But in this case, given the deeply personal nature of the song, and given what comes right before (literally the most personal lyric Bono has ever written), it just feels completely out of place. I completely agree with you that ending it on, "Iris says that I will be the death of her, it was not me.....Iris, Iris..." would've been extremely powerful. It shouldn't have been followed by that fortune cookie lyric.
Free yourself, to be yourself if only you could see yourself
Free yourself, to be yourself if only you could see…
Far from Hollywood ending.
Iris says I'll be the death of her/It was not me
heartbreaking.
this is really a highlight for me. wondering if it should have been the penultimate track.
Best song on the album.
What significance does the word "Machine" have here? I can't figure it out.
Machine, I dream where you are
Iris standing in the hall
She tells me I can do it all
Iris wakes to my nightmares
Don't fear the world
It isn't there
I read in an article that it refers to a Florence and the Machine record Bono gave Ali when they were young. It's apparently an in-joke by Bono right before going into the most personal lyric of the most personal song he's ever written.
Yup, it was Kraftwerk. Don't know why I remembered it as Florence and the Machine.
"Julia" was written for John's mother, Julia Lennon (1914–1958), who was knocked down and killed by a car driven by a drunk off-duty police officer when John was 17 years old.[2] Julia Lennon had encouraged her son's interest in music and bought him his first guitar. But after she split with John's father, John was taken in by his aunt, Mimi, and Julia started a new family with another man; though she lived just a few miles from John, Julia did not spend much time with him for a number of years.[3] Their relationship began to improve as he neared adolescence, though, and in the words of his half-sister, Julia Baird: "As he grew older, John would stay with us more often. He and Daddy got along well enough, and in the evenings when our daddy, a headwaiter, was at work, John and Mummy would sit together and listen to records. She was an Elvis Presley fan from the word go, and she and John would jive around the room to 'Heartbreak Hotel' and other great Elvis songs. John inherited his love of music from her, and she encouraged him to start with piano and banjo, making him play a tune again and again until he got it right."[4]
"I lost her twice," Lennon said. "Once as a five-year-old when I was moved in with my auntie. And once again when she actually physically died."[3]