Invisible (RED)

Initial Thoughts on hearing 2 or 3 times:

No I won't be my father's son = I will be my father's son whether that means he will be Bob Hewson's son Paul, a human or a divinity? most likely a human being link any of us called Paul

'm more than you know I'm more than you see here More than you let me be I'm more than you know A body and soul You don't see me but you will I am not invisible

I'm more than a rock star, humanitarian, father, husband, brother, friend etc You've pigeon holed me but you will see, I'm a whole being, Earthly and cosmic with a whole lot more going on than you think of me I'm not lost behind my persona, You're so wrong, you are blind but you will see.

I am not obsessed with you like you are with me. I am in touch with my heart and i live in the now, unlike you.

We're all the same, really - and that's the core message.

This song is sung from the point of view of Jesus Christ. The point of the song is to realize that we're all in this together, and we need to let Christ into our lives in order to save ourselves. I'm not sure what Bono means by this part, but I'm certain it's spoken from Jesus Christ's perspective:

I finally found my real name. I won't be me when you see me again. No, I won't be my father's son.

Bono wants to pull us out of a frozen time spiritually to realize that we need each other and we need to help each other, as Jesus would do. "There is no them. There's only us."

I've listen to this song on repeat a good few times now and thought about it more over the last six days. Here's more thoughts:

It's like he's speaking from the view of a past friend, colleague, mentor, class mate, a fellow jammer etc to a celebrity and the person is saying to the celebrity>>you've been in the spotlight for years and you never mentioned or thought about me once. It's like I'm invisible>> as in taken for granted, used, discarded as a person in the celebrity's life;at least 'almost completely forgotten'

I've also heard/read Bono speak of 'wasted potential', how often have we heard him praise his father's fine operatic voice and yet he didn't record it. Bono looks at the world - take Africa years ago for instance and he saw these royal people and they were dying and what he saw was unnecessary wasted potential when the solution was so readily solvable from with the human talent pool. I think that could be one interpretation of 'No. I won't be my father's son' I will develop my potential to the highest level and higher. - And yet he is is his father's son! - it's undeniable. All the innate talents and early parenting and beyond came from his creator through his parents, his mother and his father - so you see, like happens so often, his mother and father succeeded in several dimensions, one of which was through their son. His son developed the interests and passions of his parents, to sing and to care. Think of Joel Osteen, Paul McCartney, George Bush, Brian Lennihan, King Abdullah, JFK, The Queen, Dolly Parton, Miley Cyrus, Indira Gandhi and Barrack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Anthony Robbins, Richard Branson, among several billions who have went on expand on what their parents achieved. We all do it in our own way: it's called progress, it's the nature of human beings since we were banished from the garden, as Christians believe.

"I'm more than you let me be" could be about the shout back up to a : a government not letting her people flourish management not building their employees parents not building up their children on all levels

Bono is singing about himself. The first verse I'm a bit unclear on.

"It's like the room just cleared of smoke" seems, to me, a reference to a moment of clarity Bono had about his life and his future (desire to become a front man for a rock band) but the next part:

"I didn't even want the heart you broke It's yours to keep, you just might need one"

I want to say this is a reference to his relationship with his father but I don't know.

The next part:

"I finally found my real name I won't be me, when you see me again No I won't be my father's son"

This is Bono talking about leaving home to make it as a rock musician. He's saying I finally figured out what I want to do with me life (he stopped being Paul Hewson and became Bono, rock star and activist). When he returns he will not be the same person how left ("I won't be me, when you see me again"). He's rejecting the notion that he's just going to perpetuate his father's life. In other words, I'm not going to be just like my dad and get a blue collar job and grind away and be just another invisible person.

The next part, the chorus:

"I'm more than you know I'm more than you see here I'm more than you let me be I'm more than you know A body in a soul You don't see me but you will I am not invisible"

I think the "you" in this chorus is himself. Bono talks about how rock music, to him, has always been an alarm clock waking him from his own indifference. This chorus is a defiant statement to himself that he's not invisible. He can make a difference.

We are all mostly invisible to the rest of the world. Aside from a few people very close to us, we are basically just scenery to other people. We get up, sit in traffic, spend the day at work, sit in traffic again, maybe do some shopping, see a movie, watch a little TV but if that's all we do, for the most part, we're invisible. We have to consciously choose to stop being invisible by taking action.

This, I think, is supported by the next part (which you can barely make out in the song and is frequently misquoted):

"I'm leaving the invisible world"

The next part:

"I don't dream, not as such"

This, in my opinion, is clearly Bono referring to himself. Bono has talked about this many times in interviews. He has talked about how he's not into dreaming. He's into doing. That's at the heart of his activism.

Then:

"I don't even think about you that much Unless I start to think at all Of those frozen days And your frozen ways They melt away Your face like snow"

Again, he's talking about himself. He's saying I don't even think about Paul Hewson, the guy who was invisible because he wasn't out there making a difference ("those frozen days and your frozen ways"), frozen = indifferent/apathetic.

In a long interview with Dave Fanning on Ireland’s RTE Radio 1 recorded on 22 November 2015, http://www.rte.ie/2fm/dave-fanning/podcasts/ , Bono explicitly says that the new songs are about first journeys, things you never forget. He says the first time to London is ‘Invisible’.
This makes sense. The young lads heading across the water to get their music heard and find a record deal. The feeling of release, youthful big ideas, defiance, the feeling of not being invisible. A great tune.

jfve loved your comments they were all spot on. It\'s a few years later now since you wrote them but they shine on. Thank you.

Bob Geldof changed the world... and he's still changing it today...

His parents were instrumental in forming his identity, his values, what he read, what he did and he went on to do a lot, still is

Is it not true that Bob Geldof changed Bono and U2? The same is true of Nelson Mandela We all live in symbiosis.

Tony Blair spend summer holidays in Northern Ireland and went on to have a huge part to play in the peace process there as British PM

We all affect each other in unimaginable dynamic ways. Read Gary Zukav - Oprah references him next to the Bible

Pope John Paul II, the late Holy Father. The catholic church doesn't get everything right but look at the part he played in inspiring people in the former Soviet Union to re-claim their personal power in the self determination in their lives and countries in co-operation with everyone else.

Basically I have gone on a tangent here, but the song is about empowerment, personal and collective. It's not esoteric but it can be -

<<I am more than you know>>

the word more is interesting because it;s comparative, it references as a starting point the totality of what you already know...Landmark concepts here...I am and you are more than what you see. Of course learning as is said is nothing more than remembering Once we were like God and I recon, like in the Matrix, that's where we're working to get back to - the gateway maybe Judgement day - an actual day like in the Meteor ad or it maybe the instantaneous time when we time. If you integrate the dimension of time, do we all die at the same time - just have different experiences because as Echolle Tolle said, there is only Now. I wish I knew more about other faiths and cultures to expand this thinking and understanding of what we could be journeying to. At any rate as Paul McCartney sings in his 'New' album, there is no guarantee, there is nothing to loose. U2 are all about real choices the third way as Bill Clinton proved works, practical choices as opposed to idyllic nirvana's conjured up by John Lennon's 'Imagine'. I must admit I dream a lot and like the idea that we can make it (Coldplay recon we will if we should, bowing to God) U2 are Christian I think but they are more on Jesus's radical side of pragmatism than the Pharisee's side of 'Holy Books' and religiosity, observance of 'old curtailing certainties' to quote of President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins. It is interesting that the room cleared of smoke; remember the U2 lyric....'you and your holy book while the rest of us choke', could this song be referencing that song or developing that metaphor Anyway Bono has claimed to believe in Jesus and also that he is not worthy to be a Christian ( why I don't know, I never read the Sunday Independent article) he is fed up of people saying there will be peace on Earth, he wanted God to send an angel, he wanted Jesus to throw a drowning man a line, that is do something practical to save us in this life ( why all the suffering etc) But in HTDAAB he says he needs something other - could it be the else in love and peace or else or that tough love he has mentioned before?

anyway everyone in the loop seems to be singing from the same sheet now from Bruce Springsteen to our Taoiseach in Ireland, Enda Kenny - to quote Anthony Robbins - the best study of life is the way it is - it's human nature, the human condition. Bono refrained from calling his wife Ali a saint once because it would rob her of her 'complexity' or to use a different word humanity ( so Did Princess Diana's brother in his eulogy as did Ted Kennedy in RFK's eulogy)

So Bob Dylan is right, the times are a changing and Bruce Springsteen is right

On the alternative and U2 are regularly list as an alternative band, could there be an invisible sun guiding us all, a pilot light that Elton John sings of in his last album, guiding us all, in a word, GOD

Bono definitely believe in God, has faith and sings of us going to a place that has to be believed in to be seen, in word Heaven,

Bono says God is interested in us, he get's involved in the tiny details of our lives - pretty cool. Ties in with Einsten and all who enable us to marvel and the detail of the universe in all

but I don't want to get too fundamental* or religiously absolute about a criteria of laws at the same time things are not all relative, there is love and evil in the world, and it's important to know the difference - the catholic church have a very good life operating system if you remove some of the objectionable exclusions, rules and outmoded constrains on individual in society.

*(i have made that mistake of being too fundamental myself in the past - you can't wait for God to do it for you; you have to do it for yourself: think global but act local, build relationships with those around you and build from the ground up- have faith but be realistic, don't be afraid to measure your progress and see where you are)

here's a good link, I just found on the meaning of the song

http://www.musicinsideu.com/2014/02/invisible-u2.html

<<For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.>>, by St Paul in his letter to the Corinthians: 1 Corinthians 13:12 English Standard Version

does this explain now that veil has been pulled back a bit more, that the 'room has cleared of smoke', we can see bit more clearly, <<I am more than you know>> could be God or messianic here - I am part divine, you are, I am we, all are

when the smoke clears it is a new beginning - we get clarity - we can see

I want to thank Ali Hewson, whose husband is Bono and all the family members of all the U2 band members and U2 family, who support and encourage U2 to be what it is today. As a fan of U2 and all you stand for I wish to say thanks.

from jfve