Russell Bennett ([email protected])
Thu, 28 Jan 1999 11:34:44 -0500
As for Sympathy for the Devil - it is a song about evil appearing in many
guises throughout history. I think Bono may be implying that Herion is
just such another appearance.
I'm sure that the music "fitting" has a lot to do wiuth it - but Bono would
never just work on one level of meaning.
He sings part of a Nina Simone song in the middle of "Trying to Throw Your
Arms Around the World" live (I need love... and affection...), and if you
take a good look I think you can see how and why it fits.
MonkeyBoy
And a ps to some of the other people who have responded recently :
I'd just like to add, yet again, that I cannot understand why we are
scoffing at people who are asking questions about the meanings of songs.
Of course there is no one single meaning to a U2 song. They are
multiplicitous, and like poetry, that is exactly what makes them superior
compositions. They work on may levels at once. But sometimes people who
are new to music, or new to interpreting music (which most songs don't ask
of us, either because they aren't multi-layered, or else, if they are,
because theere are so few rewards for searching below the surface), need an
"in" to the music. They need a hint, a place to start their search for
something deeper in the lyrics.
We should be giving them that, not laughing at how blind they are to what
we have been listening to for years, decades even.
The question is, do we want to encourage people to see the music that we
love in the same sorts oif ways that we do (and eventually, they may show
us things that we have become blind to with too many listenings), or do we
want to discourage them? I hope that we are not one of those ugly clubs
that excludes those who are "cool" enough to understand.
(My apologies to pop4ever for filling his/her personal space - this ps
isn't aimed at you.)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Thu Jan 28 1999 - 21:43:29 PST