Originally posted by DBoy:Does anyone know what the song is truly about?
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.
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
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.
Originally posted by LikeASong:U2MoL says this[..]