You don't know how beautiful you are

[ltcf]

Is this purposefully related to "Oh you look so beautiful tonight" in COBL? If so, is there a link between the two songs or a link between COBL and NLOTH album? Or is this just a generic lyric with no relation between the two songs?

 

[last unicorn]

I think the concept of beauty is something Bono really likes.

Beauty dictator of the heart, I like that line in SUC.

 

[Rosebud]

I know that these are supposed to be fictitious or third person stories, but I can definitely see Bono thinking of Ali during this line. He has always talked about Ali as such a beauty who was really unaware of it, and that was so attractive to him. I can't imagine this wasn't at least a tiny part of his inspiration for this song.

 

[RedRocksU2]

^ I agree and thought about this when I first heard the song.

 

[Galeongirl]

It's about a fiction character that speaks to his first love. That's what it says in the book that comes with the boxset.

I don't think it has any relation with COBL, since that was written from Bono's perspective.

 

[rihannsu]

Even though he is still trying to talk about the song as if it was about someone else his descriptions in the recent interviews of the song being about a man taking his family out to a fair in the South of France on the eve of the Iraq war invasion sure sound like he is talking about himself and his family. Especially when he slips and says "We could hear the planes flying over on their way to Iraq." I feel that there is a lot on this album that is very personal and Bono was only able to do that by using the masks of these other characters. During ZooTV he used to talk about a quote "give a man a mask and he will tell you the truth", I don't remember who he was quoting. He has also said that the songs are all about personal epiphanies. Just as the Fly shades allowed him the freedom to address the subjects on Achtung Baby, I think the trick of creating characters for these songs allowed him to get very personal and intimate.

Dana