best U2 break up song

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jonnytakeawalk

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So what do you think is the best U2 song to listen to after a break up? My vote probaby goes to 'tryin to throw your arms around the world,' just for the line 'a woman needs a man, like a fish needs a bicycle.' that line's very soothing (for a woman anyway)

Probaby the worst U2 song to listen to after a break up would be 'all I want is you' reasons for which I think are pretty self explanatory

Anyhoo what are everyone elses opinions on this matter?
 
So Cruel gets my vote too. Such a bitter song. "I'm only hanging on, to watch you go down, my love." Perfect break-up line.
 
Well, I hope you know the fact that that line wasn't originally penned by Bono, actually an Australian teacher during the earlier 70's.

I don't like So Cruel. I'd say WOWY.
 
LEEEMMMMAAAWWWNNNN














ok not really, I just wanted to say it
 
I would say, almost without any hesitation at all, "Smile." I'd rather not go into it, but it says everything...at least for me, it does. Or did. Whatever.

"Smile," bitches.
 
I don't pretend to know what all U2 songs are about and alot of times I don't care. Bono writes in such a way that they can apply to so many different people, under so many different circumstances. I always thought Stay(far away, so close) is kind of a sad breakup song in the sense that it sounds like a song about a couple who are really in love yet it's impossible for them to be together and they know it, making the breakup that much harder.:(
 
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One

"Is it getting better or do you feel the same? Will it make it easier on you now, you've got someone to blame?"

"Did I dissapoint you? Leave a bad taste in your mouth?"

"You gave me nothing and not it's all I've got."

"Is it too late tonight to drag the past out into the light?"

I could, of course, quote the entire song. :up:
 
BrownEyedBoy said:
One

"Is it getting better or do you feel the same? Will it make it easier on you now, you've got someone to blame?"

"Did I dissapoint you? Leave a bad taste in your mouth?"

"You gave me nothing and not it's all I've got."

"Is it too late tonight to drag the past out into the light?"

I could, of course, quote the entire song. :up:

If anything to me One sounds more like a make up song. Kinda sounds like a song that recognizes even though you're in love you're not the same and you will inevitably hurt each other yet you stay together because you are in love. It sounds like a song about the trials of being in a relationship and aknowledging that even the most solid relationships aren't perfect and are hard work to make them work long term. Then again I can totally see what you're saying also. :wink:
 
Hallucination said:


If anything to me One sounds more like a make up song. Kinda sounds like a song that recognizes even though you're in love you're not the same and you will inevitably hurt each other yet you stay together because you are in love. It sounds like a song about the trials of being in a relationship and aknowledging that even the most solid relationships aren't perfect and are hard work to make them work long term. Then again I can totally see what you're saying also. :wink:

It's hard for me to think of one outside the whole 'brotherhood of man' interpretation. I understand where you're coming from though

I can't believe no ones mentioned 'who's gonna ride your wild horses.' That'd be a great song to listen to after a break up!
 
Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses. waaaaay better musically and lyrically (dealing w/ breakups) than So Cruel!


WoWY is too great to be considered just a break up song!
 
Original of the Species, because it reminds me of someone I blew a chance with who I was [and probably still am] head-over-heels for at the time the last record came out...so listening to that makes me feel bad about myself...needless to say I do so often...!
 
Surprised that 'Love Is Blindness' hasn't been mentioned yet. When it comes to breakups you can't get much more bitter than this:

Love is drowning in a deep well
All the secrets and no one to tell
Take the money, honey
Blindness


By the way - possibly the best non-U2 breakup song is 'Ghost in This House' sung by Alison Krauss. Not only is she a great singer but she has clearly been dumped a few times and that emotion comes through in her singing. Then take that emotion and add it to lyrics like the following and you get a great breakup song:

I'm just a ghost in this house
I'm just a shadow upon these walls
As quietly as a mouse I haunt these halls
I'm just a whisper of smoke
I'm all that's left of two hearts on fire
That once burned out of control
You took my body and soul
I'm just a ghost in this house
 
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WOWY, All I Want is You, So Cruel are my favorites.

One has been a good one also but it was only for one relationship I was in. Special meaning.,,,

u2 has some great depressing music for relationship situations...pass the onion.
 
I have to agree with the one person who posted Smile.

I am surprised only one other person posted this song - it is THE perfect break up song, it really needs to be on an album, it really is a great song. I have been happily married for 12 years, but the moment I heard that song, it immediately brought to mind all those painful heartbreaks of the past. Great lyrics in that song, particulary, "I will live again. You will live again. I just don't want to see you smile".
 
Kinsa said:
I have to agree with the one person who posted Smile.

I am surprised only one other person posted this song - it is THE perfect break up song, it really needs to be on an album, it really is a great song. I have been happily married for 12 years, but the moment I heard that song, it immediately brought to mind all those painful heartbreaks of the past. Great lyrics in that song, particulary, "I will live again. You will live again. I just don't want to see you smile".

THANK YOU! I'm glad somebody else is feeling it--it really is perfect, although most of the other songs posted are worth merit of their own. Particularly "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses?"

As I said and as you seconded, though, "Smile" says nearly everything. It's in the song's minimalism and restraint that it finds such power. Magnificent and eloquent without preaching. This general approach to songwriting is what's missing from most of U2's current songwriting (I think) and what makes many of the classics what they are.
 
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