Joshua_Tree_Hugger
Refugee
Here's what I think Please is all about:
You had to win, you couldn't just pass,
The smartest ass, at the top of the class,
Your flying colours, your family tree,
And all your lessons in history.
Please, please, please, get up off your knees!
The above lines for me suggest that the the person Bono's singing as has been tormented all his life by the person who he's "talking" to in the song. Not strictly physically but in a lot of ways.
"Bono" has spent his whole life putting up with this guy and now, after he's finally got free, settled down and got on with his life, he's at his doorstep again, begging him for help, dragging him back into the pain, while Bono only wants him out of his life ("Please, please, please, get up off your knees").
Both the "you had to win" and the "Catholic blues" part suggest that this guy was as it says, "the smartest ass at the top of the class". The rich boy who paraded around while "Bono" had nothing. And now Bono's character, who has only now made a life for himself, just wants this guy out of what he has left. But the tables have turned. The one who so tormented him has wasted everything and is begging "Bono" to help him - all he had had has been squandered. "Bono" just wants to get on with making the most out of the rest of his life, and not be tormented any longer.
That is my interpretaion anyway. Feel free to comment.
You had to win, you couldn't just pass,
The smartest ass, at the top of the class,
Your flying colours, your family tree,
And all your lessons in history.
Please, please, please, get up off your knees!
The above lines for me suggest that the the person Bono's singing as has been tormented all his life by the person who he's "talking" to in the song. Not strictly physically but in a lot of ways.
"Bono" has spent his whole life putting up with this guy and now, after he's finally got free, settled down and got on with his life, he's at his doorstep again, begging him for help, dragging him back into the pain, while Bono only wants him out of his life ("Please, please, please, get up off your knees").
Both the "you had to win" and the "Catholic blues" part suggest that this guy was as it says, "the smartest ass at the top of the class". The rich boy who paraded around while "Bono" had nothing. And now Bono's character, who has only now made a life for himself, just wants this guy out of what he has left. But the tables have turned. The one who so tormented him has wasted everything and is begging "Bono" to help him - all he had had has been squandered. "Bono" just wants to get on with making the most out of the rest of his life, and not be tormented any longer.
That is my interpretaion anyway. Feel free to comment.