Your interpretations of Magnificent

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U2387

U2387

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Like the rest of us, I love this song, but I dont think it fully hit me how great this song is until about a week ago.

Anyways, I know all of U2's songs can be interpreted in different ways, but do we have a dominant one here? I could see a relationship, marriage, friends, the world in general, Bono to the band, etc, but really cant narrow it down to what I really think this song means.

Also, didn't Bono say something about the Iraq war and how the band felt as it began helped inspire this song?(I am thinking a BBC radio appearance about a month back- I know he said this about Boots, but also about magnificent as well, just cant find it)

Thanks in advance!
 
Bono said it was inspired by the Magnificat. It is a song about surrendering your gift to God and about magnifying God through your relationship with others.

Dana
 
I love this song, I think it has several meanings.

Personally, I like the idea that it could be about Bono's relationship with the band.
 
For me, this is the most blatant praise song (to God) that Bono has ever written. I covered this on a thread in the "Goal is Soul" forum, but here it is:

One of Bono's catch phrases about spiritual life is his belief that we should "Give back to God." Claim things for Him. Use them to God's glory. Therefore, "I give you back my voice."

"joyful noise" is an oft-repeated phrase used in the book of Psalms, as in "make a joyful noise unto the Lord." For anyone familiar with the Bible and U2's history, you know that the book of Psalms (more than any other single reference in terms of volume) has been an enormous source of inspiration for the band's work.

"Justified" - one of God's most important aspects of Grace imputed to a Christian. (Discussed for example in Acts 13:39 and Romans 3:22-24.) The most simple way to state the meaning is this: In God's eyes, a person accepting the gift of Grace is viewed by God "Just-if-I'd never sinned."

"will magnify the Magnificent" -as someone else says, this refers to the Christian's ability to reflect God to other people.
 
When I read the lyrics first time, I thought about a song about mother and child.

"I was born to be with you" , "I was born to sing for you", "from the womb my first cry" (birth) , etc...

the "mark" and "scar" can be a reference to the navel, and only love can come from a birth.

Also Magnificent is I think a reference to the Magnificat which is also known as the Song of Mary, mother of the Christ, so one more clue on this song about mothers.
 
chrisss999 said:
the "mark" and "scar" can be a reference to the navel, and only love can come from a birth.
Click to expand...

Ooops, I forgot about that one: Bono has a habit of quoting authors, and the refrain from the song is almost verbatim from the NYT best-selling Christian fiction novel "The Shack." In that book, the main character encounters a human embodiment of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. The man is surprised to see the nail scars of the crucifixion on God's wrists, and God replies with something like, "Only love could leave such a significant mark."
 
I read one interpretation somewhere that the song had a concept similar, in a sense, to that of the Greek Muses... at any rate, I think it ties into art/music, in a "social" sense.

I'm not sure that makes sense to anyone but me.

EDIT: Here's a Lanois quote: "And then I was involved in the lyrical process on that, because we wanted to talk about sacrifice that one makes for one's medium or one's art."

Kinda brilliant, really.
 
UAME said:
For me, this is the most blatant praise song (to God) that Bono has ever written. I covered this on a thread in the "Goal is Soul" forum, but here it is:

One of Bono's catch phrases about spiritual life is his belief that we should "Give back to God." Claim things for Him. Use them to God's glory. Therefore, "I give you back my voice."

"joyful noise" is an oft-repeated phrase used in the book of Psalms, as in "make a joyful noise unto the Lord." For anyone familiar with the Bible and U2's history, you know that the book of Psalms (more than any other single reference in terms of volume) has been an enormous source of inspiration for the band's work.

"Justified" - one of God's most important aspects of Grace imputed to a Christian. (Discussed for example in Acts 13:39 and Romans 3:22-24.) The most simple way to state the meaning is this: In God's eyes, a person accepting the gift of Grace is viewed by God "Just-if-I'd never sinned."

"will magnify the Magnificent" -as someone else says, this refers to the Christian's ability to reflect God to other people.
Click to expand...

That's it for me too.
 
I think its amazing about U2 songs that hey can mean so many different things for people. This song brings back happy and sad memories to me.
Sorry to get a bit deep but i'm sure you will understand.

I see this song as sung by my son who sadly died at 8 months old 5 years ago.

Especially the part about my first cry was a joyful noise, he was 12 weeks premature and had severe lung problems. When he was born he made a little cry as if to say i'm here when he shouldn't of been able due to his lungs being so bad.

Also where the lyrics mention about i was born to sing for you, means to me that his purpose was to bring joy in our lives even though it was a tragic situation. And the main chorus, mentioning that love can heal a scar. The heart is so powerful in the medical sense and the emotional sense which certainly meant something to us.

Apologies for going so deep but i like to break down all U2 songs and try to fit them into what i see from then. They usually go back to my son but that being such a huge part of my life it would do.

Ultraviolet - Baby light my way - A song for him to guide us through our life.
Original of the Species - A tribute to him
Breathe - I see this has what we were going through after he died, wanting to go out into the streets and shout and say we are still alive.
Crazy tonight - Wanting to go out and get drunk to relieve the pressure

Sorry again for going on and on.
 
Some un-finished thoughts...

I took this song to be about, among other things, Bono re-interpreting his life in a more positive, life-affirming manner.

He has spoken in the past of how, as a child, he was born crying and didn't stop crying until he was sent to school. Some of the first lines of 'Out of Control' from Boy reflect this:

"It was one dull morning / I woke the world with bawlng / I was so sad, they were so glad "

Sort of a bittersweet description of his own birth, where his family was overjoyed but he was miserable. Contrast this to Magnificent's re-interpretation of those first moments of life:

"..my first cry, it was a joyful noise!"

Another milestone in Bono's life was the loss of his mother, which scarred him for life.

"only love can leave such a mark"

And yet, today feeling more and more whole, he realizes that it's that sense of loss for a loved one that drove him on, and to finally feel whole again after years of searching

"only love can heal such a scar"

He even talks about his troubled relationship with his father, whose attention and approval he always wanted:

"I was born to sing for you/ I didn't have a choice"

When his father died, Bono's voice was more or less a shambles from various things - allegies, singing, smoking. Bono liked to say that his dad's opera was what inspired his singing, but that after his death, it was almost like his dad imparted him with the gift of his old voice again:

'I give you back my voice'

there's dual meaning there. His father restoring his son's voice, but also Bono, now alone and his own man, giving it back because he can stand on his own now.

which leads into his re-interpretation of his crying at infancy, something his dad might have complained about:

"from the womb, my first cry.."
 
chrisss999 said:
When I read the lyrics first time, I thought about a song about mother and child.

"I was born to be with you" , "I was born to sing for you", "from the womb my first cry" (birth) , etc...

the "mark" and "scar" can be a reference to the navel, and only love can come from a birth.

Also Magnificent is I think a reference to the Magnificat which is also known as the Song of Mary, mother of the Christ, so one more clue on this song about mothers.
Click to expand...

I had this first interpretation too :

From the womb my first cry, it was a joyful noise…
 
break rhyme

Hello everybody!

This is my first contribution to the forum.

As a non-native speaker, I am trying to make sense of the song lyrics, but I keep stumbling upon the expression "break rhyme". Anyone can help me as to what that may mean in this particular context?:

I was born
I was born to be with you
In this space and time
After that and ever after I haven´t had a clue
Only to break rhyme
This foolishness can leave a heart black and blue

Thanks a lot!
 
I thought about that line too. To me, much like the song, it's all about Bono's gift of music.
I didn't have a clue only to break rhyme -- I didn't really have a choice to be anything but a songwriter.
 
I always thought it had several meanings, but mostly I feel like it's talking to a combination of God and his mother.
 
It is (IMO) definitely a praise song to the Magnificent

kingofsorrow said:
^yes the god and mother theme seems very apparent in this song and a recurring theme in other songs. Maybe it has something to with these characters being both abscent and present in bono's life.
Click to expand...

This song is written in similar vein to U2's earliest works (October and War). In fact, I still see the spiritual underpinnings to 75% (or so) of U2's songs. The Unknown Caller is likely none other than God saying "Hush and hear my voice" as in the book of Psalms. The Lamb as white as Snow in is a reference to the Lamb who was slain (Christ).
 
NLOTH is their most spiritual album to me, and Magnificent is at its centerpiece as a huge worship anthem, but as with all their music (outside of the bare, heart-on-your-sleeve emotion of the Bomb) it isn't explicit, it resonates on more than one level, as a man-woman love song, or art and the band, its plain that a non-religious person could not notice most of Bono's references, but they're there.
 
U2girl said:
I thought about that line too. To me, much like the song, it's all about Bono's gift of music.
I didn't have a clue only to break rhyme -- I didn't really have a choice to be anything but a songwriter.
Click to expand...

I agree.

It's not something you can chose, it's something that choses you, a gift.
 
UAME said:
Ooops, I forgot about that one: Bono has a habit of quoting authors, and the refrain from the song is almost verbatim from the NYT best-selling Christian fiction novel "The Shack." In that book, the main character encounters a human embodiment of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. The man is surprised to see the nail scars of the crucifixion on God's wrists, and God replies with something like, "Only love could leave such a significant mark."
Click to expand...

I just read that book and when I read that line I almost fell off my chair (as the sounds of Magnificent filled my head). The book (Shack) was written in 2007, so presumably long before Magnificent was penned by B. So...is there a specifice biblical reference that both writers are referencing with this sentiment, OR was B "inspired" by the book, and hence used that line almost verbatim? I don't really care either way, but am interested in the conclusions of others.
Cheers,
 
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