Lyrics for City of Blinding Lights as interpreted by Lyra

City of Blinding Lights Lyrics
The more you see the less you know
The less you find out as you go
I knew much more then than I do now

Neon heart dayglo eyes
A city lit by fireflies
They’re advertising in the skies
For people like us

And I miss you when you’re not around
I’m getting ready to leave the ground….

Ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh

Oh you look so beautiful tonight
In the city of blinding lights

Don’t look before you laugh
Look ugly in a photograph
Flash bulbs purple irises
The camera can’t see

I’ve seen you walk unafraid
I’ve seen you in the clothes you made
Can you see the beauty inside of me?
What happened to the beauty I had inside of me?

And I miss you when you’re not around
I’m getting ready to leave the ground

Ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh

Oh you look so beautiful tonight
In the city of blinding lights

Time… time
Won’t leave me as I am
But time won’t take the boy out of this man

Oh you look so beautiful tonight
Oh you look so beautiful tonight
Oh you look so beautiful tonight
In the city of blinding lights

The more you know the less you feel
Some pray for others steal
Blessings are not just for the ones who kneel… luckily


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madchester
11-07-2004

Rated 0 
This song vaguely reminds me of Where The Streets Have No Name

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coggster
11-18-2004

Rated 0 
it reminds me of the theme to BLAKES 7, a 70's sci-fi tv show in england.....check it out!

Deano

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2861U2
11-21-2004

Rated 0 
This song to me is like a combination of "Where The Streets Have No Name", "Dirty Day", and "Always". A GREAT song.

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deathbear
11-23-2004

Rated 0 
Best song off the album, can't believe people haven't commented on it...beautiful, beautiful song.

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Lyra
11-24-2004

Rated 0 
I found the following quote somewhere, can't remember where though.
Bono: "It's a New York song. About going there for the first time. We were the first band to play Madison Square Gardens after 9/11. During 'Where the Streets Have No Name' the house lights came up and there were 20,000 people in tears. It was beautiful."

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padmewan
11-24-2004

Rated 0 
This is a beautiful song with only one musical misstep, IMHO (the awkward bridge of "Time... time won't leave me as I am..."). It takes the classic circular structure that I particularly love, starting with a three-line stanza beginning with "The more you see the less you know" and ending with a three-line stanza beginning with "The more you know the less you feel."

The final message is classic U2 in both its religious and ecumenical thrust, reminding us that God loves us all, even the unfaithful. It's also classic U2 in its earnestness, emerging from faith that love and reason will see us through troubled times.

The stanzas "Neon heart dayglo eyes / A city lit by fireflies" remind me of "In God's Country": "Sad eyes, crooked crosses / In God's Country."

Many of the reviews of this album dwelled on U2's era of irony / self-awareness / self-indulgence (Achtung-Pop). If this song is indeed a paean to NYC, it's also a word of encouragement and advice to not let self-awareness become self-doubt, as these critical lines tell: "Don’t look before you laugh / Look ugly in a photograph." These words are painful, evocative of a teenager whose sudden realization of identity leads her to mug for the camera to avoid the reality of her true beauty. If, like that girl we all know, NYC is waking up to itself, it needs the reassurance that "Oh you look so beautiful tonight." Audaciously, unashamedly, U2 offers it that assurance.

Those same lyrics also evoke, for me, U2's era of pretentious facadism. In confessing "All that you can't leave behind," U2 acknowledged that the act of remaking yourself is both impossible and inherently self-indulgent. Personally I feel like they are coming to peace with the realization that "The more you know the less you feel."

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guto
11-24-2004

Rated 0 
The meaning of CITY OF BLINDING LIGHTS becomes simple when you watch the film THE ROAD TO ELDORADO!
In additional, the gitar melodies are just as in the film, soundtrack done by Elton John.

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vjposter
12-02-2004

Rated 0 
Bono has stated that the song is about 9/11

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bazza102
12-03-2004

Rated 0 
best song on album by miles granted.

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paolita
12-10-2004

Rated +1 
great song, i like the line 'what happened to the beauty a i had inside of me?

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U2takemehigher
12-25-2004

Rated 0 
i agree paolita. my favorite lines from the album are, "Can you see the beauty inside of me?
What happened to the beauty I had inside of me."
maybe...i haven't decided yet.
city of blinding lights was the first song on the album to really POP out at me, you know? i just think it's a beautiful song... i have a question about a line or twho though (and the weird thing is that i thought i already wrote this somewhere...) when it says, "They’re advertising in the skies, For people like us." what does that mean? 'cause it can be taken a couple different ways

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punker girl
12-30-2004

Rated 0 
I like this song so much. I heard it for the first time a couple of days ago when I was in my cousin's car and they had the U2 cd playing and this song caught imediatly my atention. It talks about a big city (New York). It talks about the beauty of this city and also of the beauty of a particular person.
The song kick ass!

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morningbel
01-02-2005

Rated 0 
I like the last line "Blessings are not just for the ones who kneel… luckily "

I agree that this song kicks ass and reminds me of the best of U2 past like "where the streets..." anthemic, exhilarating and utterly overpowering

cant wait to see it live

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paolita
01-03-2005

Rated 0 
u2takemehigher im not sure what that lines really mean but i guess they are dreamers, dreamers always look up the sky. im not sure though. its just my opinion i hope this help you ....

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Koolaid74
01-05-2005

Rated 0 
I've been listening to the new album for a couple of days now and this is one song that stood out right away.(other than 'Vertigo') I can't wait to hear it live if U2 ever has a concert in my neck of the woods. Other than it being about NYC, I interpret this song to be another inspirational song by U2.

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amshust
01-07-2005

Rated 0 
I mentioned in a review on All because of you, the coolness of songs being able to be taken different ways and I think that artists may intentionally craft them that way. The song might be specifically about NYC, but it's nice to have the chorus "o, you look so beautiful tonight" because I can sing that to my wife, or the tune comes to mind when I think of entering heaven for the first time, a City of truly blinding lights. If it were too specific you couldn't sing it with other meanings: "Oh, down-town looks ex-tra clean tonight" wouldn't cut it.
Padmewan, dang, ...you're smart I think Bono would know what it meant after reading your review

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Montrose
01-11-2005

Rated 0 
At an exhibit of U2-related photography by Anton Corbijn Bono was standing in front of a picture of his younger self riding in a helicopter. Seeing his eyes and face so wide open and innocent, began the stream of memories that mainly comprise COBL.

As many mentioned above, Madison Square Garden, NYC, post-911 is the main motif. U2's first show in NYC after the attacks gave the audience something else to think about, something good to feel for a few hours, and their gratitude showed. When the houselights came up, and Bono was greeting with thousands of teary eyes, the 'beautiful' refraid was pretty much written.
Other imagery includes a touching homage to Ali, Bono's wife since he was 19. He spoke of his relationship with Ali back in their school days, and described her as intelligent and very individualistic - often wearing clothes she had fashioned herself.

Ali and Bono visited Africa as aid volonteers before the Joshua Tree album was written, and the experience changed them both forever. The similarity in structure between COBL and 'Where the Streets Have No Hame' is obvious, and there's good reason. 'Streets' was written as a direct reaction to what Bono witnessed in Africa, and COBL illutrates the post-911 re-awakening of that same earnest and open-eyed self.

There's even a wink to the years of irony and dissolution that came during the intervening Achtung-to-Pop years: "Lessons not just for the ones who kneel - luckily."

That's what this album is about, regardless of the title:
Coming full-circle without losing what you've learned along the way.

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junners
01-11-2005

Rated 0 
i think the edge excels on this song. edge is truly master of his art. but i agree with padmewan that it could've done without the "time..." bridge. nevertheless a brilliant song. definitely one of the best.

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forever delayed
01-23-2005

Rated 0 
I think the line "They’re advertising in the skies, For people like us" means like how in some less fortunate countries they advertise things that they know people can't afford, and Bono is saying that they only advertise for people who are fortunate enough to be able to afford luxuries - i.e people like us. If that makes sense.

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samkay87
01-31-2005

Rated 0 
"The more you see the less you know
The less you find out as you go
I knew much more then than I do now "

These lyrics seem almost typical to me of U2. Intelligently crafted and logic.

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samtheemokid
02-01-2005

Rated 0 
Listen to that footloose song "almost paradise", then this one. the theme riff thing is EXACTLY the same. eery...

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padmewan
02-04-2005

Rated 0 
Montrose - thanks for the background on Bono's wife Ali and her home fashioning. I interpreted that line as another reference to New York, being one of the fahion capitals of the world, but the double meaning is even more appealing.

"Advertising in the skies" makes me think of Times Square and, futuristically, Blade Runner.

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radspiffy
02-04-2005

Rated 0 
this song has a speacial personal meaning to me but id say its a love song definetly 543210

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ordinarydays
02-05-2005

Rated 0 
"Blessings are not just for the ones who kneel… luckily"

Another portrait of how God's grace is for everyone whether deserving or not. In the Bible, it talks about how all have sinned and fallen short to the glory of God. No one is righteous at all.

The last line just illustrates how redemption can be attained... despite our shortcomings.

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Suncovers
04-04-2005

Rated 0 
"Don’t look before you laugh
Look ugly in a photograph
Flash bulbs purple irises
The camera can’t see "

To me this sounds like he is saying that you should not worry about the little things and just enjoy life because it is so short.

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