17 Meanings
Add Yours
Follow
Share
Q&A
Cedars Of Lebanon Lyrics
Yesterday I spent asleep
Woke up in my clothes in a dirty heap
Spent the night trying to make a deadline
Squeezing complicated lives into a simple headline
I have your face here in an old Polaroid
Tidying the children's clothes and toys
You're smiling back at me, I took the photo from the fridge
Can't remember what then we did
I haven't been with a woman, it feels like for years
Thought of you the whole time, your salty tears
This shitty world sometimes produces a rose
The scent of it lingers and then it just goes
Return the call to home
The worst of us are a long drawn out confession
The best of us are geniuses of compression
You say you're not going to leave the truth alone
I'm here 'cos I don't want to go home
Child drinking dirty water from the river bank
Soldier brings oranges he got out from a tank
I'm waiting on the waiter, he's taking a while to come
Watching the sun go down on Lebanon
Return the call to home
Now I've got a head like a lit cigarette
Unholy clouds reflecting in a minaret
You're so high above me, higher than everyone
Where are you in the Cedars of Lebanon?
Choose your enemies carefully 'cos they will define you
Make them interesting 'cos in some ways they will mind you
They're not there in the beginning but when your story ends
Gonna last with you longer than your friend
Woke up in my clothes in a dirty heap
Spent the night trying to make a deadline
Squeezing complicated lives into a simple headline
Tidying the children's clothes and toys
You're smiling back at me, I took the photo from the fridge
Can't remember what then we did
Thought of you the whole time, your salty tears
This shitty world sometimes produces a rose
The scent of it lingers and then it just goes
The best of us are geniuses of compression
You say you're not going to leave the truth alone
I'm here 'cos I don't want to go home
Soldier brings oranges he got out from a tank
I'm waiting on the waiter, he's taking a while to come
Watching the sun go down on Lebanon
Unholy clouds reflecting in a minaret
You're so high above me, higher than everyone
Where are you in the Cedars of Lebanon?
Make them interesting 'cos in some ways they will mind you
They're not there in the beginning but when your story ends
Gonna last with you longer than your friend
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
No, it's about a war correspondent.
I agree with gweeps. That's precisely what I thought.
I agree with gweeps. That's precisely what I thought.
This song is about Israeli-Lebanese conflicts. A journalist,far from his home, is thinking about his wife and children looking at their picture. then we have description of a scene , a child is drinking dirty water because of homelessness and poverty,while a soldier is eating an orange.It shows the unfair and unequal situation in this war...At last he is talking to God saying "You're so high above me, higher than everyone,Where are you in the Cedars of Lebanon?". And finally talks about the impossibility and hopelessness of peace between these two long-life enemies !
Beautiful song! It's about a soldier at war remembering his lover through the only picture he has of her. But it seems he also feels guilty for something he did to her. He;s reluctant to go hom, yet he wants to because the war is worse.
In fact, the references to deadlines and headlines. made me think so. I think gweeps is right.
What does all that mean about the deadlies ad headline? please
What does all that mean about the deadlies ad headline? please
"Squeezing complicated lives into simple headlines."
In a book called Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, one of the characters is a retired war correspondent who has been around the world. He spent his life writing a bibliography of everyone he ever wrote about or read about. Every entry was one word:
Che Guevara: War Tom Cruise: Money Stephen Hawking: Astrophysics Yasir Arafat: War Martha Stewart: Money Mahatma Gandhi: War ("But he was a pacifist," I said. "Right! War!")
"The worst of us are a long drawn out confession The best of us are geniuses of compression."
You could never stop writing...it's something to think about.
I have grown to love this song so much!
"The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon." (Psalm 92:12)
Just one of the many times in the Bible that cedars of Lebanon are mentioned. I don't really know what the song is about, but I thought that would be an interesting tidbit considering most of the other songs on this album have religious references.
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.
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...
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!
U2momma, it's okay not to love everything they put out.
U2momma, it's okay not to love everything they put out.
I can't say I love every song they produce, but I'd say I absolutely adore at least 90% of them.
I can't say I love every song they produce, but I'd say I absolutely adore at least 90% of them.
I guess it's kind of like anything else in life. You don't like everything about anything you like in life, right?
I guess it's kind of like anything else in life. You don't like everything about anything you like in life, right?
Cedars of Lebanon is a common subject in the old testament. The Cedars of Lebanon were basically the finest timber you could have, it also represented riches beyond your wildest dreams. King Solomon built the temple out of the Cedars of Lebanon, and that makes that significant is that it meant that he had to hire 100s and 1000s of slaves to go gather the timber that was about 125 miles away, and was in a mountainous region.. How they crap they did it, i dont know... I guess thats why it took about 60 years to complete.
Cedars of Lebanon is a common subject in the old testament. The Cedars of Lebanon were basically the finest timber you could have, it also represented riches beyond your wildest dreams. King Solomon built the temple out of the Cedars of Lebanon, and that makes that significant is that it meant that he had to hire 100s and 1000s of slaves to go gather the timber that was about 125 miles away, and was in a mountainous region.. How they crap they did it, i dont know... I guess thats why it took about 60 years to complete.
Another meaning of Cedars...
Another meaning of Cedars of Lebanon that I find the most interesting is the references of it in a lot of the "prophetic" books of the Old Testament. One scripture, I dobelieve it is in Amos, is talking about the day when an enemy of Israel's will be defeated... Speaking in an obvious metaphor, the writer/prophet says that the Cedars of Lebanon will dance for joy. This is of course because they won't have to be cut down any more by the enemy of Israel as they build houses and ships etc. The irony of this is that Israel's enemies are never defeated, of course the enemy that the prophet Amos is referencing to is taken down, Israel still has there work cut out for them.
This song, at the second to last stanza, is the most important part of the song in terms of interpreting it, and of course the last stanza is the advise that Bono gives warning to everyone in regards to enemies... there is a lesson to be learned.
The second to last stanza talks about his head being lit like a cigarette, probably sunburned, and as he looks up into the cedars, he cannot see his enemy, he sees the unholy clouds, but not the enemies above him. The only way to see them would be to cut down the trees, the oh' so important cedars which after King Solomon's reign, became one of the most prized possesions int that region for infrastructure...
Oh and also, as for the song, I do like it, but only because of its rich cultural, political and historical allusions. Very important song, but as for the music it is as you say "bare", and doesn't get me excited or motivated. Its a song i listen to and reflect.
Oh and also, as for the song, I do like it, but only because of its rich cultural, political and historical allusions. Very important song, but as for the music it is as you say "bare", and doesn't get me excited or motivated. Its a song i listen to and reflect.
Doesn't do much for me. Bono might as well of just written a poem. It ends the album with a somewhat disturbing, down note. Referring to one’s enemies, Bono says: Gonna last with you longer than your friends. Yikes.
The song is so rooted in historical and political situations of both preesent and past that the meaning of it goes beyond the simple lyrics. If you really want to appreciate the song read around 25-45 pages on Israel history including Before Common Era and After Common Era. Don't just wikipedia it. Look at the geography of the place and where Jerusalem is in relation to it. This soldire that is in this song is representing a very very ironic circumstance. 6000 years ago a soldiier stared up that same hill, up the sides of those same cedars as the soldier that now looks up there.
This song is not only about a soldier that misses his loved one, but it is the classic retelling of a story that happens over and over again. The last stanza sums it up nicely.
Choose your enemies carefully 'cos they will define you Make them interesting 'cos in some ways they will mind you They're not there in the beginning but when your story ends Gonna last with you longer than your friend.
Israel is literally defined by their enemies through out most of known history. Israel-Egypt, Israel-Babylon, Israel-Palestianians, Israel-Assyria, Israel-World, Israel-Hitler, Israel-Muslims (some). Yeah... That has been the basis of their existence. This song is a lesson to us all.
War correspondent misses his wife, "you're so high above me" .. "I'm here cos I don't want to go home" : he wants to forget the pain .. on second thought, "you say you're not going to leave the truth alone" : his wife is probably a political activist? only the author knows ...