The band has said that One has to do with many different things, many different themes. a relationship, mankind, family... anything really.

I agree with U2takemehigher. I thing the song was written vague enough so that it could apply to many different things and not just egh one thing.

Also Howie Day covers this song too and I think his version is incredible.

I have to agree with u2aholic. I think I saw this explanation (gay son with aids, and his relationship with his father) on MTV. But maybe that is just one of the multiple explanation thesis.

Anyway, great song.

I read at the time that this song was written specifically about Edge's divorce

yeh sounds like many interpretations of the song could be right...i agree definitely eit wat sum1 sed bout situation in ireland; i mean, if bono himslef sed it, it must be rite hey.....hey Proddie, wats ur name mean if i may ask?

cool

I remember reading that bono found it quite astounding every time he hears people want to play this at there wedding.....its quite bitter, and i think it pretty much says, were all diffrent, and we all fight, some of us somtimes and some of us all the time, and your always gonna have problems with eachother, but tough luck, just gotta learn to live with it. Accept the diffrences, and try, even though all the odds are against it..........in the sense of a love song ofcourse.

What can I say about this song? It is one of the best songs ever.

To me, it sounds like two people discussing why their relationship failed. So I think words_and_phrases is right about it being about The Edge's divorce.

Bono just gets cooler, the older he gets, I swear to God.

One is about HIV. Is about AIDS. The song was written as if a son turns out to know is HIV Positive and then talks to his father about it. Even the first released video (directed by Anton Corbijn) shows all the queer stuff with the boys dressed as women, and even Bono`s late father makes a cameo on the video. This ain´t a love song, nor a breakup song. Sorry for those who thing that way.

It's a great song... I heard it described as "the breakup song so perfect, it stopped U2 from breaking up". It could be about the band in that sense.
Anyone seen the original video? You can find it on the internet. It's full of shots of buffalos running in slow motion, and shots of flowers, and things. Sounds cliched sure, but it's a real masterpiece in my opinion.

Three versions of this video were shot, the buffalo one, the cross dressing one and the more common one where bono is sitting in a club singing and smoking, while a man and a woman make love in between shots, shot in an artistic manner ofcourse, good use of lighting.

I suppose this song is ultimatley about comprimise.

Bono: We spoke about this before. It is a song about coming together, but it's not the old hippie idea of "Let's all live together." It is, in fact, the opposite. It's saying, "We are one, but we're not the same." It's not saying we even want to get along, but that we have to get along together in this world if it is to survive. It's a reminder that we have no choice.

[edge]"The lyric was the first in a new, more intimate style. It's two ideas, essentially. On one level it's a bitter, twisted, vitriolic conversation between two people who've been through some nasty, heavy stuff: 'We hurt each other / Then we do it again.' But on another level there's the idea that 'we get to carry each other.' 'Get to' is the key. The original lyric was 'we have to carry each other' and it was never quite right -- it was too fuckin' obvious and platitudinous. But 'get to'… it's like our privilege to carry one another. It puts everything in a different perspective, introduces that idea of grace.

"Still, it blows me away when it's played at weddings. I wouldn't have played it at any wedding of mine. But I suppose it's because, despite all the other stuff in there, the power of 'we get to carry each other' overwhelms everything. And the honesty of it helps -- the bare-knuckle telling-it-like-it-is-ness.

"I also think it opened up new horizons for U2. It's not a song we would ever try to rewrite. We wouldn't want to go there again. But the small scale of it, the intimacy, has been revisited for various other records and songs. The restraint was something new -- we learned how holding back can be even more powerful than letting go."

Sorry to those who think this song was directly written about AIDS, but its not, its a song that can be related to in many diffrent ways, listen to it how you like, but if your going to make a post saying its only about aids and everyone else is wrong, go and actually check out what the musicians had to say about the songs meaning.

I´m sorry fella. That´s the reason why the first video was NOT RELEASED. Don´t you dare argue with me man. You CAN have your own meaning, but it DOES NOT MEAN your meaning is the one they had. They wanted to give the money of the single to charity, the AIDS fundations, but the drags in the video placed a great threat to the credibility of the cause. This song is ABOUT AIDS, about a fathre who has to accept his son got AIDS. And man, i´m not arguing, i am right. You are posting some writing from the band that were on some Rolling Stone magazines interview, and i own those magazines too. They talked about some other subjects, and you are misquoting lines they said. Don´t fool people man.

In an interview (long ago!) one of the band (can't recall which one) explained the song was a conversation between a son and his father (the son is the one talking). His father did not approve of his gay lifestyle but the sons partner has since died of aids and the son is now dying of the disease. The father is all the son has left in the world.

The line 'you gave me nothing now that's all I've got' still blows me away all these years later.

See you keep saying in an interview, i read this lots, where is this interview, where are the quotes, so what if Bono dedicated the song to AIDS, doesnt mean its about it.

I am not fooling anyone....man.....and i will argue with you about this, cause your wrong and offering nothing to back up your argument

[...] The impish corrosion of songs like "Zoo Station" and "The Fly" is boldly undercut by darker musings such as "Love Is Blindness" and "One," Bono's disenchanted take on the nouveau hippie revival: "'One, man, one world, one love.' I liked the idea of taking that and saying, 'One man, but not the same.'"

(from "U2 Finds What It's Looking For" by David Fricke, Rolling Stone, October 01, 1992)



Before reacting with the Edge to my list of the 10 best U2 moments on record, Bono had a question of his own.

"Is it true that 'One' was played over the radio a lot during the Los Angeles riots?" the singer asked, referring to the most acclaimed song from the Achtung Baby album, and one of the songs on the list.

"That's what I heard from some friends," he added, "which is surprising because I never saw the song as something hopeful or comforting. To me, it was a very bitter song."

[...]

Edge: It was a very pivotal song in the recording of the album -- the first sort of breakthrough in what was an extremely difficult set of sessions in Berlin. I like the lyric a lot because it treads a very fine line between becoming too clear, too jingoistic, but in the end it never does... stays personal.

Bono: We spoke about this before. It is a song about coming together, but it's not the old hippie idea of "Let's all live together." It is, in fact, the opposite. It's saying, "We are one, but we're not the same." It's not saying we even want to get along, but that we have to get along together in this world if it is to survive. It's a reminder that we have no choice.

(from "U2's Pride (In The Name Of Songs); Achtung, Babies: Bono And Edge Evaluate One Critic's Choices For The Group's 10 Best Recordings, From 'I Will Follow' To 'One'" by Robert Hilburn, Los Angeles Times, September 12, 1993)



Recorded in Hansa Studios, formerly a Nazi mess hall, the song came from nowhere. Bono had a couple of middle-eights that fitted together, and it was while fiddling around with these mongrel tunes that the inordinately emotive lyrics of "One" began to seep through. "They just fell out of the sky," says Bono. "A gift from above."

This much he knows: the Dalai Lama had asked U2 to participate in a festival called "Oneness." Having sensed the unsavoury whiff of hippiedom, Bono sent back a note saying, "One -- but not the same." Unconsciously, this became his hook. As the melody flowed, he was thinking about untouchable sadness, disharmony and disease and relationships that end too soon. Within half an hour, they had recorded the bare bones of what Noel Gallagher now calls "the greatest song ever written."

(from "Gold in the house", GQ Magazine, October 2001)



Amazon.co.uk: Another song that seems to have changed meaning -- so much so that it seems to have become an anthem for pretty much everything -- is "One," from Achtung Baby.

Bono: Which astounds me. What's great about "One" is that it's not about oneness, it's about difference. That's the trick of that tune. I'm always shocked when a drunk couple come up to me in a club and tell me they want to walk down the aisle to it. It's a song about difference, and it's gnarly. It's a long way from "Up with People."

Amazon.co.uk: Can you remember what you thought you were writing about at the time?

Bono: There were a couple of things going on, and as usual I meant to resolve them, but the best U2 songs seem to occupy this place of contradictions. I had a lot of things going on in my head at the time, about forgiveness, about father and son angst. I was trying to write a story song I think, and I'm just not good at that. The lyrics came really quickly. The humbling bit about songwriting is that anything above good usually feels like an accident. A lot of U2 songs are first drafts.

(from an interview on All That You Can't Leave Behind, Amazon UK)



[Edge:] "It was autumn 1990. We were in Berlin, at Hansa Studios where Bowie recorded 'Heroes,' trying to get traction with some new songs. It wasn't going well. Adam and Larry's rather jaundiced view of Bono's and my songwriting ability was becoming more and more evident as our various experiments went nowhere. We were listening to a lot of industrial music, and the sounds we were making were quite intense.

"In the midst of all this I go off into another room to put together some ideas for 'The Fly.' I came back with two, neither of which worked where they were meant to, but on Daniel Lanois's suggestion we put them together and Bono was really taken with it. So we all went out into the big recording room -- a huge, eerie ballroom full of ghosts of the war -- and everything fell into place. Bono's melodies and phrases were following, and by the end of the day we basically had everything, the whole form of the song.

"Everyone recognized it was a crucial moment in the development of what became 'Achtung Baby' -- ironically it went in a totally different direction from everything we'd been working on. But everyone recognized it was a special piece. It was like we'd caught a glimpse of what the song could be. Then it was about capturing its essence, but also trying to keep our hands off it. Those songs that seem to arrive perfectly formed -- you don't want to mess with them too much.

"The lyric was the first in a new, more intimate style. It's two ideas, essentially. On one level it's a bitter, twisted, vitriolic conversation between two people who've been through some nasty, heavy stuff: 'We hurt each other / Then we do it again.' But on another level there's the idea that 'we get to carry each other.' 'Get to' is the key. The original lyric was 'we have to carry each other' and it was never quite right -- it was too fuckin' obvious and platitudinous. But 'get to'… it's like our privilege to carry one another. It puts everything in a different perspective, introduces that idea of grace.

"Still, it blows me away when it's played at weddings. I wouldn't have played it at any wedding of mine. But I suppose it's because, despite all the other stuff in there, the power of 'we get to carry each other' overwhelms everything. And the honesty of it helps -- the bare-knuckle telling-it-like-it-is-ness.

"I also think it opened up new horizons for U2. It's not a song we would ever try to rewrite. We wouldn't want to go there again. But the small scale of it, the intimacy, has been revisited for various other records and songs. The restraint was something new -- we learned how holding back can be even more powerful than letting go."

(from "The 1001 Best Songs Ever" Special Edition, Q Magazine, November 2003 (?))

On the Popmart tour in Mexico City, while the Edge played the intro Bono said, "This one goes out to a mate of ours, a great mate, a great singer, we're sorry, we're sorry, for Michael Hutchence."


Misquoting?, your full of it, i think your the one that needs to stop fooling people, and when you make your next post (argument) how about you give some evidence, quotes and sources

I definetly see the message of brotherhood in this song. I like how it starts off about troubled lovers, and progresses into a deeper meaning. It's just about love in general. Whether that love be romantic or family or platonic, it's all one. We are different, all of us, and we need to get along. We are all faulted in some ways and rely on one another - to carry one another. That's the meaning I got from this song.

This is the best song.Ever

somehow U2 is capable of making songs that every single human being on earth can understand.... this is one of the most universal, beautiful, and perfect songs ever created.

Hrere we go with what I think this song is about:

A divorce.

Where the husband is asking the woman what she wants from him. He is asking her what more she wants from him, that he is trying all he can but it never seems to be enough.

Is it getting better
Or do you feel the same
Will it make it easier on you
Now you got someone to blame

--> Are we better now? Can we end this figting if I just say it was all my fault?

You say
One love
One life
When it's one need
In the night
It's one love
We get to share it
It leaves you baby
If you don't care for it

--> You tell me all these things about love, you preach to me what you think about love or what it should be--this is something we get to share--it is supposed to be an honor, but if we don't hold onto it together it will disappear

Did I disappoint you?
Or leave a bad taste in your mouth?
You act like you never had love
And you want me to go without

--> What did I do to wrong you? Why am I so bad for you? Yo treat me like I never loved you, but when did you show me love? I can't give love if it was never given to me. Love works both ways.

Well it's too late
Tonight
To drag tha past out
Into the light

--> Let's not talk about what has happened in the past--it already happened. We can't change that.

We're one
But we're not the same
We get to carry each other
Carry each other
One

--> Marriage means we have become one, one love. We get to have the honor of carrying each other. We have that privilege as two people who love each other.

Have you come here for forgiveness
Have you come tor raise the dead
Havew you come here to play Jesus
To the lepers in your head

--> Are you going to be the one to forgive and forget? Are you going to heal these problems and clear your head and see clearly what we have?

Did I ask too much
More than a lot
You gave me nothing
Now it's all I got

--> Or is this too much? Is it too much that I want this to work? Understand that I am working with the little that I have. You haven't been the most perfect person in the world--but I am working with what we have.

We're one
But we're not the same
We hurt each other
Then we do it again

--> We are different people, but it doesn't mean we can't be in love. We are one love--so why do we insist on hurting each other?


You say
Love is a temple
Love a higher law
Love is a temple
Love the higher law
You ask me to enter
But then you make me crawl

--> You tell me all these great things that love is--you tell me how you want it to be or what this grand idea in your head is--you tell me you want me to be a part of all of that--but then, you push me to the ground and make me feel like nothing just trying to appease you

And I can't be holding on
To what you got
When all you got is hurt

--> How am I supposed to hold onto what we have when instead of love, all you are giving me is hurt?

--> At this point, I beleive Bono expands his analogy to mankind and their relationship with each other. In other words, we are all broken--but what we have--we should be honored to have.

One love
One blood
One life
You got to do what you should

One life
With each other
Sisters
Brothers

One life
But we're not the same
We get to carry each other
Carry each other

i think that for a sad song, this has some of the most uplifting lyrics ever written. To me, the song represents getting over a breakup - realising that while love for another person can be difficult and heartbreaking, it is insignificant compared to the big picture of life - 'one life, one blood....sister, brother'. It is a song celebrating the brotherhood of man and how life rises above these setacks. Just my thoughts, anyway..... also, the line 'you gave me nothing now its all i've got' has to be in the running for the best line in music - ever.

nerdythewell and newfoundfinch are fucking morons, with no fucking lives. keep it about that goddamn music, dickheads

I allways believed that, it was about Girls, who live in muslim countries, who cant get their true love 'cause of the aranged marriages, and that this song, is confronting the father. Who think he's doing the right thing, according to his beliefs, and society.

amazing song Love it...I think this song can mean different things with your mood...U2 are amazing lyricists though so there songs have hidden meanings and its cool

The first time i heard the chorus i thought it was "got to carry each other" the second time I thought 'did he just say 'get to', he can't have done but if he has thats one of the best lyrics ever written - it turns out Bono did. It just fills me with excitement and well being to think of all the people in the world we can help; and although its tough we are actually going to enjoy it. This is the very heart of the christian message, all that legal stuff about abortion, homosexuals, divorce is relatively by the by.. it reminds of a kids song i heard when i was really young it went "listen to my heart Lord, yes its true all the good things that I wanna do" you want to do them. The important things aren't the biggest gestures, Frusciante: "telling moments divide, the only important moments are the inbetween times", whats important is the thousands of little things that you do and basically the manner you treat people and what you SAY to people more than what you do to them (though still important). Its also about how we need each other, about the age of 16 I realised the secret to life: talk to everyone, all the time, about everything, its the most fun, educational and edifying thing you can do. As for Noel Gallagher saying this is the best song ever, musically that may not be true but noels the best lyricist there's ever been so he should know a thing or two.

This song is about relantionship. The way to people can in a sense become one. And than if they break up for some reason there left feeling half in a way. A big part is missing.
We're one
But we're not the same
We hurt each other
Then we do it again

Great song. It's about love and all it's complexities.