OCTOBER
(1981)
.::
GLORIA ::. [back
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"Gloria"
sounds like the singer was discovering what he was thinking as he was saying
it. "That's exactly the way it was -- a failure to express myself.
That's why it resorts to Latin: 'in te domine.'" (Surprisingly, Hewson
isn't familiar with the Van Morrison / Them punk classic of the same name.
Compare U2's "I can't find the door, the door is open, you're standing
there, you let me in," to Morrison's "down my street / knocks on my door
/ to my room" narrative.)
(from
"U2: Pluck of the Irish" by Jim Green, Trouser
Press, March 01, 1982)
[Bono:]
"On October I became more aware of the third part of myself -- the spiritual
nature -- and I could have chosen to lock it away, and some would have
preferred it that way, but I allowed it out. 'Gloria' is about trying
to express such things, an insight into the moment when a song is written.
I try
to sing this song
I
try to stand up but I can't find my feet
I
try to speak up
"It's
about the failure of expressing yourself, which results in words that you
can't find in English, so the Latin words came out." While some people
were taken with the introspection of the first two U2 albums, others felt
they were too impressionistic, even though Bono was trying to describe
emotions that obviously don't translate well to rational terms. Some
critics missed the point of the lyrics, but artists and writers were noticing
and often praising them. Jackson Browne, of all people, cornered
Bono last year to tell him how he related to the logic in the way the lyrics
expressed inner emotions and the way the words were "splashed on the canvas."
"A lot of our contemporaries were just throwing a lot of dark images together
and pretending it was deep. But there was no real door open to the
inside, to what was really happening."
(from
"Love, Devotion & Surrender" by Tristam Lozaw, republished in U2 Magazine,
No. 11, June 01, 1984, original publication unknown)
TW: I always wondered if "Gloria" was or could be about a woman, or if it was just about an ideal, maybe an ideal in terms of a sense of solace or something, an ideal source of comfort, that kind of thing...
Bono: Yeah...
TW: ...and it has the Gregorian chant kind of feel to it.
Bono: ...sure. Yeah, like a lot of the songs I write are... sometimes I know who I'm writin' 'em about but oftentimes I don't know what I'm writin' about. In fact I could give you instances where I would think I'm writing about a subject, and not be writing about that subject. But sometimes when I write a song, I just don't know who I'm writing about, but, umm, that song was more to document my own spiritual confusion at the time: "I try to stand up but I can't find my feet / I try to speak up but only in you I'm complete." Because I don't feel very well-equipped for the job I've been given. Y'know, the job I've been given as a singer or bein' able to write songs. So maybe that's why I have the faith I do, 'cause I'm always, I'm very dependent on the idea that I've been given a gift. You know, I believe God has given me a gift, therefore it's His responsibility to get me through it (laughs).
(from "Timothy White's Rock Stars", radio interview, June 01, 1987)
[Edge:]
October was a struggle from beginning to end. It was an incredible
hard record for us to make because we had major problems with time.
And I had been through this thing of not really knowing if I should be
in the band or not. It was really difficult to pull all the things
together and still maintain the focus to actually finish a record in the
time that we had. You could hear the desperation and confusion in
some of the lyrics. "Gloria" is really a lyric about not being able
to express what's going on, not being able to put it down, not knowing
where we are. Having thrown ourselves into this thing we were trying
to make some sense of it. "Why are we in this?" It was a very
difficult time.
(from
"The View From The Edge; Living In U2: From Boy to Achtung Baby" by Bill
Flanagan, Musician, March 01, 1992)
[Translation
of the Latin part, as posted by Latin teacher David Way on Wire in 1999:
"OK,
the Latin in Gloria. The multiplicity in interpretation comes from
the lack of punctuation. This is the Latin from the song:
Gloria
in te Domine (this "Domine" is a vocative, NOT a Late Latin altered genitive/dative
singular -- this will make sense to those who study Latin)
Gloria
exsultate (or, exsulta te) (note: in Late Latin, the 's' is sometimes left
out -- in either case, the verbs are imperatives -- again, this will makes
sense to those who study Latin)
Option
#1:
"Glory
in you, Lord"
"Exult
(i.e., 'rejoice') in (your) glory"
Option
#2:
"Gloria,
in you, God" (i.e. "in you, I find God")
"Gloria,
rejoice"
I would
like the 2nd version to be the one Bono intended (i.e., he would be engaging
in a pun), but if it were, the grammar is god-awful; the first version
is more correct and makes sense, so I'd put my money on it, if I were a
wagering person. If the "love song" is to a girl, the 2nd choice
is more likely correct; if it is to God, the first one is definitely correct
(since this lyric does in fact come from a hymn). But, as I implied
above, perhaps Bono intended both meanings -- we would need to ask him
to know for sure."]
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.::
I FALL DOWN ::. [back
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[Bono:] This
is a song... A song called "I Fall Down"... A song about whatever... Situation
you're in... Where trying seems it's not enough, but it is enough... This
is "I Fall Down."
(live at Sun Plaza Hall,
Tokyo, Japan, November 28, 1983; transcription by Michael Reiter)
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.::
I THREW A BRICK THROUGH A WINDOW ::. [back
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[Might
be a bit on the speculative side, but an interesting point however:]
Bono
wrote Boy's "Out of Control" immediately upon rising from a troubled sleep
on his eighteenth birthday: "I said, 'Well, here we are. I'm eighteen,
and the two most important things in my life -- being born and dying --
are completely out of my hands. What's the point? At that point
in my life I had a lot of anger and discontent when I couldn't find answers.
It was violent, but mentally violent." Thus October's "I Threw A
Brick Through A Window" is a kind of screed against the singer's inability
to find meanings in his own life -- but a brick is never mentioned except
in the song's title.
(from
"U2" by Fred Schruers, Musician, May 01, 1983)
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.::
REJOICE ::. [back
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Bono:
In 'Rejoice' I said, 'I can't change the world, but I can change a world
in me.' Music can possibly direct you and change you as a person.
I think the ultimate revolution is the one that goes on in a man.
I'm not saying, 'join the revolution, be like us'... where you go is your
decision.
(from
"U2 at the R.D.S.", U2 Magazine, No. 2, February 01, 1982)
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.::
TOMORROW ::. [back
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Bono:
"We were all affected by travelling and being away from home, which was
a recurrent theme on October. Like 'Tomorrow' -- I never thought
much about home until I was away from it.
(from
"U2: Pluck of the Irish" by Jim Green, Trouser
Press, March 01, 1982)
Bono:
"Lots of people want us to be mouthpieces for different things," he admits
soberly, "but I figure I can only be a mouthpiece for myself. It
is saddening, though, the things that are going on in my country.
Fifteen miles from where I walk the dog is craziness and murder being committed
in the name of God -- in the name of lots of issues. It's bad --
very, very bad. It makes no sense to me. 'Tomorrow' was an
attempt to look at that situation or a certain situation around that."
(from
"U2 Leads; Others Will Follow… Breaking Down the Barriers" by John Neilson,
Creem,
April 01, 1982)
The
song that now frightens him, Bono says, is "Tomorrow." He'd originally
thought that the words, with their images of a black car waiting by the
side of the road and a dreaded knock on the door, had to do with the killings
in Northern Ireland. A few months ago, he realized the song was about
his mother's death, which came when Bono was about thirteen. "I realized
that exactly what I was talking about was the morning of her funeral, not
wanting to go out to that waiting black car and be a part of it.
People sometimes say October is a religious record, but I hate to be boxed
in that way."
(from
"U2" by Fred Schruers, Musician, May 01, 1983)
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.::
OCTOBER ::. [back
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[Bono:] October… it's an image. We've been through the '60s, a time when things were in full bloom. We had fridges and cars, we sent people to the Moon and everybody thought how great mankind was. And now, as we go through the 70s and 80s, it's a colder time of the year. It's after the harvest. You can see things and we finally realize that maybe we weren't so smart after all, now that there's millions of unemployed people, now that we've used the technology we've been blessed with to build bombs for war machines, to build rockets, whatever. So "October" is an ominous word, but it's also quite lyrical.
(from
"Into The Heart" by Niall Stokes)
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.::
STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND ::. [back
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[Bono:] We were going to Berlin, we were all in the back of a van in our sleeping bags and we had to travel through the corridor between East Germany and West Berlin. And we were stopped by this border guard. The song was just a little portrait of him. He was our own age, with short hair, in a uniform and his life was pretty grim and he was seeing these guys in a rock 'n' roll band passing through. I had a feeling that he realized how much we had in common, and yet it was all over so quickly.
(from
"Into The Heart" by Niall Stokes)
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.::
IS THAT ALL? ::. [back
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[Bono:] "The last song on October is 'Is That All?' -- 'I'll sing you a song to make you happy, but I'm not happy with you.' It's about wanting more out of pop music. I do want more."
(from "A Dreamboat Named Desire" by Richard Cook,
New Musical Express,
February 27, 1982)
Bono points to "Is That All?" on October as outlining his approach. "That's the point I'm trying to make -- is that all? I can sing you a song to make you happy, I can sing you a song to make you angry -- but is that all? I think music can be more than that, it can be more than the sum of its parts."
(from
"Bono in San Antonio", U2 Magazine, No. 3, May 01, 1982)
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