Bono's lines are sometimes cheesy/cringeworthy, sometimes profound/prophetic.
Sometimes both in the same line.
Like this.
And like the one we'll discuss n
From "Crazy Tonight":
"Every beauty needs to go out with an idiot."
I heard that.
Not only that, but it shows culminates a terrible triplet:
"Everybody needs to cry or needs to spit
Every sweet tooth needs just a little hit
Every beauty needs to go out with an idiot"
As Rabbi Adam would say, "Oy!"
"Idiot" was an unusual choice of words, but I'm
"I'll Go Crazy If I Dont Go Crazy Tonight - U2"
Remix version which is rocking audiences,and includes "O Coem all ye faithful/joyful and triumphant":
(intriguing animated video of song here)
betting it was intentional;
and wondering if intentionally a fish in the sand towards Dostoyevsky.
Really?
I would love to browse the books by Bono's bedside.
We have long known he has read
Eugene Peterson (some see direct Peterson inspirations in this album),
Brennan Manning (great story)
Phillip Yancey (great story) ../
We have just confirmed a long suspicion he has read John of the Cross!
Why would he not be referencing Dostoyevsky's "The Idiot"?
The title character is not only a Christ-figure, but his development was influenced by the "holy fool" tradition (which Bono directly utlized in the 9os).
Oh, and the orginal Idiot does go out with a beauty.
At first take, Bono clearly seems to inply that
"Every beauty needs to go out with an idiot/
How can you stand next to the truth and not see it"
This the truth that we/Beauty are standing next to would be the truth that some people are idiots.
The linking of this song to another song on the CD ("Stand Up Comedy")'s "beauty, didctaor of the heart" helps the context.
But an additional and supplemental hermeneutic emerges with the noticing of
chiastic elements (Bono's well-versed in this literary device of chiasm: "The rich stay healthy/And the sick stay poor" is a classic example), suggesting the idiot (not the beauty) is the reference for "truth."
The idiot in the song is truth.. As in Truth. Way Truth and Life kind of truth.
Of course philosphers/theologians have long commented on the relationship and interrelationship of truth and beauty. Bono has previously asked "if Beauty is truth...," ("Playboy Mansion"), nodding to Yates...
But Jesus is idiotically (that term used ironically here, OK?) an incarnation of both.
Is all that interpretation too crazy tonight; too idiotic to ask of an apparently throwaway Bono line?
Nothing is..
---
"I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight"
She's a rainbow and she loves the peaceful life
Knows I'll go crazy if I don't go crazy tonight
There's a part of me in the chaos that's quiet
And there's a part of you that wants me to riot
Everybody needs to cry or needs to spit
Every sweet tooth needs
just a little hit
Every beauty needs to go out with an idiot
How can you stand next to the truth and not see it
Oh, a change of heart comes slow
It's not a hill, it's a mountain
As you start out the climb
Do you believe me or are you doubting
We're gonna make it all the way to the light
But I know I'll go crazy if I don't go crazy tonight
Every generation gets a chance to change the world
Pity the nation that won't listen to your boys and girls
'Cause the sweetest melody is the one we haven't heard
Is it true that perfect love drives out all fear
The right to appear ridiculous is something I hold dear
Oh, but a change of heart comes slow
It's not a hill, it's a mountain
As you start out the climb
Listen for me, I'll be shouting
We're gonna make it all the way to the light
But you know I'll go crazy if I don't go crazy tonight
Baby, baby, baby
I know I'm not alone
Baby, baby, baby
I know I'm not alone
Oh oh oh
It's not a hill, it's a mountain
As you start out the climb
Listen for me, I'll be shouting
Shouting to the darkness
Squeeze out sparks of light
You know we're gonna go crazy
You know we'll go crazy
You know we'll go crazy if we don't go crazy tonight
Oh, slowly now
Oh, be slow
Stand Up Comedy:
Love love love love love... Love love love love love...
I got to stand up and take a step
You and I have been asleep for hours
I got to stand up
The wire is stretched in between our two towers
Stand up in this dizzy world
Where a lovesick eye can steal the view
I'm gonna fall down if I can't stand up
For Your love
Love love love love love...
Stand up, this is comedy
The DNA lottery may have left you smart
But can you stand up to beauty, dictator of the heart
I can stand up for hope, faith, love
But while I'm getting over certainty
Stop helping God across the road like a little old lady
Out from under your beds
C'mon ye people Stand up for your Lord
Love love love love love...
I gotta stand up to ego but my ego's not really the enemy
It's like a small child crossing an eight lane highway On a voyage of discovery
Stand up to rock stars, Napolean is in high heels
Josephine, be careful of small men with big ideas
Out from under your beds
C'mon ye people Stand up for Your Love
Love love love love love..
. God is Love And Love is evolution's very best day
Soul rockin' people moving on
Soul rockin' people on and on
C'mon ye people We're made of stars
C'mon ye people
Stand up then sit down for your Lord
Love love love love love... Love love love love love...
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