GEN
Active topics
  1. I'm just kidding. Because that's the way I see it too. But there's more to say, but it's generally along those lines. I always think of this song though when I see the moon partially covered by a cloud.
    It's beautiful. It's enticing.
    I still need to think about it just a bit more though.

    Lady G
  2. I'm really sorry but I am not going to be able to put my views forward until next Tuesday (I know it's after the deadline) I am going on holiday for a few days and will not have access to a computer.
    I thought that I would have had plenty of time to do it yesterday but ended up putting loads on my ipod.
  3. Originally posted by ladygodivaI'm really sorry but I am not going to be able to put my views forward until next Tuesday (I know it's after the deadline) I am going on holiday for a few days and will not have access to a computer.
    I thought that I would have had plenty of time to do it yesterday but ended up putting loads on my ipod.



    So...? You didn't post eventually Lady G!

    Is there still interest in this round table? If yes, I shall choose the next song and we'll continue...reply if you're interested!
  4. Hello Ali. I can't tell you how sorry that I did not post when I said I would. I was a combination of many different things. A holiday, a work catch up and home commitments. If you would like to carry on and post a new song I would be more than pleased to join in. I have been grabbing moments today on my computer, but still have loads to do.
    I really don't want this round table to end, especially because of me.

    Lady G
  5. A Sort of Homecoming (1984)


    The Unforgettable Fire is a journey - as said during The Joshua Tree Tour, "Welcome to The Unforgettable Fire". It's a very challenging song for anyone to listen to and / or write about, and that's why I chose it. A lot of songs from the Pop album, which you lot seem to like quite a bit, are very hard-hitting, but I find A Sort of Homecoming one of the hardest and most challenging lyrics around.


    Now...

    A Sort of Homecoming is kind of a story, or concept song which artists like Alice Cooper pioneered. You can imagine it in your head, you can draw it out - even if you've never experienced that sort of stuff, it's easy enough to imagine with the news, the media - you see almost every day.



    And you know it's time to go
    Through the sleet and driving snow
    Across the fields of mourning
    Light in the distance

    And you hunger for the time
    Time to heal, desire, time
    And your earth moves beneath
    Your own dream landscape




    They (the figure) know it's time to go before their time is up. As a result, they can see a light at the end of the tunnel and want that light to lead somewhere where they're comfortable - away from death, away from torture, away from the hell they've been in. The time to heal is a desire, which will come in time - and the earth moves beneath their dream landscape, of which they are wishing for but have not recieved it yet, but in due course...



    I'll be there
    I'll be there
    Tonight
    A high road
    A high road out from here

    The city walls are all come down
    The dust, a smoke screen all around
    See faces ploughed like fields that once
    Gave no resistance

    And we live by the side of the road
    On the side of a hill
    As the valley explode
    Dislocated, suffocated
    The land grows weary of its own




    Is this to do with a war, and all those that are trying to get home, but can't. The land grows weary because it's been torn and ruined - and the faces are lying still because they lay dead, injured and dust and smoke is all around because of the damaged landscape - dislocated and suffocated, weary like it once was not. Weakened, it cannot resist those who are out to destroy.



    Oh some away, oh come away, oh come
    Oh come away, you say
    Oh come away, oh come away, oh come
    Oh come away, you say

    Oh, oh, oh
    On borderland we run
    And still we run
    We run and don't look back
    I'll be there
    I'll be there
    Tonight
    Tonight

    I'll be there tonight... I believe
    I'll be there... somehow
    I'll, I'll be there... tonight
    Tonight

    Oh come away, and say you say, oh come
    Oh come away, you say




    X is still lost and trying to get home, yet still can't make it. No matter how much they try. But beautiful lyrics. And usually if you're running, you don't look back because there's disaster or trouble behind. This figure is trying to make it home but finding it impossible. I'm not sure who the figure is, but it would be a Japanese figure. A podcast a while back, I think from the BBC, had something about Japanese paintings and Hiroshima, and that's what inspired the album. In fact, the very exhibition that the inspiration came from was The Peace Museum in Chicago - it also had an exhibition on Martin Luther King at the time.

    The figure is being told to come away from the disaster. They've said they're coming home, but are they sure they'll make it. The figure is trying to reach "borderland", which is an indeterminate place - it could be 100 meters or even 25 miles away.



    The wind will crack in winter time
    This bomb-blast lightning waltz
    No spoken words, just a scream

    Tonight we'll build a bridge
    Across the sea and land
    See the sky, the burning rain
    She will die and live again
    Tonight

    And your heart beats so slow
    Through the rain and fallen snow
    Across the fields of mourning
    Lights in the distance

    Oh don't sorrow, no don't weep
    For tonight, at last
    I am coming home
    I am coming home




    The figure has found their way to a new home. With the line, "She will die and live again", I feel this means a land of sorts, and though they've taken...what...five years...they are finally coming home, safe from harm. Either that, or "she", as we know now is referring to a woman (or so it says) is going to heaven after death and heaven may be "Home", but will return in the afterlife.

    It also reminds me of the siege of Sarajevo. Bono tells a story of going there for the POPmart Tour and meeting a war-time president who was a scholar about a burning library after a bombing with ancient Islamic, Jewish and Christian books (Coexista?), targeted by the soldiers there and burnt down the library. For days, weeks later - words from the pages were falling through the sky and people were walking around Sarajevo with words falling on those people, like rain. Amazing.

    The heart beats slow as there may have been a broadcast or news report (it could have taken place over years in Bono's mind), saying the place was involved in a bombing of sorts or a body has been found - have you ever had a moment where your heart suddenly beats slow because of a reason of incidence? The fields of mourning would be the resting ground for those killed, maimed by this horrific incident.

    The whole premise (I believe) is based around living in somewhere which is like hell, but they're finally leaving and getting away - so, where the title "A Sort of Homecoming" comes from. You're not going home, but going to a 'new' home - so it's sort of a home. This could be a predecessor to songs like "Walk On", and the line about home is where the heart is. Your original home place is in your heart - like Australia is to me - and this song captures that, almost 20 years later. No matter where it is.
  6. we were on 'velvet dress'...but good to have another review for ASOH
    Nice job drew...that was huge! You made me listen to the studio version (been listening to the Wide Awake version for almost a year now!)...Bono has some great vocals in this song!

    I'll give a new song some time soon...till then post whatever you have left to post!
  7. Well, I always skipped the song, but I'll try and do something for it.
  8. If were onto UF I vote we do Wire or Bad next. ( I'm in a morbid mood)
  9. bump
  10. Originally posted by MWSAHbump


  11. Can anyone post their thoughts, or is this a vip thing ?

  12. Originally posted by TheBigBadWolfCan anyone post their thoughts, or is this a vip thing ?



    I think it's kinda like the BRT (Bootleg Round Table) - whoever's interested votes on something first, then they put the meanings down, i.e. it probably is a "vip" thing...
U2start is run by fans for fans. Help us reduce personal costs. Consider to make a donation to support us.
U2start is run by fans for fans. Help us reduce personal costs. Consider to make a donation to support us.
U2start is run by fans for fans. Help us reduce personal costs. Consider to make a donation to support us.
U2start is run by fans for fans. Help us reduce personal costs. Consider to make a donation to support us.