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Don't believe what you hear
Don't believe what you see
If you just close your eyes
You can feel the enemy
When I first met you girl
You had fire in your soul
What happened your face of melting in snow?
Now it looks like this
And you can swallow
Or you can spit
You can throw it up
Or choke on it
And you can dream
So dream out loud
You know that your time is coming 'round
So don't let the bastards grind you down
No, nothing makes sense
Nothing seems to fit
I know you'd hit out
If you only knew who to hit
And I'd join the movement
If there was one I could believe in
Yeah I'd break bread and wine
If there was a church I could receive in
'Cause I need it now
To take the cup
To fill it up
To drink it slow
I can't let you go
I must be an acrobat
To talk like this
And act like that
And you can dream
So dream out loud
And don't let the bastards grind you down
Oh, it hurts baby
What are we going to do? Now it's all been said
No new ideas in the house and every book has been read
And I must be an acrobat
To talk like this
And act like that
And you can dream
So dream out loud
And you can find
Your own way out
And you can build
And I can will
And you can call
I can't wait until
You can stash
And you can seize
Responsibilities
And I can love
And I can love
And I know that the tide is turning 'round
So don't let the bastards grind you down
Don't believe what you see
If you just close your eyes
You can feel the enemy
When I first met you girl
You had fire in your soul
What happened your face of melting in snow?
Now it looks like this
And you can swallow
Or you can spit
You can throw it up
Or choke on it
And you can dream
So dream out loud
You know that your time is coming 'round
So don't let the bastards grind you down
No, nothing makes sense
Nothing seems to fit
I know you'd hit out
If you only knew who to hit
And I'd join the movement
If there was one I could believe in
Yeah I'd break bread and wine
If there was a church I could receive in
'Cause I need it now
To take the cup
To fill it up
To drink it slow
I can't let you go
I must be an acrobat
To talk like this
And act like that
And you can dream
So dream out loud
And don't let the bastards grind you down
Oh, it hurts baby
What are we going to do? Now it's all been said
No new ideas in the house and every book has been read
And I must be an acrobat
To talk like this
And act like that
And you can dream
So dream out loud
And you can find
Your own way out
And you can build
And I can will
And you can call
I can't wait until
You can stash
And you can seize
Responsibilities
And I can love
And I can love
And I know that the tide is turning 'round
So don't let the bastards grind you down
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Yeah I'd break bread and wine
If there was a church I could receive in
'cause I need it now
To take a cup
To fill it up
To drink it slow
I can't let you go
When he says to take a cup of wine that symbolizes forgiveness of sins (I know I'm Catholic) and when he says I can't let you go right after that, I wonder what it means put together? They are both acrobats in the sense of celebrities. But I wonder if the cup & cant let you go part has to do with an affair. I hope not.
I have many 'person Bs' that I care deeply about, but they have sacrificed so much to be socially acceptable and worldly recognizable. They involve themselves with whatever is self-satisfying becuase that is what the world teaches. They do this to basically, survive in the group without stirring the waters. But leaders are different. I have quietly spoken against my 'person Bs' because of how much I care and disagree with their ways, but I realize that is not leadership either. I'm like an acrobat trying to juggle my beliefs with one hand and my wordly acceptance in another. In the Bible, Paul even says that the most miserable people in the world are not the non-believers, but the believers that want to do what is right but can't.
My faith in God has strengthen me in my resistance towards the 'ways of the world'. I love the world and the people in it, but I was not created to BE LIKE the world, none of us were for that matter. I was created for a purpose bigger than myself, but SELF is too small a container for the purpose that God has for me. This song will forever be a reminder to me that everlasting joy is not found in living a life of an acrobat - juggling confusion, doubt, fear, and selfishness together with things like love, peace, confidence, and faithfulness.
Please note that - though U2 has a lot of Christian untertones in many of their songs, I am not assuming this one does. Heck, Bono himself could reply and say I am way off on what the song is about. But they continue to leave it up to us to figure out our own definitions (which is something that I remember Bono saying in an interview once). So, I can place a checkmark next to this one in my book. Thanks actanonverba for your post. I acknolwedge that we may very well differ on beliefs, and want to state for the record that I am not including you in my testimony, but simply thank you for your post that served as a vehicle to this realization for myself. To others that disagree with my beliefs, I will never mean to offend you or demand that this song be understood in the same way I have understood it. So please continue on your quest to figure this song out for yourself. But for those that do find some relevance in what I have written, remember - Jesus was not an acrobat, nor are his followers. His followers are leaders that serve in humility to deliver hope to the hopeless.
There...I guess I can cancell my SongMeanings account now because this post was the only reason I joined in the first place.
"Don't believe what you hear, don't believe what you see - if you just close your eyes, you can feel the enemy."
We get so caught up in trying to understand what is going on, in trying to distinguish good and evil in the world, and then it changes. We read too much into things, when really it's as simple as taking a step back, closing your eyes, and thinking with your heart and head in appropriate amounts, which is quite difficult to do sometimes.
"And I must be an acrobat to talk like this and act like that..."
To me this almost sounds cynical. It sounds like it's almost talking about conformity, like how we have to adapt/change ourselves to fit into situations comfortably. Acrobats are slinky, color-changers, flexible i.e. adaptable...we sometimes think/act on one thing but say/do another.
Overall I feel the theme of the song is about trying to find yourself in a corrupt environment, and as hard as it is and always will be, the best advice you can take is just "don't let the bastards grind you down."
And you can dream
So dream out loud
And you can find
Your own way out
You can build
And I can will
And you can call
I can't wait until
You can stash
And you can seize
It's all part of the "american dream" what people had to go through to make it to freedom. The call to "don't let the bastards grind you down" has to do with the frustrations with this transformation, and to keep in mind that the "tide" (the one that brought them there in the first place) is "turning 'round".
There is a reference "to drink the cup to fill it up, to drink it slow, can't let you go" which is a reference to jews possibly converting to Catholocism as part of their process of immigration. I'm a little shakey on that, but the movie referenced in Schwartze's story does focus on Jewish immigrants. I'm too naive about cultural religions in the world to really speak to that with a whole lot of authority, but I believe I'm on the right track there. The images are unmistakenly Catholic (drinking the cup is a symbol of communion), and unmistakably conflicted.
Personally when I listen to it, I feel a sense of frustrated challenge. It's sort of the idea that I've been hit for the last time, and I know I'm going to "hit out" soon in return. Not many songs can consistently mobilize and motivate me to act as well as that one does. It makes me angry (though I can't exactly say how), it makes me agitated, and it makes me do something few other songs can do. It inspires and incites.
Bono is the Acrobat trying to juggle it all telling his bandmates, producers etc "that they can dream, so dream out loud". And "dont let the bastards (aka the press) get you down". Even the album was recorded in a place they had never recorded before: Berlin ("don't believe what you see").