Wake Up Dead Man

The Dead man is Bono, himself. He's explaining that Spiritually he feels dead sometimes. This is Bono struggling with his faith and telling himself to wake up. It's like Bono the rock star v's Bono the Jesus follower. He's trying to work out what's what!

firthelement, there is no sin in Bono's choice of words. You're applying Puritanical American taboos, that have no religious basis. Swearing in religious context is confined to using God's name in vain or for evil purpose. What is labelled cursing or swearing in America, is merely words that are not deemed socially acceptable.

Christianity is about something much deeper than the superficial taboos and socially acceptable norms we spend far too much time dwelling upon in this country...

From the very beginning U2 have had in their lyrics a strong element of faith and belief in God existing next to an extreme impatience with Him. Wake Up Dead Man has to be Bono at the utmost end of his patience. The song is a fervent and I think a very humble plea for God to finally step back in and help us sort out the Problem of Evil in this world. It just so happens that Bono here decides to describe the evil in the world by describing it as "fucked-up." I find it a trifle amusing that the song gets up the nose of a certain kind of Christian simply because of that. "Fucked-up" is perhaps the aptest possible description of the state of the world since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden. Anyway, if you choose to be offended by U2's use of language here, more power to you, but please don't get hung up on that and miss the power of their appeal to God--one which I think is legitimately amplified by their use of obscenity.

i had to choose a religious song for a school assignment and i did this one. it appears to be referring to something bad that has happened to someone bono loved - the last verse talks pretty explicitly about that - he wonders if christ "thought to warn her" and wants the 'tape to be rewound'.

Jesus is sposed to be helping, but where is he? bonos pleading with him to "wake up" and help him out. i think every religious person starts to doubt their beliefs at times - and bono is experiencing this at the time of writing this song i think.

This song is a plea for God to come down to Earth and save us. God is supposed to be dead and Bono is asking for him to show a sign and come alive again.

This is a great song. Alike many others, Bono chooses to tiptoe a line of his faith in this song. He sounds almost hypoctricital by asking Him for help but then swearing in the next line. But thats the way that U2 have always been, pushing the limits of the Christian faith.

A couple of Biblical precidents for asking God to "wake-up" Psa 44:23 Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast [us] not off for ever.

Isa 51:9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old.

And, since asleep and dead are used interchangebly in the Bible -- Mar 4:38 And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?

It's more, I think, he is asking Jesus rather than God to save him...possibly closer to relate to, as he was once human, taking humankind's side against a more impersonal higher power, he wants another intervention...a reference to the whole Easter thing, I expect, Jesus coming back to life after dying on the cross. Asking to rewind--wanting that miracle again, Jesus saving everyone, or maybe he's 'working on something new.' A need for a BIG change, I think. The whole world is messed up, it's not a simple individual need, a cry for help. I adore this song.

I was just thinking that maybe this goes with some of the themes of how crazy society has gotten and this is a diolouge between a man and Jesus and the parts of the song that sound like a man doubting his faith is exactly that, however the chourus with the wake up dead man may be christ speaking to the man calling him to wake up and break out of the prision of the media and the culture that we live in and truely see that God has a purpose that goes beyond the things that go wrong or the things that we don't understand.

I was just thinking that maybe this goes with some of the themes of how crazy society has gotten and this is a diolouge between a man and Jesus and the parts of the song that sound like a man doubting his faith is exactly that, however the chourus with the wake up dead man may be christ speaking to the man calling him to wake up and break out of the prision of the media and the culture that we live in and truely see that God has a purpose that goes beyond the things that go wrong or the things that we don't understand.