| U2 – Unknown Caller Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Raw said it best. The second I heard those french horns pipe in at the end, I was transported to the pew I grew up in and knew this album was going to be a mind-blower since they sampled a beloved old hymn of all things! This is my 2nd fav on the album (behind the title track) because it rocks in every sphere: musically, lyrically, symbolically, and it taps into our unconscious-knowing that there's something bigger than us and we should feel compelled to wake up and find out who or what it is. I'm so into the "Sunshine, Sunshine." I could hear just that over and over again, it's to beautiful with Edge's bells following. I must say it is lovely to not have to see Theresa's rants anymore! Off-subject, anyone? And it's definitely not the way to win someone to your belief system to boot. |
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| U2 – Desire Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I love when I'm out in public (grocery shopping, in a friends' car, etc.) and Edge's guitar rips the beginning chords. It feels like an old friend saying hello. I agree wholeheartedly with Keyser Sushi's post. Also, I think it goes in tandem with Hawkmoon 269. |
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| U2 – Desert of Our Love Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I really like the flow of this...especially drums and Bono's stream of consciousness has some high points. I wish they'd work on it and finish it because I bet the song would come out really cool once it was fleshed out. Unfortunately, they are way past this music and lyric at this point. So I can see why they released it unfinished like this...another glimpse into the song-making process. I don't hear the "Streets" similarity. Definitely same time period and flow, but I'm not hearing how they relate? |
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| U2 – Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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WOW! I'm not surprised to see the high intellect of U2 followers...I mean fans. Good conversations about whether it's about God or the devil or Russia or Consumerism or heroin or spoiled brats. Makes me agree with some other posts that it is eternally layered in meaning (as most art)--it is all present. I love the song because it invokes the memory of seeing Bono as McPhisto in all his glamorous glory onstage at the ZooTV concert I went to so very long ago. When I bought my new car, it was the first song I played in it because the irony took me to a whole new level of elation. This is one of those songs that for me the meaning changes as my experiences change me. Each time I reapproach it, it means something different to me based on the place I am in. When I was a teenager, I saw the devil as Daddy and his empty, attractive promises. When I was in college, I saw more of the "heroin interpretation" for instance, "You got a head full of traffic/ You're a siren's song/ You cry for momma, but daddy's right along." You can't always get what you want and what you want is most likely as deadly as the siren's song. Now that I'm in the family thing, I see it on a multi-layered level, and really groove to the sound. Who can resist the "Uh-huh/Sha-La/Uh-huh/Sha-La" ?! |
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| U2 – Cedars Of Lebanon Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I think the Biblical reference to "Cedars in Lebanon" is the most astute basis for the title, which works with the other interpretations about it being about a soldier/war correspondent/etc... And also works with NLOH's theme about heaven on earth. This is my least favorite sounding song on the album because it is so bare. I know a lot of people like bare, but in this instance it just seems either undone or too filtered to me. I keep wanting to like it, but find myself skipping it when it comes on in the car on my ipod. I'm not the biggest fan of Bono doing the hungover-too many smokes-raspy talk thing, so that's probably why it doesn't do it for me. I hate it when I really don't like a U2 song. It makes me feel disloyal or something! |
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| U2 – Breathe Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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This is one of those songs that is like a hymn. For me it's the a God-led person's answer to "Fast Cars." Yeah, there's this guy wanting me to buy this and that and I'm either alive or dying (love the humor on this album by the way) but it doesn't faze me because I live in GRACE. It is nearly holy to me when he sings "Walk out into the sunburst street/Sing your heart out, sing my heart out/I found grace inside a wound/I found grace it's all I found!" |
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| U2 – Big Girls Are Best Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I agree with U2fanz. Also, I want to add that the most beautiful women I have ever seen are ones who own who they are and so have "a smile like salvation." Whether you are talking about lovely Brazilian women walking down the beach in G-strings or the astounding beauty of a mother nursing her child, women are most beautiful when they are confident and conscious. The whole package: spiritual, logical, political, beautiful. BTW, those of you who think pregnant, post-pregnant, or nursing mothers are just fat and unattractive are not paying attention. Many are among the most amazing-looking and amazing-being women because they encapsulate and grow new life. Now that takes confidence! Lastly, Bono talks about "Big Girls" in the book "Bono in Conversation" being originally the rockin' supermodels he knows (Christ Turlington, for example) who do it all and have it all together. I'm sure he includes his wife who has her own charities, businesses, and runs a house with Bono and their four children, as well as all the other women who give it their all. I love this song. It feels like a big shout out to me! |
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| U2 – Beautiful Ghost/Introduction to Songs of Experience Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Read William Blake's "Songs of Experience." The lyrics are the introduction to them. And for good measure enjoy Blake's "Songs of Innocence, as I believe they are meant to be read together. Heavy stuff, but beautiful. |
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| U2 – Beautiful Ghost Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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The lyrics are the introduction to William Blake's "Songs of Experience" poems. It's about eternity and creation and God and the Earth and man. Blake also wrote poems called "Songs of Innocence" to which the songs of experience are a counterpoint. The eerie, naked, ethereal sound throughout the song gives me goosebumps every time I hear it. Bono's voice--so low and calm to begin with and then how he crescendos into "till the break of day, till the break of day, till the break of day..." is lovely. |
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| U2 – Another Time, Another Place Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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That phrase "Another time, Another place" has become one of my staple phrases...it's just the perfect thing to say sometimes. Especially to children ;) I think this song is beautiful. |
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| U2 – Always Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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This song HAS become on of my prayers! And it includes one of my favorite U2isms "so if you dream than dream out loud" to boot! I also love the driving bass and Edge's lovely bells to counterpoint it. |
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| U2 – All Because of You (Alternate Version) Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I got the "U2 Rare and Unmastered" disc from U2.com and it found it's permanent home in my CD player in my car since I opened it. So many amazing songs on there, including this one. I love the lyrics so, so much and wish they'd just recycle them into another tune, so the masses could enjoy them too. I do, however, appreciate the opportunity to gain insight into their song making process, as you can see how the ideas from this version grew into the ideas of the released version on HTDAB. So, really I see why this was not recycled but released for us as a glimpse into how art takes on a life of its own and surpasses even its beautiful inception. I love Bono's humility: "Had the universe decoded/Then the atoms split" The straight truth: "It's not the noise/It's the deafening silence that drowns God out" And of course the tune is soul-churning, just like the other one! |
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| U2 – Trash, Trampoline, and the Party Girl Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I'm glad to see the boys are resurrecting this one here and there now. I saw an excellent YouTube video of them doing it for Bono's daughter Eve's birthday in Milan just a few weeks ago (July 2009). It has a whole other twist to it the way he performed it then. Haven't we all been one of those characters at one time or another? Simple yet layered...that's what I like about U2! |
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| U2 – Hawkmoon 269 Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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This song has always resonated with me because of the tension in it. It's one of those that give me the chills every time it comes on. It reminds me of the lost loves I have experienced and the reality of the loves I am currently experiencing. Like another post said it shows the unhealthy need that one can feel for love. "Hurts so bad but feels so good." That's what love seems to be in my experience. Whether you're talking about spiritual love, romantic love, or any other love--it is beautiful and pleasurable and wonderful while at the same time being (potentially) ugly, painful (even to the point of death), and horrific. Love and lust are a fine line apart. Love and greed are a fine line apart. As is love and hate, really. And if love is life and hate is death, then you have a fine line between those as well. Bono is excellent at discussing dichotomies in a realistic, tangible way that I've heard few other poets accomplish so beautifully and frequently. Some of my favorite U2 songs have this tension in it, and I think I love it so much because it so vividly illustrates the way love works. It's not all Cinderella and her Prince, but more often more along the lines of Romeo and Juliet. One of my top fav. U2 songs of all time! I wish they'd play it live when I see them on their 360 tour! Alas, I know it is one of those lost pieces of art I must enjoy as a recording, but one can hope! |
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| U2 – Big Girls Are Best Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I could not agree more. I think of this song as a long overdue praise of the Wife/Mother role that our society under-appreciates because neither calling earns money (per se). A true homemaker is one whose job is invaluable and therefore not transferable (i.e. farmed out to the lowest bidder). On a more esoteric note, I see praise of Lady Wisdom--the Holy Spirit. Big girls ARE best. |
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| U2 – Get On Your Boots Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I agree with all of the ideas put forth here, and I would argue that they can simultaneously be present in the song. Bono consistently writes songs with multiple layers and multiple meanings. For example, he said once that "In A Little While" was a song about a hangover and then Joey Ramone turned it into a gospel song. So, I think that he believes and acts on the idea that art is shaped and changed and created not just by the artist, but also by the audience. Another idea I hear in it is that it reminds me of the pleas in "Origin of the Species" which Bono said he wrote for his daughters (and the other bandmates daughters). So, I think that it is also addressed specifically to his girls and generally to women as a call to arms and a nod to the fact that women see things differently. Bono definitely respects women as different and wonderful from men, and I think that he sees hope in the ability of women changing the world. In those ways it also echoes "Big Girls are Best" I think. I saw the music video on YouTube and I think the ideas presented in this forum make sense based on it. What ideas are there about what "No Line on the Horizon" means? I know about the pick, but what does the phrase mean? It probably won't be clear until the album is released, but I'm just wondering if there are any ideas already floating around. |
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