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  1. 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.
  2. 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.


  3. 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
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. Bono crowned Dub Of The Year http://bit.ly/hPd01h


    Seriously thought I had it in the bag this year..
  7. 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).


  8. 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.


  9. Indeed it is - apparently the Moment of Surrender is when an alcoholic or drug addict admits he or she is helpless.
  10. Surrendering to the moment of truth?
  11. U2 came 2nd in Billboards Top Tour of 2010 after only playin 22 gigs between 22nd November 2009 and 20th November 2010 so they missed out on the start of the Aus/NZ leg. Lady Gaga played 100 more concerts and they still beat her
  12. Originally posted by http://www.couriermail.com.au/entertainment/confidential/semi-retired-gold-coast-businessman-scores-two-unlikely-golf-buddies-from-u2/story-e6freq7o-1225969173223A GOLD Coast man got more than he bargained for this week during a game of golf at the Hope Island course.

    The semi-retired businessman was on the practice green when a foreign man approached him to ask if he and his friend could join him on his round.

    The local man happily agreed and soon discovered he was talking to the stage manager for Irish rockers U2.

    "Oh and does your friend work for U2 as well?" he asked.

    "That's Bono, the lead singer," the stage manager replied.

    The man enjoyed 18 holes with Bono and the stage manager, a beer or two afterwards, and scored tickets to Wednesday night's show.


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Contribute to the U2 community with uploading photos or by telling us which shows you have visited.
Contribute to the U2 community with uploading photos or by telling us which shows you have visited.