U2: Three Chords and the Truth

Lyrics to miscellaneous U2 songs

Another Day

O-oh, o-oh - o-oh, o-oh

Wake up - the dawn of another dull day
Take up your dreams and on your way
O-o-oh

Daylight - mother stands in the hall
Last night - head against the wall
O-o-oh

When night turns to day
And the children come out to play
Another day

Stop - shout
They came my way
O-oh, o-oh - o-oh, o-oh

Boy - salute in a street uniform
Toy - soldier ripped and torn
O-o-oh

When night turns to day
And the children come out to play
Another day

Stop - shout
They came my way
O-oh, o-oh - o-oh, o-oh

O-oh, o-oh - o-oh, o-oh

A Celebration

Shake - shake

Go - go
I believe in a celebration
I believe you set me free
I believe you can loose these chains
I believe you can dance with me
Dance with me

Shake - shake
Shake - shake

I believe in the third world war
I believe in the atomic bomb
I believe in the powers that be
But they won't overpower me
And you can go there too
And you can go, go, go, go

Shake - shake
Shake - shake

And we dance out of time
And everything goes round and round
And we don't have the time
To watch the world go tumbling down

Go - go
I believe in the bells of Christchurch
Ringing for this land
I believe in the cells of Mountjoy
There's an honest man
And you can go there too
And you can go, go, go, go

I believe in the walls of Jericho
[And you can go there too]
I believe they're coming down
I believe in this city's children
[And you can go, go, go, go]
I believe the trumpet's sound
And you can go there too
And you can go, go, go, go

Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me

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
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
You're a headache in a suitcase
You're a star

Oh no, don't be shy
You don't have to go blind
Hold me, thrill me, kiss me, kill me

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 wear it like a rash
Star

Oh no, don't be shy
It takes a crowd to cry
Hold me, thrill me, kiss me, kill me

They want you to be Jesus
They'll go down on one knee
But they'll want their money back
If you're alive at thirty-three
And you're turning tricks with your crucifix
You're a star

Of course you're not shy
You don't have to deny love
Hold me, thrill me, kiss me, kill me

(The) Sweetest Thing

My love, she throws me like a rubber ball
Oh, oh, the sweetest thing
She won't catch me or break my fall
Oh, oh, the sweetest thing
Baby's got blue skies up ahead
But in this I'm a rain cloud
You know she wants a dry kind of love
[The original version has:
  You know she likes a dry kind of love]
Oh, oh, the sweetest thing

I'm losing you - I'm losing you
Ain't love the sweetest thing

I wanted to run but she made me crawl
Oh, oh, the sweetest thing
Eternal fire, she turned me to straw
Oh, oh, the sweetest thing
You know I got black eyes
But they burn so brightly for her
Guess it's a blind kind of love
[The original version has:
  Mine is a blind kind of love]
Oh, oh, the sweetest thing

I'm losing you - oh, I'm losing you
Ain't love the sweetest thing
Ain't love the sweetest thing
[The original version has:
  Oh, oh, the sweetest thing]

Blue-eyed boy meets brown-eyed girl
Oh, oh, the sweetest thing
You can sew it up but you still see the tear
Oh, oh, the sweetest thing
Baby's got blue skies up ahead
But in this I'm a rain cloud
Ours is a stormy kind of love
[The original version has:
  You know we got a stormy kind of love
Oh, oh, the sweetest thing
[scat singing]
The sweetest thing
Oh, oh, the sweetest thing

Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)

Written by P. Spector/E. Greenwich/J. Berry

It's Christmas
Baby, please come home

The snow's coming down
I'm watching it fall
Watching the people around
Baby, please come home

The church bells in town
They're ringing a sound
What a happy sound
Baby, please come home

They're singing deck the halls
But it's not like Christmas at all
I remember when you were here
And all the fun we had last year

Pretty lights on the tree
I'm watching them shine
You should be here with me
Baby, please come home

Oh - baby, please come home
Baby, please come home

They're singing deck the halls
But it's not like Christmas at all
I remember when you were here
And all the fun we had last year

If there was a way
I'd hold back these tears
But it's Christmas day
Baby, please come home

Oh - baby, please come home
Baby, please come home --

Dreaming With Tears In My Eyes

My heart is longing for you, love
I cared for you more than you knew
Though you have broken each promise
Yesterday's dreams are untrue

Alone, I'll be yearning tomorrow
When sunshine brings memories of you
My sunshine will turn into sorrow
As I dream of the love we once knew
Why should I always be lonesome
When sunny and blue are the skies?
While shadows of loneliness linger
I'm dreaming with tears in my eyes

Why did you promise me, sweetheart
Never to leave me alone?
Yesterday's sunshine is faded
Your love wasn't true like my own

Alone, I'll be yearning tomorrow [etc repeated]

I'm Not Your Baby

It's a beautiful day today
Everything is going my way
Even the words do what I say
Oh babe - got to get away
To be impossible isn't that difficult
In the city you're invisible
When you come from a small town
Everything is alright - everything is alright
I'm not your baby - please

A tourist in a traffic jam
Babycham and handycam
I'm not your mother - you're not my man
I'm not your baby

Don't treat me like I'm a trick
I won't treat you like you're a prick
Don't need no doctor - I'm not ill
I'm not your baby
Everything is alright - everything is alright
I'm not your baby - please

Cut out the poetry
Let's hit the main artery
No time for a tourniquet
The colour's all run out on me
You brought me all kinds of goods
Now my heart is so full up it hurts
It's heavy as a shopping bag
It's full of things I should give back
Everything is alright - everything is alright
I'm not your baby - please

[I'm not your baby - I'm not your baby]

Don't want you to cover me
Smother me or mother me
I like to feel this incomplete
I'm not your baby
Everything is alright - everything is alright
I'm not your baby - please

I'm not dizzy, just busy
Didn't drink nothing fizzy
No pills to feel easy
Don't know what got in to me
Daylight's a kinda robbery
The night is your geography
So you're not white, you're pink and rosy
You could be right but you're way above me
Me - I'm in recovery
A star of pornography
I'm a tourist - there's a lot to see
You don't like the photographs of me
If so you've got a lot to say
You don't sleep around but sometimes you stray
You don't believe - oftentimes you pray
For something - what is it babe?

Don't treat me like I'm a trick
I won't treat you like you're a prick
Don't need no doctor - I'm not sick
I'm not your baby
Everything is alright - everything is alright
I'm not your baby - please

I'm not your baby
I'm not your baby --

Don't Take Your Guns To Town

A young boy named Billy Joe grew restless on the farm
A boy filled with wanderlust, who never really meant no harm
Bill changed his clothes and shined his boots and combed his dark hair down
But his mother cried as he walked away:
Don't take your guns to town
Don't take your guns to town
Don't take your guns to town

He laughed at his mum and said: your Billy Joe, he's the man
I can shoot as quick - I can shoot as straight as anybody can
But I wouldn't shoot without a cause, or gun nobody down
But she cried again as he rode away:
Don't take your guns to town, son
Leave your guns at home
Don't take your guns to town

He drank his first strong liquor then to calm his shaking hands
And he tried, he tried to tell himself at last he had become a man
The dusty cowpoke stood at his side began to laugh him down
And he heard again his mother's words:
Don't take your guns to town, son
Leave your guns at home
Don't take your guns - don't take your guns
Don't take your guns to town

Filled with rage, then Billy Joe reached for his gun to draw
But the stranger drew his gun and fired before he even saw
As Billy Joe fell to the floor the crowd all gathered round
And wondered at his final words:
Don't take your guns to town, son
Leave your guns at home
Don't take your guns to town

Jesus Christ

Written by Woody Guthrie

Jesus was a man who travelled through the land
A hard working man and brave
Well he said to the rich: give your money to the poor
Well they laid Jesus Christ in his grave

Halle - hallelujah
Halle - hallelujah
Halle - hallelujah
Well they laid Jesus Christ in his grave

Well he went to the preacher - he went to the law
He told them all the same
He said: sell all your jewellery and give it to the poor
But they laid Jesus Christ in his grave

Halle - hallelujah [etc repeated]

When Jesus came to town, all the working folks around
Believed what he did say
Well the bankers and the preachers, they nailed him on a cross
And they laid Jesus Christ in his grave

And poor working people, they followed him around
They sung and shouted gay
Well the cops and the soldiers, they nailed him in the air
And they laid Jesus Christ in his grave

Halle - hallelujah [etc repeated twice]

Well this song was written in New York City
Of rich man, preacher and slave
Well if Jesus was to preach what he preached in Galilee
They would lay Jesus Christ in his grave

Halle - hallelujah [etc repeated twice]

Hallelujah

Written by Leonard Cohen

I heard there was a secret chord
That David played to please the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do ya?
It goes like this: the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing - Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne - she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah --

You say I took the name in vain
Well, I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to ya?
There's a blaze of light in every word
It doesn't matter what you heard
The holy or the broken - Hallelujah

Hallelujah

I did my best - that wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I learned to touch
I told the truth - I didn't come to fool ya
And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of song
With nothing on my lips - Hallelujah

Hallelujah --

Well, maybe there's a God above
But all I ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew ya
And it's no complaint you hear tonight
It's not some pilgrim who's seen the light
It's a cold and broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah --

I Believe in Father Christmas

Written by Greg Lake

They said there'll be snow at Christmas
They said there'll be peace on Earth
But instead it just kept on raining
A veil of tears for the Virgin's birth
I remember one Christmas morning
A winters light and a distant choir
And the peal of a bell and that Christmas Tree smell
And their eyes full of tinsel and fire

They sold me a dream of Christmas
They sold me a Silent Night
And they told me a fairy story
'Till I believed in the Israelite
And I believed in Father Christmas
And I looked at the sky with excited eyes
'Till I woke with a yawn in the first light of dawn
And I saw him and through his disguise

I wish you a hopeful Christmas
I wish you a brave New Year
All anguish pain and sadness
Leave your heart and let your road be clear
They said there'll be snow at Christmas
They said there'll be peace on Earth
Hallelujah Noel be it Heaven or Hell
The Christmas you get you deserve.

Never Let Me Go

Wow, after I jumped it occurred to me
Life is perfect - life is the best
Full of magic, beauty, opportunity, and television
And surprises - lots of surprises, yeah
And then there's the best stuff of course
Better than anything anyone ever made up, 'cause it's real

You take a stranger by the hand
A man who doesn't understand his wildest dreams
You walk across the dirty sand
And offer him an ocean - what he's never seen

Maybe I was blind
All right - a man of closed mind
Maybe I was dumb
But what I forgot to say
If you didn't know
Is never let me go
Never let me go --

You run from love and don't believe
Unless it catches you by the heel
And even then you struggle
From Red Island across the strand
Your footprints still there in the sand
Everything else washed away

I may not be alone
Oh, I may have found my home
I may have lost my way
But what I forgot to say
If you didn't know
Is never let me go
Never let me go --

Stateless

I've got no home in this world
Just gravity - look in time
I've got no hope in this world
Just you, and you are not mine

Stateless - faithless - stateless

There are no colours in your eye
There's no sunshine in your sky
There's no race - only the prize
There is no tomorrow - only tonight

Stateless - what's the difference?

You can cover a world with your thoughts
Still so, babe, so bright, so beautiful

Weightless - stateless

Push down on me - push here with me
A weight down - a weight down on me
Your weight down
Be your weight on, down on me
Be the heavy hand, the wall of sand
Be the weight hard down on me

Stateless - weightless - hateless

Falling At Your Feet

Every chip from every cup
Every promise given up
Every reason that's not enough
Is falling, falling at your feet

Every band - elastic limit
Every race when there's nothing in it
Every winner that's lost a ticket
Is falling, falling at your feet
I've come crawling, falling at your feet.

Everyone who needs a friend
Every life that has no end
Every reed not ready to bend
Is falling, falling at your feet
I've come crawling - now I'm falling at your feet

[All fall down --]
All the manic taste faces that you pull
All the action is none other you control
The graffiti rolling down on five feet tall
And the compromise you make for soon

Every teenager with acne
Every face that's spoiled by beauty
Every adult tamed by duty
They're all falling at your feet

Every foot in every face
Every cost that will find some grace
Every prisoner in the maze
Every hand that needs an ace
Is falling, falling at your feet
I've come crawling - now falling at your feet

[All fall down --]
All the books you never read, just started
All the meals you rushed, never tasted

Every eye closed by a bruise
Every player that just can't lose
Every pop star heroin abuse
Every dropout gone with booze
All falling at your feet
All falling at your feet

[All fall down --]
All the effort makes it all the bigger deal
All the radio waves - electronic seas
Had to never gain - had to simply be
To know when to wait - it's plain simplicity
In hope shall I trust
In heaven I'll be staying
Teach me to surrender
Not my will, my will

Dancin' Shoes

I know you're so sad - so sad you can't cry
But I know you let go, although you can't remember why
Your lipstick don't feel - your strap's coming loose
You're out in the hall - waltzing the blues
Now you heard some way they won't find a bruise
You've been learning to walk in those dancin' shoes

I had a mama - she told me 'bout you - she said true love don't lie
You touch that woman and the smoke won't leave your eyes
You talk - you walk, 'cause you can't refuse
Learning to walk in those dancin' shoes
Now you heard some way they won't find a bruise
Learning to walk in those dancin' shoes

The Saints Are Coming

With Green Day. Written by The Skids

I cried to my daddy on the telephone
How long now?
Until the clouds unroll and you come home
The line went
But the shadows still remain since your descent
Your descent

I cried to my daddy on the telephone
How long now?
Until the clouds unroll and you come home
The line went
But the shadows still remain since your descent
Your descent

The saints are coming, the saints are coming
I say no matter how I try, I realise there's no reply
The saints are coming, the saints are coming
I say no matter how I try, I realise there's no reply

A drowning sorrow floods the deepest grief
How long now?
Until a weather change condemns belief

The stone says
This paternal guide once had his day
Once had his day

The saints are coming, the saints are coming
I say no matter how I try, I realise there's no reply
The saints are coming, the saints are coming

I say no matter how I try, I realise there's no reply
I say no matter how I try, I realise there's no reply
I say no matter how I try, I realise there's no reply

Wave of Sorrow

Heat haze rising
On hell's own hill

You wake up this morning
It took an act of will
You walk through the night
To get here today
To bring your children
To give them away

Oh... oh this cruel sun
Is daylight never done
Cruelty just begun
To make a shadow of everyone

And if the rain came
And if the rain came

Souls bent over without a breeze
Blankets on burning trees
I am sick without disease
Nobility on it's knees

And if the rain came
And if the rain came... now
Would it wash us all away
On a wave of sorrow
Wave
On a wave of sorrow

Where now the holy cities?
Where the ancient holy scrolls?
Where now Emperor Menelek?
And the Queen of Sheba's gold

You're my bride, you wear her crown
And on your finger precious stones
As every good thing now been sold

Son, of shepherd boy, now king
What wisdom can you bring?
What lyric would you sing?
Where is the music of the Seraphim?

And if the rain came
And if the rain came... now
Would it wash us all away
On a wave of sorrow
Wave
A wave of sorrow
Wave.

Blessed are the meek who scratch in the dirt
For they shall inherit what's left of the earth
Blessed are the kings who've left their thrones
They are buried in this valley of dry bones

Blessed all of you with an empty heart
For you got nothing from which you cannot part
Blessed is the ego
It's all we got this hour

Blessed is the voice that speaks truth to power
Blessed is the sex worker who sold her body tonight
She used what she got
To save her children's life

Blessed are you, the deaf cannot hear a scream
Blessed are the stupid who can dream
Blessed are the tin canned cardboard slums
Blessed is the spirit that overcomes

Ordinary Love

The sea wants to kiss the golden shore
The sunlight warms your skin
All the beauty that's been lost before
Wants to find us again

I can't fight you anymore
It's you I'm fighting for
The sea throws rocks together
But time leaves us polished stones

We can't fall any further
If we can't feel ordinary love
We cannot reach any higher
If we can't deal with ordinary love

Birds fly high in the summer sky
And rest on the breeze
The same wind will take care of you and
We'll build our house in the trees

Your heart is on my sleeve
Did you put it there with a magic marker
For years I would believe
That the world couldn't wash it away

'Cause we can't fall any further
If we can't feel ordinary love
We cannot reach any higher
If we can't deal with ordinary love

Are we tough enough
For ordinary love

We can't fall any further
If we can't feel ordinary love
We cannot reach any higher
If we can't deal with ordinary love

We can't fall any further
If we can't feel ordinary love
We cannot reach any higher
If we can't deal with ordinary love

Lyric transcription by Chris Warren

Random U2 lyric:

"Jara sang his song, a weapon in the hands of one whose blood still cries from the ground" - One Tree Hill

My U2 ramblings:

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