U2 devotionals: "It's the way you don't pay that's okay.."

U2 song lyrics often work on several levels...and one level in most (all?)  every song is, of course, the spiritual, God/Jesus story.

It's ironic that in U2's ironic era (the 1990's), many fans thought they had lost the faith, and ditched the spiritual lyrics.

 But just check out "Discoteque."  Read the lyrics BEFORE watching or listening to the song. 
What's it's ultimately about?    What..or Who..is "it" in the lyric? (see"What the hell is IT"?)
 How obvious..and evangelical..is a line like  "It's the way you don't pay that's okay, 'cause you can't earn it."  Any card-carrying evangelical knows the "saved by grace and not by works, salvation can't be earned"  motto (Ephesians 2:8-10).

Bono has said the song is "a little riddle about love."  And it works on  that and other levels, as Bono admits in the same interview.  Just google the song interpretation; is it about  music?  U2's style? drugs? romance? the search for salvation?  All that and more..

The haunting background vocal, "you want heaven in your heart" is really brought up in the mix (and therefore the meaning) in some remixes of the song

Cleverly disguised as a disco song, it subverts the genre; making fun of "bubble gum" music/salvation while using bubble gum music and scenario.  But, as if to sneak "fish in the sand" yet again, Bono sneaks in some more soteriology in the outro: "I can't get in, I paid, it's not enough"

(Interesting that in some "live" versions, Bono adds a litany about things that enslave..even that we are  "slave to Rome")

Also note: this is pretty much the same story as "Vertigo."  Bono has said that song also takes place in a club, and the temptations along the way to salvation.  ("I was thinking about this awful nightclub we've all been to. You're supposed to be having a great time and. and the character in this stares at the cross just to steady himself").

Bonus: "you want heaven in your heart....but you take what you can get" connects to U2's "The First Time"..another controversial 1990s song.. in that the character doesn't choose salvation; settling for something else/less, and the song almost celebrates that poor choice, even as it mourns it  (see  cursing God's staff and revisionist U2 history and  Well-Ended Stories That Don't End Well).  Not to mention the "I want to get it wrong/Can't always be strong" of "Ultraviolet"...

Bonus: a reference to The One, two years before The  Matrix popularized that phrase (BTW, Not a bad translation of "Christ" ..." the Messiah, or the one;   "the one called the Messiah" as  NLT translates) .  How about a use of "Boom!" years before that became common slang..

Let's go to the discoteque:


You can reach but you can't grab it
You can't hold it, control it, no, 
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 it is but you still want some
You just can't get enough of that lovie dovie 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, let's go, 
Discothèque
Let go, let go, go go, 
Discothèque
Looking for The One 
But you know you're somewhere else instead
You want to be the song
Be the song that you hear in your head
Love

It's not a trick 'cause you can't learn it
It's the way you don't pay that's okay 
'Cause you can't earn it

You want heaven in your heart..

You know you're chewing bubble gum
You know what it is but you still want some
You just can't get enough of that lovie dovie stuff
Let go, let's go, 
Discothèque
Go go, go go
Discothèque
Love, love
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, love, love
You want heaven 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
And you know there's something more 
But tonight, tonight, tonight

Boom cha, boom cha
Discothèque
I can't get in, I paid, it's not enough
Boom cha, boom cha
Discothèque
I paid, get in I can't, it's not enough
Boom cha, boom cha
Discothèque
I can't get in, I can't, it's not enough
Boom cha, boom cha
Discothèque
Boom cha, boom cha
 ) ) ) )