But you take what you can get, Cause it's all that you can find, Oh you know there's something more, But tonight, tonight, tonight.....
This is my favorite song by U2 for a number of reasons. First and
foremost, is has a great tune to it and when I first heard it I
couldn't get it out of my head. Therefore it really became the song
that I heard in my head. After long contemplation, I also learned
that this song actually has a message behind it's rocky exterior.
In the traditional U2 fashion, I believe that this song is about God
in today's society. So now I'm going to go through my interpretation
of this song, and if you don't agree, well then please Email me with
what you think this song means, I'd be interested in hearing what you
have to say about it.
The song keeps singing these taunting messages to us, things such as
"You can reach, but you can't grab it!" or "It's the way you don't
play that's ok, cause you can't earn it!". If you look at the
lyrics, you'll notice that most of all the verses are made up of
contradictory terms like that, so obviously they are talking about
something that people know, but can't be manipulated.
After the first verse ends, we hear the chorus which proceeds with
"You know your chewing bubble gum,
You know what that is but you still want some.
You just can't get enough, of that lovie dovie stuff."
This is basically saying that we [people in general] know that we are
giving into all the modern trends of the day, ie bubble gum. We also
know what that is [love] but we still want some and we just can't get
enough of it. The lovid dovie stuff makes me think of all the cushy
huggy kissy fucking type of love that people today think that genuine
love is made up of, but as the chorus says, we just can't get enough
of it. We are never satisfied.
The second verse reinforces this with some more of it's contradictory
actions on our part,
"You get confused but you know it,
Yeah you hurt for it work for it LOVE,
But you don't always show it."
This verse is saying that we [people in general again] work for love,
even to the point of pain, but we don't wanna show it to others cause
what we are really working for is genuine love, and that isn't
supported in today's modern "discotheque" society. The following
little chorus "Let's go let's go .... Discotheque!" Doesn't really
have much importance other than for a cool effect.
But then the chorus continues with
"Looking for the one,
But you know your somewhere else instead
You want to be the song,
The song that you hear in your head!"
The one is obviously God, and although we're looking for him, we know
we're looking elsewhere because we don't conciously want to find
him. Instead, we want to be the song that we hear in our own head,
not have God's song guiding our life.
"It's not a trick, cause you can't learn it
It's the way you don't play that's okay, 'cause you can't earn it"
This is just some more contradictory phrases to emphasize that there
is no trick to true love and that we can't earn it by playing any
games.
Then the song wraps up with,
"But you take what you can get,
Cause it's all that you can find,
Oh you know there's something more,
But tonight, tonight, tonight..."
This part sums up most people I have met very nicely, cause they
become content with what they have, because it is what comes easily
to them. And although they know there is more to life, they're just
going to live for tonight.
I hope that this all made sense to you, it sure does to me. If you
couldn't understand what it is that I have interpreted out of this
song, please let me know and I'll try to reword it in a manner that
can be understood by people outside of my head.
Welcome to the second driving force in me. I have to make another
thing clear, my second obsession isn't U2 in general, it's
Discotheque! It's not my favorite song in the world, but it take the
second rank in my obsessions. I hope all of this is making sense to you.
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