"Get On Your Boots" means nothing to anyone as a phrase. I don't know what the song is about lyrically and vocally - it's confused and baffling. I'm not even sure it is about anything at all. The lyrics need a damn big kick up the arse (especially after all the nonsense that is MOLE/HOLE/GOAL/SOUL in "Elevation") and Bono really needs to work more on the words and the melodies to that song at least.

"Get On Your Boots" means nothing to anyone as a phrase. I don't know what the song is about lyrically and vocally - it's confused and baffling. I'm not even sure it is about anything at all. The lyrics need a damn big kick up the arse (especially after all the nonsense that is MOLE/HOLE/GOAL/SOUL in "Elevation") and Bono really needs to work more on the words and the melodies to that song at least.

Yeah, it's funny how U2's 80's and 90's radio hits were still hits and STILL had good lyrics. Even songs like Mysterious Ways still has kick ass lyrics, but their single in the 2000's have been mediorce, especially lyrically.

"Get On Your Boots" means nothing to anyone as a phrase. I don't know what the song is about lyrically and vocally - it's confused and baffling. I'm not even sure it is about anything at all. The lyrics need a damn big kick up the arse (especially after all the nonsense that is MOLE/HOLE/GOAL/SOUL in "Elevation") and Bono really needs to work more on the words and the melodies to that song at least.

Yeah, it's funny how U2's 80's and 90's radio hits were still hits and STILL had good lyrics. Even songs like Mysterious Ways still has kick ass lyrics, but their single in the 2000's have been mediorce, especially lyrically.

I think thats an unfair generalization, are the lyrics to mysterious ways better than SYCMIOYO or Magnificent?

 Bono has always been hit or miss with lyrics and especially the 80s songs to me do not stand up to the songs of today (lyrically) ...  Pride has a great chorus but the lyrics are weak, same with ISHFWILF, and if we are honest, Streets IMO... 

I think the 90s were the peak lyrically, but there are some clunkers, just not necessarily singles... "A man needs a woman like a fish needs a bicycle", "your father, made the world in 7, hes in charge in heaven"  He's also written great lyrics in the 2000's ie. White as Snow and When I Look at the World. 

I guess my point is, they do not necessarily pick singles based off lyrics. Running to Stand Still is probably my favorite lyric of all time, but its not a single.  With or Without You has a great lyrics and was a hit single.  The lyrics to Pride are weak and it was a hit, so theres no real connection.  Vertigo was a hit because it had a great riff and fun lyrics in a way that the more poetic Native Son might not have been. 

All in all, I think the lyrics today are almost as strong as the 90s, equal to the late 80s and better than the first 3 albums, its just that we've had a few singles have weak lyrics instead of the album tracks.

"Get On Your Boots" means nothing to anyone as a phrase. I don't know what the song is about lyrically and vocally - it's confused and baffling. I'm not even sure it is about anything at all. The lyrics need a damn big kick up the arse (especially after all the nonsense that is MOLE/HOLE/GOAL/SOUL in "Elevation") and Bono really needs to work more on the words and the melodies to that song at least.

It actually does have meaning. Think about it.

Enlighten me : is it "make love not war"?

Not only that but the chorus isn't very memorable. Not to me.

SYCMIOYO has pretty unoriginal and cliche lyrics. They're not bad and it is a great song, but nothing comparable to anything off of Achtung Baby, even Tryin to Throw. Magnificent, once again, has decent lyrics, but I would take ANY U2 90's lyrics over it. It is a tad bit of overgeneralizing, but in short, I would take "you're fallin off the sidewalk, your lips move but you can't talk, tryin to throw your arms around the world" over "I was born, I was born to sing for you." I do think Bono has lyrically gotten weaker, although Fez Being Born, White as Snow, and No Line on the Horizon are up there.

Enlighten me : is it "make love not war"?

Not only that but the chorus isn't very memorable. Not to me.

It's a work song. It's like those posters from the 40's where you had women flexing their muscles and rolling their shirt sleeves up. Things are a mess, it's time to clean it up. Economy, wars, poverty - It's time to roll up our sleeves, and get on our boots and together we can clean up this mess. Whether you buy into that or not, like it or not, that's pretty much what it's about. And, it's saying that that can be sexy and that women can hold the key to fixing a lot of these problems. Besides that it's about a family at a carnival, and although they're having fun they realize there is danger and darkness in the not so far off distance.

The chorus (maybe you know...i don't want to sound preachy or all knowing) is more that 'Get on your boots', that's just a tag line in the chorus." You don't know how beautiful you are" is part of the chorus. It's not Beethoven, but it's still a good, fun rockin' tune. ANd, I think it works so much better on the album.

This is more about the songs/ analysis than sales but I guess its somewhat relative...

@ Mr.BonoFLYed - Good post.  I love the line:  "The Future needs a big kiss" and "Women are the future of a big revelation".
 
@markreed - I agree that GOYB is a relative 'throw-away' song like Vertigo was and its not so different or memorable musically nor in its feel, tone & style as well as its general light-hearted message.  Within it though, I agree with Mr. BonoFLYed that the lighthearted fun sensibility of the song is mixed in with a deeper message about what is going on in the world right now.  There's also a balance that we need to get down to business but also have some fun.  We've been in a huge long recession, in war conflicts and the like for some time now and also given Bono's normal activism, he's toned that down considerably both literally in this song and also on the tour with the 'preaching'.  So in the end or overall, the lyrics and song are more meaningful than Vertigo is/ was, but in a similar style vein of "good times" or  better times and rock 'n' roll. 

@halljoh2 - Great post!   

SYCMIOYO has pretty unoriginal and cliche lyrics. They're not bad and it is a great song, but nothing comparable to anything off of Achtung Baby, even Tryin to Throw. Magnificent, once again, has decent lyrics, but I would take ANY U2 90's lyrics over it. It is a tad bit of overgeneralizing, but in short, I would take "you're fallin off the sidewalk, your lips move but you can't talk, tryin to throw your arms around the world" over "I was born, I was born to sing for you." I do think Bono has lyrically gotten weaker, although Fez Being Born, White as Snow, and No Line on the Horizon are up there.

@Achtung40life - AB is my fave album and I'd agree that AB was lyrically much stronger overall.  Its also much darker in emotions and tone if not in overall concept with a few exceptions.  Given some of the background of the songs & album, I think that while many of Bono lyrics are written in "first person" he is writing most poetic from second or third person and also in 'the concept' for almost all songs.  I think it would be  easier to write creatively & poetically about conflict and tough emotions when you are not necessarily in the first person, and can either put on a personna, are at arm's length or have some distance.  I believe Bono does have some personal distance from many of the songs about relationships correct me if I'm wrong ( more Edge & in general), since he has been married since quite young. 

I disagree on SYCMIOYO and Magnificent being cliché or unoriginal.  Simplicity does not necessarily mean "simple" or frivolous and while we joke about some of Bono's lyrics like Mole/Hole ( Elevation),  Like a Fish..., Baby's head, Intellectual Tortoise, Cuckatoo, are cliché or just strange and awkward phrases;  I don't feel SYCMIOYO & Magnificent are too simple or cliché.  Lyrically Bono can definitely be more complex and poetic but sometimes simplicity and directness speak volumes about deep personal loss or emotions, especially in the first person.       

SYCMIOYO is beautiful and a strong personal testament from Bono to his dying father.  No surprises or complex poetry there but those feelings are definitely difficult to put into words and his singing and emotion are more than moving.  Kite is more visual and poetic perhaps than SYCMIOYO but no less moving with thoughts on father son relationships.  The messages are simply direct but far from simplistic.   It could also be, and I'm speculating,  that aside from any theory of difficulty in expressing more flourish in poetry, given the subject & first person, Bono could be keeping some of that for himself.   

Kite: 
"In summer I can taste the salt in the sea
There's a kite blowing out of control on a breeze
I wonder what's gonna happen to you
You wonder what has happened to me..."

In Magnificent, Bono's lyrics come from the heart and experience.  I especially love...: 
I was born
I was born to sing for you

I didn't have a choice but to lift you up
And sing whatever song you wanted me to
I give you back my voice
From the womb my first cry, it was a joyful noise ...

Only love, only love can leave such a mark

But only love, only love can heal such a scar


Justified till we die, you and I will magnify

The Magnificent

To me its a joyful uplifting song about the symbiosis, wounds, bonds and tensions of love, whether that's Bono the singer to us fans, or in a context of an intimate relationship.    I'd also say that I'll Go Crazy ( studio version), Wild Honey,  Elevation, Beautiful Day, and ABOY ( which is not my fave)  are stylistically light hearted fun poppy romp but most have something to say within them like GOYB and emotionally, I wager the band probably needed to some "lightness" after the dark personal loss, divorce, illness and from deaths of loved ones.   

Enlighten me : is it "make love not war"?

Not only that but the chorus isn't very memorable. Not to me.

It's a work song. It's like those posters from the 40's where you had women flexing their muscles and rolling their shirt sleeves up.

That really dates you, Bonorflyd!

Its a great album, but they need a single that will break through, not a song that needs to grow on you, people have no patience anymore

Enlighten me : is it "make love not war"?

Not only that but the chorus isn't very memorable. Not to me.

It's a work song. It's like those posters from the 40's where you had women flexing their muscles and rolling their shirt sleeves up.

That really dates you, Bonorflyd!

ha! i'm really not that old. although i did find a speckle of gray in my chin stubble the other day and ehh..hopefully it will be a while before they call me the silver fox! But Adam looks cool with silver so maybe there's life after 30 after all!