reach me now and slabt - do these relate to the band in any way?

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restofit

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I was just listening to the album and this kind of struck me as kind of odd..

although the overarching theme is innocence, every track on SOI is about either directly about bono or the band's experiences, but these two tracks are seemingly odd-one's-out in that they don't seem to have any relevance to bono or the band unless I'm missing something?

does anyone know if are they based on the band's experiences in any way? perhaps there is some kind of subtle and indirect detail in there that has some relevance to bono or the band that someone is able to find in there..
« Last Edit: January 19, 2020, 03:53:57 AM by restofit »

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riffraff

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Re: reach me now and slabt - do these relate to the band in any way?
« Reply #1 on: January 19, 2020, 06:07:06 AM »
Interesting question. I've wondered that myself - specifically about SLABT.
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guest532

Re: reach me now and slabt - do these relate to the band in any way?
« Reply #2 on: January 19, 2020, 07:06:55 AM »
Interesting question. I've wondered that myself - specifically about SLABT.

It's what was going on in the background as Bono grew up in Ireland.


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riffraff

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Re: reach me now and slabt - do these relate to the band in any way?
« Reply #3 on: January 19, 2020, 07:11:57 AM »
Interesting question. I've wondered that myself - specifically about SLABT.

It's what was going on in the background as Bono grew up in Ireland.
hmmm. thanks.
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laoghaire

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Re: reach me now and slabt - do these relate to the band in any way?
« Reply #4 on: January 19, 2020, 08:52:21 AM »
TIWYCRMN is definitely about the band/Bono.

The old man is Bob.

They signed up - not for the army but for the band. It's the moment when they became totally committed to this life.

The double decker bus into College Square is how they saw The Clash for the first time, and that was it, they/he were like "this is what we/I want to do."

SLABT I assume was like Raised by Wolves, things happening as they grew up, possibly affecting people they knew, but certainly affecting the fabric of society.

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restofit

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Re: reach me now and slabt - do these relate to the band in any way?
« Reply #5 on: January 19, 2020, 03:47:04 PM »
OK, I wrote this half asleep last night and I was supposed to be asking about The Troubles and Sleep Like A Baby Tonight not This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now..

I've heard that the Troubles is about abuse.. being dominated by someone else, to the extent that you take on 'the shape of someone else's pain' but could it also be about the 70s civil war violence in Ireland and the victims who died from car bombs just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time?
« Last Edit: January 19, 2020, 03:49:02 PM by restofit »

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laoghaire

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Re: reach me now and slabt - do these relate to the band in any way?
« Reply #6 on: January 19, 2020, 04:38:12 PM »
Yeah. Abuse takes many shapes.

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The Edges Cat

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Re: reach me now and slabt - do these relate to the band in any way?
« Reply #7 on: January 19, 2020, 04:54:43 PM »
SLABT is definitely about what was going in Ireland with the Catholic church. Pretty sure I remember one of the band talking about their close friend being a victim of abuse?

Here's a good article that gives some more context to SLABT and how it fits in SoI:

https://www.ncronline.org/news/media/bono-and-guggi-friendship-based-art-punk-rock-and-jesus
« Last Edit: January 19, 2020, 05:09:17 PM by The Edges Cat »
The Edge: “[Eno] would love to see us making albums a bit more like [Zooropa]. Where we go, ‘You know what? We’re not going to second-guess any of this. Let’s just go for it.’”

U2 Fans: We'd all love to see that, Edge.

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Codeguy

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Re: reach me now and slabt - do these relate to the band in any way?
« Reply #8 on: January 19, 2020, 05:02:53 PM »
Yeah Bono did an interview where he talked about Troubles being about physical and emotional abuse
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riffraff

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Re: reach me now and slabt - do these relate to the band in any way?
« Reply #9 on: January 19, 2020, 05:03:50 PM »
The lyric certainly do fit physical and emotional abuse.
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laoghaire

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Re: reach me now and slabt - do these relate to the band in any way?
« Reply #10 on: January 19, 2020, 05:10:16 PM »
The question restofit is asking is how personal are these songs.

I consider "let me take some of the punches for you tonight" to be literal. I don't know if The Troubles is about that, though.

I don't really need to know who they are about if they don't care to share.

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Re: reach me now and slabt - do these relate to the band in any way?
« Reply #11 on: January 19, 2020, 05:30:50 PM »
Agree. It can be a very personal subject.
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The Edges Cat

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Re: reach me now and slabt - do these relate to the band in any way?
« Reply #12 on: January 19, 2020, 06:19:29 PM »
Old man says that we never listen
We shout about what we don't know
We're taking the path of most resistance
The only way for us to go

Definitely Bob, Bono and he butted heads constantly over Bono's choice in career.
« Last Edit: January 19, 2020, 07:10:33 PM by The Edges Cat »
The Edge: “[Eno] would love to see us making albums a bit more like [Zooropa]. Where we go, ‘You know what? We’re not going to second-guess any of this. Let’s just go for it.’”

U2 Fans: We'd all love to see that, Edge.

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Zeropartii

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Re: reach me now and slabt - do these relate to the band in any way?
« Reply #13 on: January 19, 2020, 06:25:03 PM »
A priest they knew liked pasta


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restofit

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Re: reach me now and slabt - do these relate to the band in any way?
« Reply #14 on: January 19, 2020, 07:34:52 PM »
Yeah Bono did an interview where he talked about Troubles being about physical and emotional abuse

Ok sure, but how does it relate to them?

“We wanted to make a very personal album,” Bono told Rolling Stone. “Let’s try to figure out why we wanted to be in a band, the relationships around the band, our friendships, our lovers, our family. The whole album is first journeys — first journeys geographically, spiritually, sexually. And that’s hard. But we went there.”
« Last Edit: January 19, 2020, 07:37:47 PM by restofit »