Bono - Uncanny Preminition

[Hanover]

September... streets capsizing...
spilling over down the drain
...shards of glass splinters like rain
But you could only feel your own pain...
october... talking getting nowhere...
November... December... remember...
are we just starting again...?

My apologies for touching on what occurred on 9/11 - I just had to emphasise how the lyric of 'Please' released long before that terrible attack on New York City is now for me readily associated with that date.

Do you have any more lyrics to add that may also have a direct bearing on some event?

 

[verte76]

I don't have any lyrics specifically, but I can see how you'd relate those lyrics from "Please" to 9/11, esecially considering that the subject matter of "Please" is frustration over violence that won't stop and you don't feel like there's a damn thing you can do about it. That's *major* frustration.

 

[FallingStar]

Sunday Bloody Sunday...

 

[Sue DeNym]

I don't have any lyrics specifically, but I can see how you'd relate those lyrics from "Please" to 9/11, esecially considering that the subject matter of "Please" is frustration over violence that won't stop and you don't feel like there's a damn thing you can do about it. That's *major* frustration.

I seem to recall Bono said that after September 11, Ali brought up those lyrics and how they fit with the situation. I wish I could find the story again.

 

[Edgette]

I seem to recall Bono said that after September 11, Ali brought up those lyrics and how they fit with the situation. I wish I could find the story again.

That's the story I heard as well. And seeing Bono and Edge do an acoustic version of "Please" at the tip of the heart after Sept. 11 is something I'll never forget. That was possibly the most moving thing I've ever seen in any concert.

 

[Seabird]

New York-

"voices down the stairwell, voices on the cell phone, voices from home":

the stories of the people running down the stairs in the WTC towers calling their loved ones, many did not make it out

"hot as a hair dryer in your face, hot as a handbag and a can of mace, New York":

the people who reported the blasts burning them, in their faces, seeing people estinguished literally before their eyes.

"lose your balance, lose your wife, in the queue for the lifeboat":

the people running down the streets from the collapsing buildings

"that's where I lost you, New York":

people who lost someone that day

"religious nuts, political fanatics in the stew":

the terrorists

 

[~*Buffalo*~]

New York-

"voices down the stairwell, voices on the cell phone, voices from home":

the stories of the people running down the stairs in the WTC towers calling their loved ones, many did not make it out

"hot as a hair dryer in your face, hot as a handbag and a can of mace, New York":

the people who reported the blasts burning them, in their faces, seeing people estinguished literally before their eyes.

"lose your balance, lose your wife, in the queue for the lifeboat":

the people running down the streets from the collapsing buildings

"that's where I lost you, New York":

people who lost someone that day

"religious nuts, political fanatics in the stew":

the terrorists

I was going to say New York as well. Very freaky that it's so similar.

I'd never thought of Please in relation to September 11 before, but, definitely, I see what you mean, Hanover.

 

[OnFire]

I found it kinda freaky how they used grainy black & white photos of a nearly deserted airport (saw alot of dererted airports after 9/11). I don't know if this is true but I heard they doctored the flight info photo to read J33.3 after the Jeremiah 33.3 quote, "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and mighty things which you do not know"

http://www.u2.com/images/allthatyoucant.jpg

 

[wolfeden]

I got the hair standing right up on the back of my neck when I heard the line in 'the hands that built america' but it was written after 9/11..... doesn't count..

"it's early fall, there's a cloud on the New York skyline.. "

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

At one of the NYC shows (I heard it on a CD a lovely gal made for me), on the first leg before 9/11..Bono is talking between songs and says "ground zero"..I can't remember the context he said it in, but that's eerie

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

I got the hair standing right up on the back of my neck when I heard the line in 'the hands that built america' but it was written after 9/11..... doesn't count..

"it's early fall, there's a cloud on the New York skyline.. "

That line always gets me teary-eyed.

Anywho, yeah, it's very freaky, these lyrics......

Angela

 

[beli]

Werent the original lyrics written about the Irish 'peace' process?

But yeah, I guess they may have taken on new meanings to people in the USA also.

 

[mofo82]

no joke, 'please' was one of the first things i thought about as the towers fell that day. watching the tv you can let your mind go in all different places, unlike all the thousands that stood in the streets in shock. that song sits atop my list of deepest U2 songs personally. and just recently, with the newest tortures in the mideast with decapitations, i tried to listen to 'please' from the persecutors perspective. the lines" love is not what your thinking of" come to mind. very strange and touching song. bono is an oracle- really

 

[Axver]

I know Please was meant to be about Ireland, but every time I listen to that verse, I do think of 11 September. Can't help it. It's just too freakily co-incidental.

 

[Tomer]

how about bullet the blue sky?

drivin nails into the soul of pain?
from the firfly [airplane] a red orange glow [fire]

see the face of fear running scared in the valley below [fear, if people took a last look out of the window, they'll see people running and being scared]

 

[valentina]

and what about the planes in the videos? (in Beautiful day, walk on and elevation)
I was shocked in seeing that the planes, used in a funny way by U2, could be employed in such a terrible way..

 

[PennyPyro]

Actually, the song "Bullet the Blue Sky" reminds me so much of a war I never really saw--the civil war in DR Congo a while back--one which i feel strikes close to home for me b/c it WAS my home for 5 and a half years.

 

[U2girl91289]

Walk On always reminds me of 9/11, I guess because we do have to walk on... we can't be stuck in that moment. To me, a lot of ATYCLB was really premonitious. Think about it, in Kite " I know that this is not goodbye", Peace on Earth, New York, etc

 

[youtwohearts]

September... streets capsizing...
spilling over down the drain
...shards of glass splinters like rain
But you could only feel your own pain...
october... talking getting nowhere...
November... December... remember...
are we just starting again...?

My apologies for touching on what occurred on 9/11 - I just had to emphasise how the lyric of 'Please' released long before that terrible attack on New York City is now for me readily associated with that date.

Do you have any more lyrics to add that may also have a direct bearing on some event?

I think Ali was quoted somewhere discussing the words to please how it reflected 9/11

 

[valentina]

Maybe that ATYCLB was a sort of premonition, but also a catartic thing to help you going on...
When I turned the radio, this morning, and I heard U2's "New York", used to commemorate the victims of the bsurd attack of 9/11, I realise how important music can be. Especially if it's U2's music.

 

[U2girl]

What are you thinking about the future?

[Bono:] I just made up a shirt that says "2002." It's odd for us, having started out the year making an album with all the artwork of airports and the title and the themes, and all of us walking out onstage in military clothes with flowers woven into them, playing with the symbolism of the peace movement. And to then suddenly be in it is quite odd. I got a call from Ali, my wife, the other day. She was just trying to get rid of stuff at home and found a videotape of us on the MTV Video Music Awards a few years ago in New York doing the song "Please." She said she thought it was one of our worst performances but told me to go back and listen to the song. I put it on and I couldn't believe what I heard. ("September, streets capsizing / Spilling over down the drain / Shards of glass splinters like rain / But you could only feel your own pain... October, talk getting nowhere / November, December; remember / We just started again.") It's essentially about fundamentalism, political or religious. Religious fundamentalism is where you get to shrink God; you remake God in your own image, as opposed to the other way around. It gave me a bit of a fright, and we're going to put it back into our show.

(from "People of the Year: Bono -- Fighting the good fight, in the name of love and rock & roll" by Anthony Bozza, Rolling Stone, December 2001)

 

[celia]

wow those lyrics really do paint the picture of September 11th.

Never knew that bit about what Ali said, very intresting.