The Playboy Mansion

I think you're close to the meaning, but I think it's more a case of looking at the hypocrisy of the "religious" in today's society. Think back to Rattle and Hum when Bono shouts at the TV evangelist "The God I believe in isn't short on cash Mister!" This song is a spin on that idea, so many of today's supposedly devout are so wrapped up in materialism, voyeurism, gossip, etc.

And in the end he makes a statement that is lost on many people, "it's who you know that gets you through the gates of that mansion". A very serious reference to the fact that it is in knowing the Lord that you are saved...

This is a song a really like. It is about how some people are treated better because they have money or know people of a higher status. And about how other people who do nothing wrong get nothing. It kind of explains the material things that people want and dont need and about how people try to be someone they're not. The lyrics are clever like many other U2 songs. Bono is a songwriting master.

i dunt get ur idea!...

It´s about seraching for heaven. People always construct a heaven with material things and money, but that´s not enough.

I agree that this song is about someones search for Heaven, and possibly how that search can manifest itself into a material thing. ie the Playboy Mansion. i love how Bono toys with the idea of waiting and not knowing if he can hold on til the end, but he knows somehow that he has to hold on and has to believe. this is a very underrated song, as is the entire Pop album

I think it's about searching for heaven, as said earlier. And that we care to much about these materlial things on earth, but just "another push and maybe we'll be through the gates of that mansion". "The gates of that mansion", I think refers to the gates of heaven. Just my humble opinon though:)

Oooh, I hadn't thought about it a metaphor for the gates of Heaven.

One thing about the 'Achtung Baby' through 'Pop' collection of albums is that they all comment upon the decay of modern life, with often hidden pleas to God for help, or with hidden commentary laced throughout about the search for God in such a life.

But assuming God represents a return to a just, sensible, moral, meaningful world, where lies the salvation for an atheist, or for any who don't want to wait for God to change the world?

This song is criminally underrated, kind of epitomizes Pop. Its narrator is a man that has pursued fame, fortune - in short, who has bought in fully to the materialism of a comsumerism-driven society. Banks are his cathedrals, chance is his religion.

This is not a song about trying to get to heaven, this is a song about trying to get into the Playboy Mansion - the height of earthly desires, the pinnacle of fame, wealth, and material comfort. That is what this narrator is clinging to. Not to God, but rather to the hope that he will push his way into a comfortable lifestyle.

The song is downright heartbreaking. A narrator crying out, hoping for nothing more than the chance to make it, declaring "Don't know if I can hold on / don't know if I'm that strong / don't know if I can wait that long / till the colours come flashing / and the lights go on." The worst part is the sincerity - he truly believes in it. So it's easy to think he might be talking about God, about spirituality when he's so absolutely devoted. But God is the last thing on his mind. This is a portrait of a man possessed by pop culture, driven by desire for material possessions, and utterly devoid of a sense of place in the world beyond the pursuit for wealth and status. It's Pop through and through - its themes, its biting critique, and even its rejection by U2 fans in favor of more accessible, traditional songs.

i think "the playboy mansion" is heaven.

This is another U2 song with vivid imagery for me- I picture a guy lying back in a hammock by a river on a grassy hill, drinking lemonade and idly contemplating how he can get into The Playboy Mansion.