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In the howling wind comes a stinging rain
See it driving nails
Into the souls on the tree of pain
From the firefly, a red orange glow
See the face of fear
Running scared in the valley below
Bullet the blue sky
Bullet the blue sky
Bullet the blue
Bullet the blue
In the locust wind comes a rattle and hum
Jacob wrestled the angel
And the angel was overcome
You plant a demon seed
You raise a flower of fire
See them burning crosses
See the flames higher and higher
Bullet the blue sky
Bullet the blue sky
Bullet the blue
Bullet the blue
This guy comes up to me
His face red like a rose in a thorn bush
Like all the colors of a royal flush
And he's peeling off those dollar bills
Slapping them down
One hundred, two hundred
And I can see those fighter planes
And I can see those fighter planes
Across the mud huts where the children sleep
Through the alleys of a quiet city street
You take the staircase to the first floor
Turn the key and slowly unlock the door
As a man breathes into a saxophone
And through the walls you hear the city groan
Outside is America
Outside is America, America
Across the field you see the sky ripped open
See the rain through a gaping wound
Pounding on the women and children
Who run
Into the arms
Of America
See it driving nails
Into the souls on the tree of pain
From the firefly, a red orange glow
See the face of fear
Running scared in the valley below
Bullet the blue sky
Bullet the blue sky
Bullet the blue
Bullet the blue
In the locust wind comes a rattle and hum
Jacob wrestled the angel
And the angel was overcome
You plant a demon seed
You raise a flower of fire
See them burning crosses
See the flames higher and higher
Bullet the blue sky
Bullet the blue sky
Bullet the blue
Bullet the blue
This guy comes up to me
His face red like a rose in a thorn bush
Like all the colors of a royal flush
And he's peeling off those dollar bills
Slapping them down
One hundred, two hundred
And I can see those fighter planes
And I can see those fighter planes
Across the mud huts where the children sleep
Through the alleys of a quiet city street
You take the staircase to the first floor
Turn the key and slowly unlock the door
As a man breathes into a saxophone
And through the walls you hear the city groan
Outside is America
Outside is America, America
Across the field you see the sky ripped open
See the rain through a gaping wound
Pounding on the women and children
Who run
Into the arms
Of America
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Bono said in an interview people don’t get how anti war this song is, he was sort of frustrated about it. It’s as though it almost did too good of a job padding the message down - though it’s right out there and obvious (I must admit as a child it only vaguely conjured up such thoughts though).
Basically this song is about American Bombers dropping bombs on innocent civilians to mold politics for monied interests and those civilians having no place to escape to throughout the mickey mouse Americanized world now...except back into the ‘arms’... of America. Just my interpretation? let's look at the lyrics, but before doing so:
It is interesting to note the London ‘911’ bombing happened right on the day when Bono was to have his first really formal full length sit down with the UK Prime Minister and it was cancelled. As Zach De La Rocha of Rage Against the Machine and Thom Yorke of Radiohead have both said of Bono: 'he’s a little too close to the fire.' Zach thinks he may have become too much like them but Thom just says ‘Bono’s doing the same thing I am – the only difference is he’s on the inside, I couldn’t do what he does cause I would just smash them in the face.’
Alright so this is how I understand this song:
In the howling wind
Comes the stinging/a stinking rain
See you driving nails
Into the souls on the tree of pain
[U2 shows Crosses on fire in concert specifically during this part of this song in their older tours. It’s as if to show America’s hypocrisy to Americans without preaching to them. It’s a hypocrisy as far as when it comes to Christ’s anti-violence teachings and us pretending to be Christian following his way (truly we are pre-christian and few deserve the right to be called ‘Christian’ because of their lack of self control especially in relation to inner violence and how it manifests). And the crosses burning also perhaps symbolizes the killing of innocent ones just as Christ was innocent and killed. ‘The souls’ are the running women and children he mentions later – that which you do unto the least of them you do unto me... but as a militarist recently told me concerning civilian casualties and people who get in the way even if they are innocent: “you have to crack a few eggs to make an omelet.” So you decide/deicide who’s right... ]
From the fire fly: a red-orange glow
[these are the fighter planes he mentions later shooting phosphoric etc.]
See the prince of fear running scared in the valley below
[these seem to be all the idiot troops killing for monied interests instead of killing those very monied interests themselves: army troops running, working below, below consciousness, under the influence of the Prince of Fear, ‘the Prince of the Air’ and of ‘this earth’ he is called in the Bible...(ie: ‘Satan’)...they are working, running in conjunction with the fighter planes, running scared in the valley below, little kids enrolled in the army who don’t know what they’re doing?]
Bullet the blue sky, bullet the blue sky, bullet the blue, bullet the blue
[obviously fighter planes]
In the locust wind
[locusts are a symbol in the Torah/Old Testament/’Book of Prophets’ for people who are mindless in their getting involved in wars, swarming over lands devouring...in this case the air or ‘winds’ ‘the locust wind’]
Comes a rattle and hum
[Military land and air Units]
Jacob wrestled the angel and the angel was overcome
He had a demon seed who leaves a flower of fire
[I detest not being clear but I’m not going to in this case because this is a deep topic reserved only for a much lengthier discussion. Let’s just throw out some non-sequitter sentences to give some indications: Manhattan Project (developed the Atom Bomb/Flower of Fire?) and Murder Inc. were literally next door to each other, not by coincidence in the last century, check out their connections to present conflicts...Phelasghines/Philistine Hivites were the Military Industrialists of their day who, like the Canaanites, worshipped the War god Baal and Esau married into such and adopted the culture of them *as did no small number of Jacobs sons* whom Jacob prophetically cursed for doing such....they live on today...The Rabbi’s teach it was Esau’s angel Jacob was wrestling against - if you look at the context this must at least metaphorically be part of the truth (is this the ‘He’ Bono refers to who "had a demon seed who leaves a flower of fire" or does the ‘He’ refer to Jacob, his fallen sons, like Benjamin?)...St. Stephen the 1st Martyr of the Christian Religion was killed for revealing who these Baals of Baashan were and stating they were not descended from Abraham at all, that is why Stephen was dragged to Cilicia (this is all spiritually speaking, the pharisees were psychic culture carriers of evil = demon seed; it has nothing to do with bio-racism which is idiotic, though in ancient times bio-races did stay in certain pockets to themselves much longer than our cosmopolitan modernity so if they went terribly bad psychologically it would appear, at least on the surface, it was just one race or another behaving like that – but it was not because of their genes, it was because they were philistines/demon seeds in their inner psychological makeup). Edge once said Bono has some very specific views on where the **real** Tribes of Israel went to and who they are but the Edge did not elaborate any further and personally thought for himself that you cannot know that much about such things...he is highly mistaken and I think Bono does know some things, Bono may even have released some old Irish books by a guy named Vallancey onto google books that addresses to some degree such matters – but that is mere speculation. In any case what could be more effective and telling than Bono wearing over his eyes in pictures, 'making him blind,'a bandana that has the star of david/solomon at it's center and the other two religions on the sides of the 3 monotheist religions? Esau is hiding behind the signet of what Jacob/Israel to this day means and using him as a blind for destruction. this then is the demon seed: Psychological Philistinism/Edomitism against the true spirit of Jacob...people like the Murder Incorporated and Manhattan Project and all their present day cronies who have adopted making our ‘flowers of fire’ which I think Bono is referring to in these lines. This whole long age we are in is said in apocryphal literature to be the time of the 'struggle of Jacob'...]
See them burning crosses, see the flames piling higher
[They are aboloshing what Christ tried to bring aboout: burning crosses. this might too be the cross hairs and then the blown up cities with the flames piling higher from the rubbles of their bombs being dropped in the cross hairs because the next line is:]
Bullet the blue sky, bullet the blue
‘A man’? [this is the only part I can’t hear clearly] comes up to me
Face red like the rose on a thorn bush
Like all the colors of a royal flush
And he’s peeling off those dollar bills
Slapping them down: one hundred, two hundred
[some war pig mogul doing pay offs...manic hot heads just beneath their dead skin if you’ve ever met one]
AND I CAN SEE THOSE FIGHTER PLANES, AND I CAN SEE THOSE FIGHTER PLANES
[what could be more clear that this song is about such? He spells it out: Fighter Planes]
Across the mud huts hear the children sleep
Through the alleys of quiet city street
Take the staircase to the first floor
Turn the key and slowly unlock the door
As the man breathes into his saxophone
[all of this is to point out the quiet innocence, city life going about it’s business before the mayhem...it shows the sort of victims of the coming mayhem who have nothing to do with it]
I can feel the walls and hear the city groan:
OUTSIDE IT’S AMERICA [bombs making the walls groan] , OUTSIDE IT’S AMERICA...MURDER
[America is bombing outside the mud huts and city streets...if you listen closely he does say at the end: Murder]
(background sound of people moaning just before end of solo?)
SEE ACROSS THE FIELD, SEE THE SKY RIPPED OPEN/SEE THIS GUY RIPPED OPEN
See the ‘rain’ fumigate the moon [The Wound interpretation here on song meanings seems just as accurate. But if it is this,this is what the spraying Napalm and Phosphorous looks like afterward that America uses]
POUNDING THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN
Who run...into the Arms...of America
[the irony: they flee into the arms...of their adversary...for ‘safety’ from the so called ‘terrorists’ who are usually created by exactly such collateral damage (or by American Intel itself to provide excuse for controlling other countries money lines). The cycle is complete. How anyone doesn’t get that U2 is clearly against American Bombers in the Air Force is beyond me when their songs like ‘Seconds’ say: ‘Now they’re doing the atomic bomb and we know where the dance comes from...say bye bye...’ and then has an American General screaming in the background to make little kids repeat loudly back to him: ‘I want to be an Airborne Ranger, I want to live a life of Danger, Go, Fight, KILL, KILL, KILL!’ and the naive little kids singing it back blindly and loudly and happily.]
...and if you think ‘well that was then, we have a more respectable democratic president now’ all you have to do is look up the date when a number of innocent children were killed by drones in the Burosho region not even near Waziristan and you will find on that exact same day in the evening Obama joked in his speech: “Now the Jonas Brothers are meeting with my girls but I told them if they don’t behave I’m going to send some drones on them.”
Anyone who jokes about such a thing on the same day is totally without conscience and a utilitarian with no psychological development in his essence, someone who is bad in heart. This is someone Mr. G. calls a Hasnamuss. Some people can be two faced but still be good in heart somewhere in there but all who are bad in heart are always two-faced without exception and sometimes it takes a little longer to find out these latter people who are both two faced and bad in heart (it is easy to spot simply two-faced people)...but of these latter people, our ‘blessed’? beings of new formation, their fruits show them in time as Christ teaches.
In the howling wind comes a stinging rain
See it driving nails
Into the souls on the tree of pain
From the firefly, a red orange glow
See the face of fear
Running scared in the valley below
The above describes in metaphor the blast of a nuclear weapon
In the locust wind comes a rattle and hum
Jacob wrestled the angel
And the angel was overcome
You plant a demon seed
You raise a flower of fire
See them burning crosses
See the flames higher and higher
The above describes the incineration on the victim target
This guy comes up to me
His face red like a rose on a thorn bush
Like all the colors of a royal flush
And he's peeling off those dollar bills
Slapping them down
One hundred, two hundred
And I can see those fighter planes
And I can see those fighter planes
Across the mud huts where the children sleep
Through the alleys of a quiet city street
You take the staircase to the first floor
Turn the key and slowly unlock the door
As a man breathes into a saxophone
And through the walls you hear the city groan
Outside is America
Outside is America
The above describes a victim whose face is in the process off peeling off due to third degree burns.
All the colors of a royal flush refers to the beautiful colors of the nuclear blast....often called "all the colors of the rainbow" by the Japanese who lived to see and tell about it.
Across the field you see the sky ripped open
See the rain through a gaping wound
Pounding on the women and children
Who run
Into the arms
Of America
If you understood the prior passages then the one above is apparent. Fortunately the US government who led by Ronald Reagan was better at predicting the future than was Bono.
One hundred, two hundred, three hundred
I can see those fighter planes
I can see those fighter planes
You stop my feather in the top of disco
We shall, we take it to the romp why the stop
It's dropped we take it to the knock
And turn the key
Turn the key, unlock the door
A man breathes into a saxophone
Through the walls, we hear the city moan
Outside... is America
Outside... UK
Outside... France
EU, EU, EU, EU
I can see you
EU, UDA, IRA, British Army
UDA, IRA, Real IRA
UDA, Real IRA, Real IRA, Real IRA
And we run
We run into the arms
Before the song is played (from the same Slane Castle concert)
( each messages is display, then disappears to show the next message)
"The Five Permanent Members of the UN Security Council"
"USA, UK, France, China, Russia"
"The Five Biggest Arms Traders in the World"
"USA, UK, France, China, Russia"
This song, if your willing to take it in for what it is, will remind you that the flag you say the pledge to is just a piece of cloth, that the fire-works you use to celebrate the 4th of July are just chemicals and that warm feeling you get is from chemicals like-wise. Chemicals your body produces involuntarily to establish a sort of bond. While we sing our songs, our planes bomb villages, our troops stomp through farms and kill bad guys and innoncense at the same time.
I think it is ok to be patriotic, because I do think there are things to be proud of, things to appreciate, and things that we need to remember. But I also think that we should be repenting constantly to the world for what we have done. Every country is guilty, if we could admit guilt, we would be able to get past step 1 of the changing process and we could go on to the 2nd step... reconciliation.
* Rain as a CLEANSING metaphor…also stinging rain can be bullets…
See it driving nails
* Again – Christian imagery and yet bullets…
Into the souls on the tree of pain
* Tree of pain – Christian imagery
From the firefly, a red orange glow
* The firefly with a red orange glow --- helicopters or planes firing…
See the face of fear
Running scared in the valley below
* The valley below -- as the planes are “above” in height and stature… power, prestige…etc.
Bullet the blue sky
Bullet the blue sky
Bullet the blue
Bullet the blue
In the locust wind comes a rattle and hum
* Locust – reference to locust plague – book of revelations
Jacob wrestled the angel
And the angel was overcome
You plant a demon seed
You raise a flower of fire
See them burning crosses
* Hatred and indignation – imagery of racism and prejudice
See the flames higher and higher
Bullet the blue sky
Bullet the blue sky
Bullet the blue
Bullet the blue
This guy comes up to me
His face red like a rose on a thorn bush
* Thorn bush – Christian imagery
Like all the colors of a royal flush
And he's peeling off those dollar bills
Slapping them down
One hundred, two hundred
* Money as a motivation
And I can see those fighter planes
And I can see those fighter planes
* Money of America backing the planes that fought in el Salvador
Across the mud huts where the children sleep
Through the alleys of a quiet city street
You take the staircase to the first floor
Turn the key and slowly unlock the door
As a man breathes into a saxophone
And through the walls you hear the city groan
Outside is America
Outside is America
* AMERICA – 2 americas (tentative ALBUM title by the way..)
* America as in US and America – the western hemisphere – mostly latino, poor , devout Christians…
Across the field you see the sky ripped open
* Another Christian imagery – good Friday as well as revelation mention it
See the rain through a gaping wound
* Wound – monetary devide, moral decay, wound in the side of Jesus..etc
Pounding on the women and children
Who run
Into the arms
Of America
* The ARMS are just that – again 2 American sides US played both sides…
Outstretched arms to HELP the women and children
As well as the military weapons we supplied to put them in harms way
You never really know if they run into guns or support…
In later LIVE versions the implication is they run into GUNS.
It’s by far one of my favorite songs by them.
* Rain as a CLEANSING metaphor…also stinging rain can be bullets…
See it driving nails
* Again – Christian imagery and yet bullets…
Into the souls on the tree of pain
* Tree of pain – Christian imagery
From the firefly, a red orange glow
* The firefly with a red orange glow --- helicopters or planes firing…
See the face of fear
Running scared in the valley below
* The valley below -- as the planes are “above” in height and stature… power, prestige…etc.
Bullet the blue sky
Bullet the blue sky
Bullet the blue
Bullet the blue
In the locust wind comes a rattle and hum
* Locust – reference to locust plague – book of revelations
Jacob wrestled the angel
And the angel was overcome
You plant a demon seed
You raise a flower of fire
See them burning crosses
* Hatred and indignation – imagery of racism and prejudice
See the flames higher and higher
Bullet the blue sky
Bullet the blue sky
Bullet the blue
Bullet the blue
This guy comes up to me
His face red like a rose on a thorn bush
* Thorn bush – Christian imagery
Like all the colors of a royal flush
And he's peeling off those dollar bills
Slapping them down
One hundred, two hundred
* Money as a motivation
And I can see those fighter planes
And I can see those fighter planes
* Money of America backing the planes that fought in el Salvador
Across the mud huts where the children sleep
Through the alleys of a quiet city street
You take the staircase to the first floor
Turn the key and slowly unlock the door
As a man breathes into a saxophone
And through the walls you hear the city groan
Outside is America
Outside is America
* AMERICA – 2 americas (tentative ALBUM title by the way..)
* America as in US and America – the western hemisphere – mostly latino, poor , devout Christians…
Across the field you see the sky ripped open
* Another Christian imagery – good Friday as well as revelation mention it
See the rain through a gaping wound
* Wound – monetary devide, moral decay, wound in the side of Jesus..etc
Pounding on the women and children
Who run
Into the arms
Of America
* The ARMS are just that – again 2 American sides US played both sides…
Outstretched arms to HELP the women and children
As well as the military weapons we supplied to put them in harms way
You never really know if they run into guns or support…
In later LIVE versions the implication is they run into GUNS.
It’s by far one of my favorite songs by them.
During "The Joshua Tree-Rattle and Hum" era, U2 had a powerful endearment towards american music, roots-rock, country music, and the blues. this is apparent throughout the album and especially their tour. Yet in the same breath, tracks like "Bullet the blue sky" and "Mothers of the disappeared" are protesting America's involvement in El Salvador.
So I always found that sort of love/hate relationship with the U.S. to be really interesting.
"This guy comes up to me
His face red like a rose on a thorn bush
Like all the colors of a royal flush
And he's peeling off those dollar bills
Slapping them down
One hundred, two hundred
And I can see those fighter planes
And I can see those fighter planes
Across the mud huts where the children sleep"