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To sing at midnight
we’ve felt the pain
once again
promises broken in the words today
we’ve sat and talked about these paths we’ve walked
sometimes it’s dark, this battle fought
but you, you’ve made your mark
right from the start
it’s unbelievable, incredible
you’ve given us the heart to sing
at midnight
the nights get late as we’ve pondered this fate
that’s turning from chance into the plans you have made
the light you shine beyond the boundary line
to take us beyond our state of mind
but you have taken part in the stories of our hearts
it’s illogical, but wonderful
you’ve given us the heart to sing
at midnight
16/6/98
Time is a remarkable thing. I can’t believe it was ten years ago that I wrote that song. Ok, give or take a few weeks…
It’s a song written from a dark place where I could still see a light shining. A friend was going through an even darker place – but I felt there was hope amidst it all. I began to think of Paul, a follower of Jesus and one of the first people to lead others in Christ’s way… He’s in a Roman jail and worshipping God. I mean, in a rotting stinking jail at midnight worshipping God, and God sets him free. I think he was free even before the doors were broken open and before the chains were undone.
And that’s something much more remarkable than time.
I’m liking the journey back into my poetry files; you quickly forget what you’ve written and it’s interesting what you see in the same words after some time. Here’s a couple which are kind-of ‘bookends’ to the whole single to ‘un-single’ journey. I guess now I need to find something which encapsulates the story in between…
Beauty at a distance
I grow tired
of seeing
beauty at a distance
I grow tired
of watching hope stumble
across the idea of love
with each passing glance
an innocent look
can say a lot to a hungry heart
I am too tired to see
so I will surrender this beauty
to sleep
and perhaps in time
the dream…
27/10/01
Five minutes longer
this is the song I would write for you
if I only had two minutes
if I only had two minutes to write you a song of love
its blue skies outside and that makes me smile
we’re going to see Anika sing in a little while
we’ll sit and talk and let the melody wander past us
and perhaps linger in our minds once it’s all over
once it’s all over
the music will be gone but what of the song
what of the melody my heart carries
I love you I know this much
and there’s no such thing as luck
only blessing and a plan and some choices
and some beautiful voices
singing
and then there’s me
this is the song I would write for you
if I only had two minutes
just spending a few words on a page
so I could sing for you
anything just to get you to stay
let me sing for you
just so you can stay
five minutes longer
five minutes longer
22/01/04
I uploaded this using the BloggerforWord app and it rocks!
So. Here we go:
Reverberating
bells ring and groans from within
this wood and steel
reverberating
step up and speak your voice is calling
step up and sing your gift is
open, not unravelling
and the giver is anticipating
step up
a moment come, a time to speak
(if necessary use words)
for bells ring and groans come from within
this wood and steel
reverberating
it’s quite simple really
it lights you up inside
bells ring and groans come from within
this life and song
reverberating
For Bruce.
14.12.05
I posted this on the U2 NewZooland forums and thought I’d reproduce it here. I just liked writing it so much, I had to share.
Someone posted a comment about what we thought the lyrics on Achtung Baby and Zooropa were all about, and I posted a bit of a spiel about U2’s writing in general (which you can read on the forums in the ‘Music and Lyrics’ section), and then I proceeded write what you can read here…
Zooropa: Technology, surface, no place, no direction. And in this I’m hiding; what am I hiding from?
Babyface: Sexuality and intimacy from images, TV, artificial beauty, love by remote control.
Numb: A massive array of don’t’s, essentially ‘don’t live’ – retain the numbness. My favourite line ‘don’t check just balance on the fence’.
oh, and don’t leak.
Lemon: At this point the perspective changes from ‘I and me’ mode, to more of a narrative, the only point the person in the song talks about himself is the line ‘I feel like I’m slowly slipping under, I feel like I’m holding on to nothing’. But the song seems to been hinting at a little hope – hope in love personified – in a yellow dress. These are the days where we search for something other.
Stay: A fallen and tired angel in the modern day wilderness. If you (or I) stay in that place of love, perhaps you will be alright. An angel hits the ground.
There’s starting to be a sense that life is in the ‘real’ not the plastic, even if you are ‘hitting the ground’. (If you are aware of the story of the movie this song was written for, it adds a little light too… an angel falls in love with a woman, and while an immortal being, the angel chooses to fall to earth in order to experience the realities of love and mortal life – and with that – pain.)
Daddys gonna pay: Another song which is someone else’s story. A tale of someone caught up in the excess and comfort of life, without necessarily the reality and responsibility. Again, things are a little messed up.
Some days are better than others: A great song lyrically, and hope is rising. Lots of life’s circumstances, the everyday stuff. There’s a hint of the Screwtape-foe in the line ‘Some days it’s the enemy’. There’s vulnerability too. There’s the search for God. And then there’s a couple of closing lines as the song goes on that make the listener think things are getting better; ‘Some days you make sense of what she (the Spirit? a lover?) said…’ some days I hear a voice taking me to another place… some days are better…’
Of course, you could argue that there’s a little of the “half-empty, half-full” thing going on here.
Now here’s where from out of the impersonal and the ‘other stories’ things appear to get more personal:
The First Time: There is beauty, brotherhood, love, salvation, and yet, somehow, the singer still finds himself on the outside again. But, he does feel love.
Dirty Day: The last song of the main ‘dialogue’ of the ‘person of/in Zooropa’ There is a loss here, just as the character in the song/album is beginning to get there… he recognises in himself (rather than everything else around) the darkness and lostness. Guilt. And everyone is guilty (throwing stones in the air and all).
But… there is a turning of sorts: there is talk of redemption: ‘From Father to Son, in one, life has begun’. As I read it over again, I think this last verse could be seen as Jesus talking… love, and that kiss in Gethsemane again…
I hear Jesus talking to the those who would tell his story, or hear it.
Get it right, there’s no blood thicker than ink
(ie blood is shed but if you tell the wrong story…)
Hear what I say, nothing’s as simple as you think
(Hear the truth…)
Wake Up, some things you just cant get around
(you cant do this on your own, without me…)
I’m in you, more so when they put me in the ground
(it’s my death that is the means to be being with you/in you)
And then life is fleeting… running away…
(This dead man wakes up on the ‘Pop’ album…)
So this ends the Zooropa in one sense, but then you have the great postscript of Johnny Cash, clergyman of rock and roll and hard knocks…pretty much retelling the story of Zooropa…
The Wanderer: This sums up the whole album, moulding it into a spiritual search… and yet, it, too, leaves us hanging, leaves us with a question mark at the end. The words of the wanderer hint at so much; religion, life, wealth, church without God, and experience – all these things will not fill the God shaped hole…
I went out looking for all these things, but in the end, I was just looking for You.
(Jesus I’ll be home soon)
