What's the meaning behind love is blindness ?

[bloodysunday972]

The lyrics although beautiful I could never understand fully ?

 

[HelloAngel]

Well, you know the old adage "love is blind." This is a very dark as night song about the death of a relationship. Gorgeous.

 

[U2girl]

One interpretation is also it's about terrorism in N. Ireland, if you listen at the start you'll hear a drum rhythm similar to a (bomb) clock ticking and the lyrics make sense too.

 

[what a bomb!]

One interpretation is also it's about terrorism in N. Ireland, if you listen at the start you'll hear a drum rhythm similar to a (bomb) clock ticking and the lyrics make sense too.

That took a whole new meaning to the song for me when I first found out it could be about Northern Ireland, used to think of it as a bittersweet love song, and yes the lyrics do make sense too!

especially this bit:

In a parked car,
In a crowded street,
You see your love made complete (car bomb)

and also

blow out the candle (snuffing out life?)

I think Edge solo in this song is a beautiful interpretation of pain! Thats what it always remind me off!

 

[ElectricalVoice]

I don't think all interpretations must be this concrete. Many seems to want to give a song a specific meaning. Here, for example terrorism in N.Irland. But that doesn't do anything but limit the song to a specific meaning. I don't mean that it is wrong to do that, but i just want to say that a song may have the same impact as a poem, where the song not always has a concrete meaning, but gives us more of a feeling or atmosphere.

For me this song gives me a feeling of a person that is lonely. He/She is parked in a car ... among lots of people, but does not get noticed. Maybe even suicide.

 

[HelloAngel]

I've never noticed the N.Ireland theme because of the dramatic "end of a relationship" tones throughout the album...

"Thread is ripping
The knot is slipping
Love is blindness"

This feels like a description about the binds of a relationship breaking. You "tie the knot" when you get married, and this knot here is slipping.

"A little death
Without mourning
No call
And no warning
Baby...a dangerous idea
That almost makes sense"

This feels like the description of the relationship's death rattle. "Baby a dangerous idea that almost makes sense" almost felt to me like Bono describing divorce.

"Take the money
Honey"

This sounds like alimony or similar money exchange.

As my parents were going thru a terrible divorce at the time this song came out, it really pained me to listen to it. But this N.Ireland theory is very meaty and very involved!

 

[flameandthefire]

I really, really love that song 'cause it's got such a strong emotion on it. I especially love the Zoo-TV Sydney video of it. Both Bono and The Edge (just listen to that solo!) can bring so much feel to it.

But it's a sad song. A really, really sad song. I was wondering about the lyrics also and years after it occured to me - It's about suicide!

- A little death without mourning, No call and no warning. Baby...a dangerous idea that almost makes sense (You're thinking about suicide)
- squueze the handle (handle of a pistol)
- blow out the candle (life escapes you, you're dead)

So I think it's about losing the one you love and commiting a suicide because you can't live without the one you lost.

 

[Roland of Gilead]

I love the whole idea behind this song. You know your spouse or lover is cheating on you, but you choose to ignore it. This song says a lot about the human condition and how we can sometimes react in a way that would perplex others.

"Love is blindness/ I don't want to see"

It comes down to this one line for me.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

i've always thought it was a song that bono was trying to write from the perspective of a terrorist setting off a car bomb... not that he was trying to sympathize, just that he was trying to understand how someone could do it.

 

[Katey]

It prolly has a very different meaning for me then Bono or U2 might have intended but thats the great thing about U2's lyrics you can use them to fit your life and it makes sense to you.

The tone of this one in particular is just that of a very deep love ( that be of country..man/women or whatever )that can be blinding and the different emotions (despair etc) that kind of blindness takes you through

 

[U2Kitten]

 

[Axver]

I can't see it in other way than being about a terrorist attack. It seems somewhat ... sick in any other context.

 

[ShellBeThere]

I've never noticed the N.Ireland theme because of the dramatic "end of a relationship" tones throughout the album...

"Thread is ripping
The knot is slipping
Love is blindness"

This feels like a description about the binds of a relationship breaking. You "tie the knot" when you get married, and this knot here is slipping.

"A little death
Without mourning
No call
And no warning
Baby...a dangerous idea
That almost makes sense"

This feels like the description of the relationship's death rattle. "Baby a dangerous idea that almost makes sense" almost felt to me like Bono describing divorce.

"Take the money
Honey"

This sounds like alimony or similar money exchange.

As my parents were going thru a terrible divorce at the time this song came out, it really pained me to listen to it. But this N.Ireland theory is very meaty and very involved!

OOh, i like this so much I'll leave the whole quote in and eat a page!
(sorry)
love and terror together again in a song..
I don't know why love is blindness is such a fav for me..

and I never really caught the N. Ireland vibe before now,

but that song would always make me feel both the inevitability of
my relationship's demise *and* my commitment to it at the same time,
which is a very very heavy trip that would just make me feel numb,
like I'd drowned my sorrows waaaay too long in the little club bono was singing the song in....

cheers all!

 

[OzAurora]

Great song, I actually like it better than One, and it is one of my most favourite memories of the Zoomerang gig that I went to, this song was just so haunting played live, right at the end of the show. It could of been a great single, but then again practically every song from Achtung could of been a great single

 

[U2democrat]

love is blindness is an AWESOME song, the pain is so real when you listen to it. unfortunately it ALWAYS skips on my copy of AB because i play it so much! i may have to buy another copy just so i can listen to that song clearly. you can feel it tugging at your heart when you listen.

 

[ThatGuy]

A little death = un petit mort, non?

 

[VertigoGal]

Yeah, it's definately about terrorism in N. Ireland, although like many political U2 songs, it's in a vague way, so that it could relate to many other life situations with the same emotional basis. The picture of Bono with the Ireland blindfold definately confirms what I'd thought!

Love is blindness,
I don't want to see
Won't you wrap the night
Around me
Oh my love
Blindess

This is describing the "blind" love or devotion for one's cause, country, or religion (NOT God). How such a strong sense of nationalism (etc.) makes one blind to their own actions and evils. That someone could, in the name of a God who preaches loving thy neighbor as thyself, murder another soul, and be blind to that hypocrisy. "Won't you wrap the night around me" may simply mean that this person doesn't want to wake up, doesn't want to see the true repercussions of their actions. Another interpretation would be that it's sort of the desperate plea of a suicide bomber. Whoever said that Bono was trying to understand the mentality of these people would be dead on here.

In a parked car
In a crowded street
You see your love
Made complete
Thread is ripping
The knot is slipping
Love is Blindness

Obvious reference to a car bomb. "You see you love/ Made complete/ Thread is ripping/ The knot is slipping" could again reference suicide bombers, a sort of finality.

Love is clockworks
And cold steel
Fingers
Too numb to feel
Squeeze the handle
Blow out the candle
Blindness

Reference to a home-made bomb. "Fingers too numb to feel" is a brilliant line, a combination of the two meanings of "feel," both physical and emotional. The fingers are of the terrorist assembling the bomb (in a literal sense), but they are too numb to feel (emotionally). Clockworks and cold steel could also go beyond just the reference to the parts of a bomb, and could also suggest the blind, methodical mindset of someone so numb and programmed that they could take another life in such a way. Another reference to suicide and that sense of finality, with "Squeeze the handle/ Blow out the candle."

A little death
Without mourning
No call,
And no warning
Baby, a dangerous idea
That almost makes sense.

The call refers to how sometimes before a bombing, the IRA would call and tell people to leave the targeted building (unfortunately, many people didn't take such calls seriously). Apparently, this bomber didn't even supply that chance. "A dangerous idea/ That almost makes sense." Again describing the mindset of a terrorist/freedom fighter. How easy it is to slide down that slippery slope, past the point of no return. In the ME, they call it the suicide spiral, where a perfectly normal person can within days be prepared to die and take others with them, for what they consider their noble cause. Don't be fooled into thinking that all terrorists were born evil, terrorism is as much a pyschological thing as anything. Especially in the case of suicide bombings, terrorism is an act of blind desparation.

Love is drowning
In a deep well
All the secrets
And no one to tell
Take the money
Honey
Blindness

Here it gets a little cryptic, but I think the first four lines just refer in general to the desparation/blindness of such a person. Also to the sort of "point of no return" such a fanatical person arrives at (Drowning in a deep well). "Take the money/Honey." I don't know if this is true of the situation in N. Ireland (although I've got no reason to believe it wouldn't be, especially considering Ireland was in economic distress roundabout the 70's), but in many cases of political terrorism, the bomber's family would be given a cash reward. Urging them to take the money, desparation, finality, all these themes recurring again.

It's an extremely dark and beautiful song, and especially arresting in that Bono (obviously not in favor of ANY violent groups in Ireland) has become a terrorist in this song, in a startling manner too. The organs, the guitar (I'd even describe the guitar as "desparate"!), create a whole other layer of emotion to supplement the lyrics...

Has got to be one of Bono's best lyrics ever.

Again, it can also be applied to a relationship (that's the analogy being drawn here in the first place!), but I'm pretty sure terrorism was what Bono actually wrote the song about.

 

[ThatGuy]

Again, it can also be applied to a relationship (that's the analogy being drawn here in the first place!), but I'm pretty sure terrorism was what Bono actually wrote the song about.

Why can't it be about both?

 

[flameandthefire]

I need to speculate again This is how I think it goes.. I really think it's about suicide.

I just can't see any reason why this song would be related to N.Ireland terrorists or any other terrorists. Watch the Zoo-TV Sydney video. Where is the anger in this song? Bono is not angry like he is when he sings Sunday, Bloody Sunday. Bono is not angry like he is when he sings Bullet The Blue Sky. There is no anger in this song. See how emotionally Bono hugs that girl that was pulled from the audience. You get the feeling like he's seeing again someone he has lost.

Why does the song start with funeral organ and ends to a funeral organ? Because in the beginning of the song someone has lost his/her life and there's a funeral and at the end of the song there is another funeral.

OK, let me analyze this song again:

Funeral song is playing.. Someone loses the one he loves.

Love is blindness
I don't want to see
Won't you wrap the night
Around me
Oh my heart
Love is blindness He loves that person he lost so much that it hurts his heart and he would like to experience the same that happened to his loved one (won't you wrap the night around me).


In a parked car
In a crowded street
You see your love
Made complete
Thread is ripping
The knot is slipping
Love is blindness - It doesn't matter where he goes, he always thinks he saw the one he lost in the crowds of people in perfect health. The thread is ripping, knot is slipping means that he's starting to lose his mind.


Love is clockworks
And cold steel
Fingers too numb to feel
Squeeze the handle
Blow out the candle
Love is blindness The time is running out and he feels numb and ready. He squeezes the handle of pistol and commits a suicide (the candle flame is his life which he blows out).

A little death
Without mourning
No call
And no warning
Baby...a dangerous idea
That almost makes sense This is about getting the idea of doing it.

Funeral song is playing again.. Another life was lost.

 

[VertigoGal]

Why can't it be about both?

Well it can...that's what I'm saying! But I don't know if you can really write a song about two ideas from the very start, even if it later develops dual meaning. Then again, Bono's a lyrical genious, and this was around his peak...

 

[Lisa71]

I thought it was about Edge's marriage and break up. I read that somewhere around the time the record came out.

 

[MrBrau1]

The terrorism idea really fits. Prior posts already reference they lyric. Also, the idea, someone is doing something for "love of country" and is blind to the reality of what they've done, a fanatic.

 

[flameandthefire]

The terrorism idea really fits. Prior posts already reference they lyric. Also, the idea, someone is doing something for "love of country" and is blind to the reality of what they've done, a fanatic.

A terrorist wouldn't say "Baby, a dangerous idea that almost makes sense". That "baby" means a loved one.

 

[starsgoblue]

The way I look at most songs...and especially ones written by Bono...is that there are usually many many layers in a song. It all depends on how deep one wants to dig into it. There can be an explicit meaning in a song, for example if Bono specifically says what he was thinking when writing it. But there also is implicit references which one can draw from as well. I don't think any song can be take at point blank value...that'd be too boring.

 

[djerdap]

Live version of Love is Blindness is one of the best songs I've ever heards. Just listen to the Birmingham, June 1st 1992 version. Best Edge solo. And I do think it's more about terrorists than about love in general. The mood of the song is a bit too dark for the latter.

 

[Axver]

Where is the anger in this song?

Where is the anger in Please? Where is the anger in Peace On Earth? A song about terrorism and death doesn't have to be angry. I think in the nineties, Bono's response to terrorism and violence took on a totally different level than it did in the eighties. There were no angry political songs like Sunday Bloody Sunday or Bullet The Blue Sky in the nineties, but U2 were still an intensely political band.

Why does the song start with funeral organ and ends to a funeral organ? Because in the beginning of the song someone has lost his/her life and there's a funeral and at the end of the song there is another funeral.

Fits perfectly with terrorism, doesn't it? Loss of life and funerals are part and parcel of terrorist attacks.

The song is most certainly referring to terrorism, although like any U2 song, it is open to multiple interpretations. I personally don't accept anything other than the terrorism meaning because I feel to say it's about a lost relationship simply weakens and waters down the song. In my mind, I would be disrespecting U2's work and the victims of the terrorist attacks.

I think the verse that seals the deal is "In a parked car, in a crowded street/You see your love made complete." There's no way that could be about anything other than a car bombing.

 

[A_Wanderer]

For the life of me I cannot see this is a song about terrorism, more to the point I cannot feel that it is about terrorism.

I see it as a tragic love song, one of the darkest ones about love lost.

Clockworks and cold steel evoke just an image of - a clockwork heart, predetermined.

Fingers to numb to feel - its all about feeling.

See your love made complete - living your life and being reminded of the one you loved, seeing them for an instant in someone else, in the street or in a car at a distance then vanishing.

Its dark either way.

I carry too much of my own emotional baggage onto this particular song and it is one of my favorites. I just cannot see the terrorism link, whenever one attempts to peel into these things some tenuous links can be made - its like an onion, so many layers.

 

[U2girl]

I think the verse that seals the deal is "In a parked car, in a crowded street/You see your love made complete." There's no way that could be about anything other than a car bombing.

With terorrism theory aside, I think the song also fits with the whole love/betrayal between lovers theme of the album.It ends ambigiously - who is meant in the "take the money, honey" line, who has the character chosen? The sun (wife, stability, safety) or the moon (lover, instability, excitement)?

The particular line could mean someone in the relationship is cheating with several people - and while they think it's love it's more about lust.

 

[flameandthefire]

Where is the anger in Please? Where is the anger in Peace On Earth?

Yeah, you're right. The song could very well be about terrorism.

It would be very nice to find out what the song is really all about. Isn't there any Bono quotes about this song?

 

[MrBTH]

Watch the video on the end of the "Achtung Baby - Interference" Video release (which is a collection of all the achtung baby videos plus lots of soundbites and snippets of interviews and live shows around the time). All the images that accompany "Love is Blindness" are of poverty and human suffering in Africa, Bosnia etc... It was seeing this video that first made me see the more universal implications of the song - it attempts to realize the motivation and understand (though in no way condone) the actions of those who take up arms against what they would see as oppression (whether occupation by foreign forces, poverty, injustice or whatever...). And of course Northern Ireland fits with these concepts...
However, like most of the songs on Achtung Baby the lyric can be interpreted in a number of ways, from the universal to the personal. Thats why it's such a great album, Bono is such a great lyricist and U2 are such a great band!