Lyrics for Sunday Bloody Sunday as interpreted by archmastermind

Sunday Bloody Sunday Lyrics
Yeah
Ummm, hmmm

I can't believe the news today
Oh, I can't close my eyes and make it go away
How long, how long must we sing this song?
How long, how long
Cause tonight
We can be as one tonight

Broken bottles under children's feet
Bodies strewn across the dead end street
But I won't heed the battle call
It puts my back up
Puts my back up against the wall

Sunday, bloody Sunday
Sunday, bloody Sunday
Sunday, bloody Sunday
Sunday, bloody Sunday

And the battle's just begun
There's many lost, but tell me who has won
The trench is dug within our hearts
And mothers, children, brothers, sisters torn apart

Sunday, bloody Sunday
Sunday, bloody Sunday

How long, how long must we sing this song?
How long, how long
Cause tonight
We can be as one
Tonight, tonight

Sunday, bloody Sunday
Sunday, bloody Sunday

Wipe the tears from your eyes
Wipe your tears away
Oh, wipe your tears away
Oh, wipe your tears away
Sunday, bloody Sunday
Oh, wipe your bloodshot eyes
Sunday, bloody Sunday

Sunday, bloody Sunday
Sunday, bloody Sunday
Sunday, bloody Sunday
Sunday, bloody Sunday

And it's true we are immune
When fact is fiction and TV reality
And today the millions cry
We eat and drink while tomorrow they die

(Sunday, bloody Sunday)

The real battle just begun
To claim the victory Jesus won
On

Sunday bloody Sunday, yeah
Sunday bloody Sunday

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battleofny
06-28-2003

Rated 0 
U2 is amazin. this is their best song

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utasteadrenaline
04-15-2004

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"This is not a rebel song, this is Sunday bloody sunday" (under a blood red sky)
what more needs to be said

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voicefortheunborn
04-29-2004

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If you go to windowsmedia.com and look it up, you can find an audio of a live concert and they sing this song. In the middle of the song, bono tells the audiance his meanin for the song. its pretty cool

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EinFlügelEngel
09-23-2004

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A sad, sad song that just keeps you thinking...

"Those are real bullets, aren't they?" by Peter Pringle and Phillip Jacobson... is a great book on the event and is a must read if you are interested in the subject... just to reitterate what F.Z. said.

This also has to be one of the best U2 songs ever, and one of the few I actually continue to listen to.

*OneWingAngel PWNs you all!*

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ubermax
10-01-2004

Rated 0 
I think this is the best protest song ever written. If not, it's certainly up there.

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oofus
10-09-2004

Rated 0 
the drumline in this song is off the chain

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sinead1
10-29-2004

Rated 0 
this is one of the best songs all time. that day was one of the saddest moments in irish history. all those ppl were doin was marching 4 what the believed in and wat they thought was right and they were murdered in cold blood 4 doin so.the ppl who commited this shud feel so guilty.

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elspeth
11-05-2004

Rated 0 
like echod16 mentioned before there is a version of the song where Bono talks about it in the middle. This is what he said:

"Let me tell you something, I've had enough of Irish-Americans who haven't been back to their country in 20 or 30 years come up to me and talk about the resistance, the revolution back home, and the glory of the revolution, and the glory of dying for the revolution, fuck the revolution!! They don’t talk about the glory of killing for the revolution, what’s the glory in taking a man from his bed and gunning him down in front of his wife and his children, where’s the glory in that? Where’s the glory in bombing a remembrance day parade of old age pensioners, their medals taken out and polished up for the day, where’s the glory in that? To leave them dying or crippled for life or dead under the rubble, of the revolution, that the majority of the people in my country don’t want. We want no more."

Since he's talking about Irish-Americans in this blurb, I figure the song is about the massacre in Ireland,

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AutisticPsycho
11-29-2004

Rated 0 
It is about Bloody Sunday, but my local radio station had a piece of trivia saying that it referred to some Northern Ireland city.

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DuTcHoVeN
11-30-2004

Rated 0 
Yes plenty of people have told us the story of Sunday Bloody Sunday. There was a movie made about this even, I dont think its available in the US but it is in Ireland. I think it was called Bloody Sunday, havent been to Ireland for awhile. good Movie though i suggest you go and watch it.

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insanejester
12-16-2004

Rated 0 
Yeah.. it's a great song...
this Dj Rx did a remix.... it's got clips from George Bushes speechs singin the song....
it hit hard....
how we kill and kill and kill... for what?

heres a link http://www.audiostreet.net/artists/006/407/song_sunday_bloody_sunday.html

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spi der
12-22-2004

Rated 0 
"This is not a rebel song, this is Sunday bloody sunday"
what elspeth said. A lot of people in Ireland were really unhappy about the perceived romanticism of the fighting in the north. It was never romantic.

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montresor
12-23-2004

Rated 0 
What's powerful about this song isn't its war images, but its demonstration of Christian hope and faith. The singer realizes that the conflict is ultimately within his own heart, and he refuses to heed the battle call. Instead, he claims the victory that Jesus won.....inspite of the horror he has witnessed. I thought of this song on 9/11/2001. Too bad more people didn't/don't understand its point.

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Lizzybelle
12-27-2004

Rated 0 
I first heard this song while i was taking irish literature. we had just finished Joyce's Portrait of the Artist (and may i just say that James Joyce is fucking brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stephen Dedalus forever!) and were just cracking open Cal by Bernard Maclaverty when our professor broke out this song. Without giving any background information, he asked us to listen and interperate. as a whole, we came up with the impression that the song was suggesting that we as humans need to stop war and violence...the only people that we are hurting by initiating these massacres are ourselves. In war, there are no winners, only losers and there is no right...no fight can be completely justified, no matter how noble the cause (e.g. WWII and the destruction of the Nazis). Bono is simply siting an event that brought him great sorrow and trying to bring a heightened awareness to people to show them just what conflict can become.

The last time I heard this song played on the radio, it was the night that bush (i refuse to capitalize that filthy name) was elected (not reelected...he DID NOT win in 2000). I was driving back from my stables after a relaxing evening with my horse (my trainer was away...hehe, thank god!) and WBCN (one of boston's local alternative rock stations) just announced that the monkey had won. the dj, who, like me, is a diehard massachusetts democrat, said that to mourn the tragic state of our country, he would play the only song that he saw fit for the hour...and then Sunday Bloody Sunday started blaring through the speakers. And I started crying. I actually had to pull over on a side street to regain my composure...this is one powerful song!

And all you republicans out there...i am simply a passionate democrat (the only way that i will make it to see 25 is if the idiots in d.c. actually pass a bill alowing for goverment funding to go to stem cell research...im fighting a losing battle with JRA, akylosing spondylitis and Lupis) so please don't lambast me with mean comments because of my very personal political views. Thank you.

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JohnDunn87
12-30-2004

Rated 0 
Well actually being from Northern Ireland, I can tell you that it's about Bloody Sunday of 1972 in Londonderry but with a distorted view of what actually happened. It wasn't a peaceful protest, the Civil Rights marchers were rioting and the IRA were present and fired the first shots that day. The British Army fired on those who were armed and 13 died. America get your facts right

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Lizzybelle
12-30-2004

Rated 0 
Oh no, I'm not saying that it's not about that at all (I know full well that it is, my mom's cousins were there when it happened)...I was just saying what I got as the general message...as I said, it was without giving us any background information. He explained the actual meaning of the song to us afterwards (hence our segue into Cal). We actually watched a documentary on it and everything...it was insanely intense...I guess that I just saw it as a double meaning...like Bono saying "how can we do such horrific things to our fellow man" and using such a personal event to support his position.

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_-MaSSiMo-_
01-01-2005

Rated 0 
its about the innocent children that die in the making of pornography

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IrishJ
01-01-2005

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JohnDunn87 -
Well actually being from Northern Ireland, I can tell you that it's about Bloody Sunday of 1972 in Londonderry but with a distorted view of what actually happened. It wasn't a peaceful protest, the Civil Rights marchers were rioting and the IRA were present and fired the first shots that day. The British Army fired on those who were armed and 13 died. America get your facts right
__________________________________________

How about this, buddy? How about YOU get your facts right. There is currently an investigation going on in Northern Ireland as to WHO shot first, and WHY. Up until the Royal Paratroopers were stationed on the walls of Derry's old City, there were NO riots. Up until the first shot was fired, there were NO riots.

You're obviously talking out of your ass and trying to convince people your story is true. Why accept some BS point of view like yours {coming from an obvious bias "Londonderry"} when there is a multi-million pound public Enquirey sitting to find out the truth?

How about stop spouting bollocks? Cheers.

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_-MaSSiMo-_
01-01-2005

Rated 0 
you taig!

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IrishJ
01-01-2005

Rated 0 
Better a taig telling the truth than an asshole trying to distort the history of Ireland, like Mr Dunn there.

OMG DID I TELL YOU THAT ALL CATHOLICS ARE EVIL AND IN THE IRA?!!!!!!!

fucking idiot.

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JohnDunn87
01-01-2005

Rated 0 
an obvious bias? u talk some shit. its called londonderry u twat, thats why i said it. and there was rioting, even eamon mccann said that, and he is biased. and an enquiry isnt going to find anything out because father daly wont give any evidence, nor will martin mcguinness. so how about u stop talking shit?

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JohnDunn87
01-01-2005

Rated 0 
and im hardly trying to distort the history of ireland by telling the truth am i? you know thats the truth, just accept it, u fag

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albanyankee
01-01-2005

Rated 0 
Good grief, this song does get people riled up! May I please point out that this song, though its title does quite obviously refer to the events of January 1972, addresses not one word of condemnation to any specific group, not the Paras, not the IRA, not anyone else. Rather, it's a blanket condemnation of people of violence from any constituency. The point of the song is that it's up to each one of us to decide not to heed the battle call and remember that we won't have truly claimed the victory Jesus won until we can figure out how to make peace in Northern Ireland. Or the Sudan, or Israel/Palestine, or Colombia, or any other trouble spot you care to name. This song is highly generalizable that way

Yes, I realise that it's dreadfully easy for outsiders (such as U2, who are from Dublin and therefore would generally be considered outsiders in the North) to say "Why can't you people figure it out?" It's a hell of a lot more difficult for the people who have to live inside the situation and defend the things they hold dear. And yes, as an American, I have to admit that my country is doing a particularly crap job of the whole peace-making thing lately (and bids fair to continue doing a crap job of it for the next four years, sadly). Feel free to ridicule me for being a typical arrogant patronizing American if you like--I'm just trying to explore the meaning of the song.

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_-MaSSiMo-_
01-02-2005

Rated 0 
so who calls it londonderry?

oh yeah... anyway...

so the song is about the events in derry in 1972

oh yeah by the way since the song was written bono has recurrently called out the names of the people murdered that day..in 1972 in Derry

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_-MaSSiMo-_
01-02-2005

Rated 0 
by the way.. father daly and m. mc guinness arent the only people that saw anything

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