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  1. Originally posted by drewhiggins:[..]

    Aha! It does sound strange at the beginning though, especially when you're not aware of what the song actually is about - that Stand Up campaign.

    He's got some real strange lyrics as of late.


    Mainly after ATYCLB his lyrics seem to have come downhill, he has gotten sloppy I think... I mean, of course there was one or other song with something strange, but it usually fit the song and its mood like Somedays Are Better Than Others... and even the great ones there´s something to spoil lately, like MOS, I think it is great but the ATM machine thing throws water in my beer

    The songs that I like his lyrics post 2000 are not as many as b4... I like Beautiful Day, In A Little While, Kite, Sometimes You Can´t Make it On Your Own, Miracle Drug, COBL, Magnificent....

    By the way, has anyone ever noticed how Crazy Tonight´s chorus ruins everything? It is simply beautiful chorus "it´s not a hill/ it´s a mountain/ as u start out the climb/listen for me/ i´ll be shouting/ we´re gonna make it all the way to the light" that´s beautiful and then bono ruins it with "i´ll go crazy if i don´t go crazy tonight"... come on! the verss are just okay, though...

    Well, I blabbed a bit too much
  2. Originally posted by JuJuman:That's an obvious sexual reference to me - submarine/gasoline

    Re: Bono's lack of inspiration and his voice. I think he's doing great live. He can certainly still sing... and there's 4 of them; they could help him out writing the lyrics...


    It has to be hard to write lyrics for every single song and hoping they sound good or they work the way you're expecting and not knowing what people will think of them. You'd think the others could write or contribute more than they do to the song - although after Edge's contribution to Magnificent, I wouldn't let him write another serious lyric.



    Originally posted by EdgeI was born
    I was born to sing for you
    I didn’t have a choice but to lift you up
    And sing whatever song you wanted me to

    Because as we all know, Bono isn't the only messiah in U2.

    Anyway, his voice is back and where the hell has it come from? It has to be in the best form since that Modena 1995 performance - he can hold the notes and he can belt them out. For someone of his age who lost it there for nearly 15 years, he's absolutely doing well. Even on NLOTH, the vocals there knock you out at how strong and confident he is at this point.
  3. His voice has been nothing short of amazing this tour. Especially this year. It's probably the best it's been since the Lovetown tour.
    But this lyrics were pretty bad on NLOTH, have to sadly agree on that. "ATM Machine"?
    I think HTDAAB had great lyrics, but that's just me. Ever since the hype for that album died down, and by hype I mean vertigo stopped being played on the radio every half an hour, I've loved that album. Great stuff on there.
    I do think Bono's lyrics are going to be much better on the next album. North Star and Every Breaking Wave (especially EBW) have great lyrics in my opinion. Every Breaking Wave has some deep stuff on it, and I can't wait to hear what it'll be like when it's finished.

    I just hope Will.I.Am doesn't turn U2's next album into an RnB album.
  4. I have a theory that Moment Of Surrender is about a drug addiction, depression or another kind of addiction. It could be about loneliness, and tying into the next song - Unknown Caller, which as we all know is the random text message theme on the phone, a lonely and depressed (and probably close to suicide) individual. So:
    ''I was speeding on the subway...I did not notice the passers-by and they did not notice me''.




    If you use the ATM machine, you're getting some kind of withdrawl of product - whatever, it doesn't matter - it kinda makes sense. Which then brings us to:




    ''I was punching in the numbers at the ATM''.

    An automatic teller machine, that doesn't work as well as if you add ''ATM machine'' to it, does it? Try saying it and seeing how it sounds. But there's the dilemma...it's now an automated teller machine machine. So Bono's stuck either way, and not just at the ATM machine or on the subway either. Glastonbury was partly first-person, for Bono anyway - ''I've been packin' since the 10th May''. So he still writes in first-person but didn't for NLOTH.

    Bono has a knack for writing what seems simple but it's actually quite deep.
  5. Originally posted by drewhiggins:I have a theory that Moment Of Surrender is about a drug addiction, depression or another kind of addiction. It could be about loneliness, and tying into the next song - Unknown Caller, which as we all know is the random text message theme on the phone, a lonely and depressed (and probably close to suicide) individual.
    [..]



    If you use the ATM machine, you're getting some kind of withdrawl of product - whatever, it doesn't matter - it kinda makes sense.



    [..]
    An automatic teller machine, that doesn't work as well as if you add ''ATM machine'' to it, does it? But there's the dilemma...it's now an automated teller machine machine. So Bono's stuck either way, and not just at the ATM machine or on the subway either. Glastonbury was partly first-person, for Bono anyway - ''I've been packin' since the 10th May''. So he still writes in first-person but didn't for NLOTH.

    Bono has a knack for writing what seems simple but it's actually quite deep.


    Again, I've heard it referred to as an ATM machine on television before, specifically a news cast I was watching one night.


  6. For example, a news report comes on and it says ''An ATM was set on fire today at so-so location''. People are going to wonder ''What the hell is an ATM?'', whereas adding the machine suffix, it sort of gives them an idea of what is, such as ''Oh, of course! The cash dispensing machine''.

    They don't say cash-dispensing machine; I've never heard it referred to like that at least. It gives the viewer / listener an idea of being able to get what the reporter means without having to try and remember what an ATM is. They use them all the time, but it may not occur to them that quickly in the time of the report when it's being done in real-time.

    Wikipedia has an interesting piece on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAS_syndrome
  7. I also think that MOS is about drug addiction.

    I tied myself with wire (heroin adicts tie their arms with strong traps or wires in order to make the veins bigger and easier to be injected) to let the horses run free ('horse' is a common slang term for heroin), playing with the fire 'til the fire played with me (you think that you're over the drug until it overcomes you, and you become an addict).

    Some other lyrics have references too.
  8. Originally posted by LikeASong:I also think that MOS is about drug addiction.

    I tied myself with wire (heroin adicts tie their arms with strong traps or wires in order to make the veins bigger and easier to be injected) to let the horses run free ('horse' is a common slang term for heroin), playing with the fire 'til the fire played with me (you think that you're over the drug until it overcomes you, and you become an addict).

    Some other lyrics have references too.


    How it's played at the shows - a last ditch-effort to get help and Bono's rap ''Don't leave me now, don't leave me now.'' Don't leave someone who needs it. If you loved someone, no matter what they were addicted to or had problems with in life, a demon or the devil or Satan, you wouldn't leave them.

    What about the actual album title itself? It loosely ties into the whole drugs-addiction-depression-loneliness theme. No line, meaning there's no line in your life that you can see or feel to follow, and the whole No Line song itself reminisces on what once was and what's not now.

    We need a lyrical interpretation thread for Moment Of Surrender and Unknown Caller.
  9. Bono crowned Dub Of The Year http://bit.ly/hPd01h


    Seriously thought I had it in the bag this year..
  10. Originally posted by drewhiggins:[..]

    Not only that, he gets confused easily these days. ''Stand up and then sit down for your love.'' Make up your mind man!!!!

    Yes, cringeworthy at the highest level.


    The worst was a 50 year old short man singing about "sexy boots"

    Or the terrible breakdown in SUC: "God is love and love is evolution's very best day"

    "Everybody needs to cry or needs to spit" What is that supposed to mean?

    "Soldier brings oranges, he got out from a tank"

    The problem with the ATM machine verse in MoS is that it's so mundane and unpoetic compared to the previous imagery Bono uses in the song eg. horses, fire, black holes etc which suit the atmosphere of the song better than "I was punching in the numbers in the ATM machine, I could see in the reflection a face staring back at me". It's just jarring.

    The other problem with MoS is that the solo doesnt go anywhere, he just plays a few notes and it just fizzles out with no resolution or development - very anti-climatic unlike the fantastic Unknown Caller solo.

    This is probably Brian Eno's fault as he didn't want them to mess with the original take of the song, it'd have been good if Edge could have overdubbed a proper solo.

    Back onto Bono's lyrics I think he's just being lazy and feels that close enough is good enough.
    Songs like Disappearing Act show that he can write lyrics like he did in the 80s/90s (unless of course the DA lyrics are leftovers from the TUF sessions).


  11. I can't see "No Line On The Horizon" meaning a loss of hope. To me it's more a mysterious future kind of thing. "A vision over visibility", something that's definitely attainable and there, but it's over the horizon, somewhere out there, in the future, far away, who knows. But then again, you never know. The best lyrics are the ones that are able to open themselves into interpretation, so MOS could definitely be seen as a song about addiction, definitely think some of you guys are onto something there! But I wouldn't say the album itself has a general theme of that. But you never know! Maybe magnificent is all about the high you get and how great it feels, and maybe cedars of lebanon "woke up in my clothes in a dirty heap" is about waking up all @#$%ed up after a trip.


  12. Indeed it is - apparently the Moment of Surrender is when an alcoholic or drug addict admits he or she is helpless.
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