Bono's "laundry list" lyrics - love em? hate em?

[Y2K]

By "laundry list" lyrics, I mean the lyrics he throws together by simpling listing things. For example:

-New York: Irish, Italian, Jews, and Hispanics, religious nuts, political fanatics...
-Peace on Earth: Sean and Julian, Gareth, Ann, and Breda
-Seconds: USSR, DDR, London, New York, Peking
-Stay (Faraway, So Close!): Miami, New Orleans, London, Belfast, and Berlin

Feel free to add more.


But does anyone else think it sounds like lazy songwriting? Some songs, it gets on my nerves more than others (e.g. Seconds has these intense political lyrics, but then there's some random laundry list in there).

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

well, I don't know about the other ones but for Peace On Earth there was a reason he listed those specific names:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_on_Earth_(U2_song)

ETA: stupid link isn't working

"Peace On Earth" is the eighth track from U2's 2000 album, All That You Can't Leave Behind. It was written about the Real IRA Omagh bombing in Northern Ireland on 15 August 1998.

The song lists the names of people (Sean, Julia, Gareth, Anne, and Breda) killed in the Omagh bombing. Similarly, inspiration for the lyric, "She never got to say goodbye / To see the colour in his eye / Now he's in the dirt" comes from the funeral of James Barker, another victim of the bombing. The Irish Times quoted his mother as stating, "I never realised how green his eyes were."

 

[monsieur fly]

Well lists are used in the academic poetry of today. The writer Carol Anne Duffy commonly used them in her collection "The World's Wife." I don't think you can say lists are good or bad in themselves- it depends on the words which constitute them and the clarity of the ideas they express. When used well, they can create an immediate Impressionistic image in your mind or add pace and tension

The list technique well on "New York" because it gives a sense of the city's cosmopolitan character and the "Hispanics/fanatics" rhyme is very sophisticated which gives it literary credibility. "Peace On Earth" also benefits from the list because it humanises what happened in Omagh. I'm more ambivalent about its use in "Stay", though as a whole I think it's second only to Love Is Blindness where lyrics are concerned. It doesn't add much to the message, but nor does it sound especially clumsy. The real poignancy of "Stay" derives from the use of imagery, especially when Bono compares his love's appearance to a car crash.

 

[Pat26]

Listing was one of the main ttraits of the great American poet Walt Whitman...check "Leaves of Grass" or "I hear America singing"
So I can´t see why Bono can´t use it as style device

 

[Rob33]

Well lists are used in the academic poetry of today. The writer Carol Anne Duffy commonly used them in her collection "The World's Wife." I don't think you can say lists are good or bad in themselves- it depends on the words which constitute them and the clarity of the ideas they express. When used well, they can create an immediate Impressionistic image in your mind or addpace and tension

The list technique well on "New York" because it gives a sense of the city's cosmopolitan character and the "Hispanics/fanatics" rhyme is very sophisticated which gives it literary credibility. "Peace On Earth" also benefits from the list because it humanises what happened in Omagh. I'm more ambivalent about its use in "Stay", though as a whole I think it's second only to Love Is Blindness where lyrics are concerned. It doesn't add much to the message, but nor does it sound especially clumsy. The real poignancy of "Stay" derives from the use of imagery, especially when Bono compares his love's appearance to a car crash.

I've actually always really loved that line in Stay. I think it flows beautifully and I love the way he sings it.

 

[BVS]

By "laundry list" lyrics, I mean the lyrics he throws together by simpling listing things. For example:

-New York: Irish, Italian, Jews, and Hispanics, religious nuts, political fanatics...
-Peace on Earth: Sean and Julian, Gareth, Ann, and Breda
-Seconds: USSR, DDR, London, New York, Peking
-Stay (Faraway, So Close!): Miami, New Orleans, London, Belfast, and Berlin

Feel free to add more.


But does anyone else think it sounds like lazy songwriting?

Lazy? Can I assume you haven't done a lot of writing or studied writing yourself?

The only one of these I don't care for is the list in Stay, to me it just doesn't fit, it sounds like it was lifted from another incarnation of the song...

 

[monsieur fly]

I've actually always really loved that line in Stay. I think it flows beautifully and I love the way he sings it.

Well I don't hate it either and I'd rather keep it. All I said was that it probably doesn't convey quite the message that other lists do. You are right about how lovely it sounds- it bounces of the tongue.

 

[Anji]

Phew! from the title, I thought we got so bored we were were now analysing Bono's scrundies

 

[LarryMullenFan]

Lazy? Can I assume you haven't done a lot of writing or studied writing yourself?

The only one of these I don't care for is the list in Stay, to me it just doesn't fit, it sounds like it was lifted from another incarnation of the song...

My thoughts exactly. What makes lists lazy? They fit nicely in the rhythm, they make sense in the context of the whole song... what's lazy about that?

 

[MooMoo!]

I dont mind the stay list, the others are a bit naff though. Meaningful as they may be.


One list I DO like though, if it really counts as a list is the end of Walk On with the "All that you fashion, all that blah blah" It seems to work well live.

 

[Rob33]

I dont mind the stay list, the others are a bit naff though. Meaningful as they may be.


One list I DO like though, if it really counts as a list is the end of Walk On with the "All that you fashion, all that blah blah" It seems to work well live.

that's possibly my favorite part of the song...you can see/hear how epic it is live if you watch the 2002 grammy performance...perfection. And on the album it's fucking brilliant as well....everything about it...particularly when he sings the lines "all that you fashion, all that you make, all that you build, all that you break"

 

[last unicorn]

Calling a list "lazy" is far fetched. What's next? Calling Bono a math nerd because he uses numbers in his lyrics or saying he's stealing from the painters because he's using colors? Many great poets use lists, sometimes you don't need many words or a complicated expression. Listing isn't a sign of laziness, it's actually a skill to know when you can use few words to say a lot.

 

[digitize]

How about:

This desperation
Dislocation
Separation
Condemnation
Revelation
In temptation
Isolation
Desolation
Let it go!

 

[ahittle]

I don't mind his catalog style. I dig all those examples above, and I've always loved that "Stay" lyric. I like specific details in lyrics.

Unlike almost everyone, though, I'm not fond of his list of metaphors in "Mercy." Some of the lines are quite good, but he's just all over the place and I think it dulls the overall effect. Of course, it's not technically "finished," so it's really not fair to criticize the man.

 

[JCOSTER]

Does Hawkmoon constitute as a laundry list?
Like a rhythm unbroken
Like drums in the night
Like sweet soul music
Like sunlight


and as for Walk OnAll that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you feel
All this you can leave behind
All that you reason
It’s only time
All that you bear
No more than a feeling on my mind
All that you see
All that you wear
All that you sense
All that you scheme
All you dress up
All that you’ve seen
All you create
And all that you wreck
All that you hate

I think is brilliant, I don't find his "lists" lazy writing but rather clever poetry.

 

[BonoIsMyMuse]

I wouldn't call them laundry lists--that seems to suggest that he just threw the lists together randomly, and, at least for the examples you give (maybe with the exception of New York), there's a reason both rhythmically and in terms of each song's content for the line. If Bono is making a list in a song, he's being specific, and I've found I've always preferred his songwriting when he's being specific. Many of the songs I disliked on ATYCLB, for example, felt generic to me because of their lack of specific details.

Used intelligently, repetition can build cadence in a song or a poem and can draw the listener/reader in. I've never felt like it's a technique that Bono has overused or used poorly.

 

[bonocomet]

How about:

This desperation
Dislocation
Separation
Condemnation
Revelation
In temptation
Isolation
Desolation
Let it go!

that. I always thought it was brilliant.

And none of these lists have ever bothered me, in fact I always find them enjoyable.

 

[digitize]

that. I always thought it was brilliant .

Same. I Bad.

 

[johndarling]

And aren't there alot in the Fly?

I know exactly what you mean by 'laundry lists' and you are right but I don't mind them at all. I think the words, the juxtaposition of words and ideas, whether they go together or whether they don't is thought-provoking.

In fact one of my favourite albums is 'Former Supposed Infatuation Junkie' (which is just all 'laundry lists) I think it is called from Alanis Morrisette. The one where she came back from India with so much to say!


Easily her best!

 

[Axver]

Love some, hate some. The Bad and Hawkmoon 269 examples already posted are great. And I think my problem with the New York example is more to do with the lyrics of the song in general than with the cited line in particular.

 

[U2girl]

Don't mind the examples in the first thread. I have less patience for lyrics made of stuff like this:

"I'm ready for the _____
I'm ready for the _____"

or

"Don't ______
don't _______"

or

"It's no secret that a _____ is a _____"

or

"some days are _____
some days are _____"

and listing a bunch of lines from ads in a song.

 

[cobl04]

I echo everyone else, I think they're great, my favourite's probably the New York one. Bullet has a bit of list about as well. Don't care for the Stay one, and I don't like the way the PoE one is delievered, but it's got significance.

 

[cobl04]

Don't mind the examples in the first thread. I have less patience for lyrics made of stuff like this:

"I'm ready for the _____
I'm ready for the _____"

or

"Don't ______
don't _______"

or

"It's no secret that a _____ is a _____"

or

"some days are _____
some days are _____"

and listing a bunch of lines from ads in a song.

Well the Zoo Station ones work, because it's (numerically) the first song of the new decade, so it works quite well, and they're delivered brilliantly. The Numb lines are on purpose, I'll take it you just don't like Numb if you've listed those lyrics because that is the point of the song. There's millions of songs that have lyrics or lines which are similar but differ in a few words, no problem in my eyes. All those lyrics too are 90s lyrics, the more 'experimental' decade. While you're not a fan of these lyrics, most of them are on purpose, and are the point of the song, like the ad slogans in Zooropa.

 

[U2girl]

I know they're on purpose. It's not why I dislike them.

 

[cobl04]

How come, if you don't mind me asking? Repition?

 

[U2girl]

I just think Bono can do better than repetition to prove the same points in those songs. In particular I wish he'd get a chance with the lyrics for Numb. That riff deserved better.

 

[Pat26]

How about:

This desperation
Dislocation
Separation
Condemnation
Revelation
In temptation
Isolation
Desolation
Let it go!

 

[DevilsShoes]

I think the 'lists' in the songs from the early eighties are more about Bono's difficulty in writing lyrics and his inability to really express himself.

Sometimes he seemed to resort to the 'catalogue' idea when inspiration was lacking. I think maybe this happened in Bad, he used the 'Desperation, Condemnation' sequence to get around the problem, but the idea actually ended up complementing the song and making complete sense.

Repetition can build cadence in a song or a poem and can draw the listener/reader in.

Thats exactly what I mean, Bad is a perfect example of that, the repetition just builds the drama of the whole thing.

He's much more sure these days about what he wants to say, so I tend to feel that the more modern 'lists' have much more definition.

I like them all really, but those in Hawkmoon and Walk On are personal favourites.

 

[Addicted To Bad]

How about:

This desperation
Dislocation
Separation
Condemnation
Revelation
In temptation
Isolation
Desolation
Let it go!

Bono´s "lists" work perfectly well and echo in everybody´s mind the same way. He never uses them poorly. As JCoster said: clever poetry.

(I couldn´t say the same about some BSpears or Ryanna´s "lists" )

 

[johndarling]

I think the 'lists' in the songs from the early eighties are more about Bono's difficulty in writing lyrics and his inability to really express himself.

Sometimes he seemed to resort to the 'catalogue' idea when inspiration was lacking. I think maybe this happened in Bad, he used the 'Desperation, Condemnation' sequence to get around the problem, but the idea actually ended up complementing the song and making complete sense.



Thats exactly what I mean, Bad is a perfect example of that, the repetition just builds the drama of the whole thing.

He's much more sure these days about what he wants to say, so I tend to feel that the more modern 'lists' have much more definition.

I like them all really, but those in Hawkmoon and Walk On are personal favourites.

TOTALLY NOT!!! Totally not! oh I couldn't disagree more!!!!

I think it's much more free association, that he doesn't quite know how HE feels about the words/ideas and is reluctant to make a decision until he has more 'feedback'.

It IS a democracy!

He doesn't know how he feels, he is reluctant to be dogmatic and really WANTS to know how others feel, really wants them to chip in with their opinions.

I think that's great.

Not every great artist wants to preach you know, especially when he is unsure, especially when he is young and unformed, insecure and vulnerable and KNOWS it.

And I think that is a BEAUTIFUL thing.