Gloria

I don't usually argue for the sake of it, so trust me when I say that I'm not contridicting you all for fun. But I disagree. I don't think that the song Gloria is about God at all. Sorry. I think that Bono is trying to show the magnitude of his love by comparing "Gloria," (the pseudonym name for the woman he loves, Eli, maybe?) to his love for God. You may think I'm mental, but Bono could have used another word besides "Gloria" in there, or even another Latin phrase. Just listen to it and think, it could either be a ballad for God, or someone that he truely loves.

The Edge does beautiful slide here. I love the bass, the vocals, everything here. Lovely lyrics, and great example of how awesome U2 were when they were young guys.

I first heard this song back in '82 when I was 14 and have been a U2 fan ever since, for obvious reasons. Even back then I remember thinking that Bono's vocal performance on this track sounded very "sexual"... But as a Catholic schoolgirl I also "got" the religious references in the song, ex: "Gloria" meaning "glory to God".

IMO the two approaches seemed very dichotomous, at least until recently when I read Niall Stokes' book Into the Heart. To quote Bono: "It is a love song. In a sense it is an attempt to write about a woman in a spiritual sense and about God in a sexual sense. But there certainly is a strong sexual pulse in there".

This may not be as bizarre as it sounds. Most of Bono's life-defining events happened within a short space of only a year or two (losing his mother in sudden and tragic circumstances; finding God; joining a rock band, meeting his future-wife Ali) so they are probably all intrinsically linked in his mind/heart.

I think, as many of U2's songs are, Gloria is about many things at once. On the surface, on one level, it is about religion and the kind of sudden exultant understanding that can come with it, but also about the similar conveyances of that feeling, through music and through love, and through life in general. I think mainly this song is about religion, but also about a general wonder at the world, the beauty of its order and chaos and of the human interaction and capacity for feeling within and belief.

This seems to be many times an overlooked song, perhaps because it isn't played very much anymore. It had a powerful impact on me and is a powerfully expressive song, as U2's songs tend to be. I think there's a quote somewhere that they are "the band who never has any trouble expressing how they feel"...'Gloria', through Bono's vocals, Edge's guitar, and through the energy in the song, all of which shape the incredible wonderment and amazement that seems to permeate the music, carries so much and so completely the ideas behind it that perhaps even without words it is a translation of this feeling.

I imagine a Catholic boy in love for the first time. He has no words to describe it except those of religious ecstasy.

U2 never had a "religious period". They're just a group of guys of varying levels of religiosity which is used to inform their artwork from time to time.

i suppose it's to be expected that some will try to elevate a song with gasp LATIN VERSES, to validate their own beliefs or, at least, claim Bono as one of their own, but sometimes, a cigar IS just a cigar.

Rather than a self-congratulatory paen to Catholicism or faith, "Gloria" is actually simpler and more clever: It's about a guy in love with a woman he calls Gloria. She's so perfect, so unassailable, that he's deified her and is singing about his attraction to her as something akin to religious reverence. The name, Gloria, either real or a pseudonym fits perfectly for his worship of this new god.

So, no, this wasn't written to quell sectarian tensions in Ireland, as part of a larger "period" in U2's evolution (pun intended), or to satisfy Bono's craving to exalt the idea of faith.

He had fallen for someone.

Hard.

well it likes a worship song to God...he is singing part of a clasic hymn with a lil extra of his own... works great...should be more than 1 post on here tho....

IN TE DOMINE, in latin, means IN TIME O'LORD

"In te domine" literally means "in you, lord".

(translation: glory in you God, exulted glory)

Thanks to my friend for that. :)