U2: Three Chords and the Truth

Lyrics to the U2 album Pop

Discotheque

You can reach, but you can't grab it
You can't hold it, control it - you can't bag it
You can push, but you can't direct it
Circulate, regulate - oh no, you cannot connect it

You know you're chewing bubble gum
You know what that is but you still want some
You just can't get enough of that lovey dovey stuff

You get confused, but you know it
Yeah, you hurt for it, work for it, love
You don't always show it

Let go - let's go - discotheque
Go go - let go - discotheque

Looking for the one
But you know you're somewhere else instead
You want to be the song
The song that you hear in your head

It's no trick, 'cause you can't learn it
It's the way you don't pay - that's OK, 'cause you can't earn it

You know you're chewing bubble gum
You know what that is but you still want some
You just can't get enough of that lovey dovey stuff

Let go - let's go - discotheque
Go go - let go - discotheque

Looking for the one
But you know you're somewhere else instead
I want to be the song
Be the song that you hear in your head

Love - the loving in your heart - heaven in your heart
The sun, the moon, and the stars
But you take what you can get
'Cause it's all that you can find
Oh, you know there's something more
Tonight, tonight, tonight

Boom cha - boom cha - discotheque
I can't get - I can't - not enough
Boom cha - boom cha - discotheque
I can't get - I can't - not enough --

Do You Feel Loved

Take these hands - they're good for nothing
You know these hands never worked a day
Take these boots - they're going nowhere
You know these boots don't want to stray
You got my head filled with songs
You got my shoelaces undone
Take my shirt - go on, take it off me
You can tear it up if you can tie me down

Do you feel loved? Do you feel loved?
Do you feel loved? Do you feel loved?

Take the colours of my imagination
Take the scent hanging in the air
Take this tangle of a conversation
Turn it into your own prayer
With my fingers as you want them
With my nails under your hide
With my teeth at your back
And my tongue to tell the sweetest lies

Do you feel loved? Do you feel loved?
Do you feel loved?
And it looks like the sun, but it feels like rain

Love is coming - pushing and shoving
In the belly of a woman
Heavy rhythm taking over
To stick together - a man and a woman
Stick together - man and woman
Stick together

Do you feel loved? Do you feel loved?
Do you feel loved?
And it looks like the sun, but it feels like rain
And there's heat in the sun to see us through the rain
Do you feel loved? Do you feel loved?
Do you feel loved? Do you feel loved?

Mofo

Looking for to save my, save my soul
Looking in the places where no flowers grow
Looking for to fill that God-shaped hole
Mother, mother sucking rock and roll

Holy dunc, space junk coming in for the splash
[Been around the back - been around the front]
Got the white dopes and punks staring into the flash
[Been around the back - been around the front]
They look for baby Jesus under the trash
[Been around the back - been around the front]
Mother, mother sucking rock and roll
Motherfucker, to the rock and rock and rock and roll
Mother - mother

Mother, am I still your son?
You know I've waited for so long to hear you say so
Mother, you left and made me someone
Now I'm still a child - no-one tells me no

Looking for a sound that's going to drown out the world
[Been around the back - been around the front]
Looking for the father of my two little girls
[Been around the back - been around the front]
Got the swing - got the sway - got my strong lemonade
[Been around the back - been around the front]
Still looking for the face I had before the world was made
[Been around the back - been around the front]
Mother, mother sucking rock and roll
Bubble popping, sugar dropping rock and roll
Mother - mother

Soothe me mother - move me father
Fool me brother - woo me sister
Soothe me mother - rule me father
Show me mother - show me mother
Show me mother - show me mother

If God Will Send His Angels

Nobody else here baby
No-one here to blame
No-one to point the finger
It's just you and me and the rain
Nobody made you do it
No-one put words in your mouth
Nobody here taking orders
When love took a train heading south

It's the blind leading the blonde
It's the stuff, the stuff of country songs
If God will send his angels
And if God will send a sign
And if God will send his angels
Would everything be alright?

God has got his phone off the hook, babe
Would he even pick up if he could?
It's been a while since we saw that child
Hanging round this neighbourhood
See his mother dealing in a doorway
See Father Christmas with a begging bowl
Jesus' sister's eyes are a blister
The High Street never looked so low

It's the blind leading the blonde
It's the cops collecting for the cons
So where is the hope and where is the faith and the love?
What's that you say to me?
Does love light up your Christmas tree?
The next minute you're blowing a fuse
And the cartoon network turns into the news

If God will send his angels
And if God will send a sign
And if God will send his angels
Where do we go? Where do we go?

Jesus never let me down
You know Jesus used to show me the score
Then they put Jesus in show business
Now it's hard to get in the door

It's the stuff, it's the stuff of country songs
But I guess it's something to go on
And if God will send his angels
I sure could use them here right now
Well, if God will send his angels
And I don't want to lie [Where do we go?]
And I want a lover feel my song
And I want to laugh [Where do we go?]
And I want to feel love

Staring At The Sun

Summer stretching on the grass - summer dresses pass
In the shade of a willow tree creeps a crawling over me
Over me and over you - stuck together with God's glue
It's going to get stickier too
It's been a long hot summer
Let's get undercover
Don't try too hard to think - don't think at all

I'm not the only one staring at the sun
Afraid of what you'd find if you took a look inside
Not just deaf and dumb - staring at the sun
Not the only one who's happy to go blind

There's an insect in your ear
If you scratch it won't disappear
It's going to itch and burn and sting
Do you want to see what the scratching brings?
Waves that leave me out of reach
breaking on your back like a beach
Will we ever live in peace?
'Cause those that can't do often have to
And those that can't do often have to preach

To the ones staring at the sun
Afraid of what you'll find if you took a look inside
Not just deaf and dumb - staring at the sun
I'm not the only one who'd rather go blind

Intransigence is all around
Military still in town
Armour plated suits and ties
Daddy just won't say goodbye
Referee won't blow the whistle
God is good, but will he listen?
I'm nearly great, but there's something missing
I left it in the duty free
But you never really belonged to me

You're not the only one staring at the sun
Afraid of what you'd find if you stepped back inside
Not sucking on my thumb - I'm staring at the sun
Not the only one who's happy to go blind

Last Night On Earth

When the fuel course died - stops the cars
It feels like she's back on the street
Bitter sweet so far

She feels the ground is giving way
But she thinks we're better off that way
The more you take the less you feel
The less you know the more you believe
The more you have the more it takes today

You got to give it away
You got to give it away
You got to give it away
Well, she don't care what it's worth
She's living like it's the last night on earth
The last night

She's not waiting on a saviour to come
And you can't miss him
She's at the bus stop with News of the World and the Sun
Sun, here it comes
She's not waiting for anyone

You got to give it away
You got to give it away
You got to give it away
Well, she don't care what it's worth
She's living like it's the last night on earth
Last night on earth

Slipping away - slip slide
Tonight - slipping away
The world turns and we get dizzy
Slipping away

She's living, living next week now
You know she's going to pay it back somehow
She hasn't been to bed in a week
She'll be dead soon, then she'll sleep

You got to give it away
You got to give it away
You got to give it away
She already knows it hurts
She's living like it's the last night on earth
The last night on earth
Last night on earth

Gone

You get to feel so guilty - got so much for so little
Then you find that feeling just won't go away
You're holding on to every little thing so tightly
Till there's nothing left for you anyway

Goodbye - you can keep this suit of lights
I'll be up with the sun - I'm not coming down
I'm not coming down - I'm not coming down

You wanted to get somewhere so badly
You had to lose yourself along the way
You change your name - well, that's OK, it's necessary
And what you leave behind you don't miss anyway

Goodbye - you can keep this suit of lights
I'll be up with the sun - I'm not coming down
I'm not coming down - I'm not coming down

'Cause I'm already gone
Felt that way all along
Closer to you every day
I didn't want it that much anyway

You're taking steps that make you feel dizzy
Then you learn to like the way it feels
You hurt yourself - you hurt your lover
Then you discover
What you thought was freedom is just greed

Goodbye - it's emotional - goodnight
I'll be up with the sun - are you still holding on?
I'm not coming down - I'm not coming down
I'm not coming down

Miami

Weather 'round here chopping and changing
Surgery in the air
Print shirts and southern accents
Cigars and big hair
We got the wheels - petrol's cheap
We only went there for a week
Got the sun - got the sand
Got the batteries in the handycam

Her eyes all swimming-pool blue
Dumb-bells on a diving board
Baby's always attracted to the things she's afraid of
Big girl with the sweet tooth
Watches the skinny girl in the photo shoot
Freshmen - squeaky clean
She tastes of chlorine
Miami, my mammy

Love the movies - love to walk through the movie sets
Get to shoot someone in the foot
Get to smoke some cigarettes
No big deal - we know the score
Just back from the video store
Got the car and the car chase
What's he got inside the case?
I want a close up of that face
Here comes the car chase

I bought two new suits - Miami
Pink and blue - Miami
I took a picture of you - my mammy
Getting hot in a photo booth - Miami
I said you looked like a Madonna
You said maybe
Said I want to have your baby, baby, baby
We could make something beautiful
Something that wouldn't be a problem
We could make something beautiful
Something that wouldn't be a problem
At least not in Miami

You know some places are like your auntie
But there's no place like
Miami, my mammy
Miami, my mammy

The Playboy Mansion

If Coke is a mystery
Michael Jackson history
If beauty is truth
And surgery the fountain of youth
What am I to do?
Have I got the gift to get me through
The gates of that mansion?

If OJ is more than a drink
And a Big Mac bigger than you think
If perfume is an obsession
And talk shows confession
What have we got to lose?
Another push and we'll be through
The gates of that mansion

I never bought a Lotto ticket
I never parked in anyone's space
The banks, they're like cathedrals
I guess casinos took their place
Love, come on down
Don't wake her - she'll come around

Chance is a kind of religion
Where you're damned for plain hard luck
I never did see that movie
I never did read that book
Love, come on down
Let my numbers come around

Don't know if I can hold on
Don't know if I'm that strong
Don't know if I can wait that long
Till the colours come flashing
And the lights go on

Then will there be no time for sorrow
Then will there be no time for shame
And though I can't say why
I know I've got to believe
We'll go diving in that pool
It's who you know that gets you through
The gates of the Playboy mansion
They don't mention the pain

Then will there be no time for sorrow
Then will there be no time for shame
Then will there be no time for sorrow
Then will there be no time for shame

If You Wear That Velvet Dress

Tonight the moon is playing tricks again
I'm feeling seasick again
The whole world could just dissolve into a glass of water
I've been good, 'cause I know you don't want me to
Do you really want me to be blue as you?
It's her daylight that gets me through

We've been here before
Last time you scratched at my door
The moon was naked and cold
I was like a two-year-old
Who just wanted more
If you wear that velvet dress
If you wear that velvet dress

Tonight the moon has drawn its curtains
It's a private show - no-one else gonna know
I'm wanting

Sunlight, sunlight fills my room
It's sharp and it's clear
But nothing at all like the moon
It's OK, the struggle for things not to say
I never listened to you anyway
And I got my own hands to pray
But if you wear that velvet dress
But if you wear that velvet dress

Tonight the moon is a mirrorball
Light flickers from across the hall
Who'll catch the star when it falls?

Please

So you never knew love until you crossed the line of grace
And you never felt wanted till you'd someone slap your face
So you never felt alive until you'd almost wasted away

You had to win - you couldn't just pass
The smartest ass at the top of the class
Your flying colours - your family tree
And all your lessons in history

Please, please, please
Get up off your knees
Please, please, please, please

So you never knew how low you'd stoop to make that call
And you never knew what was on the ground till they made you crawl
So you never knew that the heaven you keep you stole

Your Catholic blues - your convent shoes
Your stick-on tattoos - now they're making the news
Your holy war - your northern star
Your sermon on the mount from the boot of your car

Please, please, please
Get up off your knees
Please, please, please
Leave me out of this, please

So love is hard and love is tough
But love is not what you're thinking of

September - streets capsizing
Spilling over, down the drain
Shards of glass - splinters like rain
But you could only feel your own pain
October - talk getting nowhere
November, December - remember
We just started again

Please, please, please
Get up off your knees
Please, please, please, please

So love is big, is bigger than us
But love is not what you're thinking of
It's what lovers deal - it's what lovers steal
You know I found it hard to receive
'Cause you, my love, I could never believe

Wake Up Dead Man

Jesus, Jesus help me
I'm alone in this world
And a fucked-up world it is too
Tell me, tell me the story
The one about eternity
And the way it's all gonna be
Wake up, wake up dead man
Wake up, wake up dead man

Jesus, I'm waiting here, boss
I know you're looking out for us
But maybe your hands aren't free
Your father, he made the world in seven
He's in charge of heaven
Will you put a word in for me?
Wake up, wake up dead man
Wake up, wake up dead man

Listen to your words - they'll tell you what to do
Listen over the rhythm that's confusing you
Listen to the reed in the saxophone
Listen over the hum of the radio
Listen over sounds of blades in rotation
Listen through the traffic in circulation
Listen as hope and peace try to rhyme
Listen over marching bands playing out their time
Wake up, wake up dead man
Wake up, wake up dead man

Jesus, were you just around the corner?
Did you think to try and warn her?
Or were you working on something new?
If there's an order in all of this disorder
Is it like a tape recorder?
Can we rewind it just once more?
Wake up, wake up dead man
Wake up, wake up dead man
Wake up, wake up dead man

Lyric transcription by Chris Warren

Random U2 lyric:

"To touch is to heal - to hurt is to steal. If you want to kiss the sky, better learn how to kneel" - Mysterious Ways

My U2 ramblings:

Share this page: