Achtung Bubba
Refugee
Well, I've been slowly easing my way back into the forum after a year of being way too busy in college and completely disconnected over the summer, and now I think I can afford to get back into the full swing of things -- at least in so far as being able to post regularly and check some of the more interesting threads.
So consider my hiatus over, and consider this to be my first post-hiatus thread:
I believe U2's "New York" to be one of their most complicated songs ever written.
First of all, by "complicated", I mean sonically and lyrically dense. Soncially dense in that, like "Discotheque", repeated listens reveal sounds you hadn't noticed before -- and, like "With or Without You", there are constrasting sounds and rhythms. Lyrically dense in that, like "Babyface" or "Until the End of the World," there are
hidden meanings; and like "So Cruel" there are ambiguities.
Secondly, by no means does the complexity of the song mean that necessarily I believe it to be the band's best song, or my favorite (although it's close in both counts). But it does make the song very interesting to listen to.
There is actually no obviously systematic way to cover the song, so I'll do so the only way that seems possible: second by second.
0:00
Here, at the beginning of the song, there are contrasting rhythms, much like the contrast in "With or Without You": a slow guitar(?) part against a pretty incessent (albeit quiet) drumbeat. It sounds like morning in the city; the city stretches as it wakes, but a few of its inhabitants are already moving quickly into action. And to add another layer of complexity, the background noise strangely resembles the cooing of pigeons.
0:30
A moment of dead silence, which BRILLIANTLY mimics the startling darkness and quiet of entering a tunnel on the way to work -- the instant disappearance and reappearance of the sun and the radio station.
0:31
The rhythm returns with Adam's bass and a few "liquid" guitar flourishes; the city is awake.
Now, after the longest prelude thus far in the album (to be outdone by "Grace"), the lyrical subtleties:
0:48
In New York freedom looks like
Too many choices
Here, the character (not necessarily Bono, since the song is not necessarily autobiographical) echoes ZooTV's notion of overload and the Passengers' "Corpse (These Chains Are Way Too Long)". Here, he revels in having *almost* too much freedom.
0:55
In New York I found a friend
To drown out the other voices
Here is one of the most ambiguous lines of the song. Taken literally, the character has found someone in the city to be his friend and accomplice in his escape from his normal life. It could also refer to an illicit lover, an affair that becomes his first priority. Or it could mean that (just like the phrase "in you I've found a friend"), his friend is the city itself -- much the way that another character was obsessed found Miami to be "my mammy".
1:10
Just got a place in New York
As Bono observed in the latest edition of Stokes' Into the Heart, this place "could be a shoebox." The fact that the character has an apartment or something -- anything -- is important in that it offers him a starting point for his new life in New York. Further, this line could autobiographical, since Bono did recently buy a New York apartment, but that's useful, too; the line catches people's attention, blurs the line between song and autobiography, and upsets a few listeners. It ultimately leads people to listen more closely.
1:33
Hot as a hair dryer in your face
Hot as handbag and a can of mace
New York
I just got a place in New York
These lines have a production mark worth noting: For the "in your face" and the "and a can of mace..." parts, there is an overdubbing that gives the effect of singing through a bullhorn, found in common use by urban policemen. Beyond that, the imagery of heat, women (handbags), and crime (which necessitates mace) further heightens the dirtiness, sexuality, danger, and ultimately the allure of the city.
1:58
In New York you can forget
Forget how to sit still
Tell yourself you will stay in
But it's down to Alphaville
The phrase to "forget how to sit still" can have two meanings that I see: you can choose to forget, or you have no choice but to forget ("you can forget about it"). Apparently, you can tell yourself you'll "stay in for the night", but you end up on the streets. That's when the music that has finally been building "all day" explodes into the whirling chaos of the city night life.
The chorus is also just an obsession over New York, appropriate to the character's emotional state. It's rhythmically irregular and vocally difficult -- the musical signs of stress.
2:42
The Irish been coming here for years
Feel like they own the place
They got the airport, city hall
Asphalt, asphalt
They even got the police
At this point, the music returns to the still busy, but relatively calm rhythm of "daytime". The references to the Irish may be broad statements, but there are two obvious connections: the Irish "own" the airport named after the Irish American, John F. Kennedy; and there is a long-held stereotype (probably based in some old truths) of Irish cops in northern American cities.
2:56
Irish, Italians, Jews and Hispanics
Religious nuts, political fanatics in the stew
Happily not like me and you
It's first relieving that U2 didn't devolve into the bigotry that Michael Jackson used a few years back. Beyond that, Bono uses terms that have been doubtlessly thrown at U2 by other rock bands: religious nuts and political fanatics. There is a question of how to interpret the last line above: either the other inhabitants are happy that they do not resemble the character; or the character is prejudiced and glad they aren't "like him"; or he revels in the diversity, and thus the opportunity to be himself.
3:10
That's where I lost you
New York
The chaos resumes, signifying the beginning of the second night.
3:45
The end of the second night, and the beginning of the third day.
3:51
In New York I lost it all
To you and your vices
Still I'm staying on to figure out
My midlife crisis
Again, the character could have lost everything to the vices of the city itself. And the "midlife crisis" is another line to bring in the ambiguity of autobiography. The question is, is the character "staying on" at home or in New York?
4:05
I hit an iceberg in my life
You know I'm still afloat
You lose your balance, lose your wife
In the queue for the lifeboat
You got to put the women and children first
But you've got an unquenchable thirst for New York
This is perhaps the most intriguing verse. Bono recalls the imagery of the Titanic, of desparation, loss, and tragedy. There is the loss of "balance" and personal perspective and the "wife", either through divorce or merely emotional separation. The line about "women and children first" harkens back to the Titanic image; it could figuritively mean putting the wife, daughters, and sons into the lifeboats first -- and it could also mean making the family the first priority in real life. Either way, there is a conflict in looking out for the family and satisfying the desire for the city.
4:30
More of Edge's chaos, and the start of the third and final night of the long weekend in New York.
4:45
In the stillness of the evening
When the sun has had its day
I heard your voice whispering
Come away now
Now, the last legitimate lines in the song establish that the musings were all daydreaming -- the desires of the character to leave home for the city -- particularly when everyday life doesn't occupy his mind, when he has the time to dwell on his existence, and when it is presumably just him, the wife and the kids.
The closing establishes the song as being an unfulfilled desire, but it doesn't say whether the character will ultimately embrace or deny the desire -- an ending as ambiguous as "With or Without You" or "The First Time."
5:22
The last "New York", with the Edge chiming in. The last echo re-emphasizes the ambiguous ending and mimics the whispering call mentioned in the last verse. It's almost as if the character can hear the call for the city in the wind chimes at his home.
So there it is. My analysis of one of U2's most complex songs. Responses are indeed welcome.
------------------
- Achtung Bubba
[This message has been edited by Achtung Bubba (edited 09-05-2001).]
So consider my hiatus over, and consider this to be my first post-hiatus thread:
I believe U2's "New York" to be one of their most complicated songs ever written.
First of all, by "complicated", I mean sonically and lyrically dense. Soncially dense in that, like "Discotheque", repeated listens reveal sounds you hadn't noticed before -- and, like "With or Without You", there are constrasting sounds and rhythms. Lyrically dense in that, like "Babyface" or "Until the End of the World," there are
hidden meanings; and like "So Cruel" there are ambiguities.
Secondly, by no means does the complexity of the song mean that necessarily I believe it to be the band's best song, or my favorite (although it's close in both counts). But it does make the song very interesting to listen to.
There is actually no obviously systematic way to cover the song, so I'll do so the only way that seems possible: second by second.
0:00
Here, at the beginning of the song, there are contrasting rhythms, much like the contrast in "With or Without You": a slow guitar(?) part against a pretty incessent (albeit quiet) drumbeat. It sounds like morning in the city; the city stretches as it wakes, but a few of its inhabitants are already moving quickly into action. And to add another layer of complexity, the background noise strangely resembles the cooing of pigeons.
0:30
A moment of dead silence, which BRILLIANTLY mimics the startling darkness and quiet of entering a tunnel on the way to work -- the instant disappearance and reappearance of the sun and the radio station.
0:31
The rhythm returns with Adam's bass and a few "liquid" guitar flourishes; the city is awake.
Now, after the longest prelude thus far in the album (to be outdone by "Grace"), the lyrical subtleties:
0:48
In New York freedom looks like
Too many choices
Here, the character (not necessarily Bono, since the song is not necessarily autobiographical) echoes ZooTV's notion of overload and the Passengers' "Corpse (These Chains Are Way Too Long)". Here, he revels in having *almost* too much freedom.
0:55
In New York I found a friend
To drown out the other voices
Here is one of the most ambiguous lines of the song. Taken literally, the character has found someone in the city to be his friend and accomplice in his escape from his normal life. It could also refer to an illicit lover, an affair that becomes his first priority. Or it could mean that (just like the phrase "in you I've found a friend"), his friend is the city itself -- much the way that another character was obsessed found Miami to be "my mammy".
1:10
Just got a place in New York
As Bono observed in the latest edition of Stokes' Into the Heart, this place "could be a shoebox." The fact that the character has an apartment or something -- anything -- is important in that it offers him a starting point for his new life in New York. Further, this line could autobiographical, since Bono did recently buy a New York apartment, but that's useful, too; the line catches people's attention, blurs the line between song and autobiography, and upsets a few listeners. It ultimately leads people to listen more closely.
1:33
Hot as a hair dryer in your face
Hot as handbag and a can of mace
New York
I just got a place in New York
These lines have a production mark worth noting: For the "in your face" and the "and a can of mace..." parts, there is an overdubbing that gives the effect of singing through a bullhorn, found in common use by urban policemen. Beyond that, the imagery of heat, women (handbags), and crime (which necessitates mace) further heightens the dirtiness, sexuality, danger, and ultimately the allure of the city.
1:58
In New York you can forget
Forget how to sit still
Tell yourself you will stay in
But it's down to Alphaville
The phrase to "forget how to sit still" can have two meanings that I see: you can choose to forget, or you have no choice but to forget ("you can forget about it"). Apparently, you can tell yourself you'll "stay in for the night", but you end up on the streets. That's when the music that has finally been building "all day" explodes into the whirling chaos of the city night life.
The chorus is also just an obsession over New York, appropriate to the character's emotional state. It's rhythmically irregular and vocally difficult -- the musical signs of stress.
2:42
The Irish been coming here for years
Feel like they own the place
They got the airport, city hall
Asphalt, asphalt
They even got the police
At this point, the music returns to the still busy, but relatively calm rhythm of "daytime". The references to the Irish may be broad statements, but there are two obvious connections: the Irish "own" the airport named after the Irish American, John F. Kennedy; and there is a long-held stereotype (probably based in some old truths) of Irish cops in northern American cities.
2:56
Irish, Italians, Jews and Hispanics
Religious nuts, political fanatics in the stew
Happily not like me and you
It's first relieving that U2 didn't devolve into the bigotry that Michael Jackson used a few years back. Beyond that, Bono uses terms that have been doubtlessly thrown at U2 by other rock bands: religious nuts and political fanatics. There is a question of how to interpret the last line above: either the other inhabitants are happy that they do not resemble the character; or the character is prejudiced and glad they aren't "like him"; or he revels in the diversity, and thus the opportunity to be himself.
3:10
That's where I lost you
New York
The chaos resumes, signifying the beginning of the second night.
3:45
The end of the second night, and the beginning of the third day.
3:51
In New York I lost it all
To you and your vices
Still I'm staying on to figure out
My midlife crisis
Again, the character could have lost everything to the vices of the city itself. And the "midlife crisis" is another line to bring in the ambiguity of autobiography. The question is, is the character "staying on" at home or in New York?
4:05
I hit an iceberg in my life
You know I'm still afloat
You lose your balance, lose your wife
In the queue for the lifeboat
You got to put the women and children first
But you've got an unquenchable thirst for New York
This is perhaps the most intriguing verse. Bono recalls the imagery of the Titanic, of desparation, loss, and tragedy. There is the loss of "balance" and personal perspective and the "wife", either through divorce or merely emotional separation. The line about "women and children first" harkens back to the Titanic image; it could figuritively mean putting the wife, daughters, and sons into the lifeboats first -- and it could also mean making the family the first priority in real life. Either way, there is a conflict in looking out for the family and satisfying the desire for the city.
4:30
More of Edge's chaos, and the start of the third and final night of the long weekend in New York.
4:45
In the stillness of the evening
When the sun has had its day
I heard your voice whispering
Come away now
Now, the last legitimate lines in the song establish that the musings were all daydreaming -- the desires of the character to leave home for the city -- particularly when everyday life doesn't occupy his mind, when he has the time to dwell on his existence, and when it is presumably just him, the wife and the kids.
The closing establishes the song as being an unfulfilled desire, but it doesn't say whether the character will ultimately embrace or deny the desire -- an ending as ambiguous as "With or Without You" or "The First Time."
5:22
The last "New York", with the Edge chiming in. The last echo re-emphasizes the ambiguous ending and mimics the whispering call mentioned in the last verse. It's almost as if the character can hear the call for the city in the wind chimes at his home.
So there it is. My analysis of one of U2's most complex songs. Responses are indeed welcome.
------------------
- Achtung Bubba
[This message has been edited by Achtung Bubba (edited 09-05-2001).]
