Sunday, January 09, 2005

U2 Images and Impressions

Got U2's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb for my birthday. There are a ton of good reviews out there, so I'll say that like it. I do want to post about some lyrics that have captured my attention.

I've noticed the word kneel appears three times on the album. In the last verse of Vertigo
Hello, hello (¡Hola!)
We're at a place called Vertigo (¿Dónde está?)
Lights go down, and all I know
Is that you give me something
I can feel your love teaching me how
Your love is teaching me how
How to kneel, kneel
At the end of City of Blinding Lights
The more you know the less you feel
Some pray for others steal
Blessings are not just for the ones who kneel... luckily
and from the chorus from Original of the Species
And you feel like no-one before
You steal right under my door
I kneel 'cause I want you some more
I want the lot of what you got
And I want nothing that you're not
I can't think of another image that Bono has used as much on one album. Draw your own conclusions on the significance if any but it caught my attention.

There is one other lyric that stands out to me. From Vertigo
The night is full of holes
These bullets rip the sky
Of ink with gold
They twinkle as the boys
Play rock and roll
They know that they can't dance
At least they know
"bullets rip the sky" strikes me as reference to Bullet the Blue Sky
Across the field you see the sky ripped open
See the rain come through the gaping wound
Pounding on the women and children who run into the arms of America
I don't have a clue what it means, it just hits me that way every time I hear it. It's like the images from Bullet the Blue Sky overlay the ones from Vertigo in my mind just that moment.

- Peace

3 comments:

U2 Sermons said...

Hi Dave,
Actually one of the things I kind of dislike about HTDAAB is the amount of stealing images from old U2 songs, such as with the "bullets rip the sky" line you highlight. Another is "the soul needs beauty for a soulmate" lifted from Always. But Bono tends to do this a lot.
The "kneel" thing - yeah, a lot of kneeling on the album. It reminds me of Achtung Baby with all the moon/sun stuff.

Dave King said...

I kinda lost track of them After Ratel and Hum. I didn't come back to All That You Can't Leave Behind so I didn't know about the Sun/Moon thing.

- Peace

Stuart Buck said...

You forgot another instance, from Love and Peace or Else:

I don’t know if I can take it
I’m not easy on my knees
Here’s my heart you can break it.