Best and worst lyrics

[BonosSaint]

What do you think are the best lyrics? The worst?

For starters, I like:

1. I'm not easy on my knees.
2. I must be an acrobat to talk like this and act like that.
3. Almost all the lyrics on Achtung Baby.

Worst:

1. Freedom has a scent like the top of a newborn baby's head.
2. Life should be fragrant from the rooftop to the basement.
3. Almost all the lyrics of "Electrical Storm" (which is actually
one of my favorite songs.)

Also, any opinion who Bono is talking to in "Crumbs from Your Table" Sounds like America.

 

[TheFly87]

I really can't think of any...I don't see anything wrong with Electrical Storms lyrics, they're alright...the life should be fragrant thing is pretty cool...I like how he uses rooftop to the basement to mean throughout the whole thing, beginning to end.

 

[U2Kitten]

Also, any opinion who Bono is talking to in "Crumbs from Your Table" Sounds like America.

Not in my neigborhood, pal. If the poor kids don't get them the rats will Nothing left here sorry!

 

[financeguy]

Best: - Acrobat, and basically all the lyrics on AB
- With or Without You

Worst: - Miami (not the entire song, just the bit rhyming "Miami"
with "My Mammy", which I think is a bit lame)

Lyrics from Crumbs could be aimed at USA, but I think it is aimed at richer nations in general.

 

[ADecentMelody]

Worst. Two lines tied for it:

• 
  [*]Freedom has a scent like the top of a newborn baby's head
  [*]The air is heavy, heavy as a truck; we need the rain to wash away our bad luck
  

Best.

• 
  [*]Heaven's white rose, the doors you open
  I just can't close
  

 

[Ellay]

[Freedom has a scent like the top of a newborn baby's head
][/QUOTE]

agreed

I'm gonna struggle singing this at their concerts,

And Im not a big fan of 'click clacking down some dead end street' either

 

[BigIdeas]

• 
  [*]Freedom has a scent like the top of a newborn baby's head
  

This is definitely questionable as a good choice of lyrics.

 

[BVS]

• 
  [*]Freedom has a scent like the top of a newborn baby's head
  
  

I think it's interesting that so many don't like this line yet Bono was quoted as saying that's one of the best lyrics on the album.

 

[BonosSaint]

I think it's interesting that so many don't like this line yet Bono was quoted as saying that's one of the best lyrics on the album.

Guess sometimes even the best of them can get enamored of something dumb.

 

[chocky]

WORST Lyrics

most of the Staring at the Sun, especially:
- Creeps a-crawling over me, Over me and over you
- Waves that leave me out of reach, Breaking on your back like a beach

from Do You Feel Loved, this puzzles me:
- Love's a bully, pushing and shoving, In the belly of a woman



BEST Lyrics

Luminous Times, especially:
- I love you cause I need to, Not because I need you, I love you cause I understand, That God had given me your hand, Holds me in a tiny fist, And still I need your kiss

a cracker from Tryin' to Throw Your Arms....
- A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle

Acrobat:
- And I must be an acrobat, To talk like this and act like that, And you can dream, so dream out loud, And don't let the bastards grind you down

 

[beau2ifulday]

WORST:
1) Discotheque - You know you're chewing bubble gum, You know what that is but you still want some, You just can't get enough of that lovey-dovey stuff [[c'mon.....]]

2) Yahweh - 'Always pain when a child is born [[thank you Mr. Obvious]]

3) Crumbs From Your Table - 'with a mouth full of teeth you ate your friends' [[I don't like the sentiment of it... too close to the mark for me]]

BEST:
Acrobat. Pure and simple.

 

[neutral]

Worst:

from Crumbs:
-Cool down mama, cool off
I like the song pretty well but that line makes my skin crawl.

New York: I think almost every line is really corny and forced, though I like the song live okay.
-Irish, Italians, Jews and Hispanics
Religious nuts, political fanatics in the stew
-You got to put the women and children first
But you've got an unquenchable thirst for New York

some from Always:
-don't find yourself in someone else...always
and always wear a safety belt...always


Best, there's no way I could think of them all but some that come to mind.

UTEOTW
-In my dream I was drowning my sorrows
But my sorrows, they learned to swim
I is one of my favorite all time lines.

from Mofo
-Looking for to fill that God shaped hole

a lot from Gone, especially
You wanted to get somewhere so badly
You had to lose yourself along the way


blah I'm drawing a blank, will finish this later.

 

[tarquinsuperb]

Worst:
some from Always:
-don't find yourself in someone else...always
and always wear a safety belt...always

This was my first thought when I saw the thread title although it's a really good song and if it hadn't been a B-Side and they'd have fixed some of the teenage poetry lyrics then it would have been fantastic.
The new media line in Kite is awful.
Best:
Tons really but especially "I'm not afraid of anything in this World there's nothing you can throw at me I haven't already heard."
"He used to stay awake to drive the dreams he had away."

 

[annabelle]

I really like the poetic image of

"she wears my love like a see-through dress" - So Cruel


and, like many, I really cringe at

"freedom has a scent..."

 

[sallycinnamon78]

The new media line in Kite is awful.

Agreed. It's a [pretty lame ending to a damn good song, in my opinion.

One is my favourite U2 song, but the "did I ask too much, more than a lot?" line irritates the hell out of me - could have been stronger.

Not even Bono is allowed to get away with "a mole, digging in a hole". Don't get me started on "star lit up like a cigar, strung out like a guitar". Shame, because I love the "can't sing but I've got soul" line that follows it.



Best:

Kite:
In summer I can taste the salt in the sea
There's a kite blowing out of control on a breeze
I wonder what's gonna happen to you
You wonder what has happened to me

I'm a man, I'm not a child
A man who sees
The shadow behind your eyes


I absolutely adore Bono's lyrics for She's A Mystery To Me:
Haunted by her side
It's a darkness in her eyes
That so enslaves me
And if my love is blind
Then i don't want to see
She's a mystery to me


Bad:
Leave this heart of clay, see you walk, walk away
Into the night, and through the rain
Into the half light and through the flame.



Mysterious Ways:
To touch is to heal, to hurt is to steal.
If you want to kiss the sky, better learn how to kneel
On your knees, boy!

She's the wave, she turns the tide
She sees the man inside the child.

 

[rivergoat]

a cracker from Tryin' to Throw Your Arms....
- A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle

I don't mean to be picky, but this is another line that Bono plagarized (like Acrobat's "In dreams begin responsibilities"). The orginal quote is "A man needs God like a fish needs a bicycle." Apparently, back in the Sixties or Seventies, it was rephrased as "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle" and it became a slogan of the feminist movement. Interesting that Bono put in that song, isn't it? ("Gonna run to you, run to you, run to you, woman be still")

Best Lyrics:

all of Like a Song... especially:
I can see through this expression
And you know I don't believe
I'm too old to be told
Exactly who are you?

and all of Acrobat, especially:
When I first met you girl
You had fire in your soul
What happened
Your face of melting snow?
and
And I'd join the movement
If there was one I could believe in
Yeah I'd break bread and wine
If there was achurch I could receive in
'Cause I need it now

Worst lyrics:
"With a shout, shout it out" - this just reminds me of the laundry detergent commercials!
Most of "All I Want Is You" just because it's an insulting song (like he's saying "you're a greedy bitch, I don't need anything but you, and yet you want all these material things." I don't know why people think that song is romantic.

Funny though, I like the "new media" lines, I think it closes the song pretty well (as in, "I'm still struggling to keep up with the changes in the world" kind of thing). I also like the Elevation lyrics people gripe about, it's a fun little song, and who else could talk about the activity or a rodent in a pop song? }: )~ Like the line "heavy as a truck" - I just imagine that one of his kids helped him with that one, and that's why he was adamant about keeping it in the song. Bono's lyrics are fairly heavy most of the time, I like it when he lightens up!

just my thoughts...

goat

 

[BonosSaint]

Worst:

from Crumbs:
-Cool down mama, cool off
I like the song pretty well but that line makes my skin crawl.

New York: I think almost every line is really corny and forced, though I like the song live okay.
-Irish, Italians, Jews and Hispanics
Religious nuts, political fanatics in the stew
-You got to put the women and children first
But you've got an unquenchable thirst for New York

some from Always:
-don't find yourself in someone else...always
and always wear a safety belt...always


I don't know. I don't mind the Cool down mama line. I think that's a plea to America--to think before we act, to realize what destructive powers we have when we are angry and the effect it has on the world.

Best, there's no way I could think of them all but some that come to mind.

 

[neutral]

I don't know. I don't mind the Cool down mama line. I think that's a plea to America--to think before we act, to realize what destructive powers we have when we are angry and the effect it has on the world.

Well I must say, I never thought about that interpretation at all. Interesting...

 

[One Tree Still]

I'm pretty sure it's...

"Always pain before the child is born"

As in - you usually have to endure suffering before blessings.

 

[Ifeelnumb84]

Best:
EXIT
You know he caught the killer
You know he ran astray
He used to stay awake to drive the dreams he had away
He wanted to believe
In the hands of love

and

Running To Stand Still
You gotta cry without weeping
Talk without speaking
Scream without raising your voice
You know I took the poison
From the poison stream
Then I floated, outta here
Singin'......

and
LEMON
A man paints a picture
A moving picture
Through the light projected he can see the world outside
A man captures color
A man likes to stare
He turns his money into light to look for her

Worst:
Miami
Discotheque (but I like the song anyway)
Elevation (awful)