THE LYRIC OF EVERY U2 SONG IS THE EMOTION OF EVERY HUMAN SOUL

[spanisheyes]

In listening to U2's music in the light of Tuesday's tragedy...several songs have begin to ebb and flow into the subconscious of my mind that have been a calming effect to the feelings of despair, hopelessness, and the overwhelming sense that nothing could be done to prevent what happened. Such U2 songs as Sunday Bloody Sunday and Please are in your face songs which speak of Ireland's own tragedies at the hands of terrorist, and therefore, are in short need of interpretation. But it's the songs like Bad, One Tree Hill, Mothers of the Disappeared, One, North and South of the River, and I'm sure their are many others that have this difference that sets them apart, in good times or in the midst of tragedy. They have these layers about them. Layers that are ready to be exposed at a moment in time that allows them to rise up and meet the situation, and in them we find solitude, comfort, and even joy. When a U2 fan tries to explain his or her deep love for this band, for me, it is this layering effect in many of their songs that I have a hard time explaining. Some songs have a deeper meaning, that at times don't appear until years or situations later...even when some would question what appears to be the shallowness in Bono's lyrics upon first or second or third listening. But then something happens in life that begins to peel these layers of U2's songs, and you find the deeper meaning, and you wonder why you didn't catch it in the first place, is it simply that pain and grief take you to the core of your being and there you discover yourself, you sense it as Carson Daly put it as "the beat of every U2 song is the pulse of every human heart"...can I put it in a different slant, "the lyric of every U2 song is the emotion of every human soul". It appears that the layers have been exposed in such songs as Peace on Earth, and even Walk On for me and many others for this moment. So in the midst of this present darkness...light my way again and again U2.

Chris



[This message has been edited by spanisheyes (edited 09-16-2001).]

 

[mikal]

Good thread!

Beautiful Day has really helped me get through this week. As bad as our situation is in the US right now, BD helps me to remember that life does go on. And even if it's hard to see it right now, our world is a beautiful place.

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"Look what you did you little JERK!"

"Kevin! You're such a disease!"

 

[Hawk269]

Chris,

I am a big fan of your posts, especially those that describe what U2's music means to you on emotional and spiritual levels. You say things the way they need to be said. Thanks for the eloquent words.

For me, the Joshua Tree has been #1 right now. It is getting me through this tough time in NYC. Especially, Streets and In God's Country for hope. The desert imagery is just how I feel right now - empty, desolate, but there is still life.


AJ

 

[PopTart Pamela]

I cannot stop playing "If God will Send His Angels" I will always think of Tuesday 11th when I hear it.


Pamela

 

[sharky]

ONce we finally got out of the city, a friend of mine said "beautiful day huh?" to which I replied "sky falls you feel it." that day, that line was a little too literal for my taste.

 

[NicaMom]

Thanks for the great post Chris.
Pamela, I have "If God will send his angels" stuck in my head too.
My husband heard it on the radio as a background to news clips today.
A tv station (kcop) showed news clips to the sound of "Stuck" tonight also.
OMG, MTV is playing Walk On with news clips right now...There go the tears again.

 

[~LadyLemon~]

Great post. Since Tuesday I've been playing, Walk On, Peace on Earth, When I Look at the World, New York, and One Tree Hill over and over again. It is my sense of comfort, and no, other friends really don't understand. Sometimes that bothers me, but other tines not. I like to have U2 'all to my self'.

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Make Love!
Not War

 

[SweetOnU2]

Chris, that was so well said! You put it so nicely! WOW! YOU ROCK!

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~*Everybody's talkin' about POP Musik!*~

(??.?(?*?.? ?.?*?)?.??)
?.???. *Monica* .???.?
(?.??(?.??* *??.?)??.)

 

[Gloria]

Originally posted by Hawk269:
Chris,

I am a big fan of your posts, especially those that describe what U2's music means to you on emotional and spiritual levels. You say things the way they need to be said. Thanks for the eloquent words.

AJ

I feel the same. Thank you Chris.
I've been listening to Walk on and Peace on Earth a lot this week.

 

[dream wanderer]

sigh...I started a thread on this exact same subject...it got ignored...

but it doesn't take away from the truth of the matter..

dream wanderer

 

[EPandAmerica]

I have been thinking about ATYCLB alot this week! How over the past year, the songs (for me) have changed, changed.... and changed again.

Thank you Chris, for expressing it in such a wonderful way!

 

[spanisheyes]

I first want to say thank you all for your kind words...it simply is not me, but the inspiration that so many of us find in U2, and that need to express what we feel deeply. Also Hawk269, I like what you had to say about your feelings of the desert imagery in the Joshua Tree. I didn't see that in NYC, I guess with there being so many people, but it was the feelings inside of desolation and emptiness that was profound.

Dream Wanderer...I went back and checked out your thread and it was right on...I'm sorry I didn't respond to it, but I wasn't in the forum that much this week, it didn't seem as relevant with this weeks events, but I agree with you that U2's music has taken on more relevance this week, just part of the many layers in U2's songs.

 

[follower]

Chris,

I know you write so beautifully about U2 songs because you write with all your heart and soul. You have this ability, to put into words the feelings you have about the songs. And be sure, many people share them with you, just don't know how to express them.

The whole week I have listened 4 songs from ATYCLB, Peace on Earth, When I Look at The World, Grace and Walk On. All of them, in one way or another, can touch me deeper than any other, in these painful and desperated times we're all living, whether you're from US or from any other place on Earth. Once more, I'm glad to have U2 songs in my life.

 

[spanisheyes]

Maria...I want to publically thank you for your encouragement to me as a fan and friend. Your love and commitment to the band and your friendship this last year has meant the world to me. It has been wonderful to have someone who cares as much about this band as I do, and it warms my heart to know how much U2's music means to you, you truly are the greatest U2 fan in Brazil!

Chris

 

[follower]

Chris,

I don?t know if I?m the greatest, but I?m trying really hard, LOL.
We all need peace on Earth. Desperatedly.
Muito obrigada por voc? ser meu amigo

[This message has been edited by follower (edited 09-16-2001).]

 

[follower]

It's a cold and grey Sunday afternoon here today...I just finished listening to The Joshua Tree, and as Chris said in his first post, the songs suddenly got a whole new meaning to me, the layers he so eloquently explained. And when I listened to Mothers of Disappeared I got tears in my eyes. It's amazing. The song was released in 1987 and was written in a different context, which I might say many fans from Latin America can connect, unfortunetaly. But in the end, it's about people suffering because of terrorism, terrorism of the State, terrorism of dictatorships, still terrorism. I kept thinking about the mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, wives, husbands, sisters and brothers, friends, who lost beloved ones last Tuesday in US due to terrorism, again. I couldn't help having tears in my eyes.

[This message has been edited by follower (edited 09-16-2001).]

 

[spanisheyes]

Today I was listening to The Unforgettable Fire, which is I feel is a very appropriate album to listen to right now, an album inspired by a gallery of pictures of the bombings in Japan in 1945 that U2 saw in 1983 in Chicago. The images that Bono saw that day made a lasting impression on him, and he tried to put these images into words, into music, and in turn, painted for us songs of incredible imagery, songs that are some of Bono's most prolific lyrics ever, because the lyrics paint pictures in our minds and stir up great emotion found in Bono's voice that touches our soul. 56 years later, we as Americans now have our own Unforgettable Fire. Once again, U2 songs bring about new layers, such as when I listened today to such heart wrenching songs as The Unforgettable Fire and MLK.

Chris

 

[spanisheyes]

Judy...I agree that we now will forever know and feel what Bono feels when he sings Sunday Bloody Sunday, even though some might argue that there is no way to make a comparison to the tragedy of the Irish bombing mentioned in this song to the horrific tragedy of last Tuesday. True, there is no way to make comparison, but it is the senselessness that I have always heard in this song. I fully understand what a senseless act means now, what Bono meant when he asked, "how long must we sing this song"...it is this emotion of the soul that we see expessed in Bono's writing that touches us so deeply. I think in part it has to do with what a friend told me the other day that I can't seem to get out of my head, when he said, "The greatest thing we can do for another person is to desire to understand them". That is what I sense in Bono's lyrics, a deep desire to understand the human emotion, the human experience with all it's frailties, but at the same time with all it's courage, and then to dress it up with words so that we can take off this clothing and find shelter with it within ourselves when tragedy or misunderstandings, or whatever situation we find ourselves has left us feeling naked, confused, or even angry. I think we can all heed those words in this moment in our nations history, as well as in our personal lives..."to desire to understand each other"...

Chris

 

[spanisheyes]

In a Grand Madness: 10 years on the Road with U2...the author quotes Bono, when he says, "There are two rival instincts in me as a word writer. One is an interest in writing subconsciously, almost in a half-sleep, which is the way I wrote One Tree Hill. And the other instinct is a desire not to be self-indulgent." It is fascinating that Bono would speak of writing in this stream of consciousness in which he in half-asleep, half awake, maybe it is his way of tapping into his soul and still be able to cope with the overwhelming emotions that he has to face when the desire to put down on paper meets the reality of what he is experiencing in his life.

Bono speaks in the second part of not wanting to be self-indulgent in his lyrical writing, and this is where he is often critized in his lyrical interpretations, and I see this as unfair. There is something very powerful in Bono's writing that captures me, because of this turning the pen on himself. And yet, it is in this process that people take liberty because they tend to not take him seriously, as I mentioned before, they tend to see some of his lyrics as shallow. The fact being that in writing in this conscious stream, it may be the reason why the obvious doesn't come to us right away, why tucked away in these words are a deeper meaning, a writing that went on subconsciously which is simply fascinating to me, and the reason why Bono lyrics are so multi-faceted, but within each layer is still the passion and desire to reach people on different levels, and at the same time awake them from intellectual and spiritual sleep with songs of conviction and the cold reality that often pervades U2's world.

Chris

 

[U2junkie]

Chris, What can I say? You've said it as well as anyone can. I also can tell it comes from your heart. Alot of these songs come to my mind as well, and I think, that the fans in the US can honestly now say that they can relate to what the band was feeling on the day they wrote Sunday, Bloody Sunday....I also think of the song New York.....How the lyrics of the song give the impression of what an extraordinary city it is. And...in light of the terrorist attacks on NY, and the responses by the citizians of NY, they've proved it to be an extaordinary city indeed..."Religious Freaks, Political fianactics"....all uniting. God Bless those in NYC and all Americans EVERYWHERE.

.And thanks Chris, for a wonderful post.
"Julia"

 

[spanisheyes]

For you Bethany...miss you sis!

Chris