salomeU2000
The Fly
[SIMG]HTTP://bonovox.interference.com/analysis/bonoufthumb.jpg[/SIMG]
By Kimberly ?hippy? Egolf
July 2003
I sit down at the computer wondering what I should write for this month?s column. I?m at a loss... I haven?t written for a while, and I?m apprehensive about starting this one. But since this is a column about U2's music, I turn on the first thing that comes to mind. I sit back in my chair, staring at the blank screen, and ?Mofo? begins to play.
As the intense, video game style music pulses through the speakers, I can?t help but begin to move my body. This song gets me excited; makes me want to jump around. The song makes me think of Bono in a hooded, boxer robe hopping around on stage, throwing punches into the air. With his final punch, he breaks into the lyrics. Those heavy, saturated words that pulse right along with the music. But then that pulse drops out and Bono is left alone singing the plaintive words: ?Mother, am I still your son??
No matter how many times I listen to ?Mofo,? I?m still caught off-guard when I get to that part. I?m never expecting the bottom to drop out and Bono?s lonely voice to be the only thing I hear. It?s jarring to my senses. I expect the song to go a certain way. On this listen to ?Mofo,? that trick of music and lyric catches my attention. When I sat down at the computer, I didn?t quite know what to make this column about, but now I know.
(Photo: U2.com)
As most U2 fans will already know, Bono?s mother Iris passed away when he was only fourteen years old, at the funeral being held for Bono?s recently deceased grandfather. Losing his mother was sudden and shocking. No one expected it to happen. The family was devastated. A couple of years later, Larry?s mother passed away just as unexpectedly in a car accident. During that crisis, Bono and Larry grew close through their mutual loss. Both boys had to finish out their adolescent lives without the guiding presence of their mothers.
It is hard to sense Larry?s grief in U2's music simply because he does not usually write the lyrics. But both Bono and Larry?s struggles with the deaths of their mothers have been expressed throughout U2's career in the songs the band has composed. Bono often writes about mother figures; more often, he writes about the absence of a mother figure. Some of the songs are straightforward, plaintive and desperate cries for an absent mother. Others are disguised as hard-rocking songs about loss, or comfort after a loss.
?Mofo? fits into the latter category. In this song, written almost 25 years after his mother?s death, Bono is still dealing with the effects of not having his mother in his life. The sudden drop off of the song?s pulse when Bono sings the chorus mirrors the sudden and tragic loss of his mother at a young age. In the same way that he is left unsupported by the music which has been constant so far in the song, Bono was at a loss when his mother died: suddenly alone in a world where his mother had always been a constant.
Mother... am I still your son?
You know I?ve waited for so long to hear you say so.
Mother... you left and made me someone;
Now I?m still a child: no one tells me no.
With the chorus, he explains his loss and cries out to his mother to answer his burning question: Am I still your son? Do I still belong to you? Have I lived up to what you wanted me to be? Do I still please you in the things I do? Mother, do you approve of my life?
(Photo: U2.com)
The young boy who lost his mother has grown into one of the world?s biggest rock stars, but he still feels like a child. And, also like a child, he wonders if his mother is there. To use a clich?, has he gained the whole world (the rock star world of material possessions and glory) only to lose his soul? With the last words of the song, this child-like rock star is chanting an incantation to raise the dead, or at least to regain his soul and ground himself: to remind himself what is truly important in the midst of being famous and wealthy. ?Show me, mother!? he says. And we wonder whether he ever receives an answer.
But ?Mofo? is simply the latest of the songs that deal with this topic. The very first song on Boy expressed Bono?s pain in perhaps an even more poignant way. ?I Will Follow? finds the singer explaining himself:
A boy tries hard to be a man
His mother takes him by the hand
If he stops to think
He starts to cry
Oh why
The chorus of this song finds the singer promising to follow if ?you? (his mother) walks away. This can be seen as a metaphor for Bono?s pain at losing his mother so suddenly.
In the middle of the October album, we get another glimpse into Bono?s painful loss. ?Tomorrow? presents a scene of confusion and questioning. The mournful sound of the opening pipes and the painfully thin, strained voice that Bono uses to sing the song indicate the disquieting subject matter. He asks his mother if she?ll be coming back tomorrow. He tries to warn her of the ?black car parked at the side of the road,? and even offers to go outside himself in her place. He tries to find some comfort.
Then, about three-quarters of the way through the song, something happens in his mind: the tempo speeds up, the singer?s voice broadens and opens, climbing higher in the register, and his mother begins to speak to him, offering him the answer to his questions:
Open up, open up
To the lamb of God
... He?s coming back
He?s coming back
I believe it
Jesus coming
I?m gonna be there mother
... And you?re gonna be there...
His mother comforts him and reminds him that she?s coming back, as everything will come back in the end - and he promises to be there, too. Throughout the music, this mother figure becomes almost the conscience and the willing vessel of God?s love to her own son. She is comfort and love. The love she bears for her child is the same type of love that God bears for his son in the Christian religion.
The last song I want to look at mixes these loves so that they are spoken with one voice. ?Drowning Man? from War is a lyrically simple song that can be looked at in a multitude of ways. The first, and somewhat obvious, one is that of God the father guiding one of his children (or even his own son, Jesus) through life?s storms. In the same way, the song may be a mother speaking to her child, promising to ?hold on tightly? and help the storms to pass. But more than both of these, the song is an affirmation of a son?s love for his mother. Not only does the mother promise to help her son, the son promises to help his mother - to hold on to her tightly and never let her memory go.
Take my hand
You know I?ll be there
If you can
I?ll cross the sky for your love
Give you what I hold dear
The same man who is promising to be there for his mother, is also the one asking her for her approval in ?Mofo,? promising to follow her in ?I Will Follow,? and taking comfort in her words in ?Tomorrow.? The pain of losing his mother pervades Bono?s lyrics, but she is also a source of hope and the ground to which he returns when the world he lives in becomes too much.
By Kimberly ?hippy? Egolf
July 2003
I sit down at the computer wondering what I should write for this month?s column. I?m at a loss... I haven?t written for a while, and I?m apprehensive about starting this one. But since this is a column about U2's music, I turn on the first thing that comes to mind. I sit back in my chair, staring at the blank screen, and ?Mofo? begins to play.
As the intense, video game style music pulses through the speakers, I can?t help but begin to move my body. This song gets me excited; makes me want to jump around. The song makes me think of Bono in a hooded, boxer robe hopping around on stage, throwing punches into the air. With his final punch, he breaks into the lyrics. Those heavy, saturated words that pulse right along with the music. But then that pulse drops out and Bono is left alone singing the plaintive words: ?Mother, am I still your son??
No matter how many times I listen to ?Mofo,? I?m still caught off-guard when I get to that part. I?m never expecting the bottom to drop out and Bono?s lonely voice to be the only thing I hear. It?s jarring to my senses. I expect the song to go a certain way. On this listen to ?Mofo,? that trick of music and lyric catches my attention. When I sat down at the computer, I didn?t quite know what to make this column about, but now I know.
(Photo: U2.com)
As most U2 fans will already know, Bono?s mother Iris passed away when he was only fourteen years old, at the funeral being held for Bono?s recently deceased grandfather. Losing his mother was sudden and shocking. No one expected it to happen. The family was devastated. A couple of years later, Larry?s mother passed away just as unexpectedly in a car accident. During that crisis, Bono and Larry grew close through their mutual loss. Both boys had to finish out their adolescent lives without the guiding presence of their mothers.
It is hard to sense Larry?s grief in U2's music simply because he does not usually write the lyrics. But both Bono and Larry?s struggles with the deaths of their mothers have been expressed throughout U2's career in the songs the band has composed. Bono often writes about mother figures; more often, he writes about the absence of a mother figure. Some of the songs are straightforward, plaintive and desperate cries for an absent mother. Others are disguised as hard-rocking songs about loss, or comfort after a loss.
?Mofo? fits into the latter category. In this song, written almost 25 years after his mother?s death, Bono is still dealing with the effects of not having his mother in his life. The sudden drop off of the song?s pulse when Bono sings the chorus mirrors the sudden and tragic loss of his mother at a young age. In the same way that he is left unsupported by the music which has been constant so far in the song, Bono was at a loss when his mother died: suddenly alone in a world where his mother had always been a constant.
Mother... am I still your son?
You know I?ve waited for so long to hear you say so.
Mother... you left and made me someone;
Now I?m still a child: no one tells me no.
With the chorus, he explains his loss and cries out to his mother to answer his burning question: Am I still your son? Do I still belong to you? Have I lived up to what you wanted me to be? Do I still please you in the things I do? Mother, do you approve of my life?
(Photo: U2.com)
The young boy who lost his mother has grown into one of the world?s biggest rock stars, but he still feels like a child. And, also like a child, he wonders if his mother is there. To use a clich?, has he gained the whole world (the rock star world of material possessions and glory) only to lose his soul? With the last words of the song, this child-like rock star is chanting an incantation to raise the dead, or at least to regain his soul and ground himself: to remind himself what is truly important in the midst of being famous and wealthy. ?Show me, mother!? he says. And we wonder whether he ever receives an answer.
But ?Mofo? is simply the latest of the songs that deal with this topic. The very first song on Boy expressed Bono?s pain in perhaps an even more poignant way. ?I Will Follow? finds the singer explaining himself:
A boy tries hard to be a man
His mother takes him by the hand
If he stops to think
He starts to cry
Oh why
The chorus of this song finds the singer promising to follow if ?you? (his mother) walks away. This can be seen as a metaphor for Bono?s pain at losing his mother so suddenly.
In the middle of the October album, we get another glimpse into Bono?s painful loss. ?Tomorrow? presents a scene of confusion and questioning. The mournful sound of the opening pipes and the painfully thin, strained voice that Bono uses to sing the song indicate the disquieting subject matter. He asks his mother if she?ll be coming back tomorrow. He tries to warn her of the ?black car parked at the side of the road,? and even offers to go outside himself in her place. He tries to find some comfort.
Then, about three-quarters of the way through the song, something happens in his mind: the tempo speeds up, the singer?s voice broadens and opens, climbing higher in the register, and his mother begins to speak to him, offering him the answer to his questions:
Open up, open up
To the lamb of God
... He?s coming back
He?s coming back
I believe it
Jesus coming
I?m gonna be there mother
... And you?re gonna be there...
His mother comforts him and reminds him that she?s coming back, as everything will come back in the end - and he promises to be there, too. Throughout the music, this mother figure becomes almost the conscience and the willing vessel of God?s love to her own son. She is comfort and love. The love she bears for her child is the same type of love that God bears for his son in the Christian religion.
The last song I want to look at mixes these loves so that they are spoken with one voice. ?Drowning Man? from War is a lyrically simple song that can be looked at in a multitude of ways. The first, and somewhat obvious, one is that of God the father guiding one of his children (or even his own son, Jesus) through life?s storms. In the same way, the song may be a mother speaking to her child, promising to ?hold on tightly? and help the storms to pass. But more than both of these, the song is an affirmation of a son?s love for his mother. Not only does the mother promise to help her son, the son promises to help his mother - to hold on to her tightly and never let her memory go.
Take my hand
You know I?ll be there
If you can
I?ll cross the sky for your love
Give you what I hold dear
The same man who is promising to be there for his mother, is also the one asking her for her approval in ?Mofo,? promising to follow her in ?I Will Follow,? and taking comfort in her words in ?Tomorrow.? The pain of losing his mother pervades Bono?s lyrics, but she is also a source of hope and the ground to which he returns when the world he lives in becomes too much.
I literally started crying after reading this bc you hit all the points. 
.
