moving toward God, then the Christian is moving
away from God. As a Christian grows in his relationship with Christ, he may think
he is close to grasping the "carrot", but in actuality, a Christian can never
get the carrot because it is always just out of reach.
The first few lines reveal how Bono has struggled and longed to be with God -
"I have climbed the highest mountains, I have run
through the fields, Only to be with you, Only to be with you" and "I
have run I have crawled, I have scaled these city walls, These city walls, Only
to be with you". Bono feels that he has fought the good fight. He has
done all that he can to be with the Lord. He still feels like there is more. He
keeps running. We see Bono's plight in the line "But
I still haven't found, What I'm looking for".
In the next verse Bono tells about his life and things he has done - "I
have kissed honey lips, Felt the healing in her fingertips, It burned like fire,
This burning desire, I have spoke with the tongue of angels, I have held the hand
of a devil, It was warm in the night, I was cold as a stone, But I still haven't
found What I'm looking for". Is he saying that he has tried to find
fulfillment in things of the world, but that didn't work?
The next verse shows us how Bono feels about Christ. "I
believe in the Kingdom Come, Then all the colors will bleed into one, But yes
I'm still running. You broke the bonds, You loosed the chains, You carried the
cross, And my shame, And my shame, You know I believed it! But I still haven't
found, What I'm looking for" In this we see that Bono does believe.
He is obviously talking to Jesus. He says Christ broke the bonds and loosed the
chains (of sin) and that he carried the cross (Before Jesus was crucified, He
was forced to carry His cross through the city) and the shame of Bono and the
world (the sin of the world). Bono knows this and doesn't question it, but he
still feels like "there must be more".
It is common for people to look at this song and think that Bono is questioning
his faith. Nothing could be farther from the truth. This song is not about questioning
ones faith, but about the feeling inside that there must be more. The Christian
life is like a race. (In the Bible we are told to "run the race") The only catch
is that the finish line isn't achievable. It is always on the horizon. We have
to keep looking for the finish line. Bono sums up his view on his relationship
with God in the line "yes, I'm still running".
This song is probably my favorite. It is very hard to understand though. I have
heard interpretations such as "Christ's life in reverse". I don't have a definitive
idea of what the song is about, but I do have some bits and pieces.
The first verse - "See the stone set in your eyes,
See the thorn twist in your side, I wait for you." Who is Bono talking
to? Is the thorn in the side referring the spear in the side of Christ at his
crucifixion? The apostle Paul was also described as having "a thorn in his side".
I think he is talking to Jesus.
I don't understand this next line, and I won't even try to explain. "Sleight
of hand and twist of fate, On a bed of nails she makes me wait, And I wait....without
you " Is he waiting on Christ's return? I think the only person who
could help me understand this line is Bono himself.
The next verse - "Through the storm we reach the
shore, You give it all but I want more, And I'm waiting for you". The
storm could represent the "storms" of life, or it could be talking about the storm
that Jesus and His disciples encountered while they were at sea. "You give it
all" could be saying - Jesus, You gave your life but I want more.
The chorus is an oxymoron, or is it? "With or without
you, With or without you, I can't live With or without you" Is Bono
saying that He can't physically be with Jesus now, but that he can't spiritually
be without Jesus?
The "second chorus" is probably talking about how Jesus gave his life for all
men. He died so that we sinners could have the gift of eternal life. The lyric
- "And you give yourself away, And you give yourself
away, And you give, And you give, And you give yourself away"
In this next powerful line, Bono is saying that he doesn't feel like he has a
choice in the matter. He has been through life's battles and feels like he has
nothing to win (Christ has already won the victory) and nothing to lose (if he
loses his life he will be with Christ). The lyric - "My
hands are tied, My body bruised, she's got me with, Nothing left to win, And nothing
left to lose".
This is a hard song to define, and if it weren't one of my favorites I probably
wouldn't have tried.
This is a extremely political song. I don't think you even need me to tell you
that. It is talking about the situation that was going on in Central America during
the mid-eighties.
The first line opens painting a dark, painful picture. "In
the howling wind comes a stinging rain, See it driving nails into souls on the
tree of pain". Are the nails Spikes? Spikes that were driven into the
Cross (the tree of pain) at Christ's crucifixion? Again we see fear - "See
the face of fear running scared in the valley below".
The next verse is where U2 came up for the title of their next album. "In
the locust wind comes a rattle and hum". The next line tells about
the story in the Bible where Jacob (Esau's Brother) wrestled with an angel an
overpowered the Angel, so the Angel touched Jacob's leg and dislocated it. ("Jacob
wrestled the angel and the angel was overcome"). Then we see a graphic
picture of "Plant a demon seed, you raise a flower
of fire, See them burning crosses, see the flames, higher and higher."
Then Bono proceeds to tell about an arms deal, as though he is the dealer. "This
guy comes up to me, His face red like a rose on a thorn bush, Like all the colors
of a royal flush, And he's peeling off those dollar bills, Slapping them down,
One hundred, two hundred, And I can see those fighter planes, And I can see those
fighter planes"
In the closing line Bono addresses how many Central American countries run to
the US in time of need, and sometimes how we aid countries when they don't need
us when it really doesn't concern the US. "Across
the field you see the sky ripped open, See the rain come through the gaping wound,
Pounding on the women and children who run into the arms of America"
Bono has often said this song is about addiction, specifically with heroine. Not
always about heroine though, he has said that everyone suffers from some sort
of addiction.
This song is a story about a girl who is addicted to heroine. It starts with her
waking, she realizes she needs to change. "And
so she woke up, woke up From where she was lying still, Said we got to do something
about where we're going." She thinks "Step
on a steam train, Step out of the driving rain, Maybe run from the darkness in
the night". She wants to leave where she is, and who she is.
The girl enjoys the "high" ("Sweet the sin, But
bitter the taste in my mouth") but knows it is wrong. She says "I
see seven towers, But I only see one way out". In Dublin, where Bono
grew up, there were seven towers near his house. This is where this line comes
from. Seven Beautiful towers, but the girl only sees them as something to jump
off of and leave her life behind.
She then states " You got to cry without weeping,
Talk without speaking, Scream without raising your voice". She talks
about things that are impossible, because she sees life as "impossible". When
she feels the weight of the world, she doesn't feel like she can carry the burden,
she needs the drug to help her - "you know I took
the poison, from the poison stream, Then I floated out of here" - she
gets high.
The next description we see of the girl is that of a mad woman who is running
around in a rage - "She runs through the streets,
With her eyes painted red, Under black belly of cloud in the rain,"
and "She is raging, She is raging and the storm
blows up in her eyes". The world is the storm - it almost seems that
the girl is impervious to the storm, she is high (bloodshot eyes "eyes painted
red") because of heroine, she doesn't even notice the peril of the storm that
is all around her.
The last line shows the girls addiction. "She will
suffer the needle chill, She is running to stand still". She doesn't
mind the injection and the syringe. She is running so that she can, in her mind,
get her life straight. She is addicted and can't stop. When she thinks about stopping
and the way things would be, it scares her and she "takes the poison".
This song was inspired by the miners strike that went on in the early eighties.
A lot of people wrote songs about the strike and the protest, but no one wrote
songs about the families involved. Bono saw this and wrote a song about how the
strike affected the workers, who had to come home and didn't have a fat paycheck
to slap down on the table. It shows the sad, dark side of strikes, when workers
families suffer for the cause and relationships are stretched because of pressure
brought on by the strike. It is one of my favorite songs. I think it has a happy
ending though, through the trials and strife it seems that the singer is still
holding on, whether it is to his spouse or to God, he is still hanging on.
Bono has said that this song started out being about Ireland, but ended up being
about both Ireland and America.
A powerful line in the song is "Set me alight,
We'll punch a hole right through the night, Everyday the dreamers die, to see
what's on the other side." Punch a hole into darkness, maybe the unknown?
Everyday the dreamers die? Is this about suicide? Is it about how people are willing
to risk their life to come to America. (Especially in the early years of America)
People dream of a new life in America. They sail for days to find "God's Country".
Bono has admitted that the next line is about the statue of liberty - One of the
first images many immigrants saw when coming to America. "She
is Liberty, And she comes to rescue me." The next line parallels a
Bible verse "Hope, Faith and Charity, and the greatest of these is Charity (love)".
Bono sings "Hope, faith, and vanity, The greatest
gift is gold".
Again Bono's lyric points to the statue of liberty, "Naked
flame, She stands with a naked flame". Bono says "I
stand with the sons of Cain, Burned by the fire of love, Burned by the fire of
love". Cain was the son of Adam and Eve. He killed his brother Abel
because he was jealous of him. Cain thought that God loved Abel more because God
accepted Abel's sacrifice, but didn't accept Cain's. Cain was cast out of the
land and was cursed to roam the earth. Does Bono feel like the people coming over
in ships were cast out of their countries?
The tone of this song is upbeat, but the picture it paints is dim. God's country
has "sad eyes and crooked crossed". Possibly this is talking about Ireland, and
how people there have suffered because of their faith.
This is a song that was originally a eulogy. It was recited at the funeral of
Bono's and the band's friend Greg Carrol. Greg was from New Zealand and had met
the band and Bono a few years earlier. He was doing a favor for Bono when he was
killed. He was taking Bono's motorcycle somewhere for him.
Greg was buried on a island that has a hill with one predominant tree. Thus the
title.
This song uses object such as the moon, sun, and stars. The line "You
ran like river to the sea, Like a river to the sea" suggest that Greg's
life was like a journey with an ultimate goal.
The song talks about "Jara". Victor Jara was a Chilean folk singer/songwriter
who was very famous at the beginning of the 70s in Chile. His songs were full
of social criticism and called for uprising. He was respected among the intellectual
leaders of the socialist Chilean government. Alas, Augusto Pinochet overthrew
the government in a military coup. Part of the associated repression included
torturing Victor Jara to death, cutting both his hands and making him sing and
play the guitar afterwards. That is were Bono gets the lyric "Where
poets speak their hearts, then bleed for it, Jara sang, his song a weapon, in
the hands of love, You know his blood still cries from the ground."
The next verse is one of my favorites - "I don't
believe in painted roses or bleeding hearts, While bullets rape the night of the
merciful, I'll see you again when the stars fall from the sky, And the moon has
turned red over One Tree Hill." This verse leads me to believe that
Greg Carrol was a Christian. Bono sings "I'll see
you again when the stars fall from the sky, And the moon has turned red over One
Tree Hill." The Bible says that when Christ returns, the moon will
turn red like blood, and the stars will fall from the sky. I believe Bono is saying
he will see his friend again at Christ's return.
This song sings of pain and suffering, but it also gives a sense of hope. Greg
Carrol is dead, but if he did accept Christ as his savior, he will live forever.
This is what comforts Bono (a Christian) at the end of the song.
On a bootleg that I have, Bono says this is "a song about a religious man, who
became a very dangerous man, when he misunderstood the hands of love".
The guy feels a great deal of guilt. For what I'm not sure. He knows about salvation
("You know he got the cure...") but
he strayed from the truth of the gospel ("you know
he went astray"). He is trying to forget, or live with, the past. He
still wants to believe - "He wanted to believe,
In the hands of love..."
He is walking and feeling extremely bad (we aren't told why). He hears and sees
things that make him sad and remorseful ("A dog
started crying like a broken hearted man, and the howling wind, the howling wind")
They guy sees "The stars shining, Like nails in
the night". The Bible says that Christians will shine like stars. Could
the nails in the night be referencing Christ's nails as He was nailed to the cross.
Maybe the man is feeling remorse because he used to be on Christ's side, but now
he has fallen.
"He put his hands in the pocket, His finger on
the steel, The pistol weighed heavy, His heart he could feel, Was beating, beating,
beating, beating oh my love". The man has a gun with him. His heart
is pounding. He is either about to kill someone else or kill himself. The guilt
has overcome him. I suspect he is committing suicide.
The last line is very powerful. Many people think they can do no wrong. Many people
think they can only build the kingdom of God, but do nothing to hinder it. The
last line states the reality that "the hands that
build, can also pull down....even the hands of love"
This song is about the mothers of children who have disappeared in Central America.
Bono describes the word "disappeared" as a euphanism the death squads use for
dragging someone out of their house in the night and shooting them.
The lyrics talk about the memory, the heartbeat of those lost. The reminders of
them, the wind, the rain. A very beautiful line in the song is "Night
hangs like a prisoner, Stretched over black and blue".
This song is about the pain of losing someone unjustly. Whether they are shot
or die suddenly. There are things around to remind of those past, they produce
good memories and painful ones.
U2's "breakthrough" album. Arguably their best. Contains many hits (With or Without
you, Where the streets have no names, I still haven't found what I'm looking for).
If you don't own this album you're missing out. 