I’ve been listening to one of my all-time favorite albums, U2’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind, most of the evening. I absolutely love this album. It reminds me of early college life and all the new experiences and fun that come with time of your life. We’ve been rearranging some furniture in the house tonight but I have found myself a little distracted. You see, it seems as though some lyric or line captures my attention and pulls me into the music. This has happened on each and every song (yes, even New York and Wild Honey). So, as we listened, I collected my favorite lines or verses below.
To me, music doesn’t get much better than Beautiful Day, lyrics don’t get much better than Stuck In a Moment, hope doesn’t get much better than Walk On, and love doesn’t get better than Grace.
Beautiful Day
See the Bedouin fires at night / See the oil fields at first light and / See the bird with a leaf in her mouth / After the flood all the colors came out
(Beautiful Day ranks #1 on my “Greatest Songs to Wake Up To” list)
Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of
And if the night runs over / And if the day won’t last / And if our way should falter / Along the stony pass / It’s just a moment, this time will pass
(Perfect finish.)
Elevation
Love, lift me out of these blues / Won’t you tell me something true / I believe in you
(Narrowly beat out the line A mole living in a hole / Digging up my soul. Narrowly.)
Walk On
You’re packing a suitcase for a place none of us has been / A place that has to be believed to be seen
(The live version takes you home with a chorus of “Hallelujahs” at the end.)
Kite
Who’s to say where the wind will take you / Who’s to say what it is will break you / I don’t know where the wind will blow / Who’s to know when the time has come around
(When Bono dedicates this to his late Father I dare you not to tear up.)
In a Little While
In a little while I won’t be blown by every breeze / Friday night running to Sunday on my knees
(There’s an entire youth group message series contain here in)
Wild Honey
Did I know you, did I know you even then / Before the clocks kept time, before the world was made / From the cruel sun you were my shelter / You were my shelter and my shade
(Every album needs some throw away ditty. Thankfully these lyrics narrowly save this one. Narrowly.)
Peace On Earth
Their lives are bigger than any big idea
(This song is bigger than any one lyric.)
When I Look At the World
So I try to be like you / Try to feel it like you do / But without you it’s no use
(“When you see as God sees, you will do what God says.” – A. Stanley)
New York
In the stillness of the evening / When the sun has had its day / I heard your voice whispering / Come away now
(Every album needs an odd track.)
Grace
What once was hurt / What once was friction / What left a mark no longer stings / Because Grace makes beauty / Out of ugly things
(Boom.)
Bonus: The Ground Beneath Her Feet was a bonus track on some of the early presses of ATYCLB. No lyric hit me but I rocked out some sweet air guitar to the Edge’s solo.