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We crossed the line
Who pushed who over?
It doesn't matter to you
It matters to me
We're cut adrift
We're still floating
I'm only hanging on
To watch you go down
My love
I disappeared in you
You disappeared from me
I gave you everything you ever wanted
It wasn't what you wanted
The men who love you, you hate the most
They pass through you like a ghost
They look for you, but your spirit is in the air
Baby, you're nowhere
Oh...love...
You say in love there are no rules
Oh...love...
Sweetheart,
You're so cruel
Desperation is a tender trap
It gets you every time
You put your lips to her lips
To stop the lie
Her skin is pale like God's only dove
Screams like an angel for your love
Then she makes you watch her from above
And you need her like a drug
Oh...love...
You say in love there are no rules
Oh...love...
Sweetheart,
You're so cruel
She wears my love like a see-through dress
Her lips say one thing
Her movements something else
Oh love, like a screaming flower
Love...dying every hour...love
You don't know if it's fear or desire
Danger the drug that takes you higher
Head in heaven, fingers in the mire
Her heart is racing, you can't keep up
The night is bleeding like a cut
Between the horses of love and lust
We are trampled underfoot
Oh...love... You say in love there are no rules
Oh...love...
Sweetheart,
You're so cruel
Oh...love...
To stay with you I'd be a fool
Sweetheart
You're so cruel
Who pushed who over?
It doesn't matter to you
It matters to me
We're cut adrift
We're still floating
I'm only hanging on
To watch you go down
My love
I disappeared in you
You disappeared from me
I gave you everything you ever wanted
It wasn't what you wanted
The men who love you, you hate the most
They pass through you like a ghost
They look for you, but your spirit is in the air
Baby, you're nowhere
Oh...love...
You say in love there are no rules
Oh...love...
Sweetheart,
You're so cruel
Desperation is a tender trap
It gets you every time
You put your lips to her lips
To stop the lie
Her skin is pale like God's only dove
Screams like an angel for your love
Then she makes you watch her from above
And you need her like a drug
Oh...love...
You say in love there are no rules
Oh...love...
Sweetheart,
You're so cruel
She wears my love like a see-through dress
Her lips say one thing
Her movements something else
Oh love, like a screaming flower
Love...dying every hour...love
You don't know if it's fear or desire
Danger the drug that takes you higher
Head in heaven, fingers in the mire
Her heart is racing, you can't keep up
The night is bleeding like a cut
Between the horses of love and lust
We are trampled underfoot
Oh...love... You say in love there are no rules
Oh...love...
Sweetheart,
You're so cruel
Oh...love...
To stay with you I'd be a fool
Sweetheart
You're so cruel
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When I was a teen one of the boys in our class died from an illness. The girl he had been seeing up to close before his death was really messed up obviously. I think he broke up with her because he wanted to save her from the pain of his death, rather than not caring about her. She went out with other guys, and got a bit of a hard time for it, especially after he died - I suppose we were all grieving and it was hard to watch her try to move on. The funny thing is, that she was definitely still in love with the boy that had died, and the new guy, despite being crazy about her, couldn't do anything right to please her.
I was listening to this album a lot at the time, and this song seemed to really fit their situation (still does kinda!) and will forever remind me of them.
They are Gods either way.
"We crossed the line
Who pushed who over?
It doesn't matter to you
It matters to me"
She insists it doesn't matter where the idea came from, what's done is done. It does matter to him, suggesting that he was satisfied with their relationship, but she wasn't.
"We're cut adrift
But still floating
I'm only hanging on
To watch you go down,
My love"
They are drifting apart from one another, yet he remains for the sexual experience, as opposed to the emotional one. As well, this is an obvious reference to watching his lover perform oral sex; however, it does not indicate if he is watching her go down on him, or another person.
"I disappeared in you
You disappeared from me
I gave you everything you ever wanted
It wasn't what you wanted"
This suggests the disconnect they have been feeling during heterosexual intercouse. He disappears in her (sex) and she disappears from him emotionally. The paradoxical statement following that suggests he has tried everything she demanded to fulfill her sexual needs, but it wasn't enough. Hence, a new partner is introduced.
"The men who love you, you hate the most
They pass through you like a ghost
They look for you, but your spirit is in the air
Baby, you're nowhere"
A suggestion to the emotional distance from men the female partner has always seemed to feel. Perhaps it's not men she desires, yet because of the societal expectation of heterosexuality, she cannot express her bisexuality or homosexuality openly.
"Ohhhh
You say in love there are no rules
Ohhhh
Sweetheart, you're so cruel"
If there are no rules in love according to her, this is further evidence suggesting she is the one who desires to break the morays of monogamy in order to fulfill her desires, and he calls her cruel for this, obviously hurt by her apparent rejection of him and his inability to satisfy her, despite the love he feels for her.
"Desperation is a tender trap
It gets you every time
You put your lips to her lips
To stop the lie"
Desperation for sexual fulfillment seems to have captured the female in a trap of desire -- continually wanting those same desires fulfilled. Desperation to make her happy has trapped the male partner into allowing the relationhip to become "open". Once this is done, it is difficult to get back to exclusivity. "You put your lips to her lips to stop the lie" is crucial here -- Everyone here normally assumes a change from the first person into the third; however, if we assume the speaker does NOT change here, then the "you" remains his female partner, which makes the "her" being kissed another woman. The lie being stopped then also changes drastically... the lie she stops is the lie of her heterosexuality and the lie of their male-female relationship.
"Her skin is pale like God's only dove
Screams like an angel for your love
Then she makes you watch her from above
And you need her like a drug"
If the speaker is still speaking to his female lover, then this again becomes a commentary on the sexual relationship between the two women. "need[ing] her like a drug" then is suggestive of the female's true desires becoming inescapable. She needs to be with a woman to be happy, making the man feel obsolete.
"She wears my love
Like a see-through dress
Her lips say one thing
Her movements something else"
The fact that he says "my love" again indicates that a shift from the first person never occured and the use of "her" did in fact refer to a second female. This is where the song becomes much sadder, as we see the woman's inability to simply admit her homosexuality; she continues the lie of the relationship with a man in order to live up to the expectations of others. He seems to truly love her, but she "wears" that love like a see-through dress; it's superficial and external only. And he knows it. he can see that she's pretending, but still loves her anyway. Sad.
Trampled by both love and lust? Seems that each person in the relationship is suffering.
Ultraviolet is another song that touches this topic, as I discussed being in the black a bpd views others as bad, Bono writes, " I'm in the black, can't seen or be seen" that is how a bpd views you in the black.
Don't believe me, have an ex that makes you think of this song ? Google what I said, been there, done that. Licking my wounds.
BRILLIANT!!!!!! Thank you Bono.
And if it is about Edge's divorce, can you imagine the emotion felt whenever he plays this? I'm sure he's a bit desensitized by now, but still.
But more importantly, I think it shows the bond between The Edge and Bono....which is one of the reasons this band has lasted so long.
This song gives me chills.
Who pushed who over?
These first two lines say it all to me. I, too, thought this song was about unrequited love, but taken one step further. The subjects of the song have had an affair, but who started it?
And you don't know if it's fear or desire
Danger the drug that takes you higher?
Fear and desire, two necessary elements in a love affair. So afraid you may never again feel that way, or terrified that you might get caught...either way the desire takes over.
Then she makes you watch her from above
And you need her like a drug
The man is now on the outside looking in, having lost his love.
This song really speaks to me because I have been in this situation. Many years ago I had a steady man in my life but had a fling with someone else. He loved me but I was unwilling to leave my steady for him, so we ended things. He was crushed. We all worked together which made it much more difficult on him. My biggest mistake was staying with my steady and not following my heart.
Head in heaven, fingers in the mire. He is with the girl he loved for so long so he's happy, but it is morally wrong to be with her.
I think the male subject was in love with this girl and she kept pushing him away then coming back, which is why she is so cruel. And finally he gets married and then crosses the line to be with her because she is like a drug he's addicted to no matter what. He likes the danger and is willing to risk everything for her. I am in this very situation. I met someone when we were just kids and he wanted to get married and I wanted to explore life and travel the world. So I did, but always came back to him because I loved him, I was just too young to get married. Finally when I was 28 and ready to settle down, he wouldn't answer my calls or emails or letters, then he got engaged to another woman. He called and asked to see me to explain why he made that decision. I begged and pleaded for him not to do it and promised I'd never leave his side again. He almost called off the wedding, but in the end he couldn't because he had been so hurt from me leaving over and over again. He called less than a year of being married to see me. He was tearful and remorseful and said he had made a huge mistake and still loved me. I was so emotionally drained that I moved away to get out of the situation, but it didn't end there because he couldn't let it, as hard as he tried. It was such a painful and regretful situation that I wrote a novel about it just to put into words how devastating it is to lose your first love. You really don't know what you have until it's gone and it doesn't make you an evil person to want it back once you've lost it. I can't stay away from him, and he said he is addicted to me. What are we supposed to do??? Sure you'd say he should leave his family or I should leave him alone, but believe me we have tried for the past 5 years and cannot let go. You finally get to a point where you're like "this is what we are going to be, it's better to have this than nothing, no matter how wrong it is."