This is how Bono's definition, i.e., the moon, linked itself to me. (In other words, why did that particular couplet hit me like a ton of bricks?) Begin with the circumstance that I have been raised by a prophet who has established and defined himself biblically as the Sun of Righteousness in Malachi, the inheritor of the Davidic monarchy, and the reincarnation of Elijah and John the Baptist. The sun is his royal symbol in a religious claim. Furthermore he has biblically proven a hitherto unexplored branch in Christian theology, establishing pre-conception existence (our spirits have all existed thousands of years before we were born, and were created at the same time). Also, he raised me in the belief that the Holy Spirit was a feminine entity, based on a vision he had in 1969. Also, for a span of several years we ingested acid in communion, as a family unit (9 of us), and smoked pot as a sacrament.
Zooropa arrived in June 1993. With that I could begin checking out where Bono was really at, because I was sure I had to be kidding myself. Well, it didn’t manage to change my mind, in fact there appeared to be a number of hints to the contrary. First off, there was Lemon, which really verified he was on a similar tact as concluded before. It was certainly in the same vein as Mysterious Ways, but it had definitely devolved to a more human application.
Lemon, see through the sunlight,
she wore Lemon, but never in the daylight (did I mention that by this time we were,
She’s gonna make you cry, for the most part, nocturnal?)
she’s gonna make you whisper and moan
But when you’re dry, she draws her water from a stone
And I feel, like I’m slowly, slowly slowly slipping under
And I feel, like I’m holding onto nothing
(Midnight is where the day begins)
She wore Lemon, to colour in the cold moonlight,
She had heaven, and she held on so tight
Man makes a picture, a moving picture
Through the light projected he can see himself up close
(You’re gonna meet her there)
Man matches colours, and man likes to stare
Turns his money into light to look for her
And I feel, like I’m driftin’, driftin’, drifting from the shore
And I feel, like I’m swimming out to her
(Midnight is where the day begins)
Lemon, see through the sunlight
Man builds a city, with banks and cathedrals
Man melts the sand, so he can see the world outside
(You’re gonna meet her there)
Man makes a car (She’s your destination)
And builds a road to run them on (You gotta get to her)
Man dreams of leaving but he always stays behind (She’s imagination)
And these are the days, where are work has come asunder
And these are the days, where we look for something other
Midnight is where the day begins
She is the dreamer, she’s imagination (repeated reference from Acrobat, Achtung Baby 1991, and Zooropa, Zooropa, 1993, which totally grounds the subject matter on a fallible human level, if he was addressing the same individual he describes in these songs, which certainly looks like it.)
Through the light projected he can see himself up close
Holding on to heaven very tight does not describe an aspect of the Divine. So who are we talking about here?
“See through the sunlight . . .” Excerpt from Lemon
Well unfortunately, due to the environment in which I was raised, I could conclude that he was using this term as an arch-type to represent something potentially very big, a la the Sun of Righteousness term in Malachi. Now of course to anybody this would appear way, way, waay over the top. Unless you’re me. And unless I didn’t know Bono was a Protestant Christian too, better yet the offspring of a father who had studied theology in college. (I can’t say my father has such criterion under his belt.) So it was not impossible for Bono to be invoking some Old Testament messianic symbolism from prophecy. Furthermore, there were a number of hints that this was not our sole point of common identity, which I have already cited.
So you can see how in the beginning there was some basis to run with. There were a number of possible indicators; the intent of my examination was not transposition. It is still a rather strong assertion to say that I think the Sun prospect is one Bono himself wrestled with. (Personally, I wouldn’t blame him.) He wouldn’t be the first I’d met, actually. And I would counter that it’s a vibe that’s going around, because this is the right time. Furthermore I would say that given his position, he would practically be negligent not to consider it. (Right time, right? place, -logical question.) He appeared to have a sense of guilt for turning it down. Well, if the role is not yours, then you should feel no remorse for turning it down, should you?!? (Not that I think he does, anymore. And not that I’ve never had a weakness for self-induced guilt-trips. Who, me?!)
Now why do I think that this question interposed itself on Bono's mind? Well, he kept mentioning it! In The First Time he said he threw away the keys to the kingdom.
Note that this is a song that illustrates the Christian Trinitarian God (à la Bono), starting with the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, and lastly The Father
I have a lover, a lover like no other
She gives me soul soul soul sweet soul, and she teach me how to sing
Shows me colours, where’s there’s none to see
Gives me hope when I can’t believe that for the first time
I feel love
I have a brother, when I’m a brother in need
I spend my whole time running
He spends his running after me
When I feel myself going down, I just call, and he comes around
But for the first time, I feel love
My Father is a rich man, he wears a rich mans cloak
Gave me the keys to his kingdom coming
Gave me a cup of gold
He said “I have many mansions, and there are many rooms to see”
But I left by the back door, and I threw away the key
And for the first time, I feel love.
What keys were those? Look at the parable reference he's utilising in the last verse! He's talking about the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Now who, in the latter days (that was the time Jesus was addressing with the parable), would be presumed to have possession of those? Did he feel that he was walking out on a particular calling? In Dirty Day he says he walked out on a starring role. Given the connotation he appears to give stars, this could be pretty hefty. Unfortunately it’s also a circular argument, and not one I want to introduce yet, but I suggest filing it for future notice.
It was Wanderer that looked like it could signify a clincher. In Wanderer he's “looking for one good man, a spirit who will not bend or break, who will sit at his father’s right hand”.
“From father to son . . .”
Bono seems to use the term father pretty loosely, to symbolize a number of aspects or levels within the same song, which is what I would assert about the above phrase from Dirty Day, or as perhaps being applied to Daddy’s Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car. But in First Time, it is plain that the Father term is clearly isolated to the Father. Its usage here lends validity to this application in The Wanderer, and to a lesser extent the others. It opens the father/son terms to interpretation, so they can be applied to God the father, or Christ as our Father. From father to son can be seen as a sort of equation that translates ad infinitum. From the Father to Christ, from Christ to His son (Sun), and so on through man. Right hand ties into this very well, as does the phrase to not bend or break, (but I’m not hauling up the quote for that one. It is from messianic prophecy.) So far as right hand goes, I’m thinking of Jesus telling James’ and John’s mother that the places at His right and left hand were not His to give, (that they were taken), Jesus mentioning on trial that He sits at His Father’s right hand, and the Psalmic phrase: The lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. I’m assuming that this is generally taken as a double entendre prophesying of Christ, but it can be taken to mean Christ’s christ, sitting at God’s right hand. (There are arguments to support this notion, they’re not mine to purvey, but I’m betting offhand that when Christ used this quote to refer to himself He probably lifted it out of prophetic context, which happens way too much in the NT for some funny reason.) As for the conversation between Christ and the apostles’ mother, it’s a rather odd inclusion in the NT. I mean it must be a rather embarrassing episode for the trio concerned. Is there a point to mentioning that both sides are taken, and not just one? It would seem reasonable to surmise that if that is a point to the whole exchange, and Christ’s position at the right hand of His Father is due to His status in heaven, then who would have the position at Christ’s right? Who else would it be, if not His own anointed?
Sum all these little tidbits together and associate them with the biblical context, and it appears that Bono's referring to, (when not dealing with whether he is), a messianic chosen by Christ (one good man). I’m speculating that this is who he was looking for, and that this is who he thought he might be, particularly when he went out walking with a Bible and a gun. (Judgement and the Word. Ho-boy . . .) I’d have to say the sun figure gets associated with those two devices a hell of a lot.
So far I haven’t even begun to speculate, actually. So here goes. (This is where we get to the fun part.) I think it can be taken that if the Son sits on the Father’s right, then the Holy Spirit sits on His left. Now, if on the right we have an extension to an anointed by God male who forms a link to mankind (ad infinitum), then, is it possible, that on the other side, we have a feminine counterpart, a female extension to humankind as well, and as the Spirit has remained undefined since Her introduction for nearly two thousand years, so this is totally undefined as well? I'm introducing this because I'm pretty sure that's been on Bono's mind as well, and I can demonstrate it. After my moment of “enlightenment”, which he helped induce, this pattern resolved itself with crystal clarity inside my brain.
I’ve had to explain why I thought he may have loaded the sun term with some heavy symbolism, in order to say that I think he did the same with the moon as well. Until Zooropa, Bono's usage of the sun term was open to interpretation, unless one made the assumption on how he was using the moon, which meant revolving around the circular argument. It was gambling on one to support the other. The evidence on the moon side is rather weak. It makes its debut as a personification for the Holy Spirit in Mysterious Ways, and there it does not necessarily devolve any lower. However, then there’s The Fly, where it has a different association altogether. This gives the term a definite demotion (and gave it another associated term, star). Other than how he related it to the sun, however, assuming that he’d loaded the term as specified, there was no way to relate its usage to some sort of placement or figure. (Circular!)
In Lemon he repeated the same comparison (See through the sunlight), allotting it definitively to a non-Divine figure, and the sun term had the expected associations in other songs. Since then I’d have to say that the rest of his descriptions associated with the moon/star terms have not been so flattering; they don’t accord with this train of thought, do they? It’s like they’ve been transferred, received a tangible focus. That’s the shift made in Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me (1995). In that song he tied these terms together, if only tenuously. His femme is dressing like her sister (who’s probably sister the moon, i.e., the Holy Spirit in Mysterious Ways), and she’s inside the star, an association with The Fly, or the sun, for that matter. In HM, TM, KM, KM she was not restricted to a symbol or an ideal any longer. She had characteristics and environs that were very human. All of a sudden it was as if Bono knew her personally. Since then he's abandoned the terms completely and gotten pretty damn specific.
You don’t know how you took it, you just know what you got
Oh lordy you’ve been stealing from the thieves and you got caught
(repeat reference from The Fly Every artist is cannibal, every poet is a thief
All kill their inspiration and speak about their grief)
In the headlights, of a stretch car, you’re a star
Dressing like your sister, living like a tart
They don’t know what you’re doing, Babe it must be art (Never knew what he meant,
You’re a headache, in a suitcase, in the star not until I wrote my artistic theory.)
I know that we’ve shined, you don’t have to go blind, HM, TM, KM, KM
You don’t know how you got here, you just know you want out
Believing in yourself almost as much as you doubt
You’re a big smash, you’re very like a rash, Star (By calling her this, he is acknowledging The Fly arch-type as something that did occur, with respects to her as well as himself, seeing as those are the two respective terms portrayed in that song. (But they weren’t fulfilled yet. See following.)
I know that we’ve shined, It takes a crime to cry, HM, TM, KM, KM
They want you to play Jesus, they’ll go down on one knee This is the game you dodge
But they’ll want their money back if you’re alive, Honey plea with everything you’re worth.
And you turn them tricks, with your crucifix, oh Star, ah child
Of course you’re not tired, you don’t have to deny, love, HM, TM, KM, KM
This song was so different from anything U2 had ever produced (and they’d already completely altered their sound twice running), that none of my family members (a.k.a. rabid fans) could recognize it first take. I knew it was Bono on the radio before I walked into the living room and started dancing, midday, in the middle of the floor. I knew what he was saying before he said it. I already was the fulfillment of it.) -Except for one thing. Until today, Dec. 11th, ‘98, I have never understood why he asked me to kill him, even though I thought I saw relations, but now I sure as hell do. It’s a big deal, there was a very good reason, and I did do it. I did it when I died, and let go of the hope I had in him, and let him go.
So, you can see I was running on a pretty convoluted argument, to say the least. Hence it was very nice to get into the archives and have the concept shot straight through, as it were, with a double barreled shotgun, cuz all this terminology was attached to one thing, the conceptual love process that was apparent in concert. It was a set up. Don’t believe me – yet?
The Fly (1991)
It’s no secret that the stars are falling from the sky
It’s no secret that our world is in darkness tonight
They say the sun is sometimes eclipsed by a moon
Y’know I don’t see you, when she walks in the room
It’s no secret that a friend is someone who lets you help
It’s no secret that a liar won’t believe anyone else
They say a secret is something you tell one other person
So I’m telling you . . . Child
Chorus
A man will beg, a man will crawl Love, we shine like a
On the sheer face of love Burning star
Like a fly on the wall We’re falling from the sky
It’s no secret at all Tonight
Other verses not related, at least not directly. Later in 1992 he changed the last line in the first verse to
Y’know I’d come back baby, if you’d give me some room
And the last line in the second verse to
They say a secret is something you tell one other person
What do you think, child?
The thing about “The Fly” is that it is Bono himself. During the ZOOTV Tour Bono donned a number of personas, representing the false “mirror-ball” preacher in a fluorescent suit, the Devil from Faust in gold, named Mac Phisto, and the egomaniacal has been pop star in black, which was dubbed The Fly. In other words The Fly was the only persona that was a self-parody. What he slipped under it though, while fronting this parody to the media and public, was an arch-typical representation of one side of this song. Hmmmm. For that portion of the concert I described he was, of course, The Fly, for the entire tour. The other personas got substituted for each other. (Gee, and I used to wonder why, in my dreams, he always showed up as the Fly.)
I had to teach the world to sing by the age of 21
A line from Wake-up Bomb, by Michael Stipe, REM (1996)
In 1992, when this conjunction occurred with Bono in concert, I was 21.