My thoughts on 'No Line On The Horizon' circa 2013

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How does the phrase "ATM machine" fit with the themes of the song? It's just a phrase, a plot device if you will, for the protagonist to see his worn-out, fucked up reflection. Somehow I think the ATM machine could have been avoided and the song wouldn't be thematically any poorer. It just seems silly in context. You have crosses, wires, horses... and then you have an ATM? It's always a WTF moment when I listen to the song.
 
LemonMelon said:
What's misplaced about it? The protagonist finds himself broken and vulnerable in an otherwise mundane situation and what he discovers about himself haunts him from thereafter. What's more mundane than an ATM?

Anyway, it's good that the "heavy lyrics" are paired with concrete realities such as ATMs and subways so that the listener can mentally form an image of some kind about the storyline. Otherwise it would come across as a rant about various abstract concepts, set to music.
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Exactly. I see using the ATM as a symbol, and culmination, of those routine, mundane aspects of life that have lost their value for the speaker, who doesn't even recognize the person carrying them out anymore. I also think that the ATM was chosen specifically to the extent it represents material values...i.e. cash, which have also become meaningless to the speaker.
 
djerdap said:
How does the phrase "ATM machine" fit with the themes of the song? It's just a phrase, a plot device if you will, for the protagonist to see his worn-out, fucked up reflection. Somehow I think the ATM machine could have been avoided and the song wouldn't be thematically any poorer. It just seems silly in context. You have crosses, wires, horses... and then you have an ATM? It's always a WTF moment when I listen to the song.
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What would you have chosen instead? I guess you could set the song entirely within the subway, maybe he could catch his reflection in the window. Either way, the reflection is an integral part of the song. The ATM scene is just one really mundane, relatable scenario that Bono chose and I understand why he did.
 
Point is - I'm thinking that the man who wrote Running to Stand Still could have thought of a better contemporary symbol instead of an awkward acronym.
 
As alluded to earlier - the poetry of the ATM is that it is an everyday, mundane part of modern life. It's a place where someone could catch a glimpse of their own reflection, and then themselves reflect on their own existence. The beauty here is the ATM symbolizes modernity, futility, the mundane. That it could be used as a poetic device for introspection is quite nice for me.
 
djerdap said:
Point is - I'm thinking that the man who wrote Running to Stand Still could have thought of a better contemporary symbol instead of an awkward acronym.
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This is the same man who wrote a song about a suicidal person deciding that life is worth living when their phone starts receiving messages like "force quit / and move to trash"
 
cobl04 said:
This is the same man who wrote a song about a suicidal person deciding that life is worth living when their phone starts receiving messages like "force quit / and move to trash"
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Nicely put Cobbler.
 
I always saw it as that time of reflection when a junkie gets the cash for his next hit. You see this in a lot of storytelling, whether they steal, rob, or drain their own account there's always some small bit of reflection. How many times have we watched a scene when a junkie robs someone for their next hit and they make that quick pause because they make brief eye contact with a child? This character has his reflection when he's robbing his own means of living.
 
dan_smee said:
As alluded to earlier - the poetry of the ATM is that it is an everyday, mundane part of modern life. It's a place where someone could catch a glimpse of their own reflection, and then themselves reflect on their own existence. The beauty here is the ATM symbolizes modernity, futility, the mundane. That it could be used as a poetic device for introspection is quite nice for me.
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I agree. And ATM is one thing. But ATM machine is a whole other.
 
What I like about the ATM imagery is that it makes the song relatable to me. The song is a little abstract, but the ATM verse grounds it in reality- "oh, yea, I know what that's like." Unlike Cedars, which is lovely in its own way but I have no personal connection to it- the lyrics are so specifically about something I've never experienced- others who have would have a different experience with the song, but I don't care for it. The ATM lyric in MOS brings the song down to earth, into my life, makes it more real to me.

And I don't mind ATM machine- I say that all the time, even though I know it's wrong. Bad habit.
 
LadySpinHead said:
What I like about the ATM imagery is that it makes the song relatable to me. The song is a little abstract, but the ATM verse grounds it in reality- "oh, yea, I know what that's like." Unlike Cedars, which is lovely in its own way but I have no personal connection to it- the lyrics are so specifically about something I've never experienced- others who have would have a different experience with the song, but I don't care for it. The ATM lyric in MOS brings the song down to earth, into my life, makes it more real to me.

And I don't mind ATM machine- I say that all the time, even though I know it's wrong. Bad habit.
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All this. And it's not a "bad habit" to say ATM machine. The phrase ATM has become so generic that for all practical purposes it really isn't even a specific an acronym anymore. In terms of everyday use, it's just a generic term that's become part of the language.

digitize said:
Automatic teller machine machine? What is a machine machine?
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But he doesn't say "Automatic teller machine machine". No one says that.
 
Nick66 said:
But he doesn't say "Automatic teller machine machine". No one says that.
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But it is an error. "ATM machine" literally means "automatic teller machine machine", no matter how colloquially accepted it is (and, to be honest, I never hear it anyway). Just like "PAC center" literally means "performing arts center center" and "NIC card" means "network interface card card".
 
Cedars of Lebanon has plenty of relatable imagery as far as I am concerned. Ever looked at a picture of a loved person you missed? Polaroid is a nice example of a (relatively) contemporary symbol that isn't cringe-worthy as an ATM machine.

I am listening to some selected songs from the album right now and I can't shake the feeling that all of this could have been much, much better. Edge seems so uninspired on the whole record. The AB era Edge would do with stuff like Magnificent, Moment of Surrender or Cedars (which just begs to go off as Love is Blindness did) wonders.
 
digitize said:
But it is an error. "ATM machine" literally means "automatic teller machine machine", no matter how colloquially accepted it is (and, to be honest, I never hear it anyway). Just like "PAC center" literally means "performing arts center center" and "NIC card" means "network interface card card".
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Yes, and just like LASER, and RADAR, and SCUBA, and AMEX and WIFI and UFO and AWOL and SNAFU and MODEM and dozens of other acronyms are today commonly used as words. No one blinks an eye when ESPN is referred to as a network. Or when people say PAC center, as you pointed out. It's stupid, move on.

Of all the inanities in some of Bono's lyrics, why some people choose to fixate on this is truly bizarre.
 
I'm sure Bono will change it into only ATM when the album gets remastered.
 
People are getting so bothered that Bono said "ATM machine" instead of ATM? Really?? C'mon man... ever heard of artistic license? Willing suspension of disbelief? lol. ATM machine obviously fits better with the melody. Try singing that line as "I was punching in the numbers at the automatic teller machine..." That would be so damn funny and unrealistic!

Rather, the lyric that at all bothers me is "while the band in my head plays a strip tease" ... lol, WITS flashback!
 
Nick66 said:
Yes, and just like LASER, and RADAR, and SCUBA, and AMEX and WIFI and UFO and AWOL and SNAFU and MODEM and dozens of other acronyms are today commonly used as words. No one blinks an eye when ESPN is referred to as a network. Or when people say PAC center, as you pointed out. It's stupid, move on.

Of all the inanities in some of Bono's lyrics, why some people choose to fixate on this is truly bizarre.
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It's entirely the redundancy that bugs me, not the concept of using an acronym as a word. I don't go around hearing "AMEX Express" or "UFO object" very often, and when I hear things like "PAC center" and "ATM machine", I cringe as I would for "AMEX Express" (or "AMEX Exchange, if you're talking about the American Stock Exchange).

It's not like it ruins the song in my eyes. Like I said earlier, MOS is probably on of my five favorite U2 songs. Other than that line, it's a more or less perfect song in my eyes. Because I love the song so much, that's the most substantive thing about which I can complain. I really, really love the song, and I don't mean to make a big deal of the ATM machine issue. It's just something that is an error and that bugs me more than anything else in the song.
 
I've always liked NLOTH. I regard Magificant and Moment of Surrender as U2 classics. Fez is also one of my favorites as well.


I think we've reached a new low for minutia here at the Blue Crack. Who gives a shit if Bono says ATM machine? I've heard plenty of people say the same thing. It just flows better. I mean, shit, people say "I could care less" a lot around here when it's actually "couldn't care less". Or when people say "pizza pie", which actually means "pie pie". I think maybe we should let ATM machine go.
 
MrPryck2U said:
I think we've reached a new low for minutia here at the Blue Crack. Who gives a shit if Bono says ATM machine? I've heard plenty of people say the same thing. It just flows better. I mean, shit, people say "I could care less" a lot around here when it's actually "couldn't care less". Or when people say "pizza pie", which actually means "pie pie". I think maybe we should let ATM machine go.
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I think that the actual problem is that I'm a terrible person, because "I could care less" drives me up a creek as well. :D
 
digitize said:
I think that the actual problem is that I'm a terrible person, because "I could care less" drives me up a creek as well. :D
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Well, actually "I could care less" annoys me as well. But that's a little different than "ATM machine" being used in a song.

Lots of acronyms would sound awkward if you mentally spell them out every time you hear them in a sentence...Hey, I'm going to go 'Self Contained Underwater breathing apparatus' diving or Love that scene where that guy shot the villian with his 'Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation' gun! I know those things aren't quite the linguistic redundancy that ATM machine is, but they are close enough to illustrate the absurdity of spelling these things out in everyday use.

And a quick Google search will show how often people say "CNN Network", for example.

Yeah, I'm willing to give Bono a pass on this one. Especially since I think he knew what he was doing when he wrote it and just didn't care. Nor do I. :)
 
I never understood when people get all grammar police on poetry or lyrics, the rules are different, they always have been. It would be one thing if Bono was the first to ever say ATM machine, because then it would just be weird, but it's extremely common. REM, Led Zeppelin, and most rap would be thrown out the window if grammar and colloquialisms weren't allowed, hell A LOT of music would...
 
BVS said:
I never understood when people get all grammar police on poetry or lyrics, the rules are different, they always have been. It would be one thing if Bono was the first to ever say ATM machine, because then it would just be weird, but it's extremely common. REM, Led Zeppelin, and most rap would be thrown out the window if grammar and colloquialisms weren't allowed, hell A LOT of music would...
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Exactly.

The bad grammar that always sticks out to me the worst is from Toto's "Africa":

I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never have
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ATM machine seems pretty literate compared to that. :)
 
I never had any problem with the "ATM machine" lyrics. Like some people on here already mentioned, it makes a little sense with some of the other words or themes in the song (reflection, money, etc.), so it's not too much of a problem.

Unknown Caller's chorus, on the other hand...
 
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