Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Stranger
Stranger in a strange land
He looked at me like I
Was the one who should run
We asked him to smile for a photograph
Waited a while to see if we could make him laugh
A soldier asked for a cigarette
His smiling face I can't forget
He looked like you across the street
But that's a long way here
And I wish you were here
And I wish you were here
Stranger
A stranger in a strange land
He look at me like I
Was the one who should run
I watched as he watched us
Get back on the bus
I watched the way it was
The way it was when he was with us
And I really don't mind
Sleeping on the floor
But I couldn't sleep after what I saw
I wrote this letter to tell you
The way I feel
I wish you were here
Oh, I wish you were here
To see what I could see
To hear
And I wish you were here, oh, oh
Stranger in a strange land
He looked at me like I
Was the one who should run
We asked him to smile for a photograph
Waited a while to see if we could make him laugh
A soldier asked for a cigarette
His smiling face I can't forget
He looked like you across the street
But that's a long way here
And I wish you were here
And I wish you were here
Stranger
A stranger in a strange land
He look at me like I
Was the one who should run
I watched as he watched us
Get back on the bus
I watched the way it was
The way it was when he was with us
And I really don't mind
Sleeping on the floor
But I couldn't sleep after what I saw
I wrote this letter to tell you
The way I feel
I wish you were here
Oh, I wish you were here
To see what I could see
To hear
And I wish you were here, oh, oh
Lyrics submitted by yuri_sucupira
Stranger in a Strange Land Lyrics as written by Dave Evans Adam Clayton
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Holiday
Bee Gees
Bee Gees
@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
This song was written for the U2 album 'October' in 1981 and I remember reading an interview with Bono at the end of 1981 in a Dutch magazine where he explained what the song was about. U2 was not big in those days but they had received good reviews of their debut album 'boy' and because of that they had been touring mainland Europe. When he was in Berlin he visited the Wall. There he climbed in a looking tower and from there watched into East Berlin. It was there that he saw in the distance an east german border soldier about the same age as Bono was (about 19). This song describes the feeling he had when he tried to make contact with that soldier. So 'the stranger' in the song is the soldier and 'the strange land' is East Germany. Because U2 wasn't a very rich band in those days they did not always sleep in hotels and sometimes just slept in their small touring van where they had to lie on the floor. That explains the part about "don't mind sleeping on the floor".
this song to me is about the british occupation of northern ireland. while U2 obviously does not support the IRA etc. [just listen to sunday bloody sunday], i would say that they are opposed to the british presence.
the stranger and the soldier are the same person. 'he looked at me like i was the one who should run' to me is the british exercising control over the irish people.
this is often my favorite U2 song.
'and i really don't mind sleeping on the floor but i couldn't sleep after what i saw'
that is probably my favorite U2 line ever. however i don't know where it fits into my whole british occupation theory.
I think the underlying theme of this song is about division.
It could be a protest song against British troops being stationed in Northern Ireland or it could be about the Berlin Wall.
I think the line after "He looked like you from across the street" is actually "But that's a long way here", which seems a clever way of encapsulating a divided community where a short physical distance hides a wider gulf of some kind. To reflect what earlier posters said, that was definitely the case in both Belfast and Berlin in 1981.