It was February 24, 1992 when one of the Irish band’s symbolic songs was born. It was the third song from an equally well-known album, the band’s seventh in the studio: Achtung Baby. Album placed in 62nd place among the 500 best albums of all time by Rolling Stone magazine.
For Sony, One is in fifth place among the most popular songs of all time. Q Magazine placed it at number one, while Rolling Stone placed it at number 36.
The origins of One
One was born in a difficult moment for the band. U2 were going through a period of crisis, they were close to an artistic break but the song managed to bring Bono, Adam, Larry and Edge closer together, as told by the band themselves in the documentary From the sky down:
Written between Berlin and Dublin, the album is considered by many to be the band’s absolute masterpiece together with The Joshua Tree but it marks a turning point in their genre. Electronics make their entrance and Edge’s guitar finds more and more space, influencing most of the songs.
The meaning of One
One is among them. A few seconds and anyone will be able to recognize which song it is. The meaning of the song has long been debated. The most obvious is that of a romantic ballad, which tells of the difficult separation between two lovers but there are many possible interpretations, demonstrating that the message that U2 wanted to send was truly universal.
One knows how to tell multiple stories at the same time, that of a father and a son with HIV, the end of a love, such as that between The Edge and his first wife Aislinn, but also the conflictual relationship between Bono and his father Bob, after the premature death of his mother Iris.
Other interpretations suggest that “One” may be intended as a hymn to oneness in a spiritual sense, or as a metaphor for the reunification of Germany, also considering the time the band spent in Germany while writing the song.
Even though it tells of a separation, One is the opposite. It is a hymn to union, spiritual and physical, to love understood as “higher law”, as “temple”. And in the name of this union we cannot cling to pain but try to live in the name of sharing, overcoming every division: “One life, with each other, sisters, brothers”.
The most widely shared interpretation is the one that connects the text to Bono’s life, in particular to his difficult experience after the death of his mother, when he was only fourteen. The text indeed seems to explore the challenges of facing and overcoming such a significant loss.
The videos
There are three videos shot to promote the single and each of them gives its own interpretation to the song right from the title. The first was filmed in Berlin by Anton Corbijn. It tells of a son, Bono, who confesses to his father that he has been affected by the HIV virus and that he is gay. The second video opens on a floral panorama with buffaloes, on which stands a shower of papers with the word One written on them in different languages. The third, the most famous, shows Bono sitting in a bar, drinking beer and smoking a cigar.
There have been many interpretations, covers and duets by Bono himself with other artists:
A song that we will never stop listening to and that always gives us new meanings.
The lyrics of One
Is it getting better, or do you feel the same?
Will it make it easier on you, now you got someone to blame?
You say one love, one life, when it’s one need in the night.
One love, we get to share it
Leaves you baby if you don’t care for it.
Did I disappoint you or leave a bad taste in your mouth?
You act like you never had love and you want me to go without.
Well, it’s too late tonight to drag the past out into the light.
We’re one, but we’re not the same.
We get to carry each other, carry each other… one
Have you come here for forgiveness,
Have you come to raise the dead
Have you come here to play Jesus to the lepers in your head
Did I ask too much, more than a lot
You gave me nothing, now it’s all I got.
We’re one, but we’re not the same.
Well, we hurt each other, then we do it again.
You say love is a temple, love a higher law
Love is a temple, love the higher law.
You ask me to enter, but then you make me crawl
And I can’t be holding on to what you got, when all you got is hurt.
One love, one blood, one life, you got to do what you should.
One life with each other: sisters, brothers.
One life, but we’re not the same.
We get to carry each other, carry each other.
One, one.
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