I just realized this~
I got into Catholic University .....Catholic was the school for which I wrote my essay on "One." DOOD. DOOD DOOD. If there had been no U2.....I wouldn't have written that. And I don't know if I would have gotten in. MAYBE It's just the Mountain Dew and the craziness talking....BUT. Bono helped me get into college. SWEET.
That whole time I was working on it, I had "One" playing on repeat.
And cheers to Echo, BTW
aKORSE. I sweat your veal, dood. O yeah yeah yeah
If anyone has the attention span (don't worry. I don't) this is the essay I wrote (the qwuestion was basically to write about a work of art/ music/ etc that inspires me)
*****************************************
One
by U2
Is it getting better,
Or do you feel the same?
Will it make it easier on you?
Now you got someone to blame.
You say
One love
One life
When it?s one need
In the night.
It?s one love
We get to share it.
It leaves you, baby,
If you don?t care for it.
Did I disappoint you?
Or leave a bad taste in your mouth?
You act like you never had love,
And you want me to go without.
Well it?s too late
Tonight
To drag the past out
Into the light.
We?re one,
But we?re not the same.
We get to carry each other,
Carry each other.
One.
Have you come here for forgiveness?
Have you come to raise the dead?
Have you come here to play Jesus
To the lepers in your head?
Did I ask too much?
More than a lot?
You gave me nothing.
Now it?s all I?ve got.
We?re one,
But we?re not the same.
We hurt each other,
Then we do it again.
You say
Love is a temple,
Love a higher law.
Love is a temple.
Love the higher law.
You ask me to enter,
But then you make me crawl.
And I can?t be holding on
To what you got
When all you got is hurt
One love
One blood
One life
You got to do what you should
One life
With each other
Sisters
Brothers
One life
But we?re not the same.
We get to carry each other
Carry each other.
One.
One.
******************************************
U2's song "One" opens with desperate questions that beg for resolution:
Is it getting better?
Or do you feel the same?
Will it make it easier on you now
You got someone to blame?
The song proceeds to express the desire not solely for simple answers, but for complete absolution. The title of this appeal automatically suggests a sense of unity, which the speaker of the song craves. Its themes are specific enough to instill in the listener a sense of the necessity of unity and tolerance. But the lyrics are subjective enough to invite individual interpretation by listeners who combine the ideas presented with their own experiences.
According to his book U2 at the End of the World, U2 biographer and fan Bill Flanagan explains the creative process of "One." Lead singer Bono wrote the song with his bandmates at the beginning of the 1990's, during a period when the band was plagued by personal conflicts. The composition of "One," which is thought of as "the song that saved U2," proved to be a turning point for the faltering band. Their ability to cooperate and compromise was re-established. A suggestion of a kind of angst concerning world events also exists in a subtext of this song. Shortly before the session during which U2 wrote "One," the Berlin Wall had fallen, an event which symbolized a new beginning of sorts for those with an international mindset. In a Hansa studio in Berlin the songs for U2's album "Achtung Baby," including "One," were finalized both in terms of lyrics and music, and in terms of content and impact. Also at this time, AIDS was considered a new and growing epidemic. Consequently, some critics of "One" hold that it is about a young man telling his father that he has AIDS (Flanagan). The son makes the point that there is no turning back, and that forward is the only direction to go:
Well it's
Too late
Tonight
To drag the past out into the light.
But this interpretation is only one of many that have attempted to concisely explain the magnitude of the song's message.
In addition to the time of the recording, Flanagan notes that the location also impacted the final product of the song. Fellow rock star David Bowie, who also recorded a series of albums at Hansa, channeled the spirit of division (in terms of the situation in Berlin); whereas U2 channeled the spirit of unification. Additionally, Bowie said, when he wrote about "Achtung Baby" that "Throughout the twentieth century, Berlin has emerged time and again as both corpse and artery of Europe. Come the nineties the Wall and its heroes and anti-heroes came crashing down. East German artifacts and West German rubble are strewn upon the road thorough millennium's end" (Flanagan).
The location of "One" in the album "Achtung Baby" also weighs on the effects of the song. Flanagan holds that the album is a cycle that follows "a man messing up his secure home life by charging out into the night's temptations." The plea made in "One," then, "sounds less like a comfort than an excuse" (20). The album basically creates a tension in which the principal character is torn by "the moon as a dark woman who seduces the singer away from his virtuous love, the sun" (20). This is just a simple insight into the main theme of "Achtung Baby," but this discrepancy between the narrator's attentions ultimately results in the conjecture that "'Love is Blindness,' the inability to distinguish day from night" (20).
Knowing this very basic assessment, one is free to let one's self connect with the song. To me, the simple chorus suggests a basic tolerance for all people, and the desire to possess the ideal:
One life,
But we're not the same.
We get to
Carry each other,
Carry each other.
But while it is based on a future of possibility and progress, this ideal world of acceptance must challenge and admit the influence of past reality in order to progress:
I can't be holding on
To what you got
When all you got is hurt."
Forgiveness, then, is required to start over. This need for renewal could be in a relationship with God, oneself, a lover, or a friend.
In my personal opinion, with no thought of historical or social significance, "One" is a song about acceptance, tolerance, and forgiveness. I think everyone at one point or another desires and indeed requires understanding for deeds both destructive and progressive. Everyone is equally deserving of acknowledging the past and evolving in the future.
The symbolism of blood in the lines
One love
One blood
One life
You got to do what you should
suggests blood's role as both the curse and gift of life. Blood can be thought of as anything from the physical fluid to actual life. In either case, it is the gift of blood that keeps one alive, but it is the blight and reality of blood that reminds one of limits. It is also blood that This simultaneous presence of life and death in one unit is a paradox that suggests, in "One," both the reassuring necessity and horrifying realities of acceptance and forgiveness.
"One" is certainly a simple, yet strong song. The very fact that it is open to interpretation is its defining characteristic. I believe that a song has to be very powerful to hold up the desires, wishes, and hopes of the bearers of such diverse interpretations. The song is about AIDS, it's about love, it's about divorce, it's about sex, it's about Africa, it's about Jesus, it's about Berlin, it's about the band. The song is about confession, it's about denial, it's about individual strength, it's about communion. It is at once all these things at one moment, and then it is none of them in the next. Not just any song can pull off what "One" does.
I believe that ?One? is the universal song. It cannot be distilled down to words that are different from the original lyrics. It cannot be torn apart from the voice in which they arrive in the listener's mind. The way the messages of the song arise within the listener depend upon one?s individual thought processes and experiences. The range of emotions and incidents that the song suggests cannot be contained by singular delineations of the lyrics. This anthem is both a promise and a wish, simultaneously a pledge and a request. The ideals presented in "One," then, seem to manifest the way that most dreams do. The lyrics are suggestive of dreams of awakening: awakening to greater meaning, awakening to fulfillment.
Well paint my fence and call me Charlie. Someone ring Bono and tell him he's SPECIAL
"I can't change the world,
but I can change the world in me"
------------------
~*Mona*~
LOVE me, give me SOUL
Kick start my rock 'n rollin? heart. ~J.E.W.
"I think I just said I was smart there - I'm sorry about that." ~Bono
"I...I had a one night stand with the Discoteque video" ~Mona
The Man Corral
[This message has been edited by WildHonee (edited 02-25-2002).]
I got into Catholic University .....Catholic was the school for which I wrote my essay on "One." DOOD. DOOD DOOD. If there had been no U2.....I wouldn't have written that. And I don't know if I would have gotten in. MAYBE It's just the Mountain Dew and the craziness talking....BUT. Bono helped me get into college. SWEET.
That whole time I was working on it, I had "One" playing on repeat.
And cheers to Echo, BTW
If anyone has the attention span (don't worry. I don't) this is the essay I wrote (the qwuestion was basically to write about a work of art/ music/ etc that inspires me)
*****************************************
One
by U2
Is it getting better,
Or do you feel the same?
Will it make it easier on you?
Now you got someone to blame.
You say
One love
One life
When it?s one need
In the night.
It?s one love
We get to share it.
It leaves you, baby,
If you don?t care for it.
Did I disappoint you?
Or leave a bad taste in your mouth?
You act like you never had love,
And you want me to go without.
Well it?s too late
Tonight
To drag the past out
Into the light.
We?re one,
But we?re not the same.
We get to carry each other,
Carry each other.
One.
Have you come here for forgiveness?
Have you come to raise the dead?
Have you come here to play Jesus
To the lepers in your head?
Did I ask too much?
More than a lot?
You gave me nothing.
Now it?s all I?ve got.
We?re one,
But we?re not the same.
We hurt each other,
Then we do it again.
You say
Love is a temple,
Love a higher law.
Love is a temple.
Love the higher law.
You ask me to enter,
But then you make me crawl.
And I can?t be holding on
To what you got
When all you got is hurt
One love
One blood
One life
You got to do what you should
One life
With each other
Sisters
Brothers
One life
But we?re not the same.
We get to carry each other
Carry each other.
One.
One.
******************************************
U2's song "One" opens with desperate questions that beg for resolution:
Is it getting better?
Or do you feel the same?
Will it make it easier on you now
You got someone to blame?
The song proceeds to express the desire not solely for simple answers, but for complete absolution. The title of this appeal automatically suggests a sense of unity, which the speaker of the song craves. Its themes are specific enough to instill in the listener a sense of the necessity of unity and tolerance. But the lyrics are subjective enough to invite individual interpretation by listeners who combine the ideas presented with their own experiences.
According to his book U2 at the End of the World, U2 biographer and fan Bill Flanagan explains the creative process of "One." Lead singer Bono wrote the song with his bandmates at the beginning of the 1990's, during a period when the band was plagued by personal conflicts. The composition of "One," which is thought of as "the song that saved U2," proved to be a turning point for the faltering band. Their ability to cooperate and compromise was re-established. A suggestion of a kind of angst concerning world events also exists in a subtext of this song. Shortly before the session during which U2 wrote "One," the Berlin Wall had fallen, an event which symbolized a new beginning of sorts for those with an international mindset. In a Hansa studio in Berlin the songs for U2's album "Achtung Baby," including "One," were finalized both in terms of lyrics and music, and in terms of content and impact. Also at this time, AIDS was considered a new and growing epidemic. Consequently, some critics of "One" hold that it is about a young man telling his father that he has AIDS (Flanagan). The son makes the point that there is no turning back, and that forward is the only direction to go:
Well it's
Too late
Tonight
To drag the past out into the light.
But this interpretation is only one of many that have attempted to concisely explain the magnitude of the song's message.
In addition to the time of the recording, Flanagan notes that the location also impacted the final product of the song. Fellow rock star David Bowie, who also recorded a series of albums at Hansa, channeled the spirit of division (in terms of the situation in Berlin); whereas U2 channeled the spirit of unification. Additionally, Bowie said, when he wrote about "Achtung Baby" that "Throughout the twentieth century, Berlin has emerged time and again as both corpse and artery of Europe. Come the nineties the Wall and its heroes and anti-heroes came crashing down. East German artifacts and West German rubble are strewn upon the road thorough millennium's end" (Flanagan).
The location of "One" in the album "Achtung Baby" also weighs on the effects of the song. Flanagan holds that the album is a cycle that follows "a man messing up his secure home life by charging out into the night's temptations." The plea made in "One," then, "sounds less like a comfort than an excuse" (20). The album basically creates a tension in which the principal character is torn by "the moon as a dark woman who seduces the singer away from his virtuous love, the sun" (20). This is just a simple insight into the main theme of "Achtung Baby," but this discrepancy between the narrator's attentions ultimately results in the conjecture that "'Love is Blindness,' the inability to distinguish day from night" (20).
Knowing this very basic assessment, one is free to let one's self connect with the song. To me, the simple chorus suggests a basic tolerance for all people, and the desire to possess the ideal:
One life,
But we're not the same.
We get to
Carry each other,
Carry each other.
But while it is based on a future of possibility and progress, this ideal world of acceptance must challenge and admit the influence of past reality in order to progress:
I can't be holding on
To what you got
When all you got is hurt."
Forgiveness, then, is required to start over. This need for renewal could be in a relationship with God, oneself, a lover, or a friend.
In my personal opinion, with no thought of historical or social significance, "One" is a song about acceptance, tolerance, and forgiveness. I think everyone at one point or another desires and indeed requires understanding for deeds both destructive and progressive. Everyone is equally deserving of acknowledging the past and evolving in the future.
The symbolism of blood in the lines
One love
One blood
One life
You got to do what you should
suggests blood's role as both the curse and gift of life. Blood can be thought of as anything from the physical fluid to actual life. In either case, it is the gift of blood that keeps one alive, but it is the blight and reality of blood that reminds one of limits. It is also blood that This simultaneous presence of life and death in one unit is a paradox that suggests, in "One," both the reassuring necessity and horrifying realities of acceptance and forgiveness.
"One" is certainly a simple, yet strong song. The very fact that it is open to interpretation is its defining characteristic. I believe that a song has to be very powerful to hold up the desires, wishes, and hopes of the bearers of such diverse interpretations. The song is about AIDS, it's about love, it's about divorce, it's about sex, it's about Africa, it's about Jesus, it's about Berlin, it's about the band. The song is about confession, it's about denial, it's about individual strength, it's about communion. It is at once all these things at one moment, and then it is none of them in the next. Not just any song can pull off what "One" does.
I believe that ?One? is the universal song. It cannot be distilled down to words that are different from the original lyrics. It cannot be torn apart from the voice in which they arrive in the listener's mind. The way the messages of the song arise within the listener depend upon one?s individual thought processes and experiences. The range of emotions and incidents that the song suggests cannot be contained by singular delineations of the lyrics. This anthem is both a promise and a wish, simultaneously a pledge and a request. The ideals presented in "One," then, seem to manifest the way that most dreams do. The lyrics are suggestive of dreams of awakening: awakening to greater meaning, awakening to fulfillment.
Well paint my fence and call me Charlie. Someone ring Bono and tell him he's SPECIAL
"I can't change the world,
but I can change the world in me"
------------------
~*Mona*~
LOVE me, give me SOUL
Kick start my rock 'n rollin? heart. ~J.E.W.
"I think I just said I was smart there - I'm sorry about that." ~Bono
"I...I had a one night stand with the Discoteque video" ~Mona
The Man Corral
[This message has been edited by WildHonee (edited 02-25-2002).]
