Lyrics to the U2 album Rattle and Hum
Helter Skelter
Written by Lennon and McCartneyThis track recorded live on 8th November 1987
When you get to the bottom you go back to the top of the slide
Then you stop and you turn and you go for a ride
Then you get to the bottom, then you see me again
Do you, don't you want me to love you?
Coming down fast, I'm right here above you
Tell me, tell me, tell me the answer
Ain't no lover but you ain't no dancer
Helter skelter - helter skelter - helter skelter
Do you, don't you want me to make you?
Coming down fast, now don't let me break you
Tell me, tell me, tell me the answer
Ain't no lover but you ain't no dancer
Helter skelter - helter skelter - helter skelter
When you get to the bottom you go back to the top of the slide
And you turn and you stop and you go for a ride
Then you get to the bottom, then you see me again
Do you, don't you want me to love you?
Coming down fast, I'm right here above you
Tell me, tell me, tell me the answer
Ain't no lover but you ain't no dancer
Helter skelter - helter skelter - helter skelter
Helter skelter - helter skelter - helter skelter
Van Diemen's Land
Hold me now - oh, hold me now
Till this hour has gone around
And I'm gone on the rising tide
For to face Van Diemen's land
It's a bitter pill I swallow here
To be rent from one so dear
We fought for justice and not for gain
But the magistrate sent me away
Now kings will rule and the poor will toil
And tear their hands as they tear the soil
But a day will come in this dawning age
When an honest man sees an honest wage
Hold me now - oh, hold me now
Till this hour has gone around
And I'm gone on the rising tide
For to face Van Diemen's land
Desire
Lover, I'm off the street
Gonna go where the bright lights and the big city meet
With a red guitar, on fire
Desire
She's the candle burning in my room
I'm like the needle - needle and spoon
Over the counter with a shotgun
Pretty soon everybody got one
And the fever when I'm beside her
Desire, desire
And the fever, getting higher
Desire, desire
Burning, burning
She's the dollars - she's my protection
She's the promise in the year of election
Sister, I can't let you go
Like a preacher stealing hearts at a travelling show
For love or money, money, money --
And the fever, getting higher
Desire, desire --
Hawkmoon 269
Like a desert needs rain
Like a town needs a name
I need your love
Like a drifter needs a room
Hawkmoon
I need your love
I need your love
Like a rhythm unbroken
Like drums in the night
Like sweet soul music
Like sunlight
I need your love
Like coming home
And you don't know where you've been
Like black coffee
Like nicotine
I need your love
I need your love --
When the night has no end
And the day yet to begin
As the room spins around
I need your love
I need your love
Like a phoenix rising
Needs a holy tree
Like the sweet revenge
Of a bitter enemy
I need your love
I need your love
Like the heat needs the sun
Like honey on her tongue
Like the muzzle of a gun
Like oxygen
I need your love
I need your love --
When the night has no end
And the day yet to begin
As the room spins around
I need your love
I need your love --
Like thunder needs rain
Like the preacher needs pain
Like tongues of flame
Like a sheet stain
I need your love
I need your love
Like a needle needs a vein
Like someone to blame
Like a thought unchained
Like a runaway train
I need your love
I need your love --
Like faith needs a doubt
Like a freeway out
I need your love
[In the heart of the heat of the love --]
Like powder needs a spark
Like lies need the dark
I need your love
[In the heart of the heat of the love --]
All Along the Watchtower
Written by Bob DylanThis track recorded live on 11th November 1987
There must be some way out of here
Said the joker to the thief
There's too much confusion here
I can't get no relief
Businessmen, they drink my wine
Ploughmen dig my earth
None of them know along the line
What any of this is worth
No reason to get excited
The thief, he kindly spoke
There are many among us
Who think that life is but a joke
But you and I, we've been through that
And that is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely now
Because the hour is getting late
All along the watchtower
Princes kept the view
While horsemen came and went
Barefoot servants too
All I've got is a red guitar
Three chords and the truth
All I've got is a red guitar
The rest is up to you
There's no reason to get excited
The thief, he kindly spoke
Some among us here
Say that life is just a joke
You and I, we've been through that
And that is not our fate - at least today
So let us not talk falsely now
Because the hour is getting late, late
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
See The Joshua Tree for studio version lyrics
This live performance (28th September 1987) has the following extra lyrics
inserted before the third verse (after the third verse the first verse is repeated)
He will lift you higher and higher
He will pick you up when you fall
He'll be your shelter from the storm
Silver And Gold
This version recorded live on 8th November 1987
In the shit house, a shotgun
Praying hands hold me down
Only the hunter was hunted
In this tin-can town, tin-can town
No stars in the black night
Looks like the sky fell down
No sun in the daylight
Looks like it's chained to the ground, chained to the ground
The warden says: the exit is sold
If you want a way out - silver and gold
broken back to the ceiling
broken nose to the floor
I scream at the silence that's crawling
Crawls under the door
There's a rope around my neck
And there's a trigger in your gun
Jesus, say something!
I am someone - I am someone
Captains and kings in the ship's hold
They came to collect silver and gold
I see the coming and the going
See them captains and kings
See their navy blue uniforms
See them bright and shiny things, bright shiny things
The temperature is rising
The fever white hot
Mister, I ain't got nothing
But it's more than you've got
These chains no longer bind me
Not the shackles at my feet
Outside are the prisoners
Inside the free - set them free - set them free
A prize fighter in a corner is told
Hit where it hurts for silver and gold
Silver and gold
Spoken: Silver and Gold... This song was written in a hotel room in New York City round about the time a friend of ours, Little Steven, was putting together a record of Artists Against Apartheid. This is a song written about a man in a shanty town outside of Johannesburg. A man who's sick of looking down the barrel of white South Africa. A man who is at the point where he is ready to take up arms against his oppressor. A man who has lost faith in the peacemakers of the West while they argue and while they fail to support a man like Bishop Tutu and his request for economic sanctions against South Africa.
Am I buggin' you? I don't mean to bug ya. OK Edge....play the blues.
Pride (in the name of love)
See The Unforgettable Fire for studio version lyrics
This live performance (8th November 1987) is essentially the same
Angel of Harlem
It was a cold and wet December day
When we touched the ground at JFK
Snow was melting on the ground
On BLS I heard the sound of an angel
New York like a Christmas tree
Tonight this city belongs to me - angel
Soul love - this love won't let me go
So long - angel of Harlem
Birdland on fifty-three
The street sounds like a symphony
We got John Coltrane and A Love Supreme
Miles - and she's got to be an angel
Lady Day has got diamond eyes
She sees the truth behind the lies - angel
Soul love - this love won't let me go
So long - angel of Harlem
Blue light on the avenue
God knows they got to you
An empty glass - the lady sings
Eyes swollen like a bee sting
Blinded, you lost your way
Side streets and the alleyway
Like a star exploding in the night
Falling to the city in broad daylight
An angel in devil's shoes
Salvation in the blues
You never looked like an angel
Yeah, yeah - angel of Harlem
Angel - angel of Harlem --
Love Rescue Me
Co-written with Bob Dylan
Love, rescue me
Come forth and speak to me
Raise me up and don't let me fall
No man is my enemy
My own hands imprison me
Love, rescue me
Many strangers have I met
On the road to my regret
Many lost who seek to find themselves in me
They ask me to reveal
The very thoughts they would conceal
Love, rescue me
And the sun in the sky
Makes a shadow of you and I
Stretching out as the sun sinks in the sea
I'm here without a name
In the palace of my shame
Love, rescue me
In the cold mirror of a glass
I see my reflection pass
See the dark shades of what I used to be
See the purple of her eyes
The scarlet of my lies
Love, rescue me
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow
Yet I will fear no evil
I have cursed thy rod and staff
They no longer comfort me
Love, rescue me
Sha-la-la-la, sha-la-la
Sha-la-la-la, sha-la-la --
I said love - love, rescue me
I said love - climb every mountain
I said love - all my love I give
I believe in the sun - I believe in the stars
And I want to believe in love
I said love, rescue me
I'm here without a name
In the palace of my shame
I said love, rescue me
I've conquered my past
The future is here at last
I stand at the entrance
To a new world I can see
The ruins to the right of me
Will soon have lost sight of me
Love, rescue me
When Love Comes To Town
This track recorded live on 24th November 1987
I was a sailor - I was lost at sea
I was under the waves before love rescued me
I was a fighter - I could turn on a thread
Now I stand accused of the things I've said
When love comes to town I'm gonna jump that train
When love comes to town I'm gonna catch that plane
Maybe I was wrong to ever let you down
But I did what I did before love came to town
I used to make love under a red sunset
I was making promises I was soon to forget
She was pale as the lace of her wedding gown
But I left her standing before love came to town
Ran into a juke joint when I heard a guitar scream
The notes were turning blue - I was dazing in a dream
As the music played I saw my life turn around
That was the day before love came to town
When love comes to town [etc repeated]
I was there when they crucified my Lord
I held the scabbard when the soldier drew his sword
I threw the dice when they pierced his side
But I've seen love conquer the great divide
When love comes to town [etc repeated]
Heartland
See the sun rise over her skin
Don't change it
See the sun rise over her skin
Dawn changes everything
And the delta sun burns bright and violent
Mississippi and the cotton-wool heat
Sixty-six - a highway speaks
Of deserts dry, of cool green valleys
Gold and silver mines - of the shining cities
In this heartland
In this heartland's soil
In this heartland
Heaven knows this is a heartland
See the sun rise over her skin
She feels like water in my hand
Freeway like a river cuts through this land
Into the side of love like a burning spear
And the poison rain brings a flood of fear
Through the ghost ranch hills, Death Valley waters
In the towers of steel, belief goes on and on
In this heartland
In this heartland's soil
In this heartland
Heaven knows this is a heartland
Heaven knows this is a heartland
God Part II
Don't believe the devil - I don't believe his book
But the truth is not the same without the lies he made up
I don't believe in excess - success is to give
I don't believe in riches but you should see where I live
I - I believe in love
Don't believe in forced entry - I don't believe in rape
But every time she passes by wild thoughts escape
I don't believe in death row, skid row or the gangs
Don't believe in the Uzi - just went off in my hand
I - I believe in love
Don't believe in cocaine - I got a speedball in my hand
I could cut and crack you open - did you hear what I said?
Don't believe them when they tell me there ain't no cure
The rich stay healthy - the sick stay poor
I - I believe in love
I don't believe in Goldman - his type like a curse
Instant karma's gonna get him if I don't get him first
I don't believe that rock 'n' roll can really change the world
As it spins in revolution, baby, it spirals and turns
I - I believe in love
I don't believe in the sixties - the golden age of pop
You glorify the past when the future dries up
I heard a singer on the radio late last night
Says he's gonna kick the darkness till it bleeds daylight
I - I believe in love
I feel like I'm falling, like I'm spinning on a wheel
It always stops beside a name - a presence I can feel
I - I believe in love
Bullet the Blue Sky
Introduced by Jimi Hendrix' treatment of The Star Spangled Banner
See The Joshua Tree for studio version lyrics
This live performance (20th December 1987) adds these words at the end:
So I'm back in my hotel room
With John Coltrane and A Love Supreme
In the next room I hear some woman scream out
That her lover's turning off, turning on the television
And I can't tell the difference between ABC News, Hill Street Blues
And a preacher on the old time gospel hour
Stealing money from the sick and the old
Well the God I believe in isn't short of cash, mister!
I feel a long way from the hills of San Salvador
Where the sky is ripped open
And the rain pours through a gaping wound
Pelting the women and children
Pelting the women and children
Who run - who run into the arms of America
All I Want Is You
You say you want diamonds on a ring of gold
You say you want your story to remain untold
All the promises we made from the cradle to the grave
When all I want is you
You say you'll give me a highway with no-one on it
Treasure just to look upon it
All the riches in the night
You say you'll give me eyes in a moon of blindness
A river in a time of dryness
A harbour in the tempest
All the promises we make from the cradle to the grave
When all I want is you
You say you want your love to work out right
To last with me through the night
You say you want diamonds on a ring of gold
Your story to remain untold
Your love not to grow cold
All the promises we break from the cradle to the grave
When all I want is you
All I want is you - all I want is you
Lyric transcription by Chris Warren
"They said be careful where you aim because where you aim you just might hit. You can hold onto something so tight you've already lost it" - Dirty Day
Search this site:
Follow @U2ThreeChords
Share this page: