ImOuttaControl
Refugee
Why do people keep insisting over and over that "this song was written about africa." I really hope people aren't taking that interpretation from the book "Into the Heart," which is just someone's interpretation with a few sporatic quotes from Bono and others. (I've found that book to be full of inaccuracies.)
Here's Bono's version from 1987 on how he came up with "Streets." From "The Best of Propaganda", page 77.
BONO: "Where the streets have no name," that's more like the U2 of old than any of the other songs on the LP. Because it's asketch- I was just trying to sketch a location, maybe a spiritual location, maybe a romantic location, I was trying to sketch a feeling. I often feel very claustraphobic in a city, a feeling of wanting to break out of that city, and a feeling of wanting to go somewhere where the values of the city and the values of our society don't hold you down.
An interesting story that somebody told me once, is that in Belfast, by what street somebody lives on you can tell not only their religion, but tell how much money they're making- literally by which side of the road they live on, because the further you go up the hill the more expensive the houses become. You can almost tell what people are earning by the name of the street they live on and what side of that street they live on. That said something to me, so I started writing about a place whree the streets have no name..."
Does anybody have any quotes from the time the song was written that would indicate that "it's about africa" as a lot of people are saying? I'm just curious. I've no problem with it's "new meaning" in the vertigo tour, but to say the song was "always about africa" seems to be a huge stretch to me. Looks to me like that quote of bono is pretty clear where the song idea came from.
Here's Bono's version from 1987 on how he came up with "Streets." From "The Best of Propaganda", page 77.
BONO: "Where the streets have no name," that's more like the U2 of old than any of the other songs on the LP. Because it's asketch- I was just trying to sketch a location, maybe a spiritual location, maybe a romantic location, I was trying to sketch a feeling. I often feel very claustraphobic in a city, a feeling of wanting to break out of that city, and a feeling of wanting to go somewhere where the values of the city and the values of our society don't hold you down.
An interesting story that somebody told me once, is that in Belfast, by what street somebody lives on you can tell not only their religion, but tell how much money they're making- literally by which side of the road they live on, because the further you go up the hill the more expensive the houses become. You can almost tell what people are earning by the name of the street they live on and what side of that street they live on. That said something to me, so I started writing about a place whree the streets have no name..."
Does anybody have any quotes from the time the song was written that would indicate that "it's about africa" as a lot of people are saying? I'm just curious. I've no problem with it's "new meaning" in the vertigo tour, but to say the song was "always about africa" seems to be a huge stretch to me. Looks to me like that quote of bono is pretty clear where the song idea came from.