"Kite" Lyrics U2




"Kite" Lyrics U2

The idea for the song came from a kite-flying outing on Killiney Hill overlooking Dublin Bay that Bono attempted with his daughters. The outing went quickly awry when the kite crashed and one of the girls asked to go home and play a video game.

So the Kite was probably at first written with Bono's daughters in mind, or more generally, about a kite as a metaphor for someone or something escaping one's realm of control. The Edge assisted Bono in writing the lyrics and has suggested that they were actually about Bono's emotionally-reserved father, Bob Hewson, who was dying of cancer at the time. When Bob did die, the lyric 'last of the rock stars' was changed to 'last of the opera star's when sung live, reflecting Bob's past opera career.

Kite Lyrics:

Something is about to give
I can feel it coming
I think I know what it is
I'm not afraid to die
I'm not afraid to live
And when I'm flat on my back
I hope to feel like I did
'Cause hardness, it sets in
You need some protection
The thinner the skin
I want you to know
That you don't need me anymore
I want you to know
You don't need anyone, anything at all

Who's to say where the wind will take you
Who's to say what it is will break you
I don't know which way the wind will blow
Who's to know when the time has come around
Don't wanna see you cry
I know this is not goodbye

In summer I can taste the salt in the sea
There's a kite blowing out of control on a breeze
I wonder what's gonna happen to you
You wonder what has happened to me
I'm a man, I'm not a child
A man who sees the shadow behind your eyes

Who's to say where the wind will take you
Who's to say what it is will break you
I don't know where the wind will blow
Who's to know when the time has come around
I don't wanna see you cry
I know that this is not goodbye

Did I waste it
Not so much I couldn't taste it
Life should be fragrant
Rooftop to the basement
The last of the rockstars
When hip-hop drove the big cars
In the time when new media
Was the big idea
That was the big idea

Bono would go onto to write Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own with his father in mind.

Check out U2's lyrics to Beautiful Day.

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