lyrical similarities

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Clawgrabber

War Child
Joined
Jul 13, 2002
Messages
992
Location
Los Angeles, California (There Is No End To Love)
"Dream Out Loud":

Acrobat
Zooropa
Always


"The Soul Needs Beauty For A Soulmate":

Always
A Man And A Woman

"Be The Bee And The Flower/Before The Sweetness Turns To Sour":

Always
Levitate


"The Top Of A New Born Baby's Head":

Levitate
Miracle Drug


"Trampled Underfoot":

Promenade
So Cruel

Any others???:
 
Well it's perfectly okay to them when they're b-sides and 99% of people will never hear them (only the hardened fans will download and listen to unreleased material like Levitate and Always). So I guess with that in mind Bono feels justifiably able to re-use certain lyrics that he probably felt were good and deserved to be heard by the masses.

As for the ones that are on released material, I think the line "dream out loud" holds a lot of imagery. It represents a new era - first to the Achtung/Zoo TV/Zooropa over-the-top, overdose early 90s mentality and later to U2s new direction with ATYCLB, back to roots, lyrics about familiar, family things etc.
 
Both Babyface and Stay use the simile "dressed up like a _____". It was cool when I first noticed it, but having two songs on the same album use the same simile now seems a little sloppy to me. :|
 
"don't find yourself in me"
"don't find yourself in someone else"

Love Comes Tumbling (1984)
Always (2001) (sings near the end of the song)

Not exact lyrics, but a play on the same theme?
 
And then you can create song family trees!!!!!! :hyper:


Miami is the name of a place, just like New York, which was was the first U2 song I heard properly, which was on the same album as Beautiful Day, which was fathered by Always, which has a link to Levitate, which I associate with Smile (cos I got them both at the same time)................etc

I could go on forever :wink::|
 
One I realised just last night.

SQUEAKY CLEAN - Zooropa
SQUEAKY CLEAN - Miami
 
Take these hands, they're good for nothing
You know these hands never worked a day
Take these boots they're going nowhere
You know these boots don't want to stray.
You got my head filled with songs
You got my shoelaces undone.
Take my shirt, go on, take it off me
You can tear it up if you can tie me down.

- Do You Feel Loved


Take these shoes
Click clacking down some dead end street
Take these shoes
And make them fit
Take this shirt
Polyester white trash made in nowhere
Take this shirt
And make it clean, clean...
Take these hands
Teach them what to carry
Take these hands
Don’t make a fist

- Yahweh



Sort of the same thing... :wink: They both talk about hands, shoes, and shirts! :shrug:
 
Was listening to classic rock radio in Detroit the other day and this struck me...

U2's Walk On Lyrics


....Leave it behind
You've got to leave it behind
All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you steal
All this you can leave behind
All that you reason
All that you sense
All that you speak
All you dress up
All that you scheme…

Pink Floyd's Eclipse Lyrics

All that you touch
All that you see
All that you taste
All you feel.
All that you love
All that you hate
All you distrust
All you save.
All that you give
All that you deal
All that you buy,
beg, borrow or steal.
All you create
All you destroy
All that you do
All that you say.
All that you eat
And everyone you meet
All that you slight
And everyone you fight.
All that is now
All that is gone
All that's to come
and everything under the sun is in tune
but the sun is eclipsed by the moon.
 
Sunday Bloody Sunday:
How long must we sing this song?

40:
How long to sing this song?
 
Here's my heart, I'll let you break it
(Love and Peace or Else)

Take this heart
And make it break
(Yahweh)

I find them very similar.
And off the same album, too.
 
I always wonder if Bono just likes the lyric and so reuses it or if there's some greater engineering - a connection in the meanings of the songs with the same lyric. (That wouldn't apply to the b-sides that get turned into a released song, but to .)
 
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