Know something about this song or lyrics?
Add it to our wiki.
Ice
Your only rivers run cold
These city lights
They shine as silver and gold
Dug from the night
Your eyes as black as coal
Walk on by
Walk on through
Walk 'til you run
And don't look back
For here I am
Carnival
The wheels fly and the colors spin
Through alcohol
Red wine that punctures the skin
Face to face
In a dry and waterless place
Walk on by
Walk on through
So sad to besiege your love so head on
Stay this time
Stay tonight in a lie
I'm only asking but I
I think you know
Come on take me away
Come on take me away
Come on take me home
Home again
And if the mountain should crumble
Or disappear into the sea
Not a tear, no not I
Stay in this time
Stay tonight in
Ever after, this love in time
And if you save your love
Save it all
Don't push me too far
Don't push me too far
Tonight
Tonight
Tonight
Your only rivers run cold
These city lights
They shine as silver and gold
Dug from the night
Your eyes as black as coal
Walk on by
Walk on through
Walk 'til you run
And don't look back
For here I am
Carnival
The wheels fly and the colors spin
Through alcohol
Red wine that punctures the skin
Face to face
In a dry and waterless place
Walk on by
Walk on through
So sad to besiege your love so head on
Stay this time
Stay tonight in a lie
I'm only asking but I
I think you know
Come on take me away
Come on take me away
Come on take me home
Home again
And if the mountain should crumble
Or disappear into the sea
Not a tear, no not I
Stay in this time
Stay tonight in
Ever after, this love in time
And if you save your love
Save it all
Don't push me too far
Don't push me too far
Tonight
Tonight
Tonight
Lyrics submitted by archmastermind
Track duration: 04:53
"The Unforgettable Fire" as written by Dave Evans Adam Clayton
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
Overall, I feel the group has it right. Bono writes "bigger picture" songs - especially at that stage of his career. But the inspiration is often highly personal, which is what makes his songs work so well. I believe that, in general, the song is about loss - or missing what was, and wanting it back, in some form. This could be love, or a sexual relationship, and it could easily be seen in religious light, as well.
"Ice" is death, or something that is no longer there.
"Water" is life, or more generally, the object that is desired. It is something that is "here".
"Fire" is passion, or desire. Particularly, the desire for something that is now in an "ice" state.
All good, but the thing that bugged me about the interpretations was that so many wanted to dismiss, or minimalize the Hiroshima connection. I think it's there, though at the "inspiration" level that got him thinking about bigger, wider topics. I pictured Bono standing at the photo exhibit and feeling the pain and suffering depicted in the pictures. He felt hopeless. He wanted to reach out to the victims. To comfort them. To make their lives continue to mean something - something that was extinguished by acts of men they did not know.
"Stay tonight in a lie" - his "lie" was that he was looking at the pictures, thinking that he could offer the victims - the entire city, for that matter - comfort. That he could make the pain and suffering go away. But it's a lie. He can't. He's just one more person looking at pictures of what may as well be ancient history.
There were good times in Hiroshima before the blast - he describes this as their carnival. But now he stands face-to-face with their images, in a "dry and waterless" place - the lifeless exhibit filled with the lifeless photos.
The only part I have trouble reconciling into this epiphany is the most haunting part of the song, about the mountains crumbling. He's saying he has no regrets for what may come in the future, and yet that just doesn't fit as neatly here. I can only guess that, despite all that happened, his own, personal conscience is still clear. He knows that he did not cause this, and so he cannot regret any of his actions. Funny, though - he describes that with "not a tear" - more water.
The unforgettable fire, is the perfect mix of art and technology, in the guise leonardo da vinci would have been proud. He knew art and science were inseperable.
Lennon knew, he was just trying to explain it when he got shot by the conspiracy of evil. I know it.
The protagonist indicates the person he desires is known to him through the line "so sad to besiege your love" where the meaning of besiege is in the context -to press with requests: importune. So it seems he at least believes he has made his desires known.
The setting is carnival which is a theme consistent with friends being together enjoying a good time. At some point during the evening the protagonist is struck with emotion possibly stirred by alcohol.
He is angry and desirous. Knowing that his previous advances have been rebuked stirs anger and thus the references to ice, dark eyes and walking by. On the other hand he is pleading for her to take a chance on him with reassurances that if feelings don't develop, he will importune no more.
At first I thought it was a one night stand, then I thought it was a repetative forbidden affair, but you have changed my mind completely, I love it.
I think that this song is about some one inviting another person to love again even after there world has been blown apart and all seem hopeless. The speaker in the song is has just gone though what seems like the end of the world with a loved one that may be losing his or her grip on reality or dieing. The speaker in the is trying to get them to at lest try to live one more night but he or she is fading fast.
It's interesting too that the last line says "don't look back for here I am", 'I am' is God's Name. Bono uses this Name more often, for instance in the song "All because of you". Most people will transcribe that song like "All because of you I am" but I think Bono meant "All because of You, I Am". Anyway, it's still interesting if Bono meant in this song that Lot (or the equivalent of Lot with whom in mind Bono wrote this song) should not look back because God is over there (behind him, destroying the city). Or he isn't suppose to look back, because God is in front of him (and so he shouldn't look back to his old life).
Anway, the rest of your explanantion is great. It fits quite well.
I really don't feel that this song is about an one-night-stand. It's nothing like U2 to write a song about that theme, at least not in the way the people above meant. I mean, U2 do have songs about drugs for instance, but they warn the bigger public for the dangers of it. They don't encourage them.
I think this song is about the judgment of God.
The Unforgettable Fire was the name given the atomic blast at Hiroshima. Fire from heaven.
The lines "Walk on by, walk on through, walk 'til you run and don't look back for here I am" sound like God's command to Lot when he told Lot to leave the city and not look back.
This song is a conversation between God and the believer about God's judgment of the world. God declares the world wicked: "Ice. Your only rivers run cold. These city lights, they shine in silver and gold dug from the night. Your eyes as black as coal". And later, "Carnival, the wheels fly and the colors spin through alcohol, red wine that punctures the skin". He tells the believer (as he told Lot) "walk on by, walk on through, walk 'til you run and don't look back".
The believer asks (just as Abraham begged God, for the sake of his nephew Lot) that he spare the city the fire judgment, to "stay" his hand of judgment. But the believer also begs God to "Come on take me away, Come on take me home, home again" because of his weariness of trying to live for God in an ungodly word. And just as Abraham begged God to save the city, the believer in this song asks God, "If you save your love (meaning: the believer), then save it all (all of it)."
God's response is "Don't push me too far."
I think there is a lot of passion in the lyrics of this song, and it is the passion and hurt of a scorned lover. But it's not the passion between humans. It's the passion of God for his creation, and the hurt of God having been scorned by his creation and turning their backs on him.
It's easy to think of a loving God, but no one wants to think of a God who's had enough and is ready to put an end to evil. When will he stop staying his hand of judgment for the sake of the believer? It's haunting.
before i read your post i had no idea what this song was about.
Yet thanks to you i have fully comprehended it.
I do believe it is about Judgment Day.
Bono talks alot about the world's problems, about how religions fight when they started from the same people. Just stuff like that, and Bono is trying to let his fans understand that some day when only God knows that Jesus is coming back and we will have to stand up to our mistakes. We need to be ready for Judgment Day instead of fearing it.
I love your POV on this and you truly understand how deep this song is.
<333