Lyrics for Numb as interpreted by jt

Numb Lyrics
Don't move
Don't talk out of time
Don't think
Don't worry
Everything's just fine
Just fine

Don't grab
Don't clutch
Don't hope for too much
Don't breathe
Don't achieve
Don't grieve without leave

Don't check
Just balance on the fence
Don't answer
Don't ask
Don't try and make sense

Don't whisper
Don't talk
Don't run if you can walk
Don't cheat
Compete
Don't miss the one beat

Don't travel by train
Don't eat
Don't spill
Don't piss in the drain
Don't make a will

Don't fill out any forms
Don't compensate
Don't cower
Don't crawl
Don't come around late
Don't hover at the gate

Don't take it on board
Don't fall on your sword
Just play another chord
If you feel you're getting bored

I feel numb
I feel numb
Too much is not enough
Gimme some more of that stuff love
Too much is not enough

Don't change your brand
Don't listen to the band
Don't gape
Don't ape
Don't change your shape
Have another grape

Don't plead
Don't bridle
Don't shackle
Don't grind
Don't curve
Don't swerve
Don't lie, die, serve

Too much is not enough
I feel numb
I feel numb
Gimme what you got
Gimme what I don't get
Gimme what you got
Too much is not enough

I feel numb
Don't theorise, realise, polarise,
Chance, dance, dismiss, apologise

I feel numb
Don't spy
Don't lie
Don't try
Imply
Detain, explain, start again

Gimme some more
Gimme some more of that stuff love
Gimme some more
Too much is not enough

I feel numb
Don't triumph
Don't coax
Don't cling
Don't hoax
Don't freak
Peak
Don't leak
Don't speak

I feel numb
I feel numb
Don't project
Don't connect
Protect
Don't expect
Suggest

I feel numb
Don't project
Don't connect
Protect
Don't expect
Suggest

I feel numb
I feel numb
Don't struggle
Don't jerk
Don't collar
Don't work
Don't wish
Don't fish
Don't teach
Don't reach

I feel numb
Don't borrow
Don't break
Don't fence
Don't steal
Don't pass
Don't press
Don't try
Don't feel

I feel numb
Don't touch
Don't dive
Don't suffer
Don't rhyme
Don't fantasize
Don't rise
Don't lie

I feel numb
Don't project
Don't connect
Protect
Don't expect
Suggest

I feel numb
Don't project
Don't connect
Protect
Don't expect
Suggest

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  • 37 Comments
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justwin
10-29-2009

Rated 0 
There's no way that 4:20 has any signifcance to this song. Total coincidence. I can't imagine something being THAT planned out. Unless, of course, it was some stupid gangsta rap group.....just sayin'.....

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justwin
10-29-2009

Rated 0 
There's no way that 4:20 has any signifcance to this song. Total coincidence. I can't imagine something being THAT planned out. Unless, of course, it was some stupid gangsta rap group.....just sayin'.....and I totally agree with the "media" theme. The media totally desensitizes us. Especially given the bands political savvy, we are totally controlled by the media. I think that sometimes we read too much into the lyrics...but then, I guess that's the beauty of poetry and song writing.

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focus007
10-15-2009

Rated 0 
Only U2 can make a monotone sound,lyric, and vocal ( Edge's) so meaningful and powerful. The monotone rhythm,beat, and Edge's chanting ( I wouldn't consider it "rapping" and he's certainly not "singing.")comes at you like a frigging moving building.

I think this is just trying to paint a picture of apathy and sweet temptation ( Bono's vocal represent this I think)to fall into apathy. For Edge, it might have been about he's divorce or anything but it could be about anything for the rest of us.

First time I heard Edge sing..err chant. I think he might have done backing vo. in the past songs but this is the first time he stood front and center.

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txfilmguy1
07-27-2009

Rated 0 
Adding to what LoveisBlindness said, I had heard or read (can't remember the source) that the song was written by taking bits of advice the band would receive from manager Paul McGuinness, but taken out of context. The advice pertains to dealing with a major tour (ZooTV) and how to deal with personal matters so they didn't interfere with their professional lives (for example, Edge's divorce).

The music video, and I believe this was conjecture the way I learned it, but it would seem accurate...

Edge was simply told to sit in a chair and lip-synch the song in its entirety, in one take, without a teleprompter (keep in mind, the song had just been completed and had not been rehearsed yet for live performance), while the band and film crew would attempt to distract him from this purpose. He didn't know what to expect... he just had to sit there and remember the words, without reacting to the distractions.

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Numb420
04-18-2009

Rated 0 
This song is about desensitization and love being the only thing you feel.
If you really read in it can be about so much depending on your interpetation, like is love a psudonym for sex, making it hedonistic? What is the desensitization due to? Drugs? TV? Religion? All of the above?
Like any good artist U2 leaves it up to the audience to decide! A well written song!

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agmlego
09-09-2008

Rated 0 
Damn this is an awesome song. I rank it up there with a bunch of other awesome songs.

...

Wow, this comment is not actually contributing to the discussion, eh?

Well, let me remedy that:

Love the lines here and there that are just silly, like "Have another grape". They add a counterpoint to the serious matter of the song. The harmonies, especially during the repetition of Don't project
Don't connect
Protect
Don't expect
Suggest
are truly powerful. The underlying rhythm is remarkably close to my natural pace on a bicycle, and I can get lost in its lyrical directions.

Combined with a few other powerful songs in my library, such as The Flying Pickets' version of Bob Dylan's "Masters of War", Linkin Park's "Numb", and Avril Lavigne's piano version of "These Things I'll Never Say", I can almost always achieve katharsis, especially if I follow the playlist with a quick, deep meditation. Tests and other nerve-raising activities just slide under me like a cat sliding across a table coated in butter after this.

--
"Memento Mori Ergo Carpe Diem"

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Makonu2
08-14-2008

Rated 0 
I think this song is about him coping with what was going on in his life at the time... ie his divorce. i'm pretty sure a lot of people would "feel like this song" if you will, if they all of a sudden broke up with someone they loved. i know this song would be my mantra if that happened to me. just kinda not do anything and stare of into space while listening to amusing music.

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jcaimbeul
05-23-2008

Rated 0 
right now...how i feel..Numb

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LivinLegend
04-26-2008

Rated 0 
Can't help but laugh at the line "Don't miss (slight hesitation) the one beat". Yes, the song is goofy as hell, but very amusing, and brings back memories of the 90s. That decade might not have been the best ever, but at least gas was cheaper.

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FoRevEr_SPooNer
01-20-2008

Rated 0 
To me the meaning is pretty simple. It's that it's impossible for a human being not to do all the things in the lyrics, introduced by a "don't". It says that sometimes it's better do the wrong things than not do anything at all. In life you will do right things, and you will do wrong things, but the important part is You Will Do [Something].

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tokiri
11-09-2007

Rated 0 
I feel like this stanza holds a different message than the rest of the song:

I feel numb
Don't project
Don't connect
Protect
Don't expect
Suggest

It's like the rest of the song is saying leave everything alone and don't do anything, but "don't expect, suggest" almost seems to be saying "don't wait for something, take action". Not sure about the first part of the stanza though... Anybody else have any thoughts on this?

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suede67
09-09-2007

Rated 0 
I think this song is good, if not so great. U2 has much better songs, and i respect them for trying newer things, and not sticking to a formula. This also means they're not after the money. U2 rules.

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ronald07
02-18-2007

Rated 0 
The bit you're on about Macphisto is;

Don't be heavy
Don't be kind
It's not that bad
Just try and unwind

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LoveisBlindness
02-14-2007

Rated 0 
According to what I read in U2 By U2, The Edge says this is, basically, about his feelings at that period of time - going through a divorce and all. Either way, in my opinion, it's one of U2's worst songs....I can't stand it. Awful song.

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King of Some Island
10-11-2006

Rated 0 
I think this song is about an addiction that, even though it takes complete control of us(Don't move/Don't talk out of time/Don't think/Don't worry/Everything's just fine), we dont care and just want more(Gimme some more of that stuff love/Too much is not enough) Because it just makes us "feel numb" to everything around us.

When you think about it its not just drugs that it could apply to, it could be a person, money, or the media. Just any kind of dependence.

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frog_man
10-02-2006

Rated 0 
I think it's about drugs. That's what every song on this site is about...

I'm addicted to this song, too much is not enough. And not least because I can sing it perfectly (and I don't mean The Edge's part).

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182_mariana
09-07-2006

Rated 0 
Macphisto12 you wrote all the lyrics, don't know what you're talking about...

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T_D_Phoenix
08-30-2006

Rated 0 
Most everyone hates this song.

another wonderful excuse to kill everyone.

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Macphisto12
08-29-2006

Rated 0 
Does anyone know what Edge says in the verse in between

"Don't take it on board
Don't fall on your sword
Just play another chord
If you feel you're getting bored"

and

"Don't change your brand
Don't listen to the band
Don't ape, don't gape, don't change your shape
Have another grape"

It's behind Bono's "Too much is not enough" bit.

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gakk
07-19-2006

Rated 0 
Oh Poor Edge (in the musicvideo).. I just feel like giving him a biig hug and take him away from all that stuff:)

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zoo_station
07-17-2006

Rated 0 
so different but so good

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camohatman
03-29-2006

Rated 0 
i know ZOOROPA wasent the greatest album ever, but because of this song, "I Feel Numb" (You Rock David Evans a.k.a. the Edge)

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svenllama
02-04-2006

Rated 0 
It's about mind-control and social control via television, a very prominent theme of U2's ZooTV period. The whole thing is an exercise in marxist cultural criticism, which is what the whole ZooTV thing was about...government, business, televangelists, etc. using the media to manipulate public opinion...footage of the Gulf War interspersed with MTV, sports highlights, televangelists, etc...calling the White House every night of the tour, demanding to speak to the President, but never getting through...you get the idea. TV as a layer of virtualization between the viewer and reality. Hence The Edge singing the song instead of Bono.

The song is not about drugs...although you can see Bono and Adam Clayton smoking pot in the background at one point during the video.

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Macphisto12
01-02-2006

Rated 0 
I think that 4:20 is actually a drugs reference. It's just on the remixes that it's a different time. I think the video is great! I love the way Edge just sits there while random folk come up and abuse him in various ways.

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U2rocks
12-17-2005

Rated 0 
I think the 4:20 has NOTHING to do with anything. Coincidence.

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