check out the following: search "Behind The Song: U2 - Running To Stand Still" on youtube - you'll find a very interesting little video documentation about that song, where The Edge, Daniel Lanois, Brian Eno & Bono himself discuss how this song came to life ; )

You got to cry without weeping
Talk without speaking
Scream without raising your voice

.....Bono is amazing, enough said

"And so she woke up
Woke up from where she was lying still
Said I gotta do something about where we're going"

This woman came to a realization that she has to change her life.

"Step on a steam train
Step out of the driving rain
Maybe run from the darkness in the night"

The night is dark. Dark is bad. Running from it is getting away from the bad. Again, realizing she has to change her life.

"Sweet the sin
Bitter, the taste in my mouth"

What we think is good (sweet), sometimes is not so good and may leave a bad taste in our mouth (bitter).

"I see seven towers
But I only see one way out"

Here's where she lives. Common knowledge. But killing herself is not what is meant by one way out. She realizes that she has to leave. Maybe simply moving/leaving is the one way out?

"You got to cry without weeping
Talk without speaking
Scream without raising your voice"

Notice how Bono raises his voice in the "scream without raising your voice" line?? A little sarcasm, maybe. Possibly implying how we can't really cry without weeping, talk without speaking and of course scream without raising our voices.

"You know I took the poison from the poison stream
Then I floated out of here"

Could be that she is acknowledging her addiction. Or alternatively she is simply taking herself out of a bad situation.

"She runs through the streets with her eyes painted red"
She's crying.

"Under a black belly of cloud in the rain"
Rain, dark, cloud = despair. The atmosphere at the time.

"In through a doorway
She brings me white gold and pearls"
Maybe she's going to a pawn shop to sell some valuables to get the money to leave?

"Stolen from the sea she is raging, she is raging
And the storm blows up in her eyes"
Not sure about this... But some people refer to the sea (ocean) as a she. A raging sea could represent a storm. And the "storm blows up in her eyes" represents that things have finally reached the turning point.

"She will suffer the needle chill"
I see this as her getting off the drugs. The suffering of the chill is the after-effects of getting off the drugs. People who quit drugs "cold turkey" get "the shakes" and "chills".

"She's running to stand still"
Someone else mentioned that this could mean just keeping up. I agree. Making a move, quitting drugs, suffering from the after-effects, etc. are a lot to handle, just to be "normal" - Running to stand still.

The song was written about Patricia, the mother of two of my children. She's a sweetheart and is still alive and has not lived in Ballymun for over twenty years. She got out, finally.

Ok.. now it is completely cleared up.. from Bono's own words:

Bono reveals that Running to Stand Still is inspired by the view from his childhood home in Cedarwood Road, as lush fields gradually gave way to the Ballymun flat complexes. Having seen struggles in places as far away as Ethiopia and El Salavador, the memory of witnessing drug addiction at first hand meant his mind would always return to the flats. “Sweet the sin/ But bitter the taste in my mouth/ I see seven towers/ But I only see one way out.”


http://thedubliner.typepad.com/the_dubliner_magazine/2007/04/a_social_histor.html

April 20th, 1991

I'll raise my hand. I have always opted not to post on any song because I firmly believe that every song means what it means to the person listening to it, at that very moment they are listening to it. That is one of the beauties of music.I have visited this site just curious to see what others thought a particular song "meant". That being said, it is difficult for me to comment one way or another but I will--I feel this song is about addiction (in all its forms),dependence, and the desire to get out without the means to do so. It could be mental illness, unrequited love, heroin, personal demons, whatever. Those are my thoughts at least.

Bono has said it's about a couple struggling with heroin addiction... Which makes perfect sense when you analyze the lyrics. It also features the same chords as the Velvet underground song "heroin".

Might I add, that Bono's also pointed out that the "7 towers" refer to 7 skyscrapers around Dublin. and during zootv, Bono, in over-the-top fashion, dramatically pretends to inject himself with a syringe near the end of the song.

i personaly think this song could mean anything to anyone. I recently got lyrics tattooed on me and ive never been or plan on being a drug addict. i actually lost my boyfriend in a car accident a few yrs back and those lyrics have a much stronger meaning for me it helps keep me strong in times when i dont think im going to make it not just bc of his loss but do to what life throws at u.But yes i have heard and read Bono say it was about addiction but addiction isnt always connected with drugs it could be so much more or less. that is the whole point to songs you as the listener can make it what ever you want.so for me those lyrics for me are a symbol of strenth getting through the hard times without making a fool of yourself. . id love to hear wut others have personaly made out of this song? love to see osme feedback!

These are the lyrics that were inked on me.

"You got to cry without weeping
Talk without speaking
Scream without raising your voice"

On Tuesday, my cousin OD'd on suboxone-he was using it to treat an addiction to hydrocodone. I'm not going to lie and say he and I were ever close-in fact, we fought like cats and dogs growing up and have never been close. Bottom line is, flawed though he may be, he is still a part of my family. I think this song perfectly addresses not only the addict herself, but also the anger and helplessness those around her feel, watching her spiral into addiction and eventual death. I'm angry at my cousin for doing this stupid, selfish thing, but more than that I'm just very sad for his family-his parents who have to make the choice to pull their only son off of life support or bankrupt themselves to keep his shell of a body here on earth, his sister who tried to warn their mother of his addiction and is now wracked with guilt that she should have done more (when in fact, nothing she did was going to stop this), and his little girl who had to watch her daddy being life-flighted to the hospital after his heart had not beaten for twenty minutes and he was, for all intents and purposes, gone. The lyric 'scream without raising your voice' perfectly sums up the roller coaster of emotions I've been on for the past few days.

My 5 cents only to one the phrase...

"She runs through the streets
With her eyes painted red
Under 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"

I think this verse refers to the action after the heroin trip. She is already almost awared but still disorientated and wants to show someone (Bono?) something what exists only in her imagination but then she realized that some things (pearls stolen from the sea) don't exist, thererfore "she is raging"... She lost again contact with reality and it's really hard to accept. For me the most precipitous moement of the song :(
She could
"Step on a steam train" or "step out of the driving rain" but she "stepped into the sea" this time.
The lyrical entity concludes it's too late to help her because she mires in vicious circle...

"Suffer the needle chill
She's running to stand...
Still."

Anyway it's only speculation because I never took heroin so I can only guess. Beautifully sad song.

Since 1987, I've listened to "The Joshua Tree", probably more than any other one album (CD, MP3's, etc.) and "Running to Stand Still" remains my favorite of many great U2 songs. I just read the entire list of comments and interpretations offered here and am quite moved (but not surprised) by the impact this seemingly obscure (compared to general popularity and airplay of the other hits) song has had on listeners. That being said, here are a few more observations:
- this song is still generating significant interest and comment as late as 2009;
- despite the obvious drug content, many people find several other layers of meaning, as did I, thinking
that the essence of the song was about hopelessness and ultimately suicide attempt via drug OD;
- despite notable diversity of interpretations of the song as a whole, the verse "You got to cry without
weeping, talk without speaking, scream without raising your voice." seems most poignant and impactful
to a great number people, and has an existence outside of the rest of the song (see fan with tatoo);
- drug experience or not, those with burdensome life experience(s) seem to truly appreciate the song;
- compared to this song, recent U2 offerings have seemed more formulaic;
- there is a particular congruence between the music, Bono's singing, and the lyrics (despite the
breadth of interpretation), each with haunting yet beautiful qualities;
- speaking of Bono's singing, there seems to be a special, perhaps personal, emotionality involved;
- a special, moving song, that despite this list of commentaries, remains under-appreciated;

1 Reply

The song is I feel about drug addiction.
In the first verse, the women protagonist wakes up and wishes that she could escape her situation "step on a steam train...".
In the second verse she actually succumbs to her addiction - "sweet the sin. bitter the taste in my mouth.." As she gets the initial hit, she feels waves of hopelessness - " you've got to cry without weeping" etc. In this verse she takes the drug because it says - "You know I took the poison from the poison stream...Then I floated out of here".
In the final verse it goes on to talk about the horrible effects of the heroin - she runs through the streets with eyes painted red, under a black belly of cloud in the rain". She obviously 'scores ' some more drugs which is the reference to the pearls and gold. And so cycle begins again. The hopelessness seems to build in the song until all she does is run to stand still.
Just my humble opinions - great song whatever the meaning.


1 Reply

i heard this song and realized i was exactly where the song described. Ive been wanting to quit all my life and i know there's only one way out.

and when it says:
You got to cry without weeping
Talk without speaking
Scream without raising your voice

It is exactly how my life is with my surrounding because maybe thats what my addiction led me to. i couldnt speak the truth anymore to anyone.

Maybe he/she is addicted to SongMeanings (anonymously, of course) and he/she is jesusish and really just wants to help the bottom line for 2010. I mean, if he/she didn't chime in now and then the revenues (compared to 2009) could be wayyyyy down. Just doin what shehee can for the cause.

I would argue that this song is specifically about a boyfriend (at the end of his rope with the bitter cycle of heroin addiction in this relationship) and coming to the ultimate conclusion that he (and more importantly his girlfriend who seems to be dangerously addicted) must detox NOW and suffer the painful chills of detox... The setting and inspiration is Dublin's Seven Towers...

Bono (Vertigo 2005 tour / Chicago) dedicates this song to our US troops and adding (at the end of the song) a prayer "Alleluia" for anyone WHO KNOWS SOMEONE WHO IS IN DANGER (including our US troops or say someone who is dangerously addicted to heroin...)...

**watching his girlfriend wake up - the boyfriend realizes that this addictive cycle cannot go on
**he gets up and out - takes the train - to get away from his hell hole - to think
**this heroin trip has been bitter sweet
**he concludes there is only one thing to do - sober up - they must both detox
**he knows that she is going to resist detox because she is in deep (dangerously addicted)
**his responses to her will need to be measured
**he will have to minimize the crying, talking, & screaming at her - or she will run away to the heroin
**eventually he returns to their residence waiting for her to return home
**it has been a cloudy/rainy day
**she arrives home with more heroin (poppy straw) for another dark night floating on heroin trips
**she has obtained/stolen the heroin from the sea of the drug trade in/around the Seven Towers area
**the drug trade is raging outside and he can see in her eyes that she is desperately addicted
**and at this moment he realizes that she must endure detox or die (knowing full well that he will not leave her but will suffer the same fate if necessary)...