Eerie 9/11 references on ATYCLB

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Achtung Boris

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I'm not sure if anyone has posted this subject yet. The other day I listened to the album and found so many lines/references to 9/11 even the though the album pre-dates the attacks. Has anyone else picked up on them?

- First off the album has songs called "New York" & "Peace on Earth"

- Secondly the theme of mortality is present of the album ie SIAM, Walk On, Kite, IALW, POE, WILATW

- The airport theme seems to have taken a quite morbid turn too

As for lines in songs...these are the ones that kinda freak me out

"Religious nuts, political fanatics....thats where I lost you in New York"

"I wasn't jumping, for me it was a fall, its a long way down to nothing at all"

"Life should be fragrant, rooftop to the basement"

"They're reading names now over the radio, all the folks the rest of us won't get to know"

"You're packing a suitcase for a place none of us have been"

"I'm in the waiting room, can't see through the smoke, I think of you and your holy book while the rest of us choke"

Overall I think the album is a remedy to the events and has helped people cope. Since it has that effect I think it is a hands done shoe-in for Album of the Year.
 
I have noticed all these things before. In fact, I couldn't listen to ATYCLB for a while after 9/11. It brought up to many things for me. I am still having trouble with Peace On Earth.

I think that it deserves to win "Album of the Year" because it is a great album, full of meaningful lyrics, well written songs, and played by incredible artists. I DON'T think that it deserves to win because of 9/11. I think that would be a gain for U2 from others hardships.
 
I totally agree with you, it is a fantastic album and should win based on that. It will win though and partly because of the affect it had on listeners in addition to its brilliance.
 
I don't think that U2 "benefitting" from the awful events of 9/11 is the case. I think that there was a need, and ATYCLB fit that need. The fact that the album had been thought up, recorded, released, and toured long before 9/11 occurred and was not something created in reaction to the events, in an attempt to capitalize on them, to me just makes it all the more special that it uniquely is able to speak to the repercussions of it.

You might add the song 'Please' to that list of eerie coincidences, btw.
"September, streets capsizing, spilling over and down the drain, shards of glass, splinters like rain, but you could only feel your own pain."
 
Originally posted by sulawesigirl4:
I don't think that U2 "benefitting" from the awful events of 9/11 is the case. I think that there was a need, and ATYCLB fit that need. The fact that the album had been thought up, recorded, released, and toured long before 9/11 occurred and was not something created in reaction to the events, in an attempt to capitalize on them, to me just makes it all the more special that it uniquely is able to speak to the repercussions of it.
Click to expand...

While that's true, this album has been very comforting and healing for many people during and after 9-11. People really respect that.

------------------
"Baby...can we still be friends?"
 
Originally posted by Bonochick:
While that's true, this album has been very comforting and healing for many people during and after 9-11. People really respect that.
Click to expand...

That was the point I was making.
tongue.gif
 
Originally posted by sulawesigirl4:
That was the point I was making.
tongue.gif
Click to expand...
Oh!

Well...I just summed it up for you then!
tongue.gif
biggrin.gif


------------------
"Baby...can we still be friends?"
 
yeah it seems that U2 wrote a deep album whose meaning was only begun to be understood well after the fact for the most unfortunate reasons imaginable.
i'm certain as the history of pop music is recorded for the year 2001, and obviously deeply colored by the events of September 11th, All That You Can't Leave Behind will be remembered as one of pop's most important 'responses', even though it wasn't that at all.

------------------
i was born for your magazine
i am trapped in the society page of your magazine
 
I was in a Target store in Jersey that day buying clothes since I wouldn't be back in the city for a few days and tried to get an extra copy of ATYCLB. All gone. Went and bought JT instead which coincidentally has the line "See the dust cloud disappear without a trace." Yep.

As for ATYCLB, I also couldn't listen to it for awhile after the attacks. Just too emotional. But its been a good healing album. As for specific lines, I do remember a banner someone brought to the 10/27 NYC show that said "Their lives are bigger now than any big idea." Yep.
 
Another eerie coincidence was the announcement of their return to the US for the 3rd leg of the Elevation Tour. If any of you remember, the original announcement was scheduled for September 11th, however, for some reason it was announced on September 10th.
 
Originally posted by sharky:
Went and bought JT instead which coincidentally has the line "See the dust cloud disappear without a trace." Yep.
Click to expand...

Which on tour 3rd leg Bono changed to "see the dust cloud of DEATH disappear w/o a trace" - he'd usually shout the word death.

Bono himself said that their album could have been written a few months ago (meaning for Sept11th), not a year ago. They know it's spooky too.

another point would be the live show, when they did NY on 1st & 2nd legs. Bono would walk around, crouching down, covering his eyes, walk like he was blind.. weird.

Beautiful Day- anyone else besides me remember what a stunningly beautiful day it was on Sept 11th? Last week I read an interview w/ Larry expressing the same sentiments I had.

Or Bono singing "When Will I See You Again" so many nights during the first & second legs.

------------------
"Songs are the language of the spirit... the melodies are how you sing to God. It's a deep language. But they can't explain everything, because really great songs touch places that you can't explain." -Bono

U2 Take Me Higher

MPS: "Evil shouldn't look this good"

"The way I might look at you" ~Adam


[This message has been edited by oliveu2cm (edited 01-11-2002).]
 
Originally posted by Ana:
Freaky... very freaky. I'm starting to think Bono is some kind of prophet. *shivers*
Click to expand...

nope, he just writes about the horrible things that have been going on in ireland and other places for many years, and now that it happened in the usa ... more people can now relate to it.
 
also worth mentioning as a "Sept. 11th reference" are the lyrics of Walk On. Even though this song was written for a specific person, i think that after Sept. 11th the words could also be applied more generally to the country of America. There's also the whole bird/freedom reference (see below), which could be interpreted as referring to the bald eagle as a symbol of American democracy....

"You could have flown away
A singing bird
In an open cage
Who will only fly
Only fly for freedom

Walk on
Walk on
What you got
You can't deny it
Can't sell it or buy it

Walk on
Walk on
Stay safe tonight"

It really amazes me how Sept. 11 has made ATYCLB more relevant than ever. It was a great album beforehand, but i think the events of this past year have pushed into a new category entirely.
 
I have to say, that a lot of there songs, can be refrenced to Sept 11. the world has been dealing with all this since before we were born. It's just that i personally feel that most people in US, felt that we were untouchable & what not. It was HUGE wake up call America needed. I have do have to say being from NYC & having my life severally changed & dealing with everything, which i still struggling with at times. I mean just started getting back to normal now, how long has it been? I kept ATYCLB in my CD player at all times. It helped.

Bono is kind of prophet like whether you want to believe it our not. I call him an angel in disguise.
 
Originally posted by Starr:
Bono is kind of prophet like whether you want to believe it our not. I call him an angel in disguise.
Click to expand...
why?
because he's able to predict that what has happened in the past will probably happen again?

to me "ATYCLB" has as much to do with 9/11 as with the death of my grannie

------------------
Salome
Shake it, shake it, shake it
 
*Sigh*
Really, I don?t like interpretations like that. We are lucky that U2 made no comment about this, because some musicians have been weird and stupid enough to see songs they have written in the past as a kind of outlook to what happened, and therefore say "ohohooo I knew it somehow (through my brilliant artistic imagination) beforehand - so as you see this adds something to my image of being spiritual - GO BUY MY ALBUM NOW!

How can art be misused for these purposes?
And a tragic event, too, be misused for sales?

On another note: Sure, there are wide interpretations you can draw from a piece of art, especially also from a songtext. But can you look at that like a reference? I don?t think so, because then you might as well link a piece of Beethoven to this event.

So... I don?t think it is freaky, like Ana. I think these are plain coincidences. Sure, musicians tend to be opened to influences from what happens around them.
But I am against any instrumentalisation of music by politics. Should be the other way ?round, if it could be.

Then, the sentence I thought mostly about on ATYCLB in reference to 9/11, was "In New York summers get hot well into the hundreds".
I was expecting them to change this line at their live shows in the U.S., but I guess they didn?t... that?s kind of cool, that they stick to what they wrote, even if it may be misinterpreted.
 
Originally posted by Salome:
Originally posted by Starr:
Bono is kind of prophet like whether you want to believe it our not. I call him an angel in disguise.
Click to expand...
why?
because he's able to predict that what has happened in the past will probably happen again?

to me "ATYCLB" has as much to do with 9/11 as with the death of my grannie
Click to expand...

What i mean by prophet is trying to make people aware...not to live in a bubble..talking about issues or subjects that most people wouldn't.

I think there are several different takes you can talk about regarding ATYCLB.
 
I also do not like associations with current events just because the words may be similar to what has happened.

I think most of the songs on the album are clearly about Northern Ireland politics as well as some stuff in the Middle East.

I think you can attach the songs to what happened a block away from where I am currently sitting, but songs have meaning and when Bono talks about names being spoken over the radio he is talking about Omagh and not New York.

Plus the song New York is a celebration of the city, not a foreshadowing, post-shadowing (is that a word?) description of the city.

If it helps people heal to hear these songs, I applaud that, but I think when a song is written about a subject that is hte first and foremost idea we should go with...

------------------
"...I'll see you again, when the stars fall from the sky, and the the moon has turned red over One Tree Hill..."

NYC RIP
 
i think that people are confusing the issue here.

the main point of this thread is that there are many ways in which ATYCLB can be interpreted as having strong connections to the events of the past year, whether it is through the lyrics, the images, or the song titles. it really is quite remarkable. and bono HAS commented on this connection to Sept. 11th in recent interviews- when i have time, i will post some of commments here.

U2 has NOT tried to use the events of sept. 11th as a way to make more money. but if people choose to see a connection b/w ATYCLB and 9/11 (and it is a personal CHOICE), they have that right. salome, if you don't feel it's relevant, then don't interpret the songs that way. but for those who are still healing, i don't think it's fair for you to say their interpretations are invalid.
 
Ok, people. I think some of you are misunderstanding what is being said here. We ALL KNOW that ATYCLB was NOT written as a reflection on anything that happened on 9/11. That's not the point at all. No one is trying to say that the songs "mean" something different or were written "about" any of these things. What they are saying is that it is an interesting coincidence how an album like ATYCLB could be written a year before the events of 9/11 and how much of the material on that album "fits" quite well with much of the public sentiment surrounding the event. A good explanation for that? The album is very universal. It's written about issues of life and death and these are timeless and unchanging. Eternal even. So when something comes along that suddenly forces a good portion of the nation or world to deal with these issues, suddenly an album like ATYCLB becomes very relevant. It speaks into the situation. And imo, that is what makes art great. The fact that it transcends specific time and place and is able to allow us to look at the world through different eyes.

Has 9/11 contributed to the success and recognition of the album? Probably so. But if it has, it is not because ATYCLB is "about" those events or written in response to them. It is because those events force us to confront the themes of life, death, grace, all that we can't leave behind. And if music expresses what is on our minds, it doesn't matter if it was written 1 or 100 years ago. It becomes for us an outlet for what's going on inside of us. That is what art does.
 
Originally posted by *Ally*:
i think that people are confusing the issue here.

the main point of this thread is that there are many ways in which ATYCLB can be interpreted as having strong connections to the events of the past year, whether it is through the lyrics, the images, or the song titles. it really is quite remarkable. and bono HAS commented on this connection to Sept. 11th in recent interviews- when i have time, i will post some of commments here.

U2 has NOT tried to use the events of sept. 11th as a way to make more money. but if people choose to see a connection b/w ATYCLB and 9/11 (and it is a personal CHOICE), they have that right. salome, if you don't feel it's relevant, then don't interpret the songs that way. but for those who are still healing, i don't think it's fair for you to say their interpretations are invalid.

Click to expand...


Q: What was it like when you went onstage at Madison Square Garden soon after the attacks?

Bono: I had never heard a sound like it in my life. It felt like it must have when the Beatles played Shea Stadium. Then I realized the screams were not for us. They were for each other. It was a real moment in the
city, a night of people saying, "We're still here and we're going to keep going." I didn't need to say anything.
-LA Times, Dec 15th
----
I know there was a recent interview w/ Bono saying it's weird b/c the album could have been written 3 months ago.. I'll try & find the exact quote.
 
thanks olive! yes, there is defintely a quote where bono says the album could have been written post-Sept. 11th. there's also a quote where one of the band members (might have been bono) talks about the airplane/airport imagery, and how it's taken on a new meaning.

there's also an article in which bono describes how ali told him to watch U2's performance of Please from the 1997 VMAs, and how he got a bit freaked out by the lyrics and how relevant they had become in recent months... God, i wish i knew where all of these quotes came from!
 
Originally posted by oliveu2cm:

Q: What was it like when you went onstage at Madison Square Garden soon after the attacks?

Bono: I had never heard a sound like it in my life. It felt like it must have when the Beatles played Shea Stadium. Then I realized the screams were not for us. They were for each other. It was a real moment in the
city, a night of people saying, "We're still here and we're going to keep going." I didn't need to say anything.
-LA Times, Dec 15th
----
I know there was a recent interview w/ Bono saying it's weird b/c the album could have been written 3 months ago.. I'll try & find the exact quote.
Click to expand...

Olive when i see that quote from the LAtimes i get very teary eyed, because i guess it too close to some of us. It was exactly how he said it. The 3 shows that week were like that every nite...those shows were the 1st time a lot New Yorkers really out since Sept 11. Deing with whole bunch people like, it was HUGE release that everyone needed.
 
it's creepy how the themes of ATYCLB apply to the 9/11 tragedy. but i think that's one of the main reasons U2 has lasted so long in the mainstream. the themes on their albums are always appliciable to real life.

------------------
)|( Vande )|(

"Rock 'n' roll is a term that's been heavily abused. It's not
something you can buy in a record shop. It's an attitude." -Adam

"And I wear grey underwear." -Bono

Everyday can be a beautiful day. Don't let it get away.

Love,
Emily

Visit my webpage for U2 wallpapers:
www.geocities.com/springtime5348/index.html

It?s cold outside, but brightly lit...
 
here is a quote from the Spin article, in which 3 of U2's member's comment on how things have changed since Sept. 11th:

And then there was September 11. In the wake of the attacks on New York City and the Pentagon, even people who hadn't thought about the band in years began to rediscover the power of U2. In a horrible flash, the depth and substance of the band's work shone in vivid contrast to the superficial gloss and thud of the last decade of pop music. The sense of community and conscience that always defined U2 felt necessary, rather than just admirable. Hopeful songs like "Walk On" and "Peace on Earth" took on new relevance and became reassuring presences on the radio. All That You Can't Leave Behind started climbing back up the charts. The shows became, incredibly, even more emotional and uplifting. There was no longer any question about who the Band of the Year really was.

As the latest go-round of the Elevation marathon kicked off, one month after the attacks, the members of U2 spent several days -- on their plane, backstage, and in their Toronto hotel -- looking back on the tumultuous year, and on the unprecedented longevity of their career as true rock'n'roll heroes.

Spin: Does it feel different on stage now than it did a month ago?
The Edge: Every lyric takes on a whole new meaning, especially a song like "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," which we hadn't played for a good few years. And a song like "Peace on Earth" -- when we finished our record, I was surprised at how certain themes were so strong, a certain sense of mortality, of trying to cope with loss. We shied away from some of those songs when we put the tour together, but now that side of the album has new relevance.
Mullen: "Beautiful Day" takes on a whole different meaning, 'cause that was the thing on September 11 -- it was a beautiful morning. It could have been a video, the beautiful day being destroyed.
Bono: There's a lot of stuff that goes through your head, and the songs can completely change their meanings. Something like "With or Without You" becomes about your audience. It's wild how a song can change.


there are more quotes, i'll try to find them.
smile.gif
 
Well, if we're going to use the lyrics to Please to exemplify the relevency of Bono's writing, let's at least use the whole thing! The concluding couplet (to this thought) is just as extraordinary:

September
Streets capsizing
Spilling over
Down the drain
Shards of glass
Splinters like rain
But you could only feel
Your own pain

October
Talk getting nowhere
November
December
Remember
Are we just starting again
Please...please...please...
Get up off your knees...


BTW, Sula, I totally agree with your last post. Great job! I've always believed that great art elicits great emotions from people (of many a variety), as well as many different perspectives. The beauty of art is that it is in the eye of the beholder. It is a reflection of the individual's own paradigm, their own view of the world, and their own emotional states.

Another point to bring up is that many people, in 20 or 50 years (or whatever), won't necessarily associate ATYCLB with Sept. 11th. Great art can affect anyone, at any time in history. That is why The Beatles keep selling records, even though the kids and young adults who buy their records today weren't around for the backdrop of war that surrounded those releases. They resonate for different reasons now, but they still resonate. And that's the important thing when all is said and done, isn't it?

------------------
The Tempest

[This message has been edited by Michael Griffiths (edited 01-11-2002).]
 
Good for U2 they're not Muslims, or they would be in jail now. We might call them "prophets" . . . the FBI would likely use a different word.
 
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