into the arms of america

[Lilly]

ok, honestly, i've listened to bullet like a bajillion times. right away it was one of my favorite tracks off the joshua tree and then live versions of it...

but not until a few weeks ago did i get "into the arms...of america"

not these arms:

these ones:

for me, that changes the whole meaning of the song. anyone else hear it this way?

 

[daisybean]

I do I do

Considering the song was originally about the US involvement in Central America at the time.

 

[* MoFo *]

cool ive never thought about it like that, although arms as in body parts kinda makes more sense.

is that an actual photograph of you, lilly?

 

[Giant Lemon]

Wow! I never thought of arms in that way. Very clever!

 

[Lilly]

i love spring break

is that an actual photograph of you, lilly?

hmm...i'm thinking you're talking about my profile? and no, that's hermia, a sand creature that was created over spring break when my friends and i failed miserably making a sandcastle.


and if you're talking about the pictures i just posted, i am neither in the army nor a drawing. though i do like that yellow shirt

 

[FallingStar]

Hey, I never thought about the 'arms' as being 'guns'........ but it does make sense......

I bet Bono thought of it as a pun when writing Bullet.

Thank you Lilly!

 

[hippy]

Woo Shannon! Good observation.

 

[Bonochick]

Wow! I never thought of arms in that way. Very clever!

Me neither!

 

[asha]

I guess that the thing with the ARMS is a pun. As far as I know the song is about the US involvment in El Salvador and Nicaragua. Still, there are many there who try to get to the US as refugees. So they are sort of running into the arms (meaning: line legs) of Uncle Sam. Then again, they also need the military force of the US ---> arms = guns.

Very powerful line. Can really mean a lot.

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

I guess that the thing with the ARMS is a pun. As far as I know the song is about the US involvment in El Salvador and Nicaragua. Still, there are many there who try to get to the US as refugees. So they are sort of running into the arms (meaning: line legs) of Uncle Sam. Then again, they also need the military force of the US ---> arms = guns.

Very powerful line. Can really mean a lot.

That would make sense.

I like how he chose to end the song with those two lyrics. It just ends, and it makes ya think a little about what he was just singing (and speaking) about.

And I know I talk about this a lot, but I'm sorry, I love seeing that live performance of that song from "Rattle and Hum" and having Bono end the song, and do those last couple lines, with the spotlight the way he did...I don't know why, I just think that's cool.

'Kay, I'll shut up now. .

Angela

 

[asha]

That would make sense.

I like how he chose to end the song with those two lyrics. It just ends, and it makes ya think a little about what he was just singing (and speaking) about.

And I know I talk about this a lot, but I'm sorry, I love seeing that live performance of that song from "Rattle and Hum" and having Bono end the song, and do those last couple lines, with the spotlight the way he did...I don't know why, I just think that's cool.

'Kay, I'll shut up now. .

Angela

Yes, that's an amazing performance! How did the rest of you like the way U2 performed BULLET during the Elevation tour. I think it was the most amazing song of the shows, though Bullet isn't my fav. song. I LOVED the intro... especially this African song they usually had on their first night in a town... But Bono's performance.... great, great, great

 

[FallingStar]

And I know I talk about this a lot, but I'm sorry, I love seeing that live performance of that song from "Rattle and Hum" and having Bono end the song, and do those last couple lines, with the spotlight the way he did...I don't know why, I just think that's cool.

And it's so cool that he got his sexy scar on his chin in a rehearsal with that spotlight, right?

 

[italdesign]

Great topic. Need it for a few days, thus the bump

 

[AvsGirl41]

ok, honestly, i've listened to bullet like a bajillion times. right away it was one of my favorite tracks off the joshua tree and then live versions of it...

but not until a few weeks ago did i get "into the arms...of america"

for me, that changes the whole meaning of the song. anyone else hear it this way?

Wow, I never thought about it that way. I always imagined it as referring to refugees. Great find! Thanks!

 

[*BOOMCHAA!*]

Hyuck Hyuck, Youz a smart one Lilly..........I ain't never thought of dat.

But seriously, I never thought of it that way, arms=guns.
Very clever

 

[IWasBored]

that is THE song that turned me into a u2 fan (long story), but i think it was more for the guitar parts that the lyrics. i never thought of it being that kind of arms...i assumed it was arms as in running to america for help, even though america's backed the dictatorship making the country hell, it's still the only place to really turn to...but arms as in weapons works really well...wow...

if you think about it, when has that song NOT had something big and scary surrounding the way it was performed: the whole scary spotlight on edge thing (in rattle and hum, that part creeped me out, as well as being one of my favourite parts)....zootv the crosses turning into swatstikas, and then as mentioned during elevation (and i only got to see these on video and dvd...grr)

 

[withashout]

This song is a critique of US foreign policy in the 80s in Central America. As a critique, it's quite incisive in its description of a Central American city in the midst of civil war or an invasion of some type.

consider some of the previous lines:

"You plant a demon seed; You raise a flower of fire" - US propping up the military dictatorships of Panama, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Chile. Could be applied today with the US backed mujaheedin in Afghanistan in the 80's (now the former(?) Taliban) as well as US support of Saddam Hussein in Iraq's war with Iran in the 80s.


"And I can see those fighter planes
Across the mud huts where the children sleep"

This isn't about US protection. It's about US forces imposing US-style imperialism on developing countries.

"Across the field you see the sky ripped open
See the rain through a gaping wound
Pounding on the women and children
Who run into the arms of America"

The rain is a metaphor for gunfire and bombs. Yes, they're bombing the city. Could be Panama City, Santiago, Managua. The arms are not arms of protection but arms of force used against innocent populations caught in political struggles not of their making.

BTBS is U2 at their most smart and incisive. It was songs like this that gave them the reputation of being politically outspoken. And it was before the ATYCLB years when they seem to have so much "faith" in the promise of the US. Instead they here are worried about the US (as so much of the rest of the world does on a daily basis) as the big bully it so often is.

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

That's a good explanation, withashout.

I think this song is one of U2's best...the lyrics are intense, the guitar from Edge...sounds exactly as though bombs were dropping or something-you could just picture a war going on in your mind...very effective.

I have never seen the whole thing with the crosses turning into swastikas from ZooTV-but I imagine that must have been quite powerful. Gotta hand it to U2 for having the guts to do that, I'm surprised, like, some religious people or whatever didn't get all upset over that (or maybe they did, I dunno, I didn't hear anything about that).

Angela

 

[U2girl91289]

I never would have thought that arms means guns. I always thought that it meant that Costa Ricans were running (immigrating) to America.

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

I never would have thought that arms means guns. I always thought that it meant that Costa Ricans were running (immigrating) to America.

There's another way of looking at it.

I love reading these interpretations, of this song and of other songs of theirs. Makes me look at the songs in a whole different light (and perhaps make me appreciate some of them even more than I already do).

Angela