This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
You know he got the cure
You know he went astray
He used to stay awake
To drive the dreams he had away
He wanted to believe
In the hands of love
His head it felt heavy
As he cut across the land
A dog started crying
Like a broken hearted man
At the howling wind
At the howling wind
He went deeper into black
Deeper into white
Could see the stars shining
Like nails in the night
He felt the healing
Healing, healing
Healing hands of love
Like the stars shiny shiny
From above
Hand in the pocket
Finger on the steel
The pistol weighed heavy
His heart he could feel
Was beating, beating
Beating, beating oh my love
Oh my love, oh my love
Oh my love
My love
Saw the hands that build
Can also pull down
The hands of love
You know he went astray
He used to stay awake
To drive the dreams he had away
He wanted to believe
In the hands of love
His head it felt heavy
As he cut across the land
A dog started crying
Like a broken hearted man
At the howling wind
At the howling wind
He went deeper into black
Deeper into white
Could see the stars shining
Like nails in the night
He felt the healing
Healing, healing
Healing hands of love
Like the stars shiny shiny
From above
Hand in the pocket
Finger on the steel
The pistol weighed heavy
His heart he could feel
Was beating, beating
Beating, beating oh my love
Oh my love, oh my love
Oh my love
My love
Saw the hands that build
Can also pull down
The hands of love
Lyrics submitted by yuri_sucupira
Exit Lyrics as written by Dave Evans Adam Clayton
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I feel that this song is about a man who lost the one he loved in an unnatural way - maybe murder - he was overwhelmingly depressed about it and the unfairness in it and went out to get revenge. I believe the line "A dog started crying like a broken hearted man at the howling wind at the howling wind" is him cursing God for causing him pain. On his way to get revenge he "could see the stars shining like nails in the night" - like Jesus being nailed to the cross - and he forgave the person he was going to kill and decided against it.
"He saw the hands that build can also pull down the hands of love"
the hands that build = God the hands of love = the man, because he was doing it for the one he loves
God stopped him from committing murder.
I had heard that the guy who killed the actress Rebecca Shaeffer (My Sister Sam) listened to this song to put him in the mood to kill her. I've listened to this song thousands of times and I have never been put in the mood to commit murder.
U2 - Exit (with my comments)
You know he got the cure, you know he went astray
His head, it felt heavy, as he cut across the land
He went deeper into black, deeper into white
Could see the stars shining like nails in the night
Hand in the pocket, finger on the steel The pistol weighed heavy, his heart he could feel Was beating, beating, beating, beating Oh my love, oh my love, oh my love, oh my love
My love
He saw the hands that build Can also pull down, the hands of love
*** Last 2 lines: The main point of the song.
The very thing that we all strive for, morality, the thing that's supposed to make the world a better place, has also torn this person's soul apart. He can't stop any of the unfairness in the world and doesn't understand why God does not do it either.
I think this song is about a person similar to me. I'm not suicidal, but I feel very strongly about the sad things that seem to happen to innocent people.
just an idea...maybe a murder-suicide? because it sounds like a guy whos really wacked out...maybe wanting to take someone out, then himself?
I love this song live (ie 1987), how the energy builds up - and then straight into In Gods COuntry with no pause ...awesome!
At first appearance, the song seems to talk about suicide, but I actually read somewhere that one part of the lyrics are quite similar to a book or article written on murder...implying that this song is about murder rather than suicide.
either or...
ah, well. again, i think it's murder as well... i think. i can do some more research on this...
I've always felt that this is about a man who ,once believed (The hands of love) , now does not because of all the bad things associated with formal religion. The man , full of dispair , kills himself to find out if God (love) is true. Nothing else to live for.
a year ago I used this song as inspiration for a project of school, I had to pick a song and visualise it 3 times. I first wrote down what I thought it meant and this is (in short) what I put down: I always had the feeling this song was about suicide rather than murder because of the sudden ending of the song, I feel like the person killing themself is thinking that he is actually doing what God would want him to do. now I read the previous posts I also agree with 'trippedbywire' on that he is killing himself to find out is God is true. And that this is all that matters, to find this out, nothing else left.