A Day Without Me

i read in an early interview that the song was written about the suicide of Ian Curtis. Ian Curtis was the lead singer of Joy Division who later became new Order.

To me, this song represents a somewhat skewed and childlike curiosity of how the world would move on without the lyricist in it. Clearly it reflects thoughts of suicide, but it seems like an innocent curiosity rather than a hardcore vision. When we're teenagers, most of us go through a period where we wonder what our significance is in the world we live in and "A Day Without Me" sort of reflects that.

The line "I started a landslide in my ego", to me at least, signifies that Bono is writing about how people often lead themselves to believe that they have a great purpose in life and because most of us at a young age feel as if we have some great role to fill in our life, this song is asking the innocent and simple question...If I were to exit the Earth right now; would the world even notice I'd gone or would it still go on as if nothing had happened?

I'm starting a landslide in my ego ......i think its the realisation that not everything is about you and you affect everyone around...so you need to "Look from the outside to the world I left behind" look and see what your doing to the people around you

I don't think of this song as a suicide song at all. To me it's about transcending yourself. It's about overcoming ego. The "landslide in my ego", to me anyway, signifies a crumbling of the value we put on ourselves, the self-absorbancy that our society promotes and most of us fall victim to. It's about getting out of yourself, then focusing on God's will and serving others. And looking back at yourself and both laughing and crying at the world you left behind. The world of "self". Crying because you wasted so much time worrying about yourself and laughing because you realize how silly it all was. Then moving on without the "me", without the constant focus on "self". Every once in a while, I experience "A Day Without Me", a day when God just seems to carry me and the next right thing to do just seems so natural. A day when I don't get all caught up with my own petty concerns and others take priority. To me, that's what this song is about.

That's what this song means to me.

This reminds me of a Sunday when I was twelve years old... my bedroom was very dark and for some reason I simply did not wake up until 7pm. The family had had an entire "day without me" but I was quite annoyed because I had school the following morning.

I agree with the general consensus about suicide and "Would anything change if I wasn't around."

Because of the themes of innocence, and childlike nature of the song and the album. Whenever I hear this song I think of a little 8 year old kid who is contemplating running away from home. Sort of fits the light, cheery sound of the track, even if it's ultimately expressing something more serious.

I'm pretty sure the line "If I were sleeping, what's at stake?" is "If Alison's sleeping, what's at stake?" refering to Bono's childhood sweetheart/wife Ali.

I've heard this song is from the perspective of someone who has committed suicide.

Yeah, I heard that Bono wrote this song when he was in his teen years when he was comtemplating over the idea that "would it really matter if i committed suicide?" Well anyway I really like the song.

Yep, i have read (and it is somewhat obvious) that it is about suicide and think about what it would be like if he was gone.

Good song.

What a great song, its a great early example of that classic atmospheric sound of U2's. I really enjoy listening to it.