California (There Is No End To Love) - Song Discussion

[mikal]

I was hoping they would release a song called Wisconsin.


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[Nick66]

I was hoping they would release a song called Wisconsin.


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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiTpqo3N9yU#t=25

 

[Super Yo]

Hey, I know it's a stretch, just trying to help you out with something that might help put the song in context when you listen.

 

[Mrs. Garrison]

So sorry for your loss. Good that you can find some comfort in this song.

Sorry for your loss Mrs. Garrison and I'm glad you can find some comfort in this song or any song for that matter.


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Thank you both very much. Obviously im not the only one who has dealt with this...or will....unfortunately. Part of life i guess.

That this album sounds upbeat and uplifting to me is very comforting. I don't think i would like it at all if it was another No Line.

 

[stray dog]

Well, maybe the California they're singing about is more of an idea..an idealised notion of California that a kid in the North Side of Dublin might create in his mind to escape the dreariness around him..."that's what took me where I need to be."

Hey, I know it's a stretch, just trying to help you out with something that might help put the song in context when you listen. [/

This
I see California as there is no end ideal or belief.

 

[Dane-Dane]

Well yea the song does seem out of context on an album full of songs about Dublin, but I understand it to be an album about first experiences and important moments. Obviously going to Calif was one of these moments for him. Most definitely the horrific past and the shiny sea before him colliding--There is no end to grief that's how I know and why I need to know that there is no end to love. He has hope simple as that and maybe he found his hope there in Calif. Great tune.

 

[Reggie Thee Dog]

I... Just still don't like this song

You're, obviously, from the East Coast....

 

[ImNotSleeping]

You're, obviously, from the East Coast....

"Well East Coast girls are really hip" - so we love this song!

 

[corianderstem]

I was hoping they would release a song called Wisconsin.

There is no end to cheese. That's how I know there is no end to love.

 

[david]

Mmm. Cheese.

 

[ImNotSleeping]

There is no end to cheese. That's how I know there is no end to love.

Aged Havarti, indeed.

 

[maycocksean]

Totally loving this song right now. I think it might be my latest favorite from the album.

Very evocative. I agree with those that have sensed some gravity beneath the bright, pedal-to-the-metal-on-a-California-freeway feel of the sound.

 

[purpleoscar]

It's my most played song on the album. I think it gives me what I want.

 

[adb280z]

the 'santa barbara' part at the beginning is cringe-worthy; imagine trying to convince a friend that u2 was great and only having the first 30 seconds of this song to do it with.

being in the first three, i'm guessing that u2 has high hopes for this song, but it might be at the bottom of the pile for me.

I really hate the first 30 seconds of this song, I like the rest but the beginning is a deal breaker for me.

 

[Airseven]

I think the lyrics are terrible. Ugh Bono.

 

[Irvine511]

The grief/love lyrics make beautiful, great sense to me.

A few years ago, I posted this on my FB page when I was, like others, dealing with a sudden, tragic loss. It's returned to me several times. It's from an essay that I can't find the original link to.

We want to acknowledge the griever’s pain, because we also know it as our own. We offer our hand, our clumsy platitudes, a cup of broth. But at some point we itch to move on to our lives, and leave the mourner to move on to his or hers. Not out of callousness, but out of the knowledge that in the end, grief is a lonely and entirely personal place. What we wish for the grieving is that they learn to pull away from the wild, unruly currents of mourning and rejoin us, knowing that nothing we say can really matter, because we know grief’s dark allure. In grief we sound the depths of our love. In that regard, it’s a private privilege. Society has no place there.

I take this to mean that young Bono has traveled to the other side of the world, to a land of light and sun so different from Dublin, and he's confronted with the fact that he still feels the loss of his mother intensely. The upside, the comfort, is that grief is a symptom of love, and if the grief never really ends -- and it doesn't, you just acclimate to loss and learn to live without, it never goes away -- then neither does love. One cannot exist without the other.


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[PhilsFan]

That's exactly what it is. I won't even say it's how I interpret it as well, that's just what it is. It's not vague at all. You can't grieve unless you've loved, so if grief doesn't end, then love must not end either.

 

[ImNotSleeping]

I find the lyrics fantastic which gives this cruising along fun song truth/weight and real joy! It's also amazing to me how Bono can create a vivid "snapshot" that evokes a feeling that you know you've experienced before.

Superb and this song isn't even the "best" of the album!!!

 

[purpleoscar]

That's pretty much how I interpret it except for the mother part which could be part of the grief but also other things about Ireland that Bono wishes were different. It's actually accurate to how the brain works. That's why love for a person can turn to hate when they betray you. One possibility can't exist without the other.

I think the lyrics are terrible. Ugh Bono.

 

[Tranquilfire]

I really hate the first 30 seconds of this song, I like the rest but the beginning is a deal breaker for me.

I think the beginning might be the most beautiful part on the whole album. Cheesy and earnest in the way that only U2 would dare to be.

Sent from my Freightliner, most likely.

 

[thavidesco]

I think the beginning might be the most beautiful part on the whole album. Cheesy and earnest in the way that only U2 would dare to be.

Sent from my Freightliner, most likely.

Yes. it is great, lovin it!

 

[pulpFiction]

I hated this song when it first heard it. Took a few days for it to click, and then I was ashamed that I liked it. Now I think it might be one of my favorites on the album. The idea that grief and joy are so closely intertwined is hardly original, but I love the treatment here. Sonically, the music really backs up the lyrics, and the edge's solo is pretty cool.

In theory I should hate this song. I should find it's horribly cheesy. But I love it, it's uplifting and joyful in all the right U2 ways.


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[CosmoKramer]

I hated this song when it first heard it. Took a few days for it to click, and then I was ashamed that I liked it. Now I think it might be one of my favorites on the album. The idea that grief and joy are so closely intertwined is hardly original, but I love the treatment here. Sonically, the music really backs up the lyrics, and the edge's solo is pretty cool.

In theory I should hate this song. I should find it's horribly cheesy. But I love it, it's uplifting and joyful in all the right U2 ways.


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For me, it's what Crazy Tonight should have been.

It has really wonderful lyrics, tells a story and musically it's great (love the violins)

I think it is complimented further by the fact that it fits well into the over all narrative of the album. It makes it that much more enjoyable to listen to knowing it is one story in an album of stories that speaks of their beginning.

Very cool....very cool indeed.


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[bobsaget77]

Bono's lyrics are really good on this song, it's an obvious choice as a single. I'm guessing single #3. The miracle as #1, EBW #2, Cali #3, Invisible again/volcano double single #4. Different versions of Invisible might make as a nice b-side on all of the singles. Maybe an acoustic invisible, unedited invisible, unedited acoustic invisible, extended invisible with snippet of unedited invisible, and an acoustic extended invisible.


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[super fly guy]

Bono's lyrics are really good on this song, it's an obvious choice as a single. I'm guessing single #3. The miracle as #1, EBW #2, Cali #3, Invisible again/volcano double single #4. Different versions of Invisible might make as a nice b-side on all of the singles. Maybe an acoustic invisible, unedited invisible, unedited acoustic invisible, extended invisible with snippet of unedited invisible, and an acoustic extended invisible.


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You forgot to out in the vertigo snippet!

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[Headache in a Suitcase]

Wooooahaahhooooahhhhhooooooo? More like Wooooahaahhooooahhhhhugh, amirite???

 

[Batfink27]

For me, it's what Crazy Tonight should have been.

It has really wonderful lyrics, tells a story and musically it's great (love the violins)

I think it is complimented further by the fact that it fits well into the over all narrative of the album. It makes it that much more enjoyable to listen to knowing it is one story in an album of stories that speaks of their beginning.

Very cool....very cool indeed.


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Agreed with the Crazy Tonight comment,its what it should've been. Really fun song and great song.

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[corianderstem]

Wooooahaahhooooahhhhhooooooo? More like Wooooahaahhooooahhhhhugh, amirite???

You are not rite.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

You are not rite.

I am rite! Opinions are rite for everyone, right? Right?!?!?!

 

[last unicorn]

The "acoustic" version of California on the bonus CD isn't really "acoustic", is it? Neither is the version of Sleep like a baby. Still, great tunes, though I think I like the regular album versions of both songs better.