Bono Is A GENIUS! | Lyrical ANALYSIS of U2's "Mysterious Ways" | Reaction 

Achtung Baby is a career defining album. U2 decided they didn’t want to be pigeonholed or boxed in by their serious image of the 80s, and they understood how to give people something new and fresh while still remaining loyal to what made their sound interesting to begin with. I’ve always had respect for their willingness to experiment and not take the whole idea of being a rock band too seriously

I love when you grin and say "U2 is so cool, man!" I was in high school when this came out - totally blew my mind. I remember the melody to 'One' was constantly stuck in my head - vivid memory humming it while washing dishes, thinking "what is this?!" Then I heard "Mysterious Ways", and I was hooked. Just incredible.

Bono always seemed to be exploring his spirituality, humanity via his lyrics. He became an important humanitarian during the late 90s. Even convincing the Bush Admin to send AIDS drugs to Africa. U2 was the last, great, stadium band.

I can't wait for you to react to them live. Some of my favorite U2 songs that are not the main hits are "A Sort of Homecoming", Running to Stand Still" and "Ultra Violet".

For a deep dive into 'Achtung Baby' you should watch 'From the Sky Down' about the the lead up to and making of this masterpiece, the turmoil and process the band went through as they re-discovered their group identity. I think it's a documentary you'd really enjoy, after you react to a few more tracks from the record! Ultraviolet, and Acrobat are two tracks that you should definitely check out.

U2 were in a state of flux with this album and they chose to demonstrate that visually along with the music. It was apparently a calculated decision to do so as they were trying to break away from what they felt people thought of them from their last outing in the 80s (i.e.: the stoic, moody pilgrims wandering the desert). So this video along with others like Even Better than the Real Thing were rife with oversaturated colors, unorthodox camera work and the guys suited up in the artifice of rock stars. It was a pretty bold move in retrospect - at a time when grunge was exploding, (which, at its core was essentially just a strain of punk - awesome, but hardly new), U2 looked to the future and embraced progress and change (for good or ill). Whether it was introducing electronic drum loops and synth rhythms to their music to unleashing the techno mind-f*ckery of ZOO TV upon the world, they went all-in on high-art. It was a high-stakes gamble (they payed for that tour out of their own pocket and despite it being a monstrous success and still touted as a game-changer to this day; had it been anything less, it would have broken them financially.) But hey, they pulled it off. As Bono once said "I couldn't believe we were able to afford it; I couldn't believe we got away with it!" It was a remarkable album because while at first listen, it sounds like a fun record to play when you're getting ready to go out for a night on the town, but it is actually - at it's core- a pretty heavy body of work. It is rife with biblical-grade betrayal, seedy hedonism, conflict, false-hope, lust and jaded regret. But they brilliantly dressed it all up in lights and Fly shades while blinding us with walls of 100 ft TV screens. Hex, drugs and Achtung Baby! indeed ; it will be a long time before we see a band quite like this make an album quite like that again. Oh and Anton, if you find this era of the band interesting, I recommend a book by a guy named Bill Flannigan who wrote "U2: At the End of the World". It's a record of this period of the band when they were touring with ZOO TV and is a pretty wild and entertaining read. Cheers ~ PS - While Adam was up to no good for a time (some drugs but mostly started drinking too much), he had his wake up call after infamously missing a gig in Sydney the night before they were going live to the planet while recording their ZOO TV Live from Sydney video. He had broken up with his supermodel girlfriend and went on a bender - they found him passed out so his technician had to play the show in his place - (the famous Stu-TV gig !). The second show, just a night later, was broadcast and recorded live - if you watch it, poor Adam is hung over af and is literally white as a ghost. Anyway, he thankfully cleaned himself up after that and basically drinks tea now ; )

good reaction i agree they are very special. my favourite band! they carried the spirit from beatles, then abba, then these guys

U2 went to High school 2gether.............Larry had an auditiion at his house in Dublin,,,,They were in to punk like the 'Ramones'

It's fun to watch someone come to know U2 and their greatness. I do wish you would do live versions if possible because as great as they are in studio, they are even better live. One Tree Hill, Dirty Day, Kite and Discotheque are a few 'off the beaten path' tunes I think you will enjoy.

My favorite from this album is Ultraviolet (Light My Way) but Zoo Station and The Fly are also great. New Year's Day, one of their earliest singles, is fantastic. With or Without You and Every Breaking Wave (suggest the album cut, the video is very distracting), and California are great too. Thanks for mentioning The Edge, his guitar is so very majestic and always just so right. It makes me happy to see your growing appreciation of U2, one of the greatest bands of all time. Great reaction Anton!

Good video as usual, keep it up! I have just two suggestions and they're optional you don't have to listen to them(one by U2 and one by Queen). For U2 you should do their 2 songs that were performed at Live Aid (U2- Sunday Bloody Sunday (Live Aid 1985) and U2- Bad (Live Aid 1985). These are separate videos but they are one performance so maybe listen to them in one video?) For Queen you should also do their Live Aid performance. Both Queen and U2 earned a lot of fame from this concert and it's a cool experience. If you don't feel like doing 2 U2 videos then I would suggest an Achtung Baby song (since you watched this and got into the albums sound) titled "U2- Love Is Blindness & Can't Help Falling In Love (Zoo TV Live From Sydney)". Again if you have the time to do these that would be great, if not then I understand. Once again good video keep up the amazing content! ❤️

You should watch the U2 documentary called From The Sky Down - great insight into their song writing process, which is very interesting. The band mates and producers say Bono invents his own language “Bonoglease” because he mumbles mumbo jumbo when the edge is playing new notes. This mumbo jumbo somehow ends up being bonos incredible lyrics

you should react to 'U2 - The fly (official music video)' and 'U2 - Stay (official Music video)'

More U2 songs, man, they (and you) are great!

So glad that you're feeling better Anton. Also my favorite U2 song is "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". Hopefully you'll react to that song some day.

U2 were amazing in the 80’s. So many unbelievable albums and songs. They then went away in 1989 to dream it all up again. They returned in 1991 with Achtung Baby. The music and the Zoo Tv concert was like something from the future. Unbelievable. Achtung Baby is the best album U2 produced IMO. So far ahead of it’s time. Even Pop was good. They were so experimental it was just amazing. Please listen to some other songs not so know. Love is Blindness, Walk on the Water and Luminous Times. Love is Blindness was on Achtung Baby but the other two were B Sides. Most bands would kill to have both on any album. Haunting.

Hey Anton, I really appreciate your thoughtful reactions. So "she" in this song is the holy spirit from Christian theology. Notice the end where Bono interchanges she and spirit, she moves, spirit moves. Personally I'm not a Christian but I appreciate u2s use of Christian themes and imagery. One thing they are great at is allowing imagery to carry the song so that the lyrics are rather abstract. I think this allows the listener to make their own interpretation of the song. So even though this one is written about the holy spirit, your interpretation that it is about romantic love is just as valid. A similar effect occurs with their song until the end of the world. Many people assume it is about romantic love but it is actually the story of Jesus betrayal and death from the perspective of the one who betrays him, Judas. It's a great song, as are many other u2 songs.

Masterpiece. What's amazing is you can't find anything to change about the song. Perfect production and sonic delivery.

Man, I remember when I was a kid and this song would play on MTV. I'd think, What a weird video, who the hell are these guys? Little did I know that they'd become very important to me later in life and I'd be seeing them in concert a million times.

To answer your question at 1:38. Bono or the rest of the band haven’t done drugs that we know of. Only the bassist Adam Clayton got caught with possession of weed in 1989/1990 and has been completely sober since then. Other than that there has been no evidence of U2 doing drugs. I’m sure they have sometime in the past but it hasn’t been out in the public haha. U2 does like to party and have a few drinks tho!

Excellent reaction, review. Sincerely, *U2's PoP* (1997) album is one of their greatest, yet grossly underrated record. The lead single "Discotheque" is purely awesome. Other spectacular tracks include "Mofo", "Staring at the Sun", "Gone", "Miami", "If You Wear That Velvet Dress", "Please" & "Wake-up Deadman" are all so versatile, amazing unforgettable songs on a brilliant album.

Greatest concert ever zoo tv 1992. U want to see extreme greatness...watch u2 zoo tv live in Sydney 1993. Every song is u2s best..."especially bullet the blue sky"

Bono used to pull an audience member from the crowd during this song. If u want to check out some of the live versions. In one at a Dublin concert, he pulls his daughter on stage

This song is alllll Larry ! Achtung Baby is actually one of the greatest albums ever written !

oldie but goodie

Also if you want a funky U2 music video - Even Better Than The Real Thing is probably their best. You should check out their live stuff by the way, that’s where they live, live.

Mysterious Ways live from ZooTV was pretty amazing. So was Mysterious Ways live from Irving Plaza. Both were incredible versions of this song.

Agreed with everything you said. REM is also one of those bands. U2, REM, and Pink Floyd are my top bands. Tory Amos, Peter Gabriel, and Kate Bush are up there with them.

Great Rection! Really enjoyed it. I really think you should try some more of the Achtung Baby album but perhaps explore a little more of the rock driven songs. Achtung Baby has no filler...the whole album is classic but U2 has more edgier (no pun intended lol) sounds you can check out. Just some suggestions. The Fly, Even Better than the Real Thing, Zoo Station, Until the End of the World or Ultraviolet. Looking forward to your next reaction either way!

I recomend you the live versión of this one at Sidney. SALUTS! 👋🏻😊

I know this is older, but I remembered you asking about if Bono or the rest of them were into psychedelics. I said before that I don't think so. I do know and wanted to mention to you that many of their songs (lyrics mainly written by Bono but the others contribute) lyrically ask, discuss or ponder spiritual questions. Many are many things rolled into one. There are also several where he is singing about several things such as his wife, and women in general (this one is women in general, but also there are the bible references). He wrote several songs that contained lyrics about his mother, and many about his existential feelings about whether he could be in a rock band and still be a Christian. There's one song where he's said when he does it live, the song ends and he suddenly realizes he's telling 50,000 people how he feels about his life without having his mother in it. I think more so than many others, he almost completely loses, immerses himself in the songs when he's singing them, especially live. It's interesting to see when he's so wrapped up in it, although he's also trying to kind of make himself and the audience as one as well at the same time. Interesting character and band.

'She' is Love.❤Check out 'You're So Cruel,' from the same fantastic album.✌

I have so much to say to u as u are discovering the best live band in history. As u get deeper into U2 catalog I would encourage you to stop and go back to the beginning and work your way up through each and every album you will be blown away. I was lucky enough to discover them in the beginning and after 40+ years I can say they are part of me. The next time they go on tour you really need to go see them it will be a spiritual experience for you. Enjoy 🎉

Look into "Sorry" by Kensington. A Dutch band. Very strong lyrics.

Huge U2 fan and trying to decide on THE U2 song that summarizes the band that’s not obvious (like Bad). I am going with New Years Day

As to music videos, it's usually the directors job, so I don't think U2 members had something to do with the visual aspects.

Bono once said they didn't want to be the biggest band in the world they wanted to be the best

Paul Hewson aka Bono is deeply religious, still married to the woman he met in 1976 and as far as I know he is not into drugs.

Oh, I'm totally down to see you do an interpretive dance of this song or painting if you prefer. 🙂 I'm glad your appreciation is developing and evolving. There is so much more in lyrics, trippy videos, just how and where they went from here is really interesting. This is from Achtung Baby (as was One and so many more really good ones) which was a big diversion from their previous work, then it got really different, but really cool! Then, they did something else different, and so on. Okay, I lied. I had more to say. >.

You have to do U2 Until the End of the World its alot darker and more of a heavier rock song and it has an epic guitar solo

Here's a good cross-section of powerful U2 live performances to check out: Please @ MTV Music Awards (1997), All I Want is You / Where the Streets Have No Name @ Slane Castle (2001) , Electric Co from Vertigo tour Chicago (2005), Magnificent @ Madison Square Garden (2009), Every Breaking Wave @ MTV VMA's (2014). All incredible performances. :)

Oh yeah, they were never into drugs really. But if anyone did psychedelics it would be Adam :)

psychedelic question only member to do psychedelics is the edge he did it once thought he discovered the meaning of life recorded it on an old audio recorder he found and had his finger over the mic

You want a fun live performance from U2? Check out their performance of "Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car" from Zoo TV (the Zooropa tour). Absolutely legendary, and you get to see a really intriguing, fascinating aspect to Bono's inhabiting of live performance personas that he had so much fun with in the 90s ...

The Achtung Baby album is probably the second favorite after the Joshua Tree in the fan community as far as I noticed over the last years. Such wonderful songs! One little fun fact. The dancer in the video is The Edges wife 😊

Great commentary on how using art can help explain how someone's art affects you. Read many years ago the SHE in mysterious ways is the Holy Spirit. Trying to understand the incomprendable which is the Holy Spirit- you can feel it, but you can't see it or explain it...just let go and let the Holy Spirit works its mystery.

You know how you said you love Bono's ad libbing? If you like that, you are gonna love their live stuff. It's his thing - he's done it in every live performance they've ever done lol! He also forgets what he's done in the past, so it isn't scripted. He goes with how he feels in the moment. In live versions of their songs, Edge and Adam are often seen watching him closely probably because they never know what he'll do next lol. The band members have joked how he'll disappear during performances and be up on a scaffolding or off talking to someone in deep conversation, then they have to play however/whatever until he comes back. Must be a little annoying. But, they're all lifelong friends and more like family than anything. Oh, you also said that Edge may come up with an idea and it's interesting to see where they go with it. I've found recently that Edge comes up with a lot of ideas. For the album October, their second when they were still essentially kids, Bono had his case stolen with all his lyrics. All they had for the album were bits and pieces of guitar, bass, or drum parts, and he had to put lyrics to all of them cold and they had to make songs and then an album out of it. I recently found that Edge came up with the bass line for a (really good) song of theirs and so, according to Adam (the bassist) Edge played bass for that (studio and all live versions) and he (Adam) 'got to play guitar like Jimi Hendrix'. Kinda cute comment; jazzed to get to play guitar lol! You want some live to compare, so I'm starting with Live Aid version of Bad because that's what jump started their career and made the world love them. After that, I'll request some others that you've heard and seen the studios of. And more -- there are so many great live versions of their songs. One of their biggest and played on MTV endlessly from Joshua Tree: With or Without You is incredible live. It's one I was blown away by when I went to their concert. Had heard it and seen the studio vid a million times, but probably was open-mouthed at it in concert. They, he - just so dynamic or - some quality I can't put my finger on...

You can tell us what you think but not how it makes you feel, yes? That’s just it with art. It takes someone very skilled with language to be an art critic; a good one at least. I, of course have more to say later 😁💜

There is so much speculation over what the song is about, it could be about so many things from romantic relationships to the feminine divine (mysterious ways). I did find a quote by Bono though and it tracks with what I have heard about how he views women: "Mysterious Ways" is not about a particular woman. It is about women in general, and the way they entrance, and often dominate men. At times I do tend to idealize women. It's easy to fall into the trap of separating them into angels and devils for the sake of the drama. But there's no way that there's ever anything anti-women involved. Our songs are not politically correct. They are written from a man's point of view...." I have read some interesting info on how the song itself came about though. U2 was looking to change their sound, and had a one-note bass line and that's it. They kind of wanted a new direction with their music for the time (beginning of the 90s). The Edge started playing around with a new pedal and had been listening to electronic dance music and hard core guitar sounds, and came up with the hard driving guitar sound in the song. They'd been calling the bare bones of the song 'Sick Puppy'. What they ended up with, then was the repetitive bass line and Edge's aggressive guitar sound. That didn't cut it, but the various members contributed their individual talents to form it into what it became and they considered it their, to date, funkiest sound (as you commented). The Edge came up with the 'It's all right' saying 'well, we've never used that phrase'. It was filmed in Morocco and the belly dancer featured in the video, Morleigh Steinberg, ended up marrying The Edge. That's it, a short(er) one for a change. 🙂

one piece of advice. Think about how they make you feel, and how to articulate that with words if thats what you are wanting to communicate via these videos.

This documentary is highly recommended if you want to know more about The Edge and it's called It Might Get Loud (2008) and features Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White.

If by pyschedelic you mean Catholic, then yes.

No psychedelics. They’re Christians and this song is about The Holy Spirit

Anton Please Please mate please react to the U2 link below I've dropped this link a few times for you to do but you keep bypassing it Please make this you're next song it's U2 live and it's where they are at they're best not on Album "

U2 don't make their own video's, they hire people for that ;-)

I dont think any of them was much into psychedelic drugs.