song of the day 01/02: please

[isabelle_guns]

So you never knew love
Until you crossed the line of grace
And you never felt wanted
'Til you had someone slap your face
So you never felt alive
Until you'd almost wasted away


You had to win
You couldn't just pass
The smartest ass
At the top of the class
Your flying colors
Your family tree
And all your lessons in history


Please...please...please...
Get up off your knees
Please...please...please...
Please...


So you never knew
How low you'd stoop to make that call
And you never knew
What was on the ground 'til they made you crawl
So you never knew
That the heaven you keep, you stole


Your Catholic blues
Your convent shoes
Your stick-on tattoos
Now they're making the news
Your holy war
Your northern star
Your sermon on the mount
From the boot of your car


Please...please...please...
Get up off your knees
Please...please...please...
Leave me out of this please


So love is hard
And love is tough
But love is not
What you're thinking of


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, yeah
Please...please...please...
Please...


So love is big
Is bigger than us
But love is not
What you're thinking of


It's what lovers deal
It's what lovers steal
You know I've found it hard to receive


'Cause you my love
I could never believe

 

[Party Boy]

Love the song off the album, love the video (one of best U2 videos ever imho), love the single version (better than album version), love the emotion Bono puts into this song - esp during Popmart tour.

A song based on Northern Ireland and the continuing search for peace.
A song that a lot of U2 fans consistantly rate highly yet it hardly ever gets any playtime on radio or in public. Didn't even make the Best of 1990-2000 which is scandalous.

These are the type of songs which make U2 the great band that they are.

 

[LMP]

I hated this song the first couple of listens, but now I really love this song and the message it conveys

 

[TheBrazilianFly]

What a classic! Great song! Please or The Fly should have been on the Best Of instead of The First Time. It's a very weird song musically speaking, the guitars are different, therefore very Edge-like! Adam and Larry really own this song (specially live with Larry playing the SBS beat at the end). Great bassline like always and one of Bono's best lyrics ever. I really, really love when the song restarts with Edge's wah-wah and then Larry kicks in with the SBS beat! That whole ending with that solo is classic U2 with the amazing climax!! During the Elevation tour when I read that U2 was doing an acoustic version of Please I thought it would sound horrible but it didn't! It sounded pretty damn good actually!!! Fucking perfect songwriting right there!

 

[UnforgettableLemon]

Didn't even make the Best of 1990-2000 which is scandalous.

Yeah, and anybody remember the poll for favorite songs off of each album on U2.com? Guess what the Pop song was?

That's right, "Please"! :Mad: why not on the BO? Why????!?

It's OK. I got to see it live on the Elevation tour, with the whole band, and I was devastated afterwards. This song is particularly moving for a number of reasons. I think the best thing about this song is that it manages to have very specific and direct images arranged in such a way that it still seems ambiguous. Once you're familiar with the context it's like . The guitar is very interesting, too. It, along with the bassline, has an almost aquatic ambience to it. It's just gorgeous.

 

[bonojr62]

Beautifuly played.. Plus a great video

 

[pacemaker]

The MTV performance was one of the greatest things I'd seen up until then. I cannot remember if they played it in Philly during Popmart.

::goes to research on the web::

 

[UnforgettableLemon]

they played it, I believe, at every popmart show

 

[nurse chrissi]

I absolutely adore this song - the songwriting, the mood of the song is amazing - masterpiece
but, as with all of Pop - it took repeated listening to really hit me as the wonderful song it really is - but isn't that the way with most u2 songs

 

[RademR]

great tune, strictly bootleg song though. Live version absolutely kills the album version. Live in Rotterdam 97

 

[djerdap]

Amazing live song. Full of emotion.

 

[BonoFox1]

I agree the live version is incredible!!...I cried when I heard it live right after 911...Bono definately has Angel qualities.....

September 11th.2004...Bono's lyrics 1996-1997::

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

 

[intedomine]

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

One of the classic lyrical passages that...

I got PoP in about mid 03 and the song just keeps on growing and growing on me.

For about 15 months this was just another u2 song for me, but the past month it has leapt up the Intedomine chart into the top 10 best u2 songs IMO ever. Its amazing.

Love the videoclip, awesome. One with some meaning and it makes you think.

The live version I've heard, eh, its nothing special live. But both the single version and the album version are absolutle crackers.

The fact that Please and The Fly were not included in the Best of is criminal. Especially considering that The First Time and End of World(now im in trouble!) were included.

 

[intedomine]

One of the classic lyrical passages that...

I got PoP in about mid 03 and the song just keeps on growing and growing on me.

For about 15 months this was just another u2 song for me, but the past month it has leapt up the Intedomine chart into the top 10 best u2 songs IMO ever. Its amazing.

Love the videoclip, awesome. One with some meaning and it makes you think.

The live version I've heard, eh, its nothing special live. But both the single version and the album version are absolutle crackers.

The fact that Please and The Fly were not included in the Best of is criminal. Especially considering that The First Time and End of World(now im in trouble!) were included.

 

[intedomine]

Whoops didnt mean to post that....

 

[RademR]

The fact that Please and The Fly were not included in the Best of is criminal. Especially considering that The First Time and End of World(now im in trouble!) were included.

UTEOTW?? WHAT ARE YOU THINKING, intedomine??? just kidding.

 

[RademR]

I think UTEOTW deserves a place on the collection, definetly. Take "first time" and "Htba" off. hands was on a soundtrack already so it wasnt like ES, plus....i thought it wasnt that great

 

[ZeroDude]

Please du doom du Please du doom du Pleaaaaaaaaaasssssssseeee

Thank you

 

[Jamila]

"Please" is one of my all-time favorite U2 songs - possibly one of the most emotional moving songs I have ever heard.

Although the song is written about the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland, it is a song that can be related to so many of the world's conflict areas today.

Because what "Please" is really talking about is the willingness of the human spirit to turn away from truth, to not want to face the problems in our world.

"Please" challenges ALL of us to LOOK AT OURSELVES and the roles that we play in either making our world a better place or, by our apathy, allowing it to langer in injustice and bitterness.

That's probably why it doesn't get the props and the airplay it SO RICHLY DESERVES.

Oh, did I mention it has one of the best basslines that I've ever heard?

LOVE IS BIGGER THAN US....

 

[BonoFox1]

The live version I've heard, eh, its nothing special live. But both the single version and the album version are absolutle crackers.

The fact that Please and The Fly were not included in the Best of is criminal. Especially considering that The First Time and End of World(now im in trouble!) were included.

The live version to me was extraordinary live, not only was it right after 911 but California was receiving many terrorist threats..some being amimed at places where there are large
gatherings. My friend and I already had our Nov tickets...I was honestly afraid to be a such a large gathering in downtown Los Angeles and was debating going to the concert...I prayed and went..The place was completely packed!..Nothing was going to
stop us from continuing our lives...So many U2 songs took on a different meaning a strnger meaning..Bono's passionate cries on Please drove me to tears as well as many in the forum..I will always remember that day and what I felt!

I LOVE UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD!! excellent song!

~~"Osama Bin Laden can Kiss my white Irish Arse!"~~Bono 11/02

 

[ultraviolet7]

Didn't even make the Best of 1990-2000 which is scandalous.

These are the type of songs which make U2 the great band that they are.

A wonderful song. - as most of the rest of the Pop album is.

 

[ultraviolet7]

"Please" is one of my all-time favorite U2 songs - possibly one of the most emotional moving songs I have ever heard.

Although the song is written about the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland, it is a song that can be related to so many of the world's conflict areas today.

The September, streets capsizing, etc gave me the chills after 9/11

Because what "Please" is really talking about is the willingness of the human spirit to turn away from truth, to not want to face the problems in our world.

"Please" challenges ALL of us to LOOK AT OURSELVES and the roles that we play in either making our world a better place or, by our apathy, allowing it to langer in injustice and bitterness.

Well this interpretation is absolutely in sync with the rest of the Pop album in my opinion - Mofo, SATS, Gone to name the ones that immediately come to mind deal with the need to look inside oneself, and the torment of having to come to terms with who we really are.