The Very Best and Worst U2 Lyric

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Best: Have you come here to play jesus to the lepers in your head?

We hurt each other then we do it again

what you got they cant steal it, not they cant even feel it.

we eat and drink while tomorrow they die


worst: gave you everything you want except the thing that you want
 
just thought of another for the worst list:
"Give away some him no lie,
Give away some my de day no"

there plenty of them in Elvis Presley and America. maybe i'm just thick, but that song makes NO sense at all to me. does have some nice parts though, an alright song.
 
Playing Jesus to the lepers in your head is definitely one of Bono's masterpiece lines.

But I'm also quite fond of:

Your heart is racing
you can't keep up
the night is bleeding like a cut
between the horses of love and lust

Brilliant!!!

Worst lyric? Hm.....all of "God Part II" grates on me. But Bono's worst lyric is infinitely better than most.
 
Another stroke of genius is

Love is a temple
Love the higher law
Love is a temple
Love the higher law
you ask me to enter
and then you make me crawl
and I can't keep holding on
to what you've got
when all you've got is hurt...

*sigh* Astounding. And he wrote "One" when he was what, 30ish? I'm completely floored.
 
Miggy D said:
Gone. Period.

"This emotional gooooood niiiiiiiiight....."

Maybe the high point of the entire Pop album for me. And I think that is an excellent album, and for my money, it is their darkest.

That moment, both lyrically and vocally is filled with such anguish and anger and...I dunno, volume, that it gives me chills every time.

:bow:

And speaking of Pop, "Miami" is a damn clever song. As a sister-song to "New York" and on its own.

Weather 'round here chopping changing
surgery's in the air
print shirts and Southern accents
cigars and big hair
got the wheels, petrol's cheap
only went there for a week
got the sun, got the sand
got the batteries
in the handy-cam

bah-buh-bah-ba-ba-ba-bah-ba...Miami...
 
one of my faves:

the sun so bright
it leaves no shadows
only scars
carved into stone
on the face of earth

....and from the same song...

and in the world
a heart of darkness
a fire zone
where poets speak their hearts
then bleed for it

...and finally....

and when it's raining
raining hard
that's when the rain will
break my heart
 
I'm really getting sick and tired of all this Acthung Baby is "above everything else" crap that I'm seeing more and more of on these threads. Sure it's a great album but sorry folks "Mysterious Ways" just cannot compare to songs like "Bad", "Drowning Man", "Tomorrow", "Bullet The Blue Sky", "Running To Stand Still",
"Sunday Bloody Sunday", "Gone", "Wake Up Dead Man", "Out Of Control", "Heartland", "40", AND THE LIST GOES ON...AND ON...AND ON. There are plenty of amazing U2 songs/moments that came before AND after Achtung Baby. O.K. Having said that the album is GREAT!!!
 
I think the last half of "Zooropa" has some really great lyrics

Uncertainty could be our guiding light ...

She's gonna dream up the world she wants to live in
She's gonna dream out loud

And I have no compass
And I have no map
And I have no reason
No reason to get back

Achtung Baby has some great lyrics ("one," UTTEOTW, "So Cruel"), and yeah, the "baby's" and "all rights" aren't great lyrics, but I don't even think you can count those as lyrics. They're like the chocolate sprinkles on top of the meat of the song, you know?

Worst lyrics? All of "New York." HORRID.
 
u2girlcj said:


...but then maybe that's because I'm a mom and I happen to associate newborn smell with being at the beck and call of a small person...not exactly freedom! :wink: Ha! I think that's it!

Hahaha well I can't argue with a mother.. I love my mum alot and I know what they had to put up with (looks at myself) hahahaha

I suppose I really love how Bono jumps from that lyric to 'I've seen enough I'm not giving up, on a miracle drug'
The first time I heard it, it felt so empowering
 
The Miracle Drug "smell of freedom" lyric is even worse in Levitate when Bono adds "Baby we can taste it, you and I". Now, I know that he doesn't mean this literally but every time I listen to this song I get the image of Bono licking a baby's head and it's a bit disturbing, yeah?

Another bad one - the "insect in your ear" line from Staring At The Sun
 
nathan1977 said:
Not suckin' on my thumb
Staring at the sun

Lame.

Not the best U2 lyric ever! But its not too bad.

It seems like it may have something to do with people who are downs syndrome, or some disorder like it.
Am I the only person who thinks this?
 
This is impossible, there are so many lines I love.

As my screenname and signature suggest, I love A Sort of Homecoming, especially lyrically. I'm not saying it's Keats or Joyce or something, but the way it's delivered....very evocative for me.

The wind will crack, in wintertime, this bomblast lightning waltz....no spoken words....just a scream.....tonight....we'll build a bridge, across the sea and land....see the sky, the falling rain, she will die, and live again...tonight....

Gives me chills every time.

Besides that, love So Cruel lyrically, Heartland, One Tree Hill. Here are some other lines that I feel are poignant, smart, or just resonate, or once strongly resonated with me.

"We stoop so low, to reach so high"

"So we're told, this is the golden age....and gold is the reason, for the wars we wage"

"You ask me to enter, but then you make me crawl...."

"You can't even remember, what I'm trying to forget"

"And you never knew how low you'd stoop
to make that call...and you never knew what was on the ground, till they made you crawl.
So you never knew that the heaven you keep, you stole."

"You're taking steps that make you feel dizzy,
then you learn to like the way it feels.
You hurt yourself, you hurt your lover, then you discover...what you thought was freedom is just greed."

"Would you deny for others, what you demand for yourself"

"If I could, through myself, set your spirit free
I'd lead your heart away, see you break, break away...into the light and to the day."

"My body grows and grows, it frightens me you know"

As for worst lyrics, yeah, Bono has his moments. I think that Elevation, on the whole, is the worst for me lyrically. The song is a crowd pleaser for the casual fans, so, it's a staple right now, but the lyrics are silly, at least to my ears.

I know lots of people that love the freedom has a scent lyric, and plenty that do not, I'm kind of ambivalent.
 
Best: Oh this is hard....

"I try to sing this song
I... I try to stand up
But I can't find my feet
I try, I try to speak up
But only in you I'm complete"

"We're free to fly the crimson sky
The sun won't melt our wings tonight"

" She runs through the streets
With her eyes painted red
Under a black belly of cloud in the rain
In through a doorway she brings me
White gold and pearls stolen from the sea
She is raging
She is raging
And the storm blows up in her eyes
She will...
Suffer the needle chill
She's running to stand...Still"

"Thunder, thunder on the mountain
There's a rain cloud in the desert sky"

Worst.....

"Slide show seaside town
Coca-Cola, football radio radio radio
Radio, radio radio..."

" White flash sees the sky
And it turns its side from you
She won't turn my back
And I know you turn so blue
And you know
And your sky is feeling blue
And your heart
So cold when I'm with you
And you feel
Like no one told you to
And your time is outside
And your time
Ah, don't talk to me
Ah, don't talk to me
Don't talk to me" <----What the heck is that?

"I know a boy, a boy called Trash
Trash Can
I know he does all that he can
Wham Bam
And she won't tell me his name
Oh no, not me" :|

And the worst lyrics ever penned....

Original of The Species
"Baby slow down
The end is not as fun as the start
Please stay a child somewhere in your heart

I'll give you everything you want
Except the thing that you want
You are the first one of your kind

And you feel like no-one before
You steal right under my door
I kneel 'cos I want you some more
I want the lot of what you got
And I want nothing that you're not

Everywhere you go you shout it
You don't have to be shy about it

Some things you shouldn't get too good at
Like smiling, crying and celerity
Some people got way too much confidence baby, baby

I'll give you everything you want
Except the thing that you want
You are the first one of your kind

And you feel like no-one before
You steal right under my door
I kneel 'cos I want you some more
I want the lot of what you got
And I want nothing that you're not

Everywhere you go you shout it
You don't have to be shy about it, no
Oh no, oh no no no
(Here's your father)

Didit, didit, didit, didit, didit, didit, didit, didit
Didit, didit, didit, didit, didit, didit, didit
Sugar come on
Come on now show your soul
You've been keeping your love under control

Everywhere you go you shout it
You don't have to be shy about it (no)
Everywhere you go you shout it (on high)
Oh my my

And you feel like no-one before
You steal right under my door
I kneel 'cos I want you some more
I want you some more, I want you some more

Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no"
 
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And my least favorite lyric goes like, "freedom has a scent/
like the top of a new born baby's head". Yep, it's from "Miracle Drug". That line really ruins the song. But, U2 have too many good lyrics to list so, I leave you with the bad.
 
...like the top of a newborn baby's head.

A brilliant lyric...one of their best, if you ask me.

It's not about hospitals or baby powder, it's about travail and triumph. It's about the smell of blood and amniotic fluid...it's not fragrant; in fact it might even turn your stomach, but it's the smell of new life and unlimited potential.

It's the smell of Tiananmen Square, the smell of Kabul, the smell of Baghdad and Fallujah. It's the smell of the Rose Revolution in Tibilisi, Georgia, and the Orange Revolution in Kiev, Ukraine. Maybe this'll help: it's the smell of Neo when he woke up onboard the Nebuchadnezzar.

It ain't pretty, but it's a fresh start. And now the sky's the limit.
 
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I really cannot stand the first verse of Yahweh...

I have to talk loudly every time it comes on so no-one else can hear it.


Take these shoes
Click clacking down some dead end street
Take these shoes
And make them fit
Take this shirt
Polyester white trash made in nowhere
Take this shirt
And make it clean, clean
Take this soul
Stranded in some skin and bones
Take this soul
And make it sing
 
I hated the lyrics to Yahweh the first few times I heard it, but now I think they're really lovely. (Except for the bit about the pain before a child is born - it doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the song.)
 
Best:

1) Slieght of hand, and a twist of fate, on a bed of nails she makes me wait.

2) You don't have to go in alone

3) Well hey now, still gotta let ya know, a house doesn't make a home.. don't leave me here alone. - That line is absolutely brilliant. Brings a tear to my eye.




Worst:

I'll give you everything you want, except the thing you want.


(Personally I really like the line from miracle drug that everyone seems to be dissing. If you know the origin of the song, I believe it is a very meaningful and emotional line.)
 
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MacPhistoPT said:
better: STREETS and ONE TREE HILL

worst: many of POP

UF -> AB time has the better lyrics

Worst many of POP I have to humbly disagree.

MOFO ..in my opinion one of Bono's most personal lyrics he has ever written.
Mother, am I still your son?
You know Ive waited so long to hear you say so.
Mother, You left and made me someone,
Now I am still a child.....No none tells me NO!

Gone is brilliant and Please is close behind it.

As far as the worst. I dont know....all the lyrics in Elevation. Im not a huge fan of the first verse in Yahweh either.
 
The lyric that bugs me a little when I hear it is:

"A mole/digging in a hole/digging on my soul/going down/ excavation"
 
bono_gal said:
Best: Have you come here to play jesus to the lepers in your head?

We hurt each other then we do it again

what you got they cant steal it, not they cant even feel it.

we eat and drink while tomorrow they die

I agree with these for "best lyrics".

Although I love this song, I'd have to say "hey hey, sha la la, hey hey sha la la la" are among the worst! Right up there is a mole digging in a hole, digging on my soul now, goin down...:blahblah:
 
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