Shadows And Tall Trees

A beautiful song. I'm honestly supried that no one else has said anything about it. You can almost feel the passion from it, I love it.

I believe the title is derived from the 'Lord of the Flies,' named after chapter 7.

Yep, I also heard that this song got its name from Lord of the Flies. It certainly wouldn't be the first time, especially on the Boy and Joshua Tree albums, that Bono took inspiration from his favorite books and works of literature: Hence the mention of Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray in "The Ocean."

I have always and probably will always think that the Boy album packs more punch than any other album by any other band I've ever heard. It was written when U2 were only teenagers, seventeen and eighteen years old and the whole album seems to have a recurring theme: growing up and trying to find a place in the world.

Shadows is beautiful song. When I think of it, I think of a young man (Bono) walking home late at night, wondering what life and love are going to be like. Will life always be predictable? (Mrs. Brown's washing is always the same), Will there be a specific purpose for his life? All questions we ask when we're young and trying to adjust, uncomfortably, into adulthood.

Also, I agree with everyone else's theory. That he's wondering if what he sees is the real thing, or if everything's just a facade. He wonders if everything will change or if it will all stay the same.

Once again, a beautiful song. Like most of the Boy album, it's about change, confusion, and an almost paranoid curiosity about the world and a young boy's place in it.

I see salvation themes in this...doubt that he is worthy. Not just religious, but for love in general.

You feel in me Anything redeeming Any worthwhile feeling Is love like a tightrope Hanging from the ceiling

Am I worthy of being redeemed or forgiven? Is love a thin line that I can easily fall off of? Have I ruined it all somehow?

I agree that it seems to be about a young boy, wondering about the world and his place in it. Beautiful lyrics.

I absolutly love the lyrics of this song. The imagry is fantastic. Lyricly i think this is one of the best song off Boy. I love the line 'walls of white protest, gravestone in name'

Most of U2's first album is sadly underrated today and I think the gorgeous music and lyrics of this one make it the album's best track. Everything in it conveys a sense of existential longing--of trying to find the meaning of life in among all the mundanities of everyday living--that I think all of us get at times, certainly when we're 20-somethings as the band were in 1980. The line "Do you feel in me/Anything redeeming/Any worthwhile feeling" personalises it even more. Most of us can probably relate to nights spent awake wondering whether we have anything in me that can change the world for the better.

i have to agree this is one of the better songs....its as if its asking if what we see in the world is the real thing, or is it our perseption of it...Are the leaves on the trees Just living disguise...its like if the whole world has come into a conspiracy to trick us away from reality

This is a great song- so peaceful and beautiful- it helps end the album very nicely

I love the Boy album, still one of my favourites, but I was told this was a song about a boy who had been "interfered with" and that he cant make heads or tails of life and he just wants to be walking the streets. Sorry to controversial.

Though this song describes a youth facing an uncertain future in a city in Ireland, the title is from a chapter in Lord of the Flies. In that chapter, the sympathetic character Ralph is facing a power struggle that is turning against him as he and other boys fearfully climb a mountain at night. The specifics of the chapter and this song are very different but the emotions are similar.

This song is so beautifully written; a perfect vision of what their future will be. I also wondered if the title was related to chapter 7 of Lord of The Flies, but if it is, I don’t know why.