I Have 3 Questions

[Badyouken]

1. Do you know all U2 songs by heart? I must admit that even if I do listen to them constantly, I can't sing all of them when the song is not playing. Can you?

2. Those of you who were U2 fans before Achtung Baby, what did you feel when you first listened to Zoo Station? The first riff is enough to indicate to everyone: U2 has changed. I think the song rocks and I'm wondering if you liked it at first.

3. Finally, I've just discovered A Sort of Homecoming. I listened to the song before but I didn't really like it. Now I just can't get enough of it, it's just so good. The music is very original and Bono's vocals are amazing, but I can't say what the lyrics are about. Of course, the title helps a little but it could be many things. What do you think the song is about?

Thanks!

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In the beginning, the Universe was created.
This has made a lot of people very angry, and been widely regarded as a bad move. --Douglas Adams (The Restaurant at the End of the Universe)

 

[wertsie]

1. Do you know all U2 songs by heart?
Not ENTIRELY...But pretty damn close, especially considering that our man Bono can be a bit hard to understand at times!

2. Those of you who were U2 fans before Achtung Baby, what did you feel when you first listened to Zoo Station? The first riff is enough to indicate to everyone: U2 has changed. I think the song rocks and I'm wondering if you liked it at first.

I don't know if I'm qualified to answer this or not. Technically, I was a fan pre-AB, but I was a little kid back then! I think AB was the first U2 album that really made me take notice. The previous ones I'd heard (at that point...Just JT and R&H) didn't speak to me nearly as much, but then, I was a little kid! But AB is my fave U2 album to this day.

3. Finally, I've just discovered A Sort of Homecoming. I listened to the song before but I didn't really like it. Now I just can't get enough of it, it's just so good. The music is very original and Bono's vocals are amazing, but I can't say what the lyrics are about. Of course, the title helps a little but it could be many things. What do you think the song is about?

I guess I've always associate it with the band being away from home touring and whatnot, and the way it feels when they're finally "coming home." Could be totally wrong, but who knows?

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"We're one, but we're not the same..."

http://U2Baby.com

 

[typhoon]

I always thought A Sort of Homecoming was about a homesick soldier who dies in battle and ends up with a slightly different homecoming.

 

[blood red edge]

1- I can sing every word when the song is playing, but not just off the top of my head

2- Like wertsie, I was just a little kid when AB came out. I became a fan about a year before AB. When I first listened to Zoo Station I loved it, maybe because I was little and easy to brainwash, but still to this day I love it!

3- I'm in the dark

 

[david]

Bad is the only song I know by heart.

The first song off Achtung Baby that I liked and listened to a lot was Mysterious Ways.

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The more of these I drink the more Bono makes sense.. - Bean from the KROQ Breakfast with U2.

 

[scatteroflight]

Originally posted by typhoon:
I always thought A Sort of Homecoming was about a homesick soldier who dies in battle and ends up with a slightly different homecoming.

That's one good interpretation, but I also think of it as being about the creative process. Bono did not come up with the line "a sort of homecoming." He took it from a German poet whose name escapes me, who said "Poetry is a sort of homecoming." I read a few of this guy's poems in translation, and A Sort of Homecoming was so reminiscent of one of them in particular.

Oh, I should mention that Homecoming is one of my very favourite U2 songs, and it definitely has my favourite lyrics of any U2 song.

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See the bird with the leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colours came out

[This message has been edited by scatteroflight (edited 05-19-2002).]

 

[christiana]

Originally posted by Badyouken:
1. Do you know all U2 songs by heart?

No, I can only sing some of them without the music. But I can sing a section of most songs.

 

[jules]

1. yeah i'd say i know most of them of by heart, since i'm in a U2 tribute band now (edge) i should know the structure and words for most u2 songs!

2. Interestingly I WASN'T a little kid when AB came out..

I remember the first time I heard Zoo station and was completely confused but I really liked the album. The main shock was watching the video for The Fly on Top of the Pops though. In the good old days before the internet there was very little information about what the band was up to in this period (r+h to AB) and it was as if they had gone from wearing stetsons and playing pool in bars in Arizona to, well the Fly Video. Bug-eyed glasses, text on screens etc etc. It was completely mind blowing. The fly was such a great song as well, the whole thing was genius.

That's still the reason why when a U2 album is about the come out I stop reading the internet and get ready for the surprise.

3. I like a sort of homecoming, the music is very reverby and indistinct and just kind of melts together. I think the songs is about a farmer who lives in Ireland in the 17 / 1800's.

jules.

 

[Desire4Bono]

1. Not all of them, but neither does Bono. He had to tape lyric cheat sheets to the stage for some of them! There are some I couldn't sit down and write the lyrics to, but when I hear it again it all comes back before I hear it all and I know what's coming up next. Then I can remember it all. There are some I never knew all the words to.

2. I had no problem with AB at all. I never thought it was weird or all that different. Zooropa and Pop were the ones that threw me.

3. I never knew that about the soldier. Now it's going to be creepy to listen to it. I wonder if it's the story I saw on the History Channel about the Irish soldier who died in battle and his ghost appeared to his relatives on the family estate at that very moment.

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~"Everybody seems to think I'm lazy,
I don't mind, think they're crazy
running everywhere at such a speed
'til they find, there's no need!
Please don't spoil my day,
I'm miles away,
and after all, I'm only sleeping!"~
John Lennon

 

[JessicaAnn]

1. Pretty much ... there are fe few (mostly from teh first three albums that I don't know as well ... anything from JT on, I know pretty well.

2. I LOVE Zoo Station ... yes, you're correct in your observation that the opening riff indicates a chanage in the "U2 sound." It is a highly energetic song. It also immediately established the new direction of the band.

3. This is one of my all-time favorite songs. I think the meaning is multilayered (as it usually is in Bono's lyrics). There are all sorts of homecomings that can happen over the course of one's life (both literal and metaphorical). I suppose for me, depening on my mood, the homecoming Bono sings of can be different things ... anything from finding my way back to friends or family after having a disagreement with them (a sort of "Prodigal Son" kind of homecoming); rediscovering one's "roots"; going back to a place (literal or metaphorical) in your life and finding "home" ...

Just my 2 cents.

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Jessica

"I turn slightly and catch Bono with half a Perrier bottle in his mouth. He's sucking the thing in such a manner it would put Madonna to shame!"

"I'm very secure with the fact that I'm not black. I'm white, pink and rosy. But I've got soul."
--Bono

?We make music you can have sex to.?
--Bono

"Girls boys listen me kiss love fun drink sick kiss cuddle sex swim sea rock and rub." (from the gates of Bono's house)