salomeU2000
The Fly
[SIMG]http://bonovox.interference.com/analysis/allthatyoucantthumb.jpg[/SIMG]
By Kimberly "hippy" Egolf
2003.11
I was having trouble coming up with a topic for this month. In fact, I had given up; called it a day, turned in my word processor...you get the picture. Then, as usual, U2 supplied me with the perfect topic.
I went to the store this afternoon to pick up my very own copy of "U2 Go Home," the new DVD. After some unexpected (and very unappreciated) delays, I sat down to enjoy this monumental and moving concert. And with the first strains of music, by now so familiar to many U2 fans, a topic for this month's column occurred to me.
Each concert on the Elevation tour, without fail, opened with the same two songs--"Elevation" and "Beautiful Day"--both tracks off the 2000 album, "All That You Can't Leave Behind." They also happen to be two of my favorite U2 songs so I'm dedicating this month to them.
"Elevation" is, of course, the song the tour was named after. It opened nearly every concert and never failed to get the crowd pumped up. "Beautiful Day," running seamlessly from "Elevation," continued this energy. These two songs set the mood not only for the entire U2 concert but, indeed, for the entire U2 tour.
The first thing that is noticeable about both songs is that they are quintessential rock songs, driving drums and bass, surreal guitar playing, and incredible vocals. Both songs are also immediately recognizable from their opening chords. They are high-powered, loud-volume, heavy-hitting rock songs. No question.
But the band has cleverly hidden a very important message within the "rock" package. One has only to pay attention to the lyrics to discover that these songs are not like other rock songs on the market. They are dealing in a different currency; the currencies of faith, hope, and love.
In "Elevation," Bono sings of an "I and I in the sky." I and I is the Rastafarian conception of the Godhead, or Jah (which you may have also heard Bono mention during the song "Mysterious Ways"). This "I and I" plays an important role in the song, making Bono feel like he can fly, elevating him. This incredible gift of flight is contrasted to the singer's present state as a mole. Importantly, moles are blind and build their houses/ tunnels without being able to see at all. But their lives are very fragile and tenuous, able to be upset very easily. It is this state, of blind searching and digging, from which the singer desires escape. And the "I and I" is the answer he comes up with to help him.
But it is not faith alone which Bono enlists to help him, love is also asked to "lift [him] out of these blues" and to "tell [him] something true." Thus, faith and love together provide the hope that one day the mole will change into a glorious, seeing bird.
"Beautiful Day" deals with the same topics. As has been reported in various places, the song is about a man who has lost everything and realizes that faith, hope, and love are the only things that he can't leave behind. The first line of the song if full of this extraordinary hope, "The heart is a bloom." After losing everything, it is the heart that begins the process of life again by shooting up through the "stony ground," the life experiences that have hardened the soil.
In "Beautiful Day," the concept of seeing/blindness arises again. But this time the mole has already turned into a bird with an astonishing view of the world:
See the world in green and blue
See China right in front of you
See the canyons broken by a cloud
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out
See the Bedouin fires at night
See the oil fields at first light
And see the bird with the leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colors came out
The last two lines of the above quotation refer specifically to the Bible story about Noah's ark in which the world was destroyed by a flood. But, through faith, Noah survived. After 40 days and nights on the ark, Noah sent out a bird, a dove to be exact, to see whether there was any dry land. When the bird came back with a "leaf in her mouth," Noah rejoiced because God's promise had been fulfilled. God used the rainbow ("all the colors") as a sign that He would never again send a flood to destroy the world.
Bono deftly uses both of these images. The bird with the leaf promises that life will go on, that there is hope in even the most dire situations. And the rainbow promises that things will never be as bad as they were.
Faith, hope, and love are all that the band can't leave behind in these two songs. But these provide enough comfort to always make it a beautiful day.
By Kimberly "hippy" Egolf
2003.11
I was having trouble coming up with a topic for this month. In fact, I had given up; called it a day, turned in my word processor...you get the picture. Then, as usual, U2 supplied me with the perfect topic.
I went to the store this afternoon to pick up my very own copy of "U2 Go Home," the new DVD. After some unexpected (and very unappreciated) delays, I sat down to enjoy this monumental and moving concert. And with the first strains of music, by now so familiar to many U2 fans, a topic for this month's column occurred to me.
Each concert on the Elevation tour, without fail, opened with the same two songs--"Elevation" and "Beautiful Day"--both tracks off the 2000 album, "All That You Can't Leave Behind." They also happen to be two of my favorite U2 songs so I'm dedicating this month to them.
"Elevation" is, of course, the song the tour was named after. It opened nearly every concert and never failed to get the crowd pumped up. "Beautiful Day," running seamlessly from "Elevation," continued this energy. These two songs set the mood not only for the entire U2 concert but, indeed, for the entire U2 tour.
The first thing that is noticeable about both songs is that they are quintessential rock songs, driving drums and bass, surreal guitar playing, and incredible vocals. Both songs are also immediately recognizable from their opening chords. They are high-powered, loud-volume, heavy-hitting rock songs. No question.
But the band has cleverly hidden a very important message within the "rock" package. One has only to pay attention to the lyrics to discover that these songs are not like other rock songs on the market. They are dealing in a different currency; the currencies of faith, hope, and love.
In "Elevation," Bono sings of an "I and I in the sky." I and I is the Rastafarian conception of the Godhead, or Jah (which you may have also heard Bono mention during the song "Mysterious Ways"). This "I and I" plays an important role in the song, making Bono feel like he can fly, elevating him. This incredible gift of flight is contrasted to the singer's present state as a mole. Importantly, moles are blind and build their houses/ tunnels without being able to see at all. But their lives are very fragile and tenuous, able to be upset very easily. It is this state, of blind searching and digging, from which the singer desires escape. And the "I and I" is the answer he comes up with to help him.
But it is not faith alone which Bono enlists to help him, love is also asked to "lift [him] out of these blues" and to "tell [him] something true." Thus, faith and love together provide the hope that one day the mole will change into a glorious, seeing bird.
"Beautiful Day" deals with the same topics. As has been reported in various places, the song is about a man who has lost everything and realizes that faith, hope, and love are the only things that he can't leave behind. The first line of the song if full of this extraordinary hope, "The heart is a bloom." After losing everything, it is the heart that begins the process of life again by shooting up through the "stony ground," the life experiences that have hardened the soil.
In "Beautiful Day," the concept of seeing/blindness arises again. But this time the mole has already turned into a bird with an astonishing view of the world:
See the world in green and blue
See China right in front of you
See the canyons broken by a cloud
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out
See the Bedouin fires at night
See the oil fields at first light
And see the bird with the leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colors came out
The last two lines of the above quotation refer specifically to the Bible story about Noah's ark in which the world was destroyed by a flood. But, through faith, Noah survived. After 40 days and nights on the ark, Noah sent out a bird, a dove to be exact, to see whether there was any dry land. When the bird came back with a "leaf in her mouth," Noah rejoiced because God's promise had been fulfilled. God used the rainbow ("all the colors") as a sign that He would never again send a flood to destroy the world.
Bono deftly uses both of these images. The bird with the leaf promises that life will go on, that there is hope in even the most dire situations. And the rainbow promises that things will never be as bad as they were.
Faith, hope, and love are all that the band can't leave behind in these two songs. But these provide enough comfort to always make it a beautiful day.
such a great analysis!! wow!!
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