Analysis : Images in U2 : Happy to go Blind
March 20, 2003
By Kimberly "hippy" Egolf
Over twenty years and dozens of songs, U2 has collected a body of work that is both stunning and incredibly revealing. Each month in this column, I’ll be exploring an idea, a theme, a motif, or a phrase that is repeated throughout U2′s music. As a caveat though, please remember that this is my opinion. My aim is to explore interesting ideas about the band we all love. I hope this column sparks interest in people to take a closer look at what U2 is saying through their music.
That said, let me dive right in…
"Blindness" is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as a blind condition, a want of sight, or concealment; figuratively, it’s defined as a want of intellectual or moral perception; delusion, ignorance; folly, recklessness.
The multiplicity of definitions for this one single word provides vast opportunity for interpretation. And "blindness" is one of Bono’s favorite themes or suggestions. From the earliest days of the Boy album until the most recent All That You Can’t Leave Behind, the band explores this theme, indeed, this one single word, which triggers so many different impressions.
It is precisely the ambiguity of such a word that makes it so appealing for the band. As with most artists, the ability to layer meanings has always been an important one for U2. Their songs support numerous readings depending on what you’re looking for. And each person can interpret a song differently, yet they may all be correct. That is one of the beauties of this band’s songs.
And dealing with one of the most ambiguous of all U2 topics leaves open a wide spectrum of interpretation.
The very first U2 studio album, Boy, opens with the song "I Will Follow." Within the first minute of the song Bono has introduced one of the overarching themes of the next two decades. He says:
I was on the outside when you said
You said you needed me
I was looking at myself
I was blind, I could not see
He speaks of being "on the outside," that is, able to look at himself from the outside; able to view the world from outside his own body; able to see himself through other’s eyes. He then makes the ambiguous statement "I was looking at myself/ I was blind, I could not see." This can be interpreted two different ways. He might be saying that he can recognize his own blindness and the fact that his blindness constricts him to darkness in all matters. Or, the singer could be hinting that, even when he steps outside of himself, he remains blind and unable to view the world around him or even himself. This is simply a syntactical problem that adds to the elusiveness of a definite meaning. But it introduces the audience to a young man who is questioning himself, a young man who is unsure of the world and the body in which he lives.
Their next offering to the musical world remains firmly rooted and attached to a specific period of U2′s history. While making the sophomore album October, the band was experiencing an intense emotional time. Bono, Larry, and Edge were questioning their faith and their friends who were telling them to give up the band they were intensely passionate about. At the same time, the band members were growing apart as a result of this religious questioning.
This pain and perturbation is evident on October. Indeed, it serves as the focus of the record in many ways. October is structured around this religious struggle with the worldly self. After a joyful salute to the creator ("Gloria") and a confession of fallibility as a human ("I Fall Down"), the song "I Threw A Brick Through A Window" appears. With a pounding drum, bass pattern and sparse guitar, Bono’s vocals and lyrics really take precedence. And it’s in this gem of a song that another reference to "blindness" occurs. The singer confesses in the first three verses that he cannot hear a word, that he’s "gotta get out," and that he’s "going nowhere." The bridge brings the climax of the song: the singer’s realization that he’s completely blind because he chooses not to see.
No one… no one is blinder
Than he who will not see
No one… no one is blinder
Than me
Given the theme of the rest of the album, the blindness referred to here is most likely a spiritual blindness. He’s once again stepping outside of himself (as in "I Will Follow") in order to realize this spiritual truth about his own blindness, a blindness that doesn’t allow him the eyes or the mind with which he can see himself and the world outside.
While not mentioning the word "blindness" specifically, the War album speaks of a moral blindness that Bono sees in the world. The song "Sunday Bloody Sunday," expressing the singer’s anger over the destruction of war, shows the worldly blindness of people who can allow war to continue to the detriment and destruction of all things. The rest of the album also speaks to this moral blindness. The singer calls out repeatedly for an answer that he is unable to see. The lament that begins the album, "how long must we sing this song?" also ends the album, creating a circle from which there seems to be no escape.
With the more ethereal Unforgettable Fire, the band left the themes of their previous three albums, choosing instead to focus on music that created images. Their next album, The Joshua Tree, continued this new imagery and reintegrated the themes that the band had been exploring throughout their almost ten-year career. After "Where The Streets Have No Name," the rousing and inspiring opening song of the album, a quiet, driving gospel number sneaks up on the listener. The simple, tranquil opening notes belie the coming lyrical intensity and storm of a man driven spiritually blind by his quest to find what he’s looking for. "I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For" shows the singer in perhaps his most desperate stage of spiritual blindness. The song begins with a list of things that he’s done in order to try to find this elusive something, about which he is singing. He seems disappointed that, after all he’s done (listed throughout the rest of the song), he’s "still running" and can’t seem to find an answer. The song ends with the desperate cry of the singer confessing, "I still haven’t found what I’m looking for."
While the song doesn’t mention "blindness" by name, it still seems that "I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For" is the natural culmination of the spiritual blindness explored in previous albums. The song, while a desperate cry for relief from blindness, is also an uplifting assertion of the fallibility of being human. Despite all the things that the singer had tried in order to achieve spiritual enlightenment, none of them have worked. He acknowledges this and, in doing so, creates more room for faith and trust. In essence, the acknowledgement of his doubt and his searching provides it’s own answer to the singer. He affirms that life is a constant search and, as a human, he can never find the answer by any action he can take. And thus, what starts out as a simple, pounding rhythmic song turns into a complex lyrical avowal of faith and understanding of his own failings. The song is both the lowest and the highest point in U2′s search for relief from their human spiritual blindness.
But, as the story goes, on the very last night of the 1980s, Bono told the world that the band had
Analysis : Hands That Built America
March 18, 2003
Brendan McKinney
Oh my love, it’s a long way we’ve come
From the freckled hills, to the steel and glass canyons
From the stony fields, to hanging steel from sky
From digging in our pockets for a reason not to say goodbye
These are the hands that built America
(Russian, Sioux, Dutch, Hindu
Polish, Irish, German, Italian)
Last saw your face in a watercolour sky
As sea birds argued, a long goodbye
I took your kiss on the spray of the new land star
You
About U2 : Bands U2 Likes
March 18, 2003
By Melissa Flanzraich
U2 aren
Experience : Bono: A Conversation in New York *
March 16, 2003
By Diane L.
He is magnificent.
I have never been so close to a man who is so charismatic, so intelligent, so funny, and oh yeah, he
Concert Review : Slane 2
March 15, 2003
By Dave Hooper
Well what can I say? Two U2 shows in two weeks – not bad considering that they had only planned one, and had to change the local concert law for this concert to go ahead as planned. So for the first time ever, and according to MCD and Lord Henry Mountcharles, this was the only time there would be a second show. Slane 2 was going to be special.
We get into Slane and not only the heart, but the pit passes are gone. It
Recent Comments