U2 song done in class
Peace on Earth (U2 song)
“Peace On Earth” is the eighth track from U2’s 2000 album, All That You Can’t Leave Behind. It was written about the Real IRA Omagh bombing in Northern Ireland on August 15, 1998.
The song lists the names of people (Sean, Julia, Gareth, Anne, and Breda) killed in the Omagh bombing. Similarly, inspiration for the lyric, “She never got to say goodbye / To see the colour in his eye / Now he’s in the dirt” comes from the funeral of James Barker, another victim of the bombing. The Irish Times quoted his mother as stating, “I never realised how green his eyes were.” [1]
After the September 11, 2001 attacks, “Peace on Earth” took on additional meaning and consequently, was used as an encore song in the Elevation Tour (their 2001 tour).
Watch the YouTube clip for Peace on Earth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5j6w1o8S5I
Areas for discussion:
Watching:
What do you notice about the child like clip? Colors/ characters/ images of the earth.
What do you notice about the rhythm of the song? Is it fast or slow? How does it make you feel? Are you listening to the lyrics or simply feeling the rhythm and looking at the visuals?
The Lyrics
Heaven on Earth, we need it now
I’m sick of all of this hanging around
Sick of sorrow, sick of the pain
I’m sick of hearing again and again
That there’s gonna be peace on Earth
[a1]
Where I grew up there weren’t many trees
Where there was we’d tear them down
And use them on our enemies
They say that what you mock
Will surely overtake you
[a2]
And you become a monster
So the monster will not break you
And it’s already gone too far
You say that if you go in hard
You won’t get hurt
[a3]
Jesus can you take the time
To throw a drowning man a line
Peace on Earth
[a4]
[a5] No whos or whys
No one cries like a mother cries
For peace on Earth
[a6]
She never got to say goodbye
To see the colour in his eyes
Now he’s in the dirt
Peace on Earth
[a7]
They’re reading names out over the radio
All the folks the rest of us won’t get to know
Sean and Julia, Gareth, Ann, and Breda
Their lives are bigger than any big idea
[a8]
Jesus can you take the time
To throw a drowning man a line
Peace on Earth
[a9] Jesus and the song you wrote
The words are sticking in my throat
Peace on Earth
[a10]
Hear it every Christmas time
But hope and history won’t rhyme
So what’s it worth
This peace on Earth
Peace on Earth
Peace on Earth[a11]
[a1]Wants action now, sick of waiting sick of listening to people talk.
[a2]Everything in society has been made into weapons to use on our enemies. They tease people and eventually these people come back to overtake you
[a3]You become someone that you really don’t want to be
[a4]Appealing to religious people, to see and act on one god
[a5]The ones that have lost someone they love stop listening
[a6]No explanations
[a7]Personalising the song
[a8]Individual people are more important than the big ideas
[a10]Life / the world and we are destroying it
[a11]They don’t want it to reapeat, life is worth more than all the Christmas presents, why fight for peace if we are going to kill each other.
