[pop]
Mofo
It´s Bono singíng "I still haven´t found what I´m looking for" updated in the most personal way in a style that attacks you: to dance looking for your soul. He sums up his life- replacing the God shaped hole from the death of his mother with his work, but yet he is still a child looking for his mother to give him accept and still he is looking for peace in his heart. It´s a deep look into his own heart and he calls in the end for other people being by his side. That´s all he can do, and then go on looking. It´s about not losing your soul through your stardom, but it´s more ambitious - about the tension in life between your ideals and your factual way of living - and the song reflects a moment of looking this in a close-up. Trying to be a whole person, honest and ambitious at the same time - and still being as vulnerable and dependent to others as a child. (Joergen Lasgaard 11.25.98.)
If God Will Send His Angels
A Christmas-song, that kills every attempt to a have a peacefull Christmas. It´s a very pessimistic text combined with a very kind tune. It´s about love taking a train heading south, and the blind leading the blond. Nobody cares about the family of Jesus dealing drugs, begging, living with deseases. And most people light up their Christmas tree as a part of entertainment. Jesus is in show-business. And the mood is that God is absent to the world, - perhaps he will not even listen to prayers - "pick up " the phone. But still he is saying to the end - "I guess it was something to go on", so perhaps it helps a little to put into words this sorrow, and still he is begging for signs - like the angels long time ago. But the song first of all tells the sadness to the Christmas, that is false, commercial and with no sense of responsibily - remembering where the little baby-Jesus was born. There is still no room for his love in this world. Why is it so?, he asks the Lord. To begin with stating, that he very well knows to have his own responsability. (Joergen Lasgaard 11.25.98.)
Staring At The Sun
The context of the song is the violence in Northern-Ireland, like it is in Please, but here you have Bono expressing the feeling, the longing for to escape it all. Like being blinded starring at the sun. And you are afraid of looking inside, but you´ll find, that you a person of the same kind like the ones killing each other. "There`s an insect in your ear, if you scratch it won´t disappear" could be a story of the sin in all men. But yet is it so:"Those that can´t do - often have to - preach to the ones staring at the sun". The question out of pain -"will we ever live in peace?" is not answered, but you just have to give your personal contribution, and try it hard. There´s no blindness to fact, but you have to fight the good fight - if not, you take part by doing nothing, and the apaty is the opposite to love. When you don´t care, you are really blinded. The tune is wonderfully Beatles-inspired, like they made in on Magical Mystery Tour. But don´t be wrong - The U2-tour is to this world. (Joergen Lasgaard 11.25.98.)
Wake Up Dead Man
This song is a prayer, Bono calls upon Jesus to wake up. Bono told Q-Magazine some points about the song. - Being a believer, you are allowed to be angry. So it´s a believer praying out of anger, despair, sorrow and all kinds of dark feelings. He´s calling Jesus to be really present in the fu**ed-up-world. Bono also told, that the song expresses the feeling from the end of this century, where God is declared dead. So he sings in a kind of solidarity to this feeling amoung people, but he sings to get a contradiction. The person praying, has some kind of expectation, that he can move his Master too, so we have a strong tension going on - solidarity with the feelings of the absence of God in the world and in personal life and the longing for a change. Bono also said that the song was about to get back to an old wound - I think recalling the death of his mother and perhaps also the death of Larry's mother. The stucture of the song is to question God - please tell the story again, please put a word in for me, please give some help to the old wound. He is in deep need - questioning is there any order, is there something to guide him into the future. Wake up dead man, and give it to me. The b-part is about listening, and here the voice of Bono changes. In a way it happens, what he is singing about, he gets some peace from listening in the right way, looking for the voice where there is peace and hope. But the song ends in the despair, and there is still this storm going on, allthough Bono knows about, that he has to listen and to look on and on. Bono also told, that the song is inspired by the sitation, where Jesus is asleep in the boat, and the storm comes, and Jesus tells them - Do not be afraid. That´s what Bono is praying for - to receive the belief that takes away the fear. Bono knows about God, believes his Love and his Power, but he cannot feel it in his life and he cannot see the presence of God in the world. All around on POP U2 sings about a longing for a more true and whole life, and there are problems everywhere - in love,
is it more than sex? in politics, will we ever live in peace? in work, is it just greed? - life is a complete battlefield for contrasting feelings, so Bono is in great despair to get some peace in heart and holding on, trying to be a whole person, that makes no compromises about reality, also about his own faults and guilt. (Joergen Lasgaard 12.3.98.)