HelloAngel
ONE love, blood, life
By Emily Tipple
2004.10
We have all heard the song, the one that opens with a few rhythmic clicks, followed by a repetitive, electronic loop. Bono’s voice comes through in a bizarre distortion, with one simple word—lemon.
So we may have all heard the song off U2’s “Zooropa,” but what is it about? Popular rumors suggest it to be a song for Bono’s mother, written by him after viewing an old home movie in which his mother wore a particular shade of yellow. Others believe “Lemon” references John Boorman, the director of films including "Deliverance" and "Hope and Glory" who once described his craft as “turning money into light.” It is easy to buy into these explanations, they are both plausible, but can a song like “Lemon” really be so simple?
Listening to the song and reading through the lyrics, I have always felt “Lemon” is so much more then a longing for one’s mother or an off-handed reference to a director. “Lemon” is about imagination, dreams and the driving will to discover that place where those dreams meet reality.
Lemon, See through the sunlight
She wore lemon
But never in the day light
She’s gonna make you cry
She’s gonna make you whisper and moan
But when you’re dry
She draws the water from the stone
I feel like I’m slowly, slowly, slowly slipping under
I feel like I’m holding onto nothing
She wore lemon
To color in the cold grey night
She had heaven
And she held on so tight
On the outside, lemons are a bright fruit, but inside they are bitter. Likewise, dreams are also colorful, but often are the cause of much heartbreak. In this case, “she” is the dream. She is pushing Bono and U2 to chase the impossible. Through all the hardships and failures, she is there, giving comfort and light in the darkness of imagination. In a moment of pure honesty and desperation, Bono’s true voice breaks through in a plea, grasping for a reason to keep moving forward.
A man paints a picture
A moving picture
Through the light projected
He can see himself up close
A man captures color
A man likes to stare
He turns his money into light
To look for her
And I feel like I’m drifting, drifting, drifting from the shore
And I feel like I’m swimming out to her
Midnight is where the day begins
Hard work has paid off, the dream is realized. Bono has described himself as an artist, using words to paint a picture. U2’s imagination is the screen on which those ideas turned itself into reality, something that is alive and moving. And now that the dream has been realized, where do they go? Instead of “holding onto nothing,” Bono now sings of chasing her, of finding a new reason to go on. At the time, ZooTV was turning money, success and stardom into light. ZooTV was the midnight, where a new goal, a new dream was started.
A man builds a city
With banks and cathedrals
A man melts the sand so he can see the world outside (You’re gonna meet her there)
A man makes a car (She’s your destination)
A man builds a road to run them on (You gotta get to her)
A man dreams of leaving (She’s imagination)
But he always stays behind
And these are the days when our work has come asunder
And these are the days when we look for something other
Midnight is where the day begins.
There is a sense of urgency now. That first flicker of an idea has become reality and a desperate search has begun for something new, something else to reach and strive for. Success is being broken (or melted) down and reexamined in order to keep the reality from falling apart. In the end, “Lemon” takes U2 full circle, and at the same time marks the start of a new beginning.
This is just one interpretation. Music is subjective, each listener will hear a different tale, maybe even finding themselves lost somewhere in the music and lyrics. But, perhaps, “Lemon” is the story of a young band starting out with big dreams and big ideas. After U2’s success and stardom gained from “The Joshua Tree,” they sought to “dream it all up again” and “Lemon” describes that journey from dreams to realization and back again. After all, as we learned from "The Fly," “ambition bites the nails of success.”
2004.10
We have all heard the song, the one that opens with a few rhythmic clicks, followed by a repetitive, electronic loop. Bono’s voice comes through in a bizarre distortion, with one simple word—lemon.
So we may have all heard the song off U2’s “Zooropa,” but what is it about? Popular rumors suggest it to be a song for Bono’s mother, written by him after viewing an old home movie in which his mother wore a particular shade of yellow. Others believe “Lemon” references John Boorman, the director of films including "Deliverance" and "Hope and Glory" who once described his craft as “turning money into light.” It is easy to buy into these explanations, they are both plausible, but can a song like “Lemon” really be so simple?
Listening to the song and reading through the lyrics, I have always felt “Lemon” is so much more then a longing for one’s mother or an off-handed reference to a director. “Lemon” is about imagination, dreams and the driving will to discover that place where those dreams meet reality.
Lemon, See through the sunlight
She wore lemon
But never in the day light
She’s gonna make you cry
She’s gonna make you whisper and moan
But when you’re dry
She draws the water from the stone
I feel like I’m slowly, slowly, slowly slipping under
I feel like I’m holding onto nothing
She wore lemon
To color in the cold grey night
She had heaven
And she held on so tight
On the outside, lemons are a bright fruit, but inside they are bitter. Likewise, dreams are also colorful, but often are the cause of much heartbreak. In this case, “she” is the dream. She is pushing Bono and U2 to chase the impossible. Through all the hardships and failures, she is there, giving comfort and light in the darkness of imagination. In a moment of pure honesty and desperation, Bono’s true voice breaks through in a plea, grasping for a reason to keep moving forward.
A man paints a picture
A moving picture
Through the light projected
He can see himself up close
A man captures color
A man likes to stare
He turns his money into light
To look for her
And I feel like I’m drifting, drifting, drifting from the shore
And I feel like I’m swimming out to her
Midnight is where the day begins
Hard work has paid off, the dream is realized. Bono has described himself as an artist, using words to paint a picture. U2’s imagination is the screen on which those ideas turned itself into reality, something that is alive and moving. And now that the dream has been realized, where do they go? Instead of “holding onto nothing,” Bono now sings of chasing her, of finding a new reason to go on. At the time, ZooTV was turning money, success and stardom into light. ZooTV was the midnight, where a new goal, a new dream was started.
A man builds a city
With banks and cathedrals
A man melts the sand so he can see the world outside (You’re gonna meet her there)
A man makes a car (She’s your destination)
A man builds a road to run them on (You gotta get to her)
A man dreams of leaving (She’s imagination)
But he always stays behind
And these are the days when our work has come asunder
And these are the days when we look for something other
Midnight is where the day begins.
There is a sense of urgency now. That first flicker of an idea has become reality and a desperate search has begun for something new, something else to reach and strive for. Success is being broken (or melted) down and reexamined in order to keep the reality from falling apart. In the end, “Lemon” takes U2 full circle, and at the same time marks the start of a new beginning.
This is just one interpretation. Music is subjective, each listener will hear a different tale, maybe even finding themselves lost somewhere in the music and lyrics. But, perhaps, “Lemon” is the story of a young band starting out with big dreams and big ideas. After U2’s success and stardom gained from “The Joshua Tree,” they sought to “dream it all up again” and “Lemon” describes that journey from dreams to realization and back again. After all, as we learned from "The Fly," “ambition bites the nails of success.”
