blueeyedgirl
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
And the reason U2 have lasted so long is that there are people like Larry, who couldn't give a fuck, to balance it out!
beli said:Firstly, I'll go beat up Financeguy. I know which thread he lives in.
The actual breakup of a marriage isn't art, no. I just find it odd that the only album that features profound lyrics, to me, is the one recorded when The Edge was experiencing heavy personal issues. Why is this? Did The Edge write some of the lyrics? Does Bono only experience pain through very close friends (as well as himself)? To me a poet is a person who has empathy and feels many situations.
As for personal pain of Bonos, Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own is full of cliches. Nothing profoud here.
Stuck in a Moment is a deeper but its completely missing on understanding of the situation. I know we disagree on this and thats fine. I feel if you say "pull yourself together" to a suicidal person they are likely to pull a punch or jump off the edge.
Slide Away is another one thats not empathetic
We could pick through the lyrics on the latest album. Again, nothing profound there.
Or another album. I'm curious as to which songs you find intriguing.
PS What do you teach? This is where you come out and say you teach literature isn't it.
Remember (I know I'm stating the obvious) that lyrics are not poetry; they are meant to be sung, and in Bono's case are usually created after the music. He adds the melodies and the words to complete the music. In Bono's case, through the creative process, the words and the melodies are so entwined that it's hard to view one or other in isolation. They form a creative and often very beautiful whole, and that is what creates the emotional impact.
Hmmm. I may have mis-spoken in saying it was an exact "lifting".
Per the John Waters book "Race of Angels - Ireland and the Genesis of U2", page 137:-
" 'The wind will crack in wintertime/This bomb-blast/No spoken words....just a scream/Tonight we build a bridge across the sea and land........'. This, as he [refering to Bono] says, is not American folk or blues. 'The words are much more influenced by poets like Heaney or Kavanagh than, say, Woddy Guthrie' "
Morningside
The old man died
And no one cried
They simply turned away
And when he died
He left a table made of nails and pride
And with his hands he carved these words inside
For my children
Morning light
Morning bright
I spent the night
With dreams that make you weep
Morning time
Wash away the sadness from these eyes of mine
For I recall the words the old man signed
For my children
And the legs were shaped with his hands
And the top made of oaken wood
And the children sat around this table
Touched with their laughter
Ah, and that was good
Morningside
An old man died
And no one cried
He surely died alone
And truth is sad
For not a child would claim the gift he had
The words he carved became his epitath
For my children
She takes the back road and the lane
past the school that has not changed
in all this time
she thinks of when the boy was young
all the battles she had won
just to give him life
that man
she loved that man
for all his life
but now we meet to take him flowers
and only god knows why
for what's the use in pressing palms
when children fade in mother's arms
it's a cruel world
we've so much to lose
and what we have to learn, we rarely choose
so if it's god who took her son
he cannot be the one living in her mind
take care my love, she said
don't think that god is dead
take care my love, she said
you have been loved
if I was weak, forgive me
but I was terrified
you brushed my eyes with angels wings, full of love
the kind that makes devils cry
so these days
my life has changed
and I'll be fine
but she just sits and counts the hours
searching for her crime
for what's the use in pressing palms
if you won't keep such love from harm
it's a cruel world
you've so much to prove
and heaven help the ones who wait for you
well I've no daughters, I've no sons
guess I'm the only one
living in my life
take care my love, he said
don't think that God is dead
take care my love, he said
you have been loved
I love the tone that's in your laugh
Gasping for an extra breath
Waiting for the time to pass
I believe in days ahead
Don't spend another night alone
Cross and wishing you were dead.
Mary, you shouldn't let 'em make you mad
You hold the best you can
And Mary, after all the pain is gone
I'm always gonna live to be your man.
I've had it easy now you see
When I'm down you're always there
Standing by to comfort me
Someday we'll go round the world
I'll make the journey so sublime
I know you're not a travelin' girl.
Mary, you shouldn't let 'em make you mad
You hold the best you can
And Mary, after all the pain is gone
I'm always gonna live to be your man.
Cause I'd give everything I have
Forget all the things that bring me joy
If you could have one day
Pure and simple happiness
Until that moment comes
I'll be here where I've always been
I'm gonna be your friend
Until the day I die.
Mary, you shouldn't let 'em make you mad
You hold the best you can
And Mary, after all the pain is gone
I'm always gonna live to be your man.
(hold on....)
BONO'S biographer has branded him a "magician and cold calculator" who is able to "watch himself doing a trick in a very cold way".
French journalist Michka Assayas, who has known U2 since he first arrived to interview the then small-time Irish band in London in 1980, was in Dublin last night for the first of the band's three homecoming concerts.
He also told me that the band's front-man survives the pressures of international celebrity, precisely because of his ability to detach himself from his rock persona.
He said: "I wouldn't say he has no emotions. He is extremely cold, in a way. He is very objective. He is really aware of who 'Bono' is. He sees himself in the third person."
Having hung out with the band, inner
circle and entourage for two and a half decades, the writer who was paid a £150,000 advance for the book says that when he gets to speak to Bono, he is still "extremely warm, extremely simple. It feels like 25 years ago."
What you see is exactly what you get.
beli said:
Ive nearly finished the book. I believe Bono has no clue about depression. Perhaps hes one of these 'keep all the plates spinning so I dont have to deal with it' types. Either way he is insensitive to this issue.
LOL, no fear of that. They're all to busy in PLEBA talking about his butt! (Meow.)
the soul waits said:Thanks, Beli.
It's quite funny how carefull you are with your wording. It shouldn't be such a big deal to comment on Bono in a less than admiring way-after all, he's human.
Noone will deny that he's a clever businessman.
sallycinnamon78 said:
Oh no they aren't *pantomime style*.
It is possible to admire Bono - including his butt, - and find the man attractive, without being a complete wet dishrag and blindly buying into every damn thing the man says.
the soul waits said:Also, I wonder if Edge, Adam and Larry get to see the other persona's as well and what they think to themselves when they see Bono acting in rockstar-mode.
blueeyedgirl said:
I was rereading some clippings from the 80s a while ago and Edge said something along the lines that Bono would relate a story about an event happening to himself/the band/etc and after a while he would realise that Bono wasn't telling the story as it happened. Edge said he was at first alarmed but then realised the facts may not have been as it happened but as long as the basic "story" was there, it didn't matter. And often it sounded better, funnier etc.
I also remember stories about Bob Hewson being pissed off cos Bono would say that he came from the dark streets of Ballymun, a "real rough part of town", kinda he was a total bum, when he had a very middle class upbringing. (Why say you're middle class when working class has more street cred? )
biff said:Also, I Googled the Heaney reference, and the only actual match was the quote from Financeguy. If Bono used an exact quote from Heaney, the Nobel prize winner, it wouldn't have been stealing and hoping no one would notice. It would have been an homage, as it was with Bukowski and Schwartz. (But I can find no Heaney poem with those lines.)
Anyway, anon!
financeguy said:One other thing, and it's probably the only thing in that book that blew my mind, the stuff about Bono becoming friends with that elderly Italian painter. That stuff was incredibly interesting, and unexpected.
That´s what I´ve understood too.Perhaps he means that he sees life as very precious. And the fact that he's personally seen so many just fighting to live... it makes it difficult for him to understand why someone would want to throw it away.
I don't think he has a lack of empathy for depressed people...but that's just how I interpret it.