With or Without You is the most depressing song EVER written

[dizzy]

i find that the phrase "luminous times" comes in handy when satirizing things. in exaple:

friend: dood, i lost my favorite sunglasses.

me: luminous times indeed.


yeah...i'm not funny....*walks away in shame*

Heehee. Funny. And it does make sense.

 

[FallingStar]

divorces are very cruel fallingstar. i wouldn't wish that feeling on any family, ever .

can't live...with or without you.

well, that is so obvious, but so deep. it's this habit, like...you can't imagine life without them. it's hard to explain this. i am assuming you are rather young (no doubt older than i am). so take a sibling or a best friend (things i assume you have one or the other or both of), and imagine that you are unibrains...very close, but you relationship is tested and breaks. you don't want it to go away, do you? no, you remember the good times you've had. but you can't forget the tresspass that just happened. you want to keep them so bad, but there's no way you can. so you break away from them. and life is hard without them, it's just not the same, but you learn to cope. you cannot live with or without them. it's torture of the soul, and that's the worst kind imo.


soul tochure makes you stronger, but it hurts, so much pain. i need to go now.

Actually I was talking about Love Is Blindness and not about With Or Without You, but I agree that divorces are really, really cruel. There's no doubt about it.
Yep, I also think that I'm younger than you - almost everybody here is older than me. And no, I don't have a friend to be such a unibrain with, but I understand what you mean.

 

[elizabeth]

when i hear songs like WOWY and Love is Blindness and the real painful ones...even WGRYWH....i remember my mom telling me that love and hate are very close together, one is not the opposite of the other...she was just warning me not to get the two confused...

i dont think the narrator in any songs feels hate, but it's so hard to separate love and lust, love and dependency, hating someone because you fear living without them...it's tricky.

i'm glad bono writes love songs that are real.

 

[pax]

Elizabeth! Where have you been? I don't even remember seeing you in PLEBA lately.

 

[Joshua_Tree_Hugger]

I'm don't know what it means lyrically but my feeling about WOWY is that it ISN'T a love song. Seems like more than that.

 

[Ali Rose]

I agree that WOWOY is more than just a love or heartbreak song....I believe theres a lot of spirituality tied in there amidst the romantic Love in the song.....This is the great thing about U2s songs. They're written so well that almost anyone can relate to them, simply because they're so.....versatile, ilf you will.

I will admit I often get a little frustrated with Bono sometimes because I don't know how he could know the feeling or if he has EVER been in a situation like this or even know what its like, seeing as how he married his high school sweetheart and has been with her ever since....but i know many of the lyrics stem from Edges divorce, etc., and I know its there are many more complexities to his songwriting that I'm sure tie in as well.....

As for the Police song "Every breath..." I heard him say in an interview once that the song stemmed from watching someone drown???( I think?) and he DID say he laughed at the idea of someone getting married to that song and wished them a sarcastic "Good luck!!..."

 

[UltravioletU2]

WOWY is a very powerful song. I agree that when you really think about the lyrics, it is sad, but it never makes me sad when I hear it.

I never understood the "I can't live with or without you" until I went through a painful breakup. You love the person, but you know it just can't work out because you can't get along any more. You can't live with them, but you can't live without them.

I once heard that someone though WOWY was a song from Bono about his fans.

I can't live with or without you
And you give yourself away...

I think some of it makes sense, but other parts of the song don't. Interesting nonetheless.

 

[dizzy]

WOWY is a very powerful song. I agree that when you really think about the lyrics, it is sad, but it never makes me sad when I hear it.

That's what I about a lot of U2 songs...the duality in their nature. Their other songs are very melancholic in verse, but uplifting in melody.

 

[Joshua_Tree_Hugger]

WOWY is a very powerful song. I agree that when you really think about the lyrics, it is sad, but it never makes me sad when I hear it.

I don't find WOWY that sad at all. The early verses is such a great buildup to "the end" - which, of course, is fabulously powerful.

I think the Elevation tour version of this song sums up the mood of the ending best when all the lights on the heart just blare as Bono screams "oooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh". Watch the Boston DVD to see what I mean!

 

[seankirkland]

Look at the song on another level....I wrote a post about it just a bit ago.

I hear it as a cry from God to us. "And you give yourself away..." seems like how we give ourselves away to everything but God, who is our ultimate source and completer. An amazing song when seen as from God's perspective.

Adam Clayton once said, "This is a song that should be played in church." There's not much from the band on this particular song, so from this one quote, it makes sense that it would have that supernatural level involved.

The fact that someone felt this song as sad, in relation to their real-life relationship with a girl, and how heartbreaking it is, is cool, because they have the first-hand experiential knowledge of how God must feel (to a degree) when we run to other things/people besides Him......

SK

 

[Joshua_Tree_Hugger]

Yeah Sean, I like your angle. Nice interpretation!

JTH

 

[FelipeVox]

The lyrics to With or Without You are indeed dark and depressing, but the song doesn't make me FEEL depressed. I

The same for me... And man... NONE U2 song is depressive for me.. Even Love Is Blindness... I can?t feel depressive as I feel when I hear Radiohead songs, just like "Knives Out" or "Where I End And You Begin", that?s trully sadness...

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

I like Basstrap and dsmith's interpretations of this song on the first page. Just wanted to say that.

Yeah, the lyrics are really dark and all that...but the song itself never makes me actually depressed. At least the music would be worth a slow dance to.

I was talking to my sister about this earlier...I think the most intriguing part of "With Or Without You", for me, is the fact that he can't live without this girl. Even after all the crap she's put him through, he can't live without her (and that's why I think some people find this song romantic...might be a weird reason to find a song romantic, but...).

I can't imagine how scary a feeling that is, to think that your life would be worthless without someone. I mean, it's a sweet thought, but at the same time it's kinda scary, too...if taken to a certain level.

As for a love song that I find rather sad..."Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses", as mentioned, simply for the line at the end "Who's gonna taste your saltwater kisses/Who's gonna take the place of me?" Bono sounds so vulnerable as he sings that line, and I just think that makes it even more heartbreaking. I feel bad for the person asking those questions in the song.

Angela