salomeU2000
The Fly
Brendan McKinney
Oh my love, it's a long way we've come
From the freckled hills, to the steel and glass canyons
From the stony fields, to hanging steel from sky
From digging in our pockets for a reason not to say goodbye
These are the hands that built America
(Russian, Sioux, Dutch, Hindu
Polish, Irish, German, Italian)
Last saw your face in a watercolour sky
As sea birds argued, a long goodbye
I took your kiss on the spray of the new land star
You?ve got to live with your dreams - don't make them so hard
And these are the hands that built America
(The Irish, the Blacks, the Chinese, the Jews
Korean, Hispanic, Muslim, Indian)
Of all of the promises, is this one we could keep?
Of all of the dreams, is this one still out of reach?
It's early fall; there's a cloud on the New York skyline
Innocence dragged across a yellow line
These are the hands that built America
The first stanza establishes the situation of the narrator: an emigrant, poor and of rural origin, settled in the city. Notice how the traditional image of the skyscraper is inverted: rather than the building rising up to meet the sky from below, the sky supports the building from above.
The chorus introduces the theme of the song, the role played by immigrants like the narrator in making the country to which they came, and also (in Bono?s breathy whisper, very difficult to catch) confirms that the song is not limited to the perspective of one individual or nationality.
The second stanza is the most elusive: the narrator recounts his parting from the lover to whom the song is addressed, conjuring up the scene of their separation, but concluding with an unusual admonition. What does it mean not to make ?your dreams? so hard??
The bridge expresses the doubt and anxiety of the separation of lovers and the struggles of immigrants. The implication that the narrator has left someone behind is here expanded into the idea that the parted couple hopes to be reunited in the future.
In the final verse there is a dramatic shift of voice, no less striking for its brevity. Even without the band?s confirmation (see the interview with Edge on U2.com), the reference to September 11 is obvious. The buildings that are invoked in the first verse, and the laboring hands of the chorus, can now be considered in light of the Trade Center and its destruction. The uncertainty and resolve of the immigrants is indirectly but firmly linked to the uncertainty and resolve of America after the 9/11 attacks. The image of the yellow line is the combination of tangibility and ambiguity. The narrator - who is no longer the immigrant of the first verses, but someone with a larger perspective - seems to suggest both the definite change that America underwent on September 11 and the difficulty of defining that change in black-and-white terms.
Oh my love, it's a long way we've come
From the freckled hills, to the steel and glass canyons
From the stony fields, to hanging steel from sky
From digging in our pockets for a reason not to say goodbye
These are the hands that built America
(Russian, Sioux, Dutch, Hindu
Polish, Irish, German, Italian)
Last saw your face in a watercolour sky
As sea birds argued, a long goodbye
I took your kiss on the spray of the new land star
You?ve got to live with your dreams - don't make them so hard
And these are the hands that built America
(The Irish, the Blacks, the Chinese, the Jews
Korean, Hispanic, Muslim, Indian)
Of all of the promises, is this one we could keep?
Of all of the dreams, is this one still out of reach?
It's early fall; there's a cloud on the New York skyline
Innocence dragged across a yellow line
These are the hands that built America
The first stanza establishes the situation of the narrator: an emigrant, poor and of rural origin, settled in the city. Notice how the traditional image of the skyscraper is inverted: rather than the building rising up to meet the sky from below, the sky supports the building from above.
The chorus introduces the theme of the song, the role played by immigrants like the narrator in making the country to which they came, and also (in Bono?s breathy whisper, very difficult to catch) confirms that the song is not limited to the perspective of one individual or nationality.
The second stanza is the most elusive: the narrator recounts his parting from the lover to whom the song is addressed, conjuring up the scene of their separation, but concluding with an unusual admonition. What does it mean not to make ?your dreams? so hard??
The bridge expresses the doubt and anxiety of the separation of lovers and the struggles of immigrants. The implication that the narrator has left someone behind is here expanded into the idea that the parted couple hopes to be reunited in the future.
In the final verse there is a dramatic shift of voice, no less striking for its brevity. Even without the band?s confirmation (see the interview with Edge on U2.com), the reference to September 11 is obvious. The buildings that are invoked in the first verse, and the laboring hands of the chorus, can now be considered in light of the Trade Center and its destruction. The uncertainty and resolve of the immigrants is indirectly but firmly linked to the uncertainty and resolve of America after the 9/11 attacks. The image of the yellow line is the combination of tangibility and ambiguity. The narrator - who is no longer the immigrant of the first verses, but someone with a larger perspective - seems to suggest both the definite change that America underwent on September 11 and the difficulty of defining that change in black-and-white terms.
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