With or Without You is the most depressing song EVER written

[Basstrap]

Its just so desperate and hopeless.

I see it as this guy who loves a girl so much he literally can't live without her...but at the same time the situation is such that they cant be together.

What do you do when you can't live without a certain person but are kept apart from them for some reason?

This songs reduces me to a puddle of tears almost everytime!

 

[FallingStar]

What do you do when you can't live without a certain person but are kept apart from them for some reason?

I'm not kept apart from the persons I love. *is quiet* Sorry, basstrap.......
...........but however, I don't think it is With Or Without You......I'd say it is Love Is Blindness.........that's depressing and such a love can break you.........

 

[dizzy]

Basstrap, you're right, but what really gets me is the way it sounds isn't really depressing. WOWY is intense and rather dark. It's obssessive. It's wanting what you don't/can't have, yet wanting more of what you already have. What's interesting is that people most often than not think of it as a positive, usual love song, especially during live shows.

 

[JessicaAnn]

(((Bass)))

You're thinking about her aren't you.

It is such a sad song ... U2 have never written any nice love songs ... they all tend to be very messy and sad.

 

[dsmith2904]

WOWY is an incredibly sad song, but so are the majority of U2's love songs. Rather than being all romantic and cheerful and hopeful, U2 love songs deal more with sex and desire and disapointment and obsession. When I hear songs like WOWY or EBTTRT, I think it's about being involved with a person you know is completely wrong for you but there's something holding you there (great sex, fear of loneliness, whatever), so you have to reconcile that within yourself -- is momentary happiness worth what could be a lifetime of misery?

 

[Basstrap]

and she gives herself away...

Here is a guy who would treat her like a queen but she's not interested...instead, she "gives herself away" to losers who don't think as highly of her as they should.

 

[dsmith2904]

and she gives herself away...

Here is a guy who would treat her like a queen but she's not interested...instead, she "gives herself away" to losers who don't think as highly of her as they should.

Or he sees them as losers. It's like the last line in "...Wild Horses" -- "Who's gonna take the place of me?" It's this desperate cockiness, like he can't believe that there is anyone else in the world as good for this girl as he is. Maybe he's no good for her either, maybe he's not the only one being hurt in this situation.

 

[pax]

U2 have never written any nice love songs ... they all tend to be very messy and sad.

Oh, come on now. What about "All I Want Is You" and "Promenade" and "Two Hearts Beat as One" and "Ultraviolet" and "Grace" (could be a love song) and "Always" and "The First Time" and...

I mean, just because some of those songs (here I particularly think of "AIWIY" and "The First Time") can be read as double-edged hardly disqualifies them from being gorgeous love songs. Me, I hope someday to hear "AIWIY" at my wedding.

 

[Basstrap]

Ultraviolt----->

 

[dizzy]

It is such a sad song ... U2 have never written any nice love songs ... they all tend to be very messy and sad.

Yeah, I read somewhere that Bono said about there being too much sappy love songs that we don't really need more of them. So I guess, most often than not, he opts to write about the dark, negative side of love.

 

[pax]

I honestly don't know where you're all getting this from. Maybe we're just reading the songs differently--where I see a song like "AIWIY" as merely being double-edged, someone else could see it as the depressive musings of someone hopelessly in love with a shallow, narrow-minded materialist. Blarg.

But I would still strongly argue against the fact that U2's love songs are categorically depressing. "Promenade" is a good example; that song is full of beautiful imagery and has a fuzzy, loopy, Mazzy-Star-ish feeling.

Earth sky sea and rain
Is she coming back again...

And I like a firework explode
Roman candle lightning lights up the sky...

Slide show, seaside town,
Coca Cola, football, radio, radio, radio...

It's all about love and the "background noise"--the fact that real love exists in a world that is made more beautiful by its presence.

 

[RickFly]

that is nothing compared to the heartache in "mothers of the dissapeard"

 

[dizzy]

I honestly don't know where you're all getting this from. Maybe we're just reading the songs differently--where I see a song like "AIWIY" as merely being double-edged, someone else could see it as the depressive musings of someone hopelessly in love with a shallow, narrow-minded materialist. Blarg.

But I would still strongly argue against the fact that U2's love songs are categorically depressing. "Promenade" is a good example; that song is full of beautiful imagery and has a fuzzy, loopy, Mazzy-Star-ish feeling.

Well, AIWY is not depressing for me. It's quite beautiful and positive. IMO, the interesting thing about the sad love songs of U2 (like WOWY) come out rather thought-provoking, that you don't have time to feel depressed. It's only when you dig into the lyrics that you realize that it is a sad song. For instance, "So Cruel" didn't really depress me, but that's one song about love lost.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

that is nothing compared to the heartache in "mothers of the dissapeard"

exactly. i was waiting for someone else to mention that.

for me, the two most depressing U2 songs are motd and love is blindness, in that order.

 

[Bono's shades]

The lyrics to With or Without You are indeed dark and depressing, but the song doesn't make me FEEL depressed. I think it is because it is just so beautiful - the melody, the ethereal-sounding guitar, the amazing way the song is structured, I could go on and on. Plus, it is the first U2 song I ever heard so I have happy memories associated with it.

 

[RickFly]

glad you think that mothers is a sad one also. i personally dont know in my opinion that love is blindness is depressing. i think that it is a very sexual song. kind of like 2 individuals making love for the first time.
"you see your love made complete"
thread is ripping the night is slipping"

 

[FallingStar]

glad you think that mothers is a sad one also. i personally dont know in my opinion that love is blindness is depressing. i think that it is a very sexual song. kind of like 2 individuals making love for the first time.
"you see your love made complete"
thread is ripping the night is slipping"

You see your love made complete,
Thread is ripping, the knot is slipping,
Love is blindness.

That's the real lyric, but anyway, it's the first time that I hear that interpretation. Cool one though.

 

[Laura M]

The lyrics to With or Without You are indeed dark and depressing, but the song doesn't make me FEEL depressed. I think it is because it is just so beautiful - the melody, the ethereal-sounding guitar, the amazing way the song is structured, I could go on and on. .

I agree!

I think So Cruel is very sad- after i met a guy who said he was in love with a girl and he flew her to Paris and she told him she was cheating on him and he told me he played that song for about a month solid- everytime i hear it i think of the poor wee guy

P.s. (falling star pssst i Pm'd u yesterday-do u loike my new username )

 

[Bonochick]

I see AIWIY as a long song...drgn and I consider it "our" song (it was playin' when he proposed...).

To me, it's about a woman and a man who love each other...but the woman values things she shouldn't over just cherishing her partner, as the man just cherishes hers....

You say you want
Diamonds on a ring of gold
You say you want
Your story to remain untold

But all the promises we make
From the cradle to the grave
When all I want is you


The woman puts too much worth into material things...she feels she has to show her love through gifts...yet the man still just wants her...

You say you'll give me
A highway with no one on it
Treasure just to look upon it
All the riches in the night

You say you'll give me
Eyes in a moon of blindness
A river in a time of dryness
A harbour in the tempest
But all the promises we make
From the cradle to the grave
When all I want is you

Finally...the woman begins to want the right things...however, a part of her will always want the diamonds...and to keep some private stories and secrets to herself...but she realizes she also wants to share true love with her man (keeps old habits, but realizes what love means):

You say you want
Your love to work out right
To last with me through the night


You say you want
Diamonds on a ring of gold
Your story to remain untold
Your love not to grow cold


All the promises we break
From the cradle to the grave
When all I want is you


You...all I want is...
You...all I want is...
You...all I want is...
You...

That's how I've always interpreted the song. It really reminds me of myself and John. All John has ever wanted is me...but sometimes I have put more value and worth in things that I shouldn't, and it overshadows the true love we have. John has helped to change that quality of me though...and I'm still working on it.

 

[Lilly]

glad you think that mothers is a sad one also. i personally dont know in my opinion that love is blindness is depressing. i think that it is a very sexual song. kind of like 2 individuals making love for the first time.
"you see your love made complete"
thread is ripping the night is slipping"

i've always thought of this as intensely sexual, but still losing. the lovers are ripping into each other, but getting nothing back but time passage. i think that it's very interesting to see the different perspectives from males and females about these lyrics.

 

[FallingStar]

pssst Lara Mullen: I answered already yesterday.

 

[dsmith2904]

While I completely adore "UltraViolet" and some of U2's other more upbeat love songs (like "Two Hearts Beat As One" or "Spanish Eyes") there is still a lot of sadness and desperation there. He always needs her so much, he is so lost, so conflicted without her. It is really great to need and be needed, but the idea of one person maybe not being able to function without another is really sad to me. I guess I'm just a fan of love, and lovers, being equal.
A couple of people brought up "So Cruel" before -- that song kills me. It's like this horrible realization that this person you thought was so right for you, that you gave so much to is not the person you thought they were at all. You want to hurt them back as much as they hurt you, but maybe you're not strong enough, or cruel enough.

 

[adamswildhoney]

I love this song, even tho its so depressing!

 

[BigMacPhisto]

It's funny to see how many people don't understand the song and feel that it's one of the great love ballads and play it at their wedding. It's definitely one of the most misunderstood songs ever made.

 

[FallingStar]

It's funny to see how many people don't understand the song and feel that it's one of the great love ballads and play it at their wedding. It's definitely one of the most misunderstood songs ever made.

I can't quite----agree with this. It is known that Edge wrote that when getting divorced from Aislinn , but maybe he wrote it also with a similar thought of a love ballad in mind. You don't know what's going on in his mind......
For me and many others it is a fantastic song about a broken love, but others see a completely different thing in the lyrics and the music.
That's the brilliant thing on songs: You can turn every song into your [own] prayer.

 

[Lilly]

I can't quite----agree with this. It is known that Edge wrote that when getting divorced from Aislinn , but maybe he wrote it also with a similar thought of a love ballad in mind. You don't know what's going on in his mind......
For me and many others it is a fantastic song about a broken love, but others see a completely different thing in the lyrics and the music.
That's the brilliant thing on songs: You can turn every song into your [own] prayer.

divorces are very cruel fallingstar. i wouldn't wish that feeling on any family, ever .

can't live...with or without you.

well, that is so obvious, but so deep. it's this habit, like...you can't imagine life without them. it's hard to explain this. i am assuming you are rather young (no doubt older than i am). so take a sibling or a best friend (things i assume you have one or the other or both of), and imagine that you are unibrains...very close, but you relationship is tested and breaks. you don't want it to go away, do you? no, you remember the good times you've had. but you can't forget the tresspass that just happened. you want to keep them so bad, but there's no way you can. so you break away from them. and life is hard without them, it's just not the same, but you learn to cope. you cannot live with or without them. it's torture of the soul, and that's the worst kind imo.


soul tochure makes you stronger, but it hurts, so much pain. i need to go now.

 

[pax]

It's funny to see how many people don't understand the song and feel that it's one of the great love ballads and play it at their wedding. It's definitely one of the most misunderstood songs ever made.

They're probably the same people who have "The One I Love" by R.E.M. played at their weddings.

 

[Bono's shades]

They're probably the same people who have "The One I Love" by R.E.M. played at their weddings.

Or "Every Breath You Take" by the Police. Sometimes I wonder if people even listen to song lyrics.

The only U2 songs I could ever imagine having played at my wedding if I ever do get married are "Promenade" or "Luminous Times (Hold on to Love)."

 

[Lilly]

"Luminous Times (Hold on to Love)."

i find that the phrase "luminous times" comes in handy when satirizing things. in exaple:

friend: dood, i lost my favorite sunglasses.

me: luminous times indeed.


yeah...i'm not funny....*walks away in shame*

 

[dizzy]

Or "Every Breath You Take" by the Police. Sometimes I wonder if people even listen to song lyrics.

Exactly. That song's obsessiveness reminds me of WOWY, actually.