Lemon is about the Apocalypse.
"These are the days when the world is torn asunder. And these are the days when we look for something other." The inevitable surge of technology in search of the future Promised Land of technologized sanitized living results in the post-modern lack.
The women who wears lemon symbolizes the future. "I feel like I'm slippin' out to her" which vaguely refers to Zoo Station "Time is a train, makes the future the past. You see her standing there with your face pressed up against the glass."
"She's imagination . . . she's your destination" Very Nostradamian imagery. References to the roads and the building of cars to run them on.
It also marks the progress of technology. "Man melts the sand to see the world outside . . ." After the Fall of Rome up to the Middle Ages most people lived in thick-walled stone or sod homes with no windows because they let out too much heat. With the rediscovery of glass men could see the world outside. They went on to expand the amount of the world visible to them by "making pictures, a moving picture through the light projected he can see the world (and himself) up close."
Banks and cathedrals (along with melted sand) are also institutions that appeared in the Middle Ages, which is the time (with the invention of the printing press, which eventual contributed to the Protestant Reformation and the rise of the scientific paradigm (postivistic empiricism)) when our Modern (and subsequently post-modern world) was spawned.
What Others Have to Say About U2
Patty Culliton
Much of the imagery that Bono has chosen for his lyrics is quite Irish. He actually explains this himself in a documentary he took part in that is known in the U.S. as "Shamrock & Roll." The lyrics he quotes as his 'most Irish' are:
"The wind will crack in wintertime. This bomb-blast lightning waltz. See the sky the burning rain. She will die and live again. Tonight, we'll build a bridge across the sea and land." (I know these are out of order, but they are how Bono quoted them in the interview.)
He has also previously cited Kavanagh's and Heaney's writing styles as having a definite influence on him.
Songs that I've sussed out a real Irishness in include "A Celebration" (if only because, in the spirit of Yeats, an Irish placename is mentioned) "Streets," "Running," "God's Country." So many more.
I mean, there is almost too much to count. Where do you draw the line? Some songs really have nothing to do with Ireland proper, but though he is a world traveled genius, Bono sees things from an Irish perspective so much of the time. That's when you can bring in things like "Bullet." The heroin problems in the north side of Dublin (like in "Wire") can count. Even "Stay" has a bit in it...you know that line "Hey now...check your change" ? Well that was the Irish Lottery advertising slogan in 1992-93. Have you ever heard Bono's song Wild Irish Rose? It's lovely and it picks up all the Irish imagery you could imagine getting into one song... I never made it through the whole book, because it was just kind of too dry for me, but there is a book by a fellow named John Waters (who just had a baby with Sinead O'Connor, btw) and he covers a lot of their Irishness in that book. It's called Race of Angels.
You know, in a certain way - even "Pride" and "MLK" are deeply rooted in the band's Irishness. Because yes the songs are about an American leader - but one of the reasons that Bono took such note of Dr. King is because of the similarities between the black civil rights movement here in the U. S. and what the Catholics have had to contend with in the north of Ireland. What Bono said he felt when observing King was that the Catholics could have used a visionary non-violent leader like him to lead their movement, but they never had one - which is why, to this day, that movement is so splintered and relatively unsuccessful. Again there, he is seeing things and writing about them from an Irish perspective.
So what do you YOU think about their Irishness? Looking forward to hearing from you... In The Name Of Love, Patty (more)
WILD IRISH ROSE lyrics by Bono (c) 1988
In a field by a river My love and I would lie And on my naked shoulder She too proud to cry She said that I must leave her And icy tears she flows How could I melt the heart Of a wild Irish rose? Well a gypsy she has made of me A servant of the street From bed to bed I've travelled To tast a love as sweet Well the heart it knows no reason And the reason never knows As I lie with them I'm thinkin' Of a wild Irish rose . . . Well I saw the city of angels It brought a devil out of me And hell's hotel on Sunset Showed a whore no mercy And the eye in the sky was screaming From the roof I let her go These are the dizzy hearts that brought me My wild Irish rose The red is the rose that she laid on my grave A life is all she wanted And a life I surely gave Like a hundred men before me They lay lyin' here in rows Young men bloody As a wild Irish rose.
