The U2 Song Which Means The Most To You

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Right now it's Please. Not in a polical way, as this song is seen as political so many times. but in a personal way sometimes I feel like he is singing to me.
Sometimes I also feel like this towards Acrobat, especially those verses at the end, because they give me so much hope when things seem to be falling apart...
 
unico said:
a few weeks ago, i would've given a different response. but now after experiencing these shootings, i'm surprised to discover that i find solace in Peace on Earth. i think it is that i identify with it now. I used to hate this song, and I haven't listened to it in YEARS. Now I listen to it every day.
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Unico, I am glad that song can bring comfort to you. I love it as well. Please know there are people thinking about you and praying for you and for peace all over our messed up world.
God Bless you.
Jeannie:hug:
 
At the moment:

"One Tree Hill" - you know, you can't kill poetry!

With a close second to
"The Unforgettable Fire"
 
Ultraviolet (Light My Way)

A song that I typically heard as a child. I found that it appealed to me very much so during my childhood. The beginning of the song itself, before the lyrics is what really caught my attention. I get into those melodic kinda things. I couldn't really understand song meanings back then, but I found Bono's voice to be very soothing through out the whole song really, especially in the beginning few verses and the Baby, baby, baby, light my way lines.

The song later began to develop a lot of meaning to me as I got older. It varied from time to time. But it was a song that helped me get through a lot of the time, even when I felt like I couldn't. For the majority, it was a song of comfort, reassuring me not to worry, that someone cares and needs me to be strong. And that's what kept me going a lot of the time. That reassurance, much needed. All I had to do was put on the AB album and listen to Ultraviolet.

I myself, find the lyrics to be very powerful and meaningful. In more ways than one. Particularly the lines;
Oh sugar, don't you cry
Oh child, wipe the tears from your eyes
You know I need you to be strong
And the day is as dark as the night is long

It's such a moving and beautiful song. Definitely my favourite and the one that means the most to me. Even today, it's still my favourite and holds a much deeper meaning than ever before.
 
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It's tough to just pick one, there are so many good ones: Beautiful Day, Walk On, Ultraviolet (Light My Way), etc etc. If I had to pick one now, I'd have to go with my most recent meaningful song: Lemon.

At first when I heard this song, I kind of tossed it aside. Can't really blame me, it's really an oddball. But after a tough relationship, I just really got into it.

To me, it's a song about independence. It's about a man loving the girl of his dreams. She seems just perfect. She wore lemon to color in the cold gray night, she has heaven. But for some reason, the relationship just doesn't work out. This man will do anything for the girl, he builds cities, roads, cars, but to no avail. He's drifting from the shore. Then there are the line "Midnight is where the day begins". I think this means midnight is the darkest hour of the day. It's the hour when the vampires and werewolves come out. But it's also the start of a brand new day, and good things await. But for now, all this girl offers is hurt, and these are the days when our work has come asunder, so we must look for something other. The man spends so much time going after this "dream" girl, and then all of a sudden "through the light projected he sees himself up close". He realizes what he's doing and can then move on with his life. He doesn't need the pain, he doesn't need to give himself away to her.


I may be totally off, who knows. I hear it's actually about Bono's mother, but hey, thats one of the great things about music is that you can interpret it however you want.
 
With or without You. It was the first U2 song that literally grapped my attention and the reason why I became a U2 fan! And it still is my favourite after all these years and the wonderful songs U2 have produced. It just has that certain something....

....visiual image of Bono in leather waist coat, bare arms, ponytail, swingging his guitar over his head.... :drool:





:wink:
 
The whole Joshua Tree album because I cant listen to it without listening from the start and I cant stop until the last note has finished. It is of course musical perfection in every sense but it got played constantly in 1987 when my mother died. I was 15.

Its impossible for me to pick a stand out isolated moment from the album but "a link is lost the chain undone", "I can't live with or without you", Edge's intro to Streets, infact all of it, all of it in conjuction with all of it makes it perfect. A true goose bumper everytime I hear any of it.
 
WCF said:
To me, it's a song about independence. It's about a man loving the girl of his dreams. She seems just perfect. She wore lemon to color in the cold gray night, she has heaven. But for some reason, the relationship just doesn't work out. This man will do anything for the girl, he builds cities, roads, cars, but to no avail. He's drifting from the shore. Then there are the line "Midnight is where the day begins". I think this means midnight is the darkest hour of the day. It's the hour when the vampires and werewolves come out. But it's also the start of a brand new day, and good things await. But for now, all this girl offers is hurt, and these are the days when our work has come asunder, so we must look for something other. The man spends so much time going after this "dream" girl, and then all of a sudden "through the light projected he sees himself up close". He realizes what he's doing and can then move on with his life. He doesn't need the pain, he doesn't need to give himself away to her.
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this is pretty much how the song comes across to me also.
 
Mine would be Walk On - Live version, it's not even close to being my favorite song by them - but I'll never forget listening to this song on the evening of 9/11 and having the TV on with no sound and the images of that day. It brought me back a little bit to not feeling so alone in a motel room away from home, family and friends.


UltraViolet - I know this song gets crushed on these Boards but living the actual lyrics out as I did for many years this song still resonantes to me on so many levels

One Tree Hill - All time favorite U2 song - peotry in a Rock n roll song.

Bad - Another song to hit me right in the gut.

Sorry, I just couldn't come up with just one.
:shrug:
 
Wow, there are some really emotional stories here, people sharing some pretty private thoughts and feelings. I agree with alot of these choices and can understand why so many people would turn to them when they're at a low, but then U2's music has always tried to inspire rather than disenchant hasn't it.

I'm really pleased this thread connected and so many people responded, thankyou. :wave:
 
It's so hard to just choose one, so I'm not going to. :D

Walk On - this song came out at a time when I was going through so many difficult life experiences, and it gave me hope and encouragement that I wasn't alone. As cheesy as it may sound to say this - that album may have saved my life. It's corny, but true. I can't remember how many times I listened to it that year - over and over again.

Streets - it's uplifting, and has always been my favourite U2 song.

Bad - can't explain why, but it's another all time favourite.
 
I'm with Thora--don't make me choose just one!

"Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" and "WOWY" both grab me every time.

"Streets" is my favorite to see/hear live--the energy that flows through the arena/stadium is amazing!

But "Stuck in a Moment" is particularly meaningful to me. In June 2001, my mother had open heart surgery. All went well,;but during the night a stitch came loose, and she had a lot of internal bleeding, which basically made all of her organs start to shut down. She hung on for an entire month, and we actually thought there was was hope. During that month, "ATYCLB" was getting a lot of airplay, so I invariably heard "Stuck" on the way to/from the hospital every day. In a strange way, it gave me hope; but it also helped prepare me for what was lying ahead. Hearing/ seeing it performed at Notre Dame 10/10/01, so soon after her death, Bono's father's death, and 9/11 was particularly gut-wrenching. My sister has the same story for "Walk On."
 
I haven't went through anything tramatic or anything really that bad.. but I do like The Sweetest Thing because everytime I hear it, it makes me smile :)
 
I can't listen to Stuck in a Moment without getting teared up. I went through a bad bout with depression after surgery a few years ago and the song brings back those memories. The bridge -- "The water is warm until you discover how deep...It's a long way down to nothing at allllllll" really resonates to anyone who's been there.

Kite is another tear-jerker for any one among us who has lost a parent. "I know that this is not goodbye..."

On a brighter note, Walk On is truly inspirational and a reminder of a very brave woman who is still not free to serve her country as her people wished her to do.

Still Haven't Found reminds me of Bono's trip to Africa a few years ago when the children serenaded him, and he joined in. That was the first time I was aware of Bono's activism.

And In a Little While is just so romantic. Sigh.
 
Hands down: "Bad"

It's just my song. I've loved it ever since it came out. I literally MEMORIZED Bono's every move during the Rattle & Hum version of it, and then on the spur of the moment I performed it on a retreat with my high school Drama class and everyone said I did such an amazing job they could totally see and feel Bono in the room. :giggle:

Fast-forward 8 years and I wept at it on an Elevation tour show that I went to with my Dad and he's REALLY the one who introduced me to "Bad". Plus, we had just had this really great Father-Son moment before the show and then the Bad/40/WTSHNN suite just reduced me to tears.

And finally, at the greatest concert of my life, Staples Center, November 2, 2005. I was about 3 feet away from the ellipse and they hadn't really been playing "Bad" all that much and then they ended the show with it and I was soooooooooo close.

I have never given more of myself at a concert than during "Bad" (and the screaming after WTSHNN was finished at that same show). When I heard those first few opening notes and realized hey were going to end with "Bad": I cried. I laughed. I screamed 'till it hurt. I coughed. I gagged. I wretched. I sweated. I leaped. I jumped. I fist-pumped. I hugged. I both-arms-up-in-the-air-Victory styled! I sang along.

It was just one of my favorite moments in life, ever.


Yeah, hands down: "Bad"
 
Wow, Bad is really popular here. To all the people who replied Bad, the song is about drugs, right? But certainly not all of you relate it to drugs? I'm curious as to what this song means to you guys? Or is it one of those songs that are unexplainably uplifting?


I ask this because the song just gets so much praise, but I never connected with it. I admit I used it when I had trouble falling asleep... several times. :reject:
 
WCF said:
Wow, Bad is really popular here. To all the people who replied Bad, the song is about drugs, right? But certainly not all of you relate it to drugs? I'm curious as to what this song means to you guys? Or is it one of those songs that are unexplainably uplifting?


I ask this because the song just gets so much praise, but I never connected with it. I admit I used it when I had trouble falling asleep... several times. :reject:
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Hey, to each his own.

I know that U2 has had MANY different styles, sounds, periods . . . . . however you want to term it.

But like I said in my post, that is my song, and I guess what I mean is . . . . that song, that sound . . . . that is U2 to me. That will always be what U2 sounds like to me, and my favorite U2.

And I know I'm not crazy because "Listen Like Thieves" came on the radio a few weeks ago and my friend turned to me and said, "See, THIS is INXS. This album, those years. That's what I think of when I think INXS. Do you get what I mean?" And I COMPLETELY understood what she meant.

"Bad" just has THE sound to me, the passion, the heart-on-the-sleeve bleeding anthem of it all. That is my U2. That's who I fell in love with, and love to this day.

I will say that I MUCH, MUCH prefer it live than the recorded Unforgettable Fire version, which is ok, but really the song comes alive, well . . . . live. I do really love the Wide Awake In America recorded "live" version as well.

Yeah, guess you're right WCF: it is kind of unexplainable.
 
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My favorite songs are the one's that never get old. I could listen to it a thousand times in a row and still love it. Those songs are few and far between for me, but, there are a few:

Until the End of the World - Live (in general)
The Fly - Live (all but Elevation Tour)
Where the Streets Have no Name - Live (in general)
Bad - Live (all but Elevation Tour)
Kite - Live (Vertigo Tour)
Mysterious Ways - Live (Zoo TV)

I can't think of any at the moment, I might be missing something big, but that's about it right there. Of that list, The Fly and UTEOTW are my favorites, but Bad and Kite probably mean more on a personal level.
 
with bad i think its the vocal, just gutwrenching, but when you do have deamons on your back you can relate to the song on a different level.

put on Achtung Baby today for the first time in a long time.... OMG
Ultraviolet blew me away again like the first time i heard it years ago.
"i remember when we could sleep on stones... now we lie together in whispers and moans" gets me every time.

had a tear in my eye....

anyway - each persons memory and reason for liking a particular song is subjective, but it is a beautiful thing that the music is so special to so many people.
 
Running To Stand Still. Definitely. Especially the album version of The Joshua Tree.

It was my brother's favorite song on this album, the last U2-record he bought, before he died in a car accident in 1988.
After that this song became my favorite too.

Worth mentioning: I visited the Vertigo tour at the 2nd show in Amsterdam, july 15th 2005, which was also the last show that U2 palyed Running To Stand Still until now. I am sure my brother watched it from 'above', especially when U2 ended the song with Amazing Grace and never played the song again during the tour.
Tears in my eyes.
 
Philly Fan, what don't you like about Bad live on Elevation? I love the Elevation renditions.
 
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