Questions about Dirty Day and The First Time

[Giant Lemon]

Dirty Day: Can anyone shed some light on what it won't last kissing time means exactly? I mean, what is kissing time- the time it would take to kiss someone? In context with the rest of the song you can tell that not lasting kissing time means that it won't last very long, but I've always wondered about that phrase.

The First Time:
My father is a rich man
He wears a rich man's cloak
Gave me the keys to his kingdom coming
Gave me a cup of gold
He said I have many mansions
And there are many rooms to see
But I left by the back door
And I threw away the key

Why would he throw away the key? And what's the significance of leaving by the back door? If you follow the Holy Trinity interpretation of this song, is this supposed to be a prodigal son reference? So is the idea that he feels loved because he feels God's love, etc, but he leaves to explore the world before coming back to God? I can kind of see this idea in The Wanderer with this line: I went out there / In search of experience / To taste and to touch / And to feel as much / As a man can / Before he repents. Please tell me your thoughts!

 

[pax]

About "The First Time":

This read only applies if you don't consider the "Holy Trinity" interpretation (which is a good one, btw). But in the first two verses, the narrator refers to a "lover" and a "brother," neither of whom have anything to do with material wealth.


I have a lover
A lover like no other
She got soul, soul, soul, sweet soul
And she teach me how to sing


I have a brother
When I'm a brother in need
I spend my whole time running
He spends his running after me


So we know the narrator has the "lover" and "brother" figures who represent (respectively) inspiration and selflessness. When he gets to the "father" in verse 3, the father tries to give him "the keys to his kingdom" and a "cup of gold" and "many mansions." But the narrator has the spiritual wealth of the "lover" and the "brother," so he rejects the material gifts of the father for good to return (we can infer) to the non-material gifts of the "lover" and the "brother." In this way, the song hearkens to its roots in the older "All I Want Is You" with its ultimate rejection of the riches of this world and the embrace of selfless devotion.

Of course, that's just my informed opinion.

 

[Laura M]

I found this about the first time on a website

i didnt know a song could mean so much its all very in-depth


I see this song as a pure spiritual song." For the first time I feel love"that is about receiving forgiveness. Bono at first tells about, what is important in his life. "A lover", I guess, theese lines express his love to Ali, and how she gives him, what he cannot take himself. Secondly he tells about "a brother", and that must be Jesus, as he is descriped as a person, who allways seeks and finds him.
Then Bono quotes the Gospel of John, saying that in God?s mansion, there is a room for him too, and Bono reflects himself as both Judas, saying "I left by the back door", and Peter "I threw away the key." Thereby he tells about saying no to Gods grace, going his way on his own. So it?s a sad tune, about losing the relation to God. The open question is about the end, where he repeats "for the first time I feel love", is this about receiving the forgiveness, like Peter had a new starting-point after the ressurrection of Jesus? It?s all about the usual hard stuff - the longing for freedom and the need for receiving love, and being honest - Does it mean anything to you to be loved by God?
lasgaard@vip.cybercity.dk (Joergen Lasgaard 23.11.98.)

A gospel song which describes a prodigal son who takes the wrong direction in life and returns to find his father forgiving him. (from pages 206 of "U2 At The End Of The World" by Bill Flanagan).
"For the First Time" to me is this: A son is taught to love and appreciate life by his lover. Note "and she teach me how to sing." He did go to see his father to make up but his father spoiled him with his wealth. Father "I have many mansions .. many rooms to see." Son "but I left by the back door and I threw away the key, and I threw away the key and I threw away the key." from Peter Whelan (email ??). "I think that the song "For the First Time", is a cyberpunk version of "Still haven't found what I'm looking for." The reference to the father is no mortal father. It is a heavenly father and an feeling of unworthiness by the character." from Jon Paul Gaalswyk (email : gaalsj@krypton.mankato.msus.edu)
"... I agree with the interpretation stating that the song "The First Time" is more closely related to "I Still Haven't Found . . ." The evidence for this is found in the line "Gave me the keys to His kingdom coming." His is capitalizied indicating that this is not about any mortal father, but rather, God." from Erin Byerly

 

[Lilly]

it varies, but in average...

I mean, what is kissing time- the time it would take to kiss someone?

*checks* 20 minutes

 

[hippy]

Re: it varies, but in average...

*checks* 20 minutes

Who have you been kissing?

Anyway, those are some great insights about the song "The First Time"... I can't ever hear that song without thinking about the spiritual side of it... When Bono (or the character he's playing) speaks of "throwing away the key" I tend to picture it as the character rejecting the role that God has given him...the only thing that will make him happy, the only thing that will complete his life.

But again, that's just my opinion I really like what everyone's already said about the song.

 

[Swan269]

In Bill Flanigan's book......bono had different lines for the First Time but he could not bring himself to say them and sang what you hear. I will have to listen but I have a copy of the up-beat demo version so I will have to see if the lyrics differ....well I know they do but I will type in what the original or different lines were.

 

[pax]

Oohhhh. I'd *love* to read those words.

 

[hippy]

I'm not sure of the exact lines, but I do know that the words were more hopeful. As in instead of "I left by the back door and I threw away the key" Bono stays in the house and keeps the key. Apparently he didn't like that the journey of this man in the song (and on the album) ended there, so he switched the story... letting the man "throw away the key" and continue his journey...which then proceeds through "Dirty Day" and ends with "The Wanderer". Pretty amazing stuff. I wish we had a Bill Flanagan story for everything!

 

[Giant Lemon]

Swan269 & hippy- I didn't even think about looking in the Flanagan book! I need to read the "bible" more often! Here's what it says about The First Time:

"The First Time" is a gospel song U2 comes up with very quickly and starts to put aside as inappropriate. Eno suprises them by saying, "I love that song; it must go on the album." Bono figures the song - about a prodigal son who wanders off into a life of sin and then returns to his father's forgiveness - seems more like something from Rattle and Hum than this project. But the band trusts Eno's instincts, so they try playing it in a real disjointed wat that disguises its gospel form. Bono sings about a lover who teaches him to sing, a brother who is always there for him, and then a father who "gave me the keys to his kingdom coming, gave me a cup of gold. He said I have many mansions, and there are many rooms to see..." Suddenly Bono cannot bring himself to sing the lines he has written about returning to his father's house. Instead he finishes the verse, "I left by the back door and I threw away the key."

The questions raised in Achtung Baby have still not been settled. Bono is not ready to promise that he will return from this journey into Nighttown that he's only halfway through. I ask him if he's familiar with the heresey about sinning your way to salvation. "Yeah," Bono says. "Finding God through indulging the flesh." He then says that when Jesus said it was more difficult for a rich man to enter heaven than for a camel to pass thorugh the eye of a needle, he was not - as most people assume - saying it was impossible. He was referring to a tight gate into Jerusalem that was called the Needle's Eye. "To get through it," Bono says, "you had to stoop."

 

[asha]

dirty day

i've got a webpage called LOVE IT WON'T LAST KISSIN TIME and the song is my fav. song... i have thought a lot about the lyrics, so also about this one line...

so what i want to say is the following:

I think that it means that you can believe that you sort of LOVE someone, you want to be with this person, talk to him/her, touch him/her and KISS him/her. But as soon as you do so (i.e. kissing), the fascination for some reason stops, falls away... and suddenly you don't feel these emotions anymore, love just dies in the beginning and WON'T LAST KISSIN TIME. as skunk anansie put it: LOVER'S KISS THEN THEY MAKE A WISH TO THE END.

That's how I see it... maybe because it happened to me. Funny thing is, this guy was really good at kissing... but I didn't fall in love with him, I rather FELL OUT of love. Still I think of this as rather sad

 

[asha]

NIALL STOKES ABOUT "THE FIRST TIME"

this was one that bono heard in his head first. he'd been listening a lot to al green and it had influenced his singing: the fat lady was his version of green's sweet high-pitched tone pushed a notch further.
sometimes the inspiration sneaks up on you like that: you hear the chorus in someone else's voice. it can be easier to write if you come at a song in that way. the self-editing, the self-censorship that frequently comes into play when you imagine the words coming out of your own mouth, doesn't happen. you're free of baggage. people aren't going to be listening to al green and thinking that it's some kind of confession on your part, some kind of soul-baring.
it was intended to be an "up" song. bono gives demonstration of how the chorus might have sounded, and you can hear the soul backbeat and the swirl of imaginary strings.
it's hard to believe that the song was written in two separate bursts. it almost certainly began as a straightforward testifying song, but became something quite different in the third verse. here, THE FIRST TIME abandons its symmetry and offers a new twist on an old parable.
"we decided to keep it for ourselves," bono says. "brian really loved it. but instead of doing an "up" version, we just emptied it out deconstructed the song and ended on this line about throwing away the key, and the prodigal son doesn't go back. he sees all this stuff there for him and he doesn't want it and he goes off again. that's a really interesting take on that story. "THERE ARE MANY ROOM TO SEE/BUT I LEFT BY THE BACK DOOR/AND THREW AWAY THE KEY" it's a line that captures bono's own wanderlust, the urge that's always there to light out, leaving all the obligations and responsibilities of his role behind.
"it's about losing your faith" bono adds. i haven't lost my faith. i've a great deal of faith. but that song expresses that moment a lot of people feel."

 

[Joshua_Tree_Hugger]

The First Time:
My father is a rich man
He wears a rich man's cloak
Gave me the keys to his kingdom coming
Gave me a cup of gold
He said I have many mansions
And there are many rooms to see
But I left by the back door
And I threw away the key

Why would he throw away the key? And what's the significance of leaving by the back door? If you follow the Holy Trinity interpretation of this song, is this supposed to be a prodigal son reference? So is the idea that he feels loved because he feels God's love, etc, but he leaves to explore the world before coming back to God? I can kind of see this idea in The Wanderer with this line: I went out there / In search of experience / To taste and to touch / And to feel as much / As a man can / Before he repents. Please tell me your thoughts! [/B]

Not sure about 'Dirty Day' but 'The First Time' is about the Prodigal Son story. The son comes back but realises that his fathers love and wealth isn't worth being constantly sorry so he "left by the back door and threw away the key".

As for The Wanderer, that's about Cash's character who goes out into a town "where son's turn their fathers in" and does all the immoral things he can before getting absolution. He "went wandering. To taste and to feel all a man can before he repents".

Both of those come from a fairly official source, Bill Flanagan from 'U2 At The End Of The World'. If you've got it read the chapters on the making of 'Zooropa' for more!

 

[hippy]

Swan269 & hippy- I didn't even think about looking in the Flanagan book! I need to read the "bible" more often! Here's what it says about The First Time:

Wow, thanks! That was EXACTLY what I was thinking of

I think it's pretty revealing about Bono and where the band was at that point in their career.