Lyrics for Running To Stand Still as interpreted by archmastermind

Running To Stand Still Lyrics
And so she woke up
Woke up from where she was lying still
Said I gotta do something about where we're going
Step on a steam train
Step out of the driving rain
Maybe run from the darkness in the night
Singing ha, ah la la la de day
Ah la la la de day
Ah la la de day

Sweet the sin
Bitter, the taste in my mouth
I see seven towers
But I only see one way out
You got to cry without weeping
Talk without speaking
Scream without raising your voice
You know I took the poison from the poison stream
Then I floated out of here
Singing ha la la la de day
Ha la la la de day
Ha la la de day

Oooooh...

She runs through the streets with her eyes painted red
Under a black belly of cloud in the rain
In through a doorway
She brings me white gold and pearls
Stolen from the sea she is raging, she is raging
And the storm blows up in her eyes
She will suffer the needle chill
She's running to stand still

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  • 63 Comments
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ButtOfMalmsey
05-07-2002

Rated +1 
Is there anyone here who believes this song has absolutely nothing to do with heroin? Raise your hands, please. Morons.

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edge3368
05-17-2002

Rated +1 
the only other thing u can cling to is that it is about addiction itself- not necessarily heroine. bono vox says we are all addicted to something.
"In an interview, Bono talks about this song and how it is about a woman who lived in the Ballymena Seven Towers, an area in Dublin which is like the projects in the states. I see seven towers/but I only see one way out The drug use there is very widespread, and the one way out which he speaks of could be canning the habit, stopping the heroin, which the woman he sings about could not do." (Annie D mrs_chanandler_bong@hotmail.com 2001 07 03)



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atthedrive-in
11-12-2004

Rated 0 
weeell buttofmalmsey i dont know Bono personally but the lyrics seem to suggest a drug addiction - "i took the poison from the poison stream, then i floated out of here."... and... "she will suffer the needle chill."
the lyrics in general seem to articulate some sort of hopelessness - some kind of desire to escape from something that you know you really cant (addiction) - hence the term 'running to stand still'.

also, "step on a steam train" cooould be a reference to what people call taking heroin, 'riding the H-train'. or that could be looking too far into it.

anyway i think this song communicates hopelessness and dependence beautifully.

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deathbear
11-23-2004

Rated 0 
The song takes place in Dublin, with the reference to the 7 towers.

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jarokai
12-09-2004

Rated 0 
I didn't realize this song was about drugs until a few years ago, and needless to say it ruined my vision of it. But it is still one of the best U2 songs, and my most listened to on The Joshua Tree.

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1 Reply
Gladiator01
02-02-2005

Rated 0 
This song is beautiful.

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itsALLprogramMUSIC
02-16-2005

Rated 0 
It does seem to be about some sort of addiction, but addiction is the product of brokeness from something else.

Ever loved someone who had a very destructive addiction? I have. It's awful to watch someone suffer, and you can;t help but resent them for it as you watch, helpless as they destroy pieces of themselves.

I think (addiction aside) this is certainly a song about watching someone go through hell. They're always fighting backwards, always against themselves. They're always giving up the advantage.

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e-jay
03-13-2005

Rated 0 
This song is definately about drugs etc. But for me this song has always been about a journey and how we live our life 100 miles per hour trying to be great but in the end we all die hence running to stand still(dead)

Good Furneral song I think

Happy days:-)

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roykeane1
03-24-2005

Rated 0 
not to be pedantic - they are the Ballymun towers in North Dublin, they have just been demolished Ballymena is in northern Ireland and the only thing there are addicted to up there is bigotry.

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Deltawing
04-04-2005

Rated +1 
Does anyone have any idea about the "cry without weeping, talk without speaking, scream without raising your voice" bit? It's obviously a reflection of the contradiction "running to stand still", which is a bit more obvious, but surely these phrases have their own meanings too.

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righton
04-10-2005

Rated 0 
those contradictory phrases might suggest the seemingly impossible nature of overcoming drug addiction...and yes, bono has said that this song's about drug addiction.

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ivona
10-11-2005

Rated 0 
For a non-native English speaker like me in the far-eastern culture, it had never occurred to me that this song has something to do with drugs until I read the previous posts. I was deeply touched by the lines "You gotta cry without weeping, talk without speaking, scream without raising your voice." Before I read the previous comments, I interpreted as a kind of resistance to social norms or some sort of dominance that one wants to break through, as a strategy to resist not through protests or violence, but through influencing others in a moderate, or a less radical way. Clamor does not speak as loudly and powerfully as a hushed voice. But I have to admit that I didn't and couldn't see the whole picture of the meaning of this song as an "outsider" of a culture that I'm not familiar with. It's great to learn how people "in" the culture read this song. :-)

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dueyfinster
12-09-2005

Rated 0 
As a young person who has witnessed the Ballymun towers in the distance, this song is a great insight to social problems, reminds me of the Irish jounalist, Veronica Guerin and the movie loosely based on her life. (She tryed to take on Drug Pushers, publishing names, but got herself a death sentence for her work. Her death caused an outrage and revolt against Drug culture which unfortunately is still very prevalent in Ireland today.) Why didn't Bono play this at Croke Park? You used to able to see Ballymun Towers from Croke Park.

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Lockhart_10
12-14-2005

Rated 0 
This song is definately about drug addiction Bono came from an area called cedarwood which is in ballymun(well now its addressed glasnevin). in the 1980's dublin saw a flood of herion through out the city and many people where manipulated by drug pushers and fell into this addiction. one of the badly hit areas of dublin in the 1980's was ballymun. I believe this song is not just about herion addiction it is about Bonos acctual experience living so close to these people and how they lived.its a song about a community torn by drugs. Ballymun Towers and the ballymun area is now under redevelopment and there are only 3 towers left of the seven and soon will be none

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vschtyle
12-16-2005

Rated 0 
This song is about Bono going to visit a "lady of the night" and the events that followed.

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bostonbonoboy14
01-02-2006

Rated 0 
I try to read more into the lyrics into this song. I look past the drug-related words. I feel it's about a person who realizes that they are a nobody and try to brake through and became someone that they feel they can be. This makes standing still look like a normal person and this nobody is running to become this person.

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bostonbonoboy14
01-03-2006

Rated 0 
or it could be about drugs.

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nuancecaveat
01-08-2006

Rated 0 
I think it's about salvation through Jesus. "sweeter the sin bitter the taste in my mouth" he's saying that he hates sinfulness now. "I see seven towers but i only see one way out" the seven towers are the seven deadly sins, and the only way out is Jesus. "I took the poison from the poison stream" refers to God taking away sin from a sinful world.

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Anne Marie
02-20-2006

Rated 0 
In the Vertigo DVD Bono rolls up his sleeves and shows his lower arm when he sings the poison line. Quite obvious what he's hinting there I think.
I like the live version of this song so much better then the studio version, much more alive. Edge plays the piano so beautifully!

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ma_namaste
03-07-2006

Rated 0 
These sensitively written lyrics are about the observance of a junkie; also, about her environment, which creates a social commentary as secondary to the primary subject of heroin addiciton. "You gotta cry without weeping, talk without speaking, scream without raising your voice" - this is what addiction is...it's crying without weeping, talking without speaking, and screaming without raising your voice. Being a junkie is such a quiet thing. And addiction, especially to heroin, which is a repetitive, consistent addiction, is "running to stand still".

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StellaMare
03-10-2006

Rated 0 
Definitely a song about addiction. I always saw the line "I see seven towers, but I only see one way out" as being about suicide/overdose.

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viva_star1
03-21-2006

Rated 0 
have you heard Ewan McGregor sing this on his mini-series, Long Way Round? its amazing. i actually prefer it to the original beleive it or not. he has such an amazing voice. rent the dvd and check it out. btw the actual series is unbelievable!

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svenllama
04-08-2006

Rated 0 
This one's about drugs. When they perform it live, he mimes the act of shooting up. Plus there's all the biographical stuff mentioned above about the housing projects in Dublin, heroin in the city, etc. etc. etc. The metaphor for quitting drugs could apply to extricating yourself from any unhealthy situation in your life and making a new start. But in the strictest sense, this is a song about heroin addiction.

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ConJulio
04-18-2006

Rated 0 
For me it is both of it.
About Drugs and without Drugs this song gives a sense to me.
You can, if you donīt take the word like they are written, do your own interpretation. Because today there are more "Drugs" that should come out..........
"You got to cry without weeping
Talk without speaking
Scream without raising your voice"
means to me that there are people suffering in silence but we should hear them. We have to hear them. After i realized that this sond is about drugs I canīt hear it anymore. A friend died of that...


Take care.

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iclyne
05-23-2006

Rated 0 
In this song, I have to agree with nuancecaveat it actually is about jesus and how he is the only way out. Im not exactly sure what the meanings of everything is but it is out of the book of revelations i believe. or so I am told. So if anyone has a good knowledge of the bible might wanna check it up in Revelations. It might not all be from it maybe just some. cheers. rok on U2

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