11.01.04

Song of the Week - 11/1/04

Posted in Song of the Week at 11:43 pm by Adriene

This week’s song of the week is:

“A Sort of Homecoming” - U2

This song is, in my opinion, one of the most underappreciated songs in U2’s catalog. The first song off of their CD, The Unforgettable Fire, released in 1984, it is often overshadowed by the two more popular and commercially-succesful songs on that recording, “Pride (In the Name of Love),” and “Bad.”

However, I think this song is of note, because it is probably where we first experience the gorgeous musical layering in full force that became U2’s trademark in later years (specifically with The Joshua Tree.) You hear Bono’s yearning voice layered over Edge’s chiming guitar, which is then inlaid upon Larry’s drumming and Adam’s grooving bass line.

But, as good as all that is, I’ll have to say that it’s probably the lyrics of this song that get me the most:

And you know it’s time to go
Through the sleet and driving snow
Across the fields of mourning
Light in the distance

And you hunger for the time
Time to heal, desire, time
And your earth moves beneath
Your own dream landscape

Oh, oh, oh…
On borderland we run…

I’ll be there
I’ll be there…
Tonight
A high road
A high road out from here

The city walls are all come down
The dust, a smoke screen all around
See faces ploughed like fields that once
Gave no resistance

And we live by the side of the road
On the side of a hill
As the valley explode
Dislocated, suffocated
The land grows weary of its own

Oh, oh, oh…on borderland we run…
And still we run
We run and don’t look back
I’ll be there
I’ll be there
Tonight
Tonight

I‘ll be there tonight…I believe
I’ll be there…somehow
I’ll be there…tonight
Tonight

The wind will crack in winter time
This bomb-blast lightning waltz
No spoken words, just a scream…

Tonight we’ll build a bridge
Across the sea and land
See the sky, the burning rain
She will die and live again
Tonight

And your heart beats so slow
Through the rain and fallen snow
Across the fields of mourning
Light’s in the distance

Oh don’t sorrow, no don’t weep
For tonight, at last
I am coming home
I am coming home

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