1. Does anyone know what the song is truly about?


  2. Bono: It's a song about an impossible relationship and someone looking at what's happening. In those kinds of situations, observing and the desire to intervene can poison everything.

    In my personal opinion, a lot of the lyric choices have to do with the whole ZooTV mentality:

    Faraway, so close
    Up with the static and the radio
    With satellite television
    You can go anywhere
    Miami, New Orleans
    London, Belfast and Berlin

    and

    You used to stay in to watch the adverts
    You could lip synch to the talk show hosts

    However, besides those two very vague things, I'm sure there's more specific meanings for phrases like "just the bang, and the clatter, as an angel hits the ground".
  3. Someone in this forum said a few weeks/months ago that the "Just the bang and the clatter" lyric meant a person (the angel who hits the ground, supposedly) commiting suicide with a gun (the bang of the shot, and the clatter of the gun). Which actually fits with the general desperation tone of the whole song.

    I think that everyone who listens to this song has always given / will always give a different and personal meaning to it. Who cares about the "real" meaning of it? Just care about what it actually means for you
  4. U2MoL says this:
    The title of this song alludes to the 1993 Wim Wenders film: Faraway, So Close. The film is a follow-up (Wenders insists it's not a sequel) to his earlier (1988?) film, Wings of Desire. Both follow the lives of angels in Berlin who become human and stumble around trying figure out life once their wings are clipped. The film is very drawn-out at times but the visual appeal of many of the scenes is irresistable. Anything from the angels perspective is black and white and the film goes colour when things are seen through human eyes. Once I understood how this all worked, the video for the song made a lot more sense (clue: the band is playing a bunch of angels and Bono apparently becomes human at the very end). The songs is from the perspective of the angels who feel helpless as they watch everyone's life unfold (And when I touch you, you don't feel a thing). The song is about helplessness more than anything (And if you shout, I'll only hear you). The angels know everything but they seem unable to change it. They've watched everything (You used to stay in to watch the adverts, You could lip-synch to the talk shows) we are like they're children and they can only watch.
  5. Wow that's a great meaning to it Sergio, the one from MoL.
  6. I think it's a song, like many of U2's, that has a specific meaning but as is always the way with Bono, it can quite legitimately take on many more meanings.

    Personally I like the meaning that suggests the song is about a woman in an abusive relationship, perhaps things haven't gone her way in the past and she's ended up in a very stereotypical rut. The future looks bleak, she want's so desperately to feel like all those other women who are in loving, long term relationships so she gets with someone she thinks is right. Turns out that she ends up living a life that she doesn't want to with this person, finds herself doing things she wouldn't normally (Don't smoke, don't even want to). The line "Dressed up, like a car crash, the wheels are turning but you're upside down" sum the relationship up perfectly. The person she's with obviously doesn't treat her well, she feels alive when she is hurt by him, he talks at her, looks through her etc almost treats her as if she wasn't there. "Lip synch with the talk shows" - we know the kind of people who go onto talk shows, she's experienced it all before and so often that she can lip synch with them. I think the "Satellite television, you can go anywhere" line is to do with being able to transport yourself to Miami, New Orleans etc by watching TV, but she longs to actually be there, away from the abuse. Finally, I like the meaning of "Just a bang and a clatter" that LikeASong posted, would top the story off well I think.

    On the other hand, I can perfectly see the argument for it being sung through the eyes of an angel (though not being religious, I prefer to take a real world meaning). The angel is faraway in Heaven or somewhere, but yet so close to the person they're guarding. Because we can't see the angel, we look, but look through them, when they touch us, we don't feel it etc. And I think the final line in this case would be the angel coming to Earth out of frustration at not being able to intervene, so the angel hits the ground as a human. I think the significance of it hitting thr ground is to distinguish that the angel is now human, we've already established that the angel can touch but because it's presence isn't felt it has no impact.
  7. I've thought about the relationship theme too and believed that was the main idea of it for ages however the video suggests the angels theory, both are right in some ways I guess
  8. Originally posted by jofice:I've thought about the relationship theme too and believed that was the main idea of it for ages however the video suggests the angels theory, both are right in some ways I guess


    I think probably it was written from the angel persepective, but I think Bono wanted to make it fit real life circumstances and make it so that people can relate to the song in their own way. It's something that Bono does very well.
  9. Originally posted by iTim:[..]

    I think probably it was written from the angel persepective, but I think Bono wanted to make it fit real life circumstances and make it so that people can relate to the song in their own way. It's something that Bono does very well.


    He sure does