I haven't heard any statements made by U2 as to what this song could be a reference to or what it's about, but this is kind of the picture that plays in my mind when I hear it.
When I was about 14 or 15 and bought the "Pop" album, my first impression was "this is a song about a girl giving up her virginity", but now, at 22, I think it has a bit of a deeper meaning than just that.
I don't think it's literally about a girl doing drugs either. To me, this song is about a girl who sees the world in a way that other people don't. She sees behind the bullshit. She knows better than to wait for a fairytale and she knows that life isn't everlasting. Because she understands, on a deep level, that she won't live forever, she spends every second making life count...so much that it becomes just a blur. She won't wait around for anyone, she wants life so much that she's afraid to miss a second of it. She knows what life is worth. Instead of the common interpretation that this girl is destroying her life, I think the girl in the song is trying to live so hard-core that she's missing a lot of the things that make life special.
She wants to make so much out of her life (living like it's the last night on Earth) that she's neglecting to take care of herself properly. I get the impression that this person is just so caught up with the act of living that they lost track of how to keep themselves together.
I haven't heard any statements made by U2 as to what this song could be a reference to or what it's about, but this is kind of the picture that plays in my mind when I hear it.
When I was about 14 or 15 and bought the "Pop" album, my first impression was "this is a song about a girl giving up her virginity", but now, at 22, I think it has a bit of a deeper meaning than just that.
I don't think it's literally about a girl doing drugs either. To me, this song is about a girl who sees the world in a way that other people don't. She sees behind the bullshit. She knows better than to wait for a fairytale and she knows that life isn't everlasting. Because she understands, on a deep level, that she won't live forever, she spends every second making life count...so much that it becomes just a blur. She won't wait around for anyone, she wants life so much that she's afraid to miss a second of it. She knows what life is worth. Instead of the common interpretation that this girl is destroying her life, I think the girl in the song is trying to live so hard-core that she's missing a lot of the things that make life special.
She wants to make so much out of her life (living like it's the last night on Earth) that she's neglecting to take care of herself properly. I get the impression that this person is just so caught up with the act of living that they lost track of how to keep themselves together.