Crumbs and the diatribe which slipped under the radar.

[U2Man]

its one of those songs...either it hits you and you love it, or you think that its a complete piece of garbage. i listened quite a lot to it when htdaab came out. it was my favourite for a while. couldnt beat oots in the long run, though: the very best song on htdaab.

 

[guill]

From U2 by U2:

Bono - " 'And you speak of signs and wonders / but I need something other / I would believe if I was able / but I'm waiting for the crumbs from your table'. That line was a shot at the Church, because I felt at the time the Church wasn't doing anything about the AIDS emergency. The sleeping giant has since awoken, I'm happy to say." (page 325)

Bono never writes unidimensional song, I've always thought that it's about Bob Hewson too, when he was at the hospital and Bono was reading the bible to him, chatting about death/religion etc., secretly waiting for Bob's kind words that never came.

 

[Alisaura]

I love how U2's songs, and specifically Bono's lyrics can be read so many different ways.
I've always liked Crumbs, although I never thought much about the lyrics or a particular meaning behind them. I had vague thoughts of Bono writing from the point of view of someone unable to bring themselves to believe in God (or anything), although that could still fit into the anti-church interpretation I suppose. Anyway, I was mostly basing that on the "I would believe if I was able" line.
I love the "mouth full of teeth" line, but it did make me wonder what the whole thing was about.

Don't knock AAA batteries - they keep my mp3 player alive, and it keeps me sane at work.

I know I'm not the fastest brain in the west... it takes things a while to sink in sometimes. U2's songs tend to be things like that, with a few brilliant exceptions. I might not even notice what the lyrics say until a year later, and then they hit me. Clearly Crumbs hasn't hit me yet in that sense, but I'll certainly listen to it with a different ear now that I've read this thread.
HTDAAB is still settling into position in my consciousness... I don't know yet exactly where it will end up.