salomeU2000
The Fly
By Abby Myers
While it is obvious that many U2 songs deal with religious themes, none of them do so in exactly the same ways. Songs like ?Grace? and ?When I Look at the World? seem to allude to Christ himself; others, like, ?I Still Haven?t Found What I?m Looking For? and ?40,? function as spirituals or calls to action. But two of the band?s songs use an archetype that might seem a little quaint - that of angels - to explore more complex, emotional, and earthbound issues.
According to documentation, the title of this song comes from the title of Wim Wenders? film Faraway So Close, a follow-up to his earlier Wings of Desire - films that follow the lives of angels in Berlin who become human and try to figure out life once their wings have been clipped. The themes present in the film - confusion, loss, and disconnection - are also present in the song.
?Stay (Faraway So Close)? appeared on 1993?s Zooropa, and, along with ?Dirty Day,? ?The First Time,? and ?The Wanderer,? is one of the weightier songs on an album that has been criticized as a collection of throwaways. ?Stay? is, at least in a broad sense, a story of unrequited love, of connection frustrated, of the profound inability to reach out and touch someone. The entire song is addressed to an unnamed ?you? who will not or cannot respond to the song?s narrator.
There may be a reason for that. In the first verse, the narrator comments: ?You say when he hits you, you don?t mind/because when he hurts you, you feel alive/Oh, is that what it is?? One might deduce from these words that the ?you? in the song is the victim of an abusive or controlling relationship, and thus cannot reach out for love, companionship, or understanding.
Further on in that verse, the ?you? seems to make an attempt to escape, but the sense of self of the ?you? is corroded and not what it once was:
A vampire or a victim
It depends on who?s around
You used to stay in to watch the adverts
You could lip sync to the talk shows
The narrator of the song is obviously aware of the shift that is presented in these lines, but the person to whom they are addressed may not be. This heightens the atmosphere of tension and disconnection.
These emotions finally come to a more explicit head in the following lines: ?And when you look, you look through me/and when you talk, you talk at me/and when I touch you, you don?t feel a thing.? The narrator allows himself into the song more clearly this time (?you look through me,? ?when I touch you?), and begins to give the listener more perspective on his situation. Almost everyone can relate to these feelings of ?talking to the wall,? of being unseen and unheard. Here perhaps is the most direct statement of the theme that lies at the heart of ?Stay (Faraway So Close)?: love and desire seem like they should be empowering, but in the face of an uncaring or unwilling intended recipient of that love, it is almost useless.
In the face of such a powerful prelude, the refrain itself is almost anticlimactic. In fact, while the verses are concrete, almost tangible and lush with gritty, real-world imagery (?Seven Eleven,? ?a pack of cigarettes,? ?Red light gray morning?), the chorus is frustratingly vague:
If I could stay
Then the night would give you up
Stay and the day would keep its trust
Stay and the night would be enough
It is difficult to pin down what these words mean, apart from the fact that narrator again is frustrated by a sense of powerlessness. He uses the permissive form -?if I could stay? -leading the listener to assume that he in fact cannot stay, or has not been allowed to stay. (These and similar words are repeated later, to much the same effect.)
The vagueness of the chorus, however, gives way to a verse that is much like those before it. The narrator almost murmurs, with a dreamy intonation:
Faraway, so close
Up with the static and the radio
With satellite television
You can go anywhere:
Miami, New Orleans, London, Belfast, and Berlin?
In this way, the narrator acknowledges that although the ?you? of this song may feel trapped or desperate, there are opportunities for escape (?You can go anywhere:/Miami?etc.) But is it a real escape, or merely one conjured up by dreams and mass media? It is unclear (though I lean toward the idea of an imaginary one myself), though the fact remains that the narrator admits ?you? can go anywhere - not ?I? or ?we.? The ?you? possesses some measure of freedom that the ?I? does not.
Following this lament about living an inescapable life or set of circumstances, the narrator once again gives the listener a vision of the frustrated connections he experiences: ?And if you listen, I can?t call/and if you jump, you just might fall/and if you shout, I?ll only hear you.? In these lines, the narrator relates his inability to respond to the ?you? even if he wants to: he can?t initiate contact, he can?t ?save? the person to whom he is speaking, and if that person tries to contact him, there?s nothing he can do but listen.
After another repetition of the chorus, an odd footnote ends the song:
Three o?clock in the morning
It?s quiet, there?s no one around
Just the bang and the clatter
As an angel runs to ground
Just the bang and the clatter
As an angel hits the ground
These lines are probably a direct reference to the film, and are open to interpretation. One possible read of these lines is as an indifferent observation of the narrator, watching as some sort of ?fall? takes place-one that he is powerless to prevent, and one that the world knows or cares nothing of.
Who is the narrator in this song? Is it one of Wenders? angels? Is it simply a figment of Bono?s imagination? Is it God? Is it Bono himself? We don?t know, any more than we know whom the ?you? of the song is. But what we can deduce about the song is this: it is a lament of disconnection and loneliness. It is a stunning and sad hymn to all the deities of unrequited love. It is certainly among U2?s most lyrically beautiful songs. And it is one that speaks to so many listeners-because, after all, who among us has not felt like a fallen angel when faced with the prospect of unrequited love?
SNEAK PREVIEW OF MY NEXT COLUMN:
?Stay (Faraway So Close)? is only one of U2?s ?angel songs.? A few years after the writing and recording of ?Stay,? U2 came out with another tune, this one featured not only on 1997?s Pop but on the soundtrack of the popular film City of Angels (the American remake of Wings of Desire). ?If God Will Send His Angels? is at once more and less intimate than ?Stay,? and functions less as a lament than a more intensely focused prayer for guidance and the presence of God.
While it is obvious that many U2 songs deal with religious themes, none of them do so in exactly the same ways. Songs like ?Grace? and ?When I Look at the World? seem to allude to Christ himself; others, like, ?I Still Haven?t Found What I?m Looking For? and ?40,? function as spirituals or calls to action. But two of the band?s songs use an archetype that might seem a little quaint - that of angels - to explore more complex, emotional, and earthbound issues.
According to documentation, the title of this song comes from the title of Wim Wenders? film Faraway So Close, a follow-up to his earlier Wings of Desire - films that follow the lives of angels in Berlin who become human and try to figure out life once their wings have been clipped. The themes present in the film - confusion, loss, and disconnection - are also present in the song.
?Stay (Faraway So Close)? appeared on 1993?s Zooropa, and, along with ?Dirty Day,? ?The First Time,? and ?The Wanderer,? is one of the weightier songs on an album that has been criticized as a collection of throwaways. ?Stay? is, at least in a broad sense, a story of unrequited love, of connection frustrated, of the profound inability to reach out and touch someone. The entire song is addressed to an unnamed ?you? who will not or cannot respond to the song?s narrator.
There may be a reason for that. In the first verse, the narrator comments: ?You say when he hits you, you don?t mind/because when he hurts you, you feel alive/Oh, is that what it is?? One might deduce from these words that the ?you? in the song is the victim of an abusive or controlling relationship, and thus cannot reach out for love, companionship, or understanding.
Further on in that verse, the ?you? seems to make an attempt to escape, but the sense of self of the ?you? is corroded and not what it once was:
A vampire or a victim
It depends on who?s around
You used to stay in to watch the adverts
You could lip sync to the talk shows
The narrator of the song is obviously aware of the shift that is presented in these lines, but the person to whom they are addressed may not be. This heightens the atmosphere of tension and disconnection.
These emotions finally come to a more explicit head in the following lines: ?And when you look, you look through me/and when you talk, you talk at me/and when I touch you, you don?t feel a thing.? The narrator allows himself into the song more clearly this time (?you look through me,? ?when I touch you?), and begins to give the listener more perspective on his situation. Almost everyone can relate to these feelings of ?talking to the wall,? of being unseen and unheard. Here perhaps is the most direct statement of the theme that lies at the heart of ?Stay (Faraway So Close)?: love and desire seem like they should be empowering, but in the face of an uncaring or unwilling intended recipient of that love, it is almost useless.
In the face of such a powerful prelude, the refrain itself is almost anticlimactic. In fact, while the verses are concrete, almost tangible and lush with gritty, real-world imagery (?Seven Eleven,? ?a pack of cigarettes,? ?Red light gray morning?), the chorus is frustratingly vague:
If I could stay
Then the night would give you up
Stay and the day would keep its trust
Stay and the night would be enough
It is difficult to pin down what these words mean, apart from the fact that narrator again is frustrated by a sense of powerlessness. He uses the permissive form -?if I could stay? -leading the listener to assume that he in fact cannot stay, or has not been allowed to stay. (These and similar words are repeated later, to much the same effect.)
The vagueness of the chorus, however, gives way to a verse that is much like those before it. The narrator almost murmurs, with a dreamy intonation:
Faraway, so close
Up with the static and the radio
With satellite television
You can go anywhere:
Miami, New Orleans, London, Belfast, and Berlin?
In this way, the narrator acknowledges that although the ?you? of this song may feel trapped or desperate, there are opportunities for escape (?You can go anywhere:/Miami?etc.) But is it a real escape, or merely one conjured up by dreams and mass media? It is unclear (though I lean toward the idea of an imaginary one myself), though the fact remains that the narrator admits ?you? can go anywhere - not ?I? or ?we.? The ?you? possesses some measure of freedom that the ?I? does not.
Following this lament about living an inescapable life or set of circumstances, the narrator once again gives the listener a vision of the frustrated connections he experiences: ?And if you listen, I can?t call/and if you jump, you just might fall/and if you shout, I?ll only hear you.? In these lines, the narrator relates his inability to respond to the ?you? even if he wants to: he can?t initiate contact, he can?t ?save? the person to whom he is speaking, and if that person tries to contact him, there?s nothing he can do but listen.
After another repetition of the chorus, an odd footnote ends the song:
Three o?clock in the morning
It?s quiet, there?s no one around
Just the bang and the clatter
As an angel runs to ground
Just the bang and the clatter
As an angel hits the ground
These lines are probably a direct reference to the film, and are open to interpretation. One possible read of these lines is as an indifferent observation of the narrator, watching as some sort of ?fall? takes place-one that he is powerless to prevent, and one that the world knows or cares nothing of.
Who is the narrator in this song? Is it one of Wenders? angels? Is it simply a figment of Bono?s imagination? Is it God? Is it Bono himself? We don?t know, any more than we know whom the ?you? of the song is. But what we can deduce about the song is this: it is a lament of disconnection and loneliness. It is a stunning and sad hymn to all the deities of unrequited love. It is certainly among U2?s most lyrically beautiful songs. And it is one that speaks to so many listeners-because, after all, who among us has not felt like a fallen angel when faced with the prospect of unrequited love?
SNEAK PREVIEW OF MY NEXT COLUMN:
?Stay (Faraway So Close)? is only one of U2?s ?angel songs.? A few years after the writing and recording of ?Stay,? U2 came out with another tune, this one featured not only on 1997?s Pop but on the soundtrack of the popular film City of Angels (the American remake of Wings of Desire). ?If God Will Send His Angels? is at once more and less intimate than ?Stay,? and functions less as a lament than a more intensely focused prayer for guidance and the presence of God.
