"...it's the blind leading the blond"

[BrownEyedBoy]

I've always wondered what this lyric meant and where it came from. Is it a common phrase? What does it mean? Is it quoting someone? I've searched for it but found nothing.

 

[BVS]

There's a common phrase "the blind leading the blind", to describe a hopeless situation. Like when my computer illiterate father tries to teach my mother how to use email.

Now there's also a common stereotype that blondes are dumb.

So basically he's just playing with the phrase a little.

 

[BrownEyedBoy]

Thanks, BVS. What's he trying to say, though?

 

[theoriginal]

My interpretation is that the singer is lost in terms of faith, speaking to himself that there is no-one to blame, no-one put words in his mouth. "love took a train heading south" refers to a love of god i think; it's a very country sounding metaphor.

Then: the blind leading the blond. Again, some lyrical humor, and the suggestion that everyone is lost, leaders and followers alike.

Then the kicker: "it's the stuff of country songs". Here I think he acknowledges his previous homage to country style lyrics while it references country music's stereotypical theme of tragedy/tragic love.

So it appears that love (love of God/love amongst humankind) is on a path (train) towards tragedy, and no-one has the "vision" to avoid the inevitable outcome.

So the singer desperately pleas for "God to send his angels", asking for some kind of divine intervention, some help. Or a sign. A light to inspire, to lift people up, something to give hope.

Later, in the last verse of the last song, the singer is still pleading to God, but is much more bitter and disillusioned:

Jesus, were you just around the corner?
Did you think to try and warn her?
Were you working on something new?
If there's an order in all of this disorder
Is it like a tape recorder?
Can we rewind it just once more?

In this verse the girl's calamity represents the pain and horror that fills our world and our daily newspapers. The singer is desperately hoping that there is "method to the madness". He hopes that somewhere, sometime, somehow there will be justice. He is begging for God to reveal his plan, implement his plan, or at least give the desperate a sign that indeed there is a plan, that there is cause for hope.

 

[DreamOutLoud13]

Bono on If God Will Send His Angels(Q Magazine, March 1997) :

"It's this guy beating up his girlfriend about her searching for answers and just telling her to look around. It's like science fiction gospel. Edge is calling it country hip-hop."

Taking that into consideration, to me the song has always been the sort of "ranting" of a guy berating his girlfriend for having faith and beliefs, because he's lost his faith. In that interpretation, the line in question is a play on words accusing the religious leaders she's following after as "the blind leading the blonde" with the girlfriend being the blonde.

 

[BrownEyedBoy]

Ìnteresting. Awesome song. Probably the one responsible for getting me this much into U2.

 

[lady luck]

Bono on If God Will Send His Angels(Q Magazine, March 1997) :

"It's this guy beating up his girlfriend about her searching for answers and just telling her to look around. It's like science fiction gospel. Edge is calling it country hip-hop."

Taking that into consideration, to me the song has always been the sort of "ranting" of a guy berating his girlfriend for having faith and beliefs, because he's lost his faith. In that interpretation, the line in question is a play on words accusing the religious leaders she's following after as "the blind leading the blonde" with the girlfriend being the blonde.

wow!

 

[Varitek]

I've been thinking about this song lately. It also expresses Bono's dissatisfaction with organized religion and how religion is manipulated:

They put Jesus in show business
Now it's hard to get in the door

 

[xaviMF22]

Bono on If God Will Send His Angels(Q Magazine, March 1997) :

"It's this guy beating up his girlfriend about her searching for answers and just telling her to look around. It's like science fiction gospel. Edge is calling it country hip-hop."

Taking that into consideration, to me the song has always been the sort of "ranting" of a guy berating his girlfriend for having faith and beliefs, because he's lost his faith. In that interpretation, the line in question is a play on words accusing the religious leaders she's following after as "the blind leading the blonde" with the girlfriend being the blonde.

I luv this song

 

[pattip2000]

Bono on If God Will Send His Angels(Q Magazine, March 1997) :

"It's this guy beating up his girlfriend about her searching for answers and just telling her to look around. It's like science fiction gospel. Edge is calling it country hip-hop."

who knew

 

[Clawgrabber]

Bono on If God Will Send His Angels(Q Magazine, March 1997) :

"It's this guy beating up his girlfriend about her searching for answers and just telling her to look around. It's like science fiction gospel. Edge is calling it country hip-hop."

Taking that into consideration, to me the song has always been the sort of "ranting" of a guy berating his girlfriend for having faith and beliefs, because he's lost his faith. In that interpretation, the line in question is a play on words accusing the religious leaders she's following after as "the blind leading the blonde" with the girlfriend being the blonde.

See, now that tidbit makes me really want Bono to go back to writing songs he has to explain, like pitching a movie. I love the last two albums, but they are all straightforward from Bono's perspective (with the exception of Electrical Storm, and i suppose Vertigo) but remember The Fly, this twisted phone... some guy (the devil?) calling from hell... i can't remember how he described it, but that line at the end (i gotta go, im running outta change...)

i want more U2 songs where bono is writing from the POV of some fictional character, like The Fly, Mysterious Ways, IGWSHA, etc

 

[BVS]

i want more U2 songs where bono is writing from the POV of some fictional character, like The Fly, Mysterious Ways, IGWSHA, etc

I don't think Mysterious Ways is a fictional character at all...

That being said yes, fictional characters are great, but I just want honesty.

 

[Clawgrabber]

what about johnny and his sister the moon? and eating from a can?

haha. maybe you are right. but honesty is all they have been singing with these past few years. i want a little artiface.

 

[Marien]

I'm quite new round here and not being a native speaker of English, may be it's a bit risking saying that I think that Johnny and his sister the moon is a simile, Johnny represents a normal boy, any person, his sister the moon and his sister the rain represent a higher spirit, and then it comes: "she moves in mysterious ways", may be the Holy Spirit? Well, that's my point of view.
BTW, do you really think that "the blind leading the blond" has to do with blonds being considered dumb? Surely you are right, but I don't find it consistent with Bono's personality, although I don't have any explanation for it but ryming.