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U2 - God Part II
 Album:
Rattle and Hum (1988)


  2. I’m gonna have to disagree with you there. Lines like “I don’t believe in rape / But every time she passes by wild thoughts escape” and “I don’t believe in riches / But you should see where I live” are some of their best self-criticism. He takes a hard look at the ideals he stands for and then calls himself out for living so differently than that ideal. So to me it’s just as much about experience as Acrobat is.

    (Now, I admittedly don’t really consider Acrobat or the 90s in general as fitting the “experience” theme, but that’s an argument for another day.)
  3. Originally posted by Faceman2000:
    I’m gonna have to disagree with you there. Lines like “I don’t believe in rape / But every time she passes by wild thoughts escape” and “I don’t believe in riches / But you should see where I live” are some of their best self-criticism. He takes a hard look at the ideals he stands for and then calls himself out for living so differently than that ideal. So to me it’s just as much about experience as Acrobat is.


    Maybe your right. I don't fully understand the lyrics in God Part II.
    To me it always have sounded more like a continuation of Exit than an early Acrobat (not sure if that makes sense).

    Like if he had adopted a character to write it, using the song to point the finger into what's wrong with the world; that's they way I've always felt about God Part II.
    On the other hand, Acrobat sounds like a confession of his own flaws.

    But, considering that a) I also was a lot more innocent when Rattle and Hum came out, and b) 30 years ago my english was not even half as is now, and I tried to understand those lyrics with a dictionary in hand, so chances are that my vision on the song is way off.

    ---
    Originally posted by Faceman2000:
    (Now, I admittedly don’t really consider Acrobat or the 90s in general as fitting the “experience” theme, but that’s an argument for another day.)

    The way I see it, the experience in the 90's is more about the transition:

    Innocence + Experience: In the 80's they start innocent and as they grow up they start getting tired of the innocence and start getting experience/experimenting --> the 90's
    (IMHO, God II fits in the disenchantment with Innocence part)

    Experience + Innocence:
    In the 90's they experiment and as they grow up they move pass that experience and reach a mature innocence --> the 2000+.
    (IMHO, Acrobat fits in the process of reaching maturity and/or with the disenchantment of the experimenting part, like "it's nice, but it's not what I was expecting", "it still doesn't feel good"... or as someone would say, "but I still haven't found what I'm looking for")
  4. Originally posted by cesar_garza01:[..]
    Exactly. Imagine the Women of the World segment followed by...

    [..]
    bono has been known to change a lyric or 2.songs have had verses omitted before ie.. new years day

  5. Originally posted by Bloodraven:[..]


    Maybe your right. I don't fully understand the lyrics in God Part II.
    To me it always have sounded more like a continuation of Exit than an early Acrobat (not sure if that makes sense).

    Like if he had adopted a character to write it, using the song to point the finger into what's wrong with the world; that's they way I've always felt about God Part II.
    On the other hand, Acrobat sounds like a confession of his own flaws.

    But, considering that a) I also was a lot more innocent when Rattle and Hum came out, and b) 30 years ago my english was not even half as is now, and I tried to understand those lyrics with a dictionary in hand, so chances are that my vision on the song is way off.
    I hadn’t ever considered that he was using a character for this song; if so, I 100% agree with you. I’ve never understood it that way, though: a lot of the lyrics seem too close to home for them in my opinion.

    Originally posted by Bloodraven:[..]
    The way I see it, the experience in the 90's is more about the transition:

    Innocence + Experience: In the 80's they start innocent and as they grow up they start getting tired of the innocence and start getting experience/experimenting --> the 90's
    (IMHO, God II fits in the disenchantment with Innocence part)

    Experience + Innocence:
    In the 90's they experiment and as they grow up they move pass that experience and reach a mature innocence --> the 2000+.
    (IMHO, Acrobat fits in the process of reaching maturity and/or with the disenchantment of the experimenting part, like "it's nice, but it's not what I was expecting", "it still doesn't feel good"... or as someone would say, "but I still haven't found what I'm looking for")
    In one of my classes this past semester, we talked about how there are three different ways of dealing with “ambiguity” (or the difference between the ideal and the reality) in life:
    Naïveté: refusing to recognize that reality often differs from the ideal. Tends to look at things as being black and white, clear cut, absolute right and wrong, etc.
    Pessimism: recognizing that reality doesn’t meet the ideal and focusing almost exclusively on that. Very cynical and disenfranchised with the world.
    “Improvers”: you recognize that the ideal is often far from what is, but you work to make it closer. You have a hopeful outlook for the future, believing you can do your part to change things for the better.

    Each decade (in the loosest sense of the word) of U2 seems to roughly line up with one of these. 80s U2 falls in line pretty well with the naïveté worldview. Even when they were singing about problems, it was generally in a black-and-white, us-vs-them manner. 90s U2, on the other hand, is the pessimist worldview. They embraced the less-than-ideal reality. From ATYCLB onwards though, it’s been kinda the improver outlook: “Yeah, this isn’t perfect, but we can make it better.” And that seems to be the experience in SoE to me. Songs like Love is Bigger fully embody it, and even Blackout talks about the light we can really be. Little Things captures it by being an argument between the naive and the pessimist, resulting in the the improver outlook (at least as I understand it).

    So that was a really long way of saying, yeah, I agree. The 90s experience is about the transition, but isn’t the kind of experience they’re talking about in SoE.
  6. Originally posted by Faceman2000:[..][..]
    In one of my classes this past semester, we talked about how there are three different ways of dealing with “ambiguity” (or the difference between the ideal and the reality) in life:
    Naïveté: refusing to recognize that reality often differs from the ideal. Tends to look at things as being black and white, clear cut, absolute right and wrong, etc.
    Pessimism: recognizing that reality doesn’t meet the ideal and focusing almost exclusively on that. Very cynical and disenfranchised with the world.
    “Improvers”: you recognize that the ideal is often far from what is, but you work to make it closer. You have a hopeful outlook for the future, believing you can do your part to change things for the better.

    Each decade (in the loosest sense of the word) of U2 seems to roughly line up with one of these. 80s U2 falls in line pretty well with the naïveté worldview. Even when they were singing about problems, it was generally in a black-and-white, us-vs-them manner. 90s U2, on the other hand, is the pessimist worldview. They embraced the less-than-ideal reality. From ATYCLB onwards though, it’s been kinda the improver outlook: “Yeah, this isn’t perfect, but we can make it better.” And that seems to be the experience in SoE to me. Songs like Love is Bigger fully embody it, and even Blackout talks about the light we can really be. Little Things captures it by being an argument between the naive and the pessimist, resulting in the the improver outlook (at least as I understand it).

    So that was a really long way of saying, yeah, I agree. The 90s experience is about the transition, but isn’t the kind of experience they’re talking about in SoE.

    oh, I missed this one the other day... this is a great explanation. I also think we're saying the same thing, but I think you said it better. Thanks!
  7. They could come on, play this, and walk off. I’d be happy.
  8. Was a bit irritated/pissed off today so I decided instead of breaking things I'd try to squeeze the maximum out of everything that's in this song (or break it):



    (Source track I used btw is an Mp3 download from U2's YT channel) Edit: New ProRes upload