Which lyric would you have someone read...

[BVS]

In another thread we’ve been talking about lyrics, and it got me thinking about this question. I didn’t want to derail that thread any more than it has.

It’s hard to detach a lyric from the song, especially one you’ve been listening to for decades in some cases. But if you were to try and introduce someone to U2 from a lyrical standpoint, what lyric would you choose? In other words they were only allowed to read the lyric, what is the one lyric that stands strongest on its own?

 

[LemonMelon]

The wind will crack in winter time
This bomb-blast lightning waltz
No spoken words, just a scream
Tonight we'll build a bridge across the sea and land
See the sky, the burning rain
She will die and live again

 

[prbiker15]

Don’t know why, but this was the first lyric that popped up in my head.

Carnival, the wheels fly and the colours spin through alcohol
Red wine that punctures the skin
Face to face in a dry and waterless place

So many great lyrics in that album.

 

[CosmoKramer]

"Stop helping God across the road like a little old lady"

 

[Axver]

The wind will crack in winter time
This bomb-blast lightning waltz
No spoken words, just a scream
Tonight we'll build a bridge across the sea and land
See the sky, the burning rain
She will die and live again

Yeah, came into this thread to say A Sort of Homecoming.

 

[TinKnight]

Don’t know why, but this was the first lyric that popped up in my head.

Carnival, the wheels fly and the colours spin through alcohol
Red wine that punctures the skin
Face to face in a dry and waterless place

So many great lyrics in that album.

I was literally about to post these.

 

[deltau922]

I sent Until the End of the World lyrics to my mom recently, knowing she would have no interest in the actual song.

 

[BVS]

Originally my thought when I created this thread was RTSS.

But after reading it without trying to sing it in my head, it loses some of its meter.

LM’s was a great choice!

 

[cobl04]

Tough to say, because they're so tied to the delivery.

 

[LemonMelon]

3:35

 

[cobl04]

I thought that said 3:33 at first and I was gonna fucking kill you

 

[Axver]

3:35

I thought this was going to be a piss-take using 0:50.

 

[LemonMelon]

I thought this was going to be a piss-take using 0:50.

I truly believe 3:35 is among the most cringeworthy moments of Bono's career. And there is no shortage of those.

 

[Axver]

Eh, it's not great but there's worse on Rattle and Hum.

That BB King quote is gold though.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

They want you to be Jesus
They'll go down on one knee
But they'll want their money back
If you're alive at 33

 

[The_acrobat]

I truly believe 3:35 is among the most cringeworthy moments of Bono's career. And there is no shortage of those.

The first time I saw Rattle and Hum was in 1995, I was 13. I remember that moment made me cringe even back then! I thought "geez, what a douche!" Still cringeworthy, now that I'm like 8 years older older than Bono was in that video.

My wife is really into lyrics. She says that Stay are Bono's best lyrics. She was drawn to that song even before we met.

He had a gift earlier in his career. His lyrics and vocals were almost like an abstract painting or something. Now it's much more on the nose. Like "this is what I'm singing about and these are the words I am singing to make my point!!" UF - Pop era Bono wouldn't have written SUC, for instance.

 

[Montrose]

Love is Blindness. Either in it's entirety, or just:

In a parked car
In a crowded street
You see your love
Made complete
Thread is ripping
The knot is slipping
Love is blindness

Love is clockworks
And cold steel
Fingers too numb to feel
Squeeze the handle
Blow out the candle
Love is blindness

Love is blindness
I don't want to see
Won't you wrap the night
Around me?
Oh my love
Blindness

Achtung, for irony's sake, almost intentionally throws a 'baby' or some lyrical quirk in every song, and that makes some otherwise great lyrics difficult to read w/out the music, but I think this one escapes it for the most part.

 

[Catman]

It's tough, but the lyrics immediately springing to mind are from Lemon:

"She wore lemon
To color in the cold grey night
She had heaven
And she held on so tight

A man makes a picture
A moving picture
Through the light projected
He can see himself up close
A man captures color
A man likes to stare
He turns his money into light to look for her"

I dunno. It touches me

 

[womanfish]

It's tough, but the lyrics immediately springing to mind are from Lemon:

"She wore lemon
To color in the cold grey night
She had heaven
And she held on so tight

A man makes a picture
A moving picture
Through the light projected
He can see himself up close
A man captures color
A man likes to stare
He turns his money into light to look for her"

I dunno. It touches me

Aaahhh, you beat me to it!! so good.

So my second favorite lyric set about his mother is from Mofo.

Mother am I still your son
You know I've waited for so long to hear you say so
Mother you left and made me someone
Now I'm still a child
But no one tells me no

Lookin' for a sound that's gonna drown out the world
Lookin' for the father of my two little girls
Got the swing got the sway got my straw in lemonade
Still looking for the face I had before the world was made


And one of my favorite sections of a U2 ever. Is from Kite. But like someone said earlier, this one definitely has a lot to do with delivery. But the lyrics are still strong. A great example of Bono being able to write more literally, but if paired with the right song/delivery, it is absolutely epic.

In summer I can taste the salt in the sea
There's a kite blowing out of control on a breeze
I wonder what's gonna happen to you
You wonder what has happened to me

I'm a man, I'm not a child
A man who sees
The shadow behind your eyes

 

[Catman]

Hahha no joke, I was vacillating a bit with that Mofo lyric. It's one of those moments where the momentum of the music really helps to elevate the dramatic honesty in the lyrics. Great stuff 8)

 

[pop_mofo]

Took a drive in the dirty rain
To a place where the wind calls your name
Under the trees the river laughing at you and me
Hallelujah, heavens white rose
The doors you open
I just can't close

 

[BVS]

The first time I saw Rattle and Hum was in 1995, I was 13. I remember that moment made me cringe even back then! I thought "geez, what a douche!" Still cringeworthy, now that I'm like 8 years older older than Bono was in that video.

My wife is really into lyrics. She says that Stay are Bono's best lyrics. She was drawn to that song even before we met.

He had a gift earlier in his career. His lyrics and vocals were almost like an abstract painting or something. Now it's much more on the nose. Like "this is what I'm singing about and these are the words I am singing to make my point!!" UF - Pop era Bono wouldn't have written SUC, for instance.

No, I’m pretty sure Pop Bono wrote the precursors to SUC with God’s Angels and Wake Up Dead Man.

 

[kabigon]

He said "I have many mansions
And there are many rooms to see."
But I left by the back door
And I threw away the key

 

[Scorpionac]

ASOH, ISHFWILF, Lemon, Stay, Miss Sarajevo, Moment of Surrender are all good IMO.

I also like this from Ultraviolet:

I remember when we could sleep on stones
Now we lie together in whispers and moans
When I was all messed up and I had opera in my head
Your love was a light bulb hanging over my bed

 

[DeVaul]

The first time I saw Rattle and Hum was in 1995, I was 13. I remember that moment made me cringe even back then! I thought "geez, what a douche!" Still cringeworthy, now that I'm like 8 years older older than Bono was in that video.

My wife is really into lyrics. She says that Stay are Bono's best lyrics. She was drawn to that song even before we met.

He had a gift earlier in his career. His lyrics and vocals were almost like an abstract painting or something. Now it's much more on the nose. Like "this is what I'm singing about and these are the words I am singing to make my point!!" UF - Pop era Bono wouldn't have written SUC, for instance.

There are still flashes of that gift, which is what makes the dumbed-down, wordy verses in latter-day U2 so frustrating.

That said, I'd go with:

And I, like a firework, explode.
Roman candle, lightning, lights up the sky.
In cracked streets, trample underfoot.
Side-step, sidewalk.
I see you stare into space.
Have I got closer now, behind the face?

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

I've always loved this line from Zoo Station:

Time is a train
Makes the future the past
Leaves you standing in the station
Your face pressed up against the glass

 

[LuckyNumber7]

This thread has made me realize that I value B lyrics with A+ delivery more than anything else. Which I'm okay with, but it's interesting because I rather loathe artists putting their "skills" on display. Fine lines. Will have to think about this thread....

 

[Stereotype]

It might be an obvious choice but I think all of these from "One" qualifies:

-
Is it getting better,
Or do you feel the same?
Will it make it easier on you, now
You've got someone to blame?
-
Did you come here for forgiveness?
Did you come to raise the dead?
Did you come here to play Jesus,
To the Lepers in your head?
-
Were one but were not the same
We get to carry each other
-
You say
Love is a temple
Love a higher law
Love is a temple
Love the higher law
You ask me to enter,
But then you make me crawl
And I cant be holding on,
To what you've got
When all you've got is hurt

 

[Mac_Fly]

Red light, grey morning
You stumble out of a hole in the ground
A vampire or a victim
It depends on who's around

 

[redhill]

Some great calls in here!