salomeU2000
The Fly
[SIMG]http://bonovox.interference.com/reviews/kitethumb.jpg[/SIMG]
By Gregory Mc Guire
Under-shadowed by the opening bliss of All That You Can?t Leave Behind?s four singles, ?Kite? lies as the moody, rather emotional and rich-in-meaning fifth track. To look first at it musically, the song begins with an uncommon but fitting organ intro before kicking into serious action with an even less common searing slide-based riff by The Edge. Several rhythmic guitars comprise the layering of the song - one of Edge?s only pieces to make such use of dramatic sliding.
Lyrically, the focus of the song is a matter of some debate. To put it in very simple terms, it is about the acceptance of death as a part of life. ?I?m not afraid to die, I?m not afraid to live? denotes a seemingly calm acceptance of life, while ?and when I?m flat on my back, I hope you feel like I did? sounds as if the narrator is an old man, smiling as he remembers his long journey through life.
Bono has said before live, that ?Kite? is a song that ?I thought I wrote for my children, but I realised that my father wrote it for me.? It seems an almost definite foresight about his father?s passing in lines such as. ?I want you to know that you don?t need me anymore.?
The beauty of U2 lyrics in the past have been that so many different people get so many different meanings out of their songs. Whatever way you look at it though, ?Kite? seems like a passing-on song, the end of one generation at the start of another.
Bono?s posit during the chorus that ?I don?t know which way the wind will blow? feels like an acceptance by the narrator that although he is at comfort with the past, the future is as just an open field to him as it is to anyone else. The analogy of the ?kite blowing out of control in the breeze? is a simple metaphor for the uncertainty of life, and how a single gust of wind could change everything.
In the third verse, the narrator seems to come to a hitch. The cry of ?I?m a man, not a child? seems as much to him himself as to anyone - attempting to convince himself perhaps that yes, his time is up. Meanwhile, ?a man who sees the shadow behind your eyes? sounds as if he?s putting the person spoken to in his place, once again perhaps a sign that he is not as fully in acceptance as hinted so strongly in the first two verses.
The final verse seems like a summary of thought. ?Did I waste it? Not so much I couldn?t taste it,? Bono ponders, as if questioning all his decisions and motives while on his deathbed. Referring most likely to himself in the line ?the last of the rock stars,? his pride, content and acceptance, seemingly lost for a moment, appears restored.
Since his father?s death in August 2001, Bono has emotionally dedicated this song several times to Bob Hewson. Never then on the August 25th 2001 performance at Slane Castle, a mere 24-hours after the burial of his father, did ?Kite? take on so much emotion. And never have the lines ?I know that this is not goodbye? made so much sense. Is it possible Bono stating that this is a song that his father wrote for him mean that this is how he imagines his father felt about their last times together? Another clue to that is in the fact that he changes the line about the rock stars to ?the last of the opera stars? (referring to Bob) during the concert.
In conclusion, I believe that ?Kite? is an insightful and beautiful song, one U2?s greatest, in fact. And indeed my lyrical interpretations are, of course, only my own and you are free to take your own meaning out of the song, as Bono has so often publicly encouraged.
Sl?n until the next column!
Copyright ? 2003 Gregory McGuire.
By Gregory Mc Guire
Under-shadowed by the opening bliss of All That You Can?t Leave Behind?s four singles, ?Kite? lies as the moody, rather emotional and rich-in-meaning fifth track. To look first at it musically, the song begins with an uncommon but fitting organ intro before kicking into serious action with an even less common searing slide-based riff by The Edge. Several rhythmic guitars comprise the layering of the song - one of Edge?s only pieces to make such use of dramatic sliding.
Lyrically, the focus of the song is a matter of some debate. To put it in very simple terms, it is about the acceptance of death as a part of life. ?I?m not afraid to die, I?m not afraid to live? denotes a seemingly calm acceptance of life, while ?and when I?m flat on my back, I hope you feel like I did? sounds as if the narrator is an old man, smiling as he remembers his long journey through life.
Bono has said before live, that ?Kite? is a song that ?I thought I wrote for my children, but I realised that my father wrote it for me.? It seems an almost definite foresight about his father?s passing in lines such as. ?I want you to know that you don?t need me anymore.?
The beauty of U2 lyrics in the past have been that so many different people get so many different meanings out of their songs. Whatever way you look at it though, ?Kite? seems like a passing-on song, the end of one generation at the start of another.
Bono?s posit during the chorus that ?I don?t know which way the wind will blow? feels like an acceptance by the narrator that although he is at comfort with the past, the future is as just an open field to him as it is to anyone else. The analogy of the ?kite blowing out of control in the breeze? is a simple metaphor for the uncertainty of life, and how a single gust of wind could change everything.
In the third verse, the narrator seems to come to a hitch. The cry of ?I?m a man, not a child? seems as much to him himself as to anyone - attempting to convince himself perhaps that yes, his time is up. Meanwhile, ?a man who sees the shadow behind your eyes? sounds as if he?s putting the person spoken to in his place, once again perhaps a sign that he is not as fully in acceptance as hinted so strongly in the first two verses.
The final verse seems like a summary of thought. ?Did I waste it? Not so much I couldn?t taste it,? Bono ponders, as if questioning all his decisions and motives while on his deathbed. Referring most likely to himself in the line ?the last of the rock stars,? his pride, content and acceptance, seemingly lost for a moment, appears restored.
Since his father?s death in August 2001, Bono has emotionally dedicated this song several times to Bob Hewson. Never then on the August 25th 2001 performance at Slane Castle, a mere 24-hours after the burial of his father, did ?Kite? take on so much emotion. And never have the lines ?I know that this is not goodbye? made so much sense. Is it possible Bono stating that this is a song that his father wrote for him mean that this is how he imagines his father felt about their last times together? Another clue to that is in the fact that he changes the line about the rock stars to ?the last of the opera stars? (referring to Bob) during the concert.
In conclusion, I believe that ?Kite? is an insightful and beautiful song, one U2?s greatest, in fact. And indeed my lyrical interpretations are, of course, only my own and you are free to take your own meaning out of the song, as Bono has so often publicly encouraged.
Sl?n until the next column!
Copyright ? 2003 Gregory McGuire.
