Most incomprehensible lyrics ever. So why is it so great? I don't know. It's been my favorite U2 song since I heard it, but I still can't figure out any semblance of meaning for it. The best I can figure is by the song title and various scraps - it's the love-hate relationship between teacher and student, or child and fallen hero; a tie of respect and admiration that is strained over and over, but is only strengthened by the pain.
The song's best quality is its smoothness. No other song I know of uses the flow of music and song like a twisting summer breeze in quite this way (Think Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" or Dire Straits' "Brothers in Arms" for this category). The song just melts into your brain like an epic poem, and the words are just soothing chants that you're not meant to understand, with the occasionally perceptible utterance of a spine-tingling phrase like "Ah, don't talk to me" or "You're through with me, but I know that you'll be back for more" or "Your heart is left out from the side." And they're all whispered in Bono's most introspective of voices, and you know it's personal for him, and that makes it so touching. It's as if each sentence is a self-spoken prayer overheard in a deserted church.
Most incomprehensible lyrics ever. So why is it so great? I don't know. It's been my favorite U2 song since I heard it, but I still can't figure out any semblance of meaning for it. The best I can figure is by the song title and various scraps - it's the love-hate relationship between teacher and student, or child and fallen hero; a tie of respect and admiration that is strained over and over, but is only strengthened by the pain.
The song's best quality is its smoothness. No other song I know of uses the flow of music and song like a twisting summer breeze in quite this way (Think Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" or Dire Straits' "Brothers in Arms" for this category). The song just melts into your brain like an epic poem, and the words are just soothing chants that you're not meant to understand, with the occasionally perceptible utterance of a spine-tingling phrase like "Ah, don't talk to me" or "You're through with me, but I know that you'll be back for more" or "Your heart is left out from the side." And they're all whispered in Bono's most introspective of voices, and you know it's personal for him, and that makes it so touching. It's as if each sentence is a self-spoken prayer overheard in a deserted church.