'You’re The Best Thing About Me ' U2 song lyrics

U2's 'You’re The Best Thing About Me ' song lyrics from Songs of Experience

You’re The Best Thing About Me is from the Songs of Experience album. Officially, it was the first single to be released.

A song called Blackout was released as a live video earlier.

The blue cover art features the Edge's Daughter.

A remix on the song has been released. It's called "You're the Best Thing About Me (U2 Vs. Kygo)", Kygo being the remixer. This is a return to past U2 roots - as in the 1990's U2 were really into remixes - the Paul Oakenfold version of Even Better than the Real thing charted higher than the original! U2 have also released two other versions of the song, an acoustic version and a 'sci-fi soul mix' which is intended to be the preferred format for radio stations.

The lyrics meaning are almost cryptic. Bono said this about the song to Rolling Stone Magazine:

"We must resist surrendering to melancholy for only the most special moments. That's a long way to say check our new single out, "You're the Best Thing About Me," it's kind of like punk Supremes."

Poets eh?

'You’re The Best Thing About Me ' song lyrics by U2

When you look so good
The pain in your face doesn’t show
When you look so good
And baby, you don’t even know

When the world is ours
But the world is not your kind of thing
Full of shooting stars
Brighter as they’re vanishing

Oh, you’ve seen enough
To know it’s children who teach
You’re still free enough
To wake up on a bed or a beach

You’re the best thing about me
The best thing that ever happened
A boy
You’re the best thing about me
I’m the kind of trouble that you enjoy
You’re the best thing about me
The best things are easy to destroy
You’re the best thing about me
The best thing about me

I been crying out
How bad can a good time be
Shooting off my mouth
That’s another great thing about me

I have everything
But I feel like nothing at all
There’s no risky thing
For a man who’s determined to fall

You’re the best thing about me
The best thing that ever happened
A boy
You’re the best thing about me
I’m the kind of trouble that you enjoy
You’re the best thing about me
The best things are easy to destroy
You’re the best thing about me
Why am I walking away
Walking away
Why am I walking away

Edge sings this next verse:

I can see it all so clearly
I can see what you can’t see
I can see you lover her loudly
When she needs you quietly

And back to Bono:

You’re the best thing about me
The best things are easy to destroy
You’re the best thing about me
Why am I
Why am I walking away
Walking away
Why am I walking away

Here's the official U2 video of the song which features the band having a good time in New York.

Some other titles of songs mentioned by Bono for the Songs of Experience album include:

1. The Little Things that give you away
2. Red Flag Day
3. The Showman (Much More Better)
4. Summer of Love

Dear Bono, why is Everything I Know Wrong? What do you mean?

Dear Bono, why is everything I know wrong? or 10 Questions to ask Bono!

If I had some kind of miracle opportunity to sit down with U2's Bono I'm not sure where I'd start.

Perhaps we'd start with some red wine, and ask his his best Darth Vader quote from Star Wars.  I'd compliment him on his efforts to reduce third-world debt and make a joke about George Bush or Trump.

I'd then hit him with these 10 questions about U2, and their lyrics and get him to explain why he thinks everything I know is wrong.

10 Questions to ask Bono

1. What does Salmon Rushie think of the almost surprise success of The Ground Beneath her Feet?
2. Family is important. What's the most important song in the U2 catalog where the lyrics consider family? It's probably the whole of Songs of Innocence right?
3. What is the worst lyric you have ever written that was recorded. Is it Salome?
4. Discuss the lyric 'Dream Out Loud'. Why have you written it into three U2 songs?
5. Do you ever hear 'lepers in your head'?
6. If U2 had it's own version Fight Club, what would its rules be? And if anyone in the band had to be Robert Paulson, who would it be?
7. When I was young and impressionable I had a poster on my wall that featured a Zoo TV concert and its said 'Every Thing You Know is Wrong'. To me as a 17 year old teenager that made perfect sense. As a thirty something with a mortgage, I wondering if should have paid more attention in English class. Bono, how do you know everything I know is wrong?
8. Have you ever punched The Edge?
9. Have you ever thrown up on stage?
10. Does it amuse you that the remix of Even Better Then The Real Thing charted higher than the original version?

U2 songs with lyrics about War, Soldiers, Civilians and Civility

I've got soul but I'm not a soldier

U2: War, Soldiers, Civilians and Civility

GNR once asked in a song 'what's so civil about war anyway?'

U2 seem to write songs with lyrics about war in some form or another on just about every album they've released.

Except for Boy, that album was just full of stories....ahem.

U2's lyrical references to war heated up with the release of U2 first truly 'popular' album War. Marking Bono's ascent into a true lyrical monster, War's songs features thoughts on soldiers shooting protesting civilians in Sunday Bloody Sunday.

Seconds reflects on terrorist actions in trying to set off atomic bombs (a theme U2 often turn to) in an supposed attempt to to cause nuclear war.

Maybe.

Maybe they just want us all to give peace a chance like John Lennon did.

Winter

A song probably taken from the No Line on the Horizon album recording sessions, Winter was used in the soundtrack for the Wim Wenders film. Brothers (U2 have a long association with Wim - he directed their video for Stay and Until the End of the World was used for the film of the same name).

Winter is about is a song about the experience of the armed forces in Afghanistan, where Winder's film is set.

The Unforgettable Fire

Inspired by paintings that were about the nuclear bombs that were dropped on the two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki to effectively end Japan's involvement in World War II.

The Unforgettable Fire is not just a reflection not on war but the last effect the atomic bombs had on the people of Japan.

Bullet the Blue Sky

Arguably the most political song U2 has ever written, at least it's probably the most popular one! The lyrics are a savage indictment on American foreign policy.

Miss Sarejevo from Original Soundtracks Vol 1.

Please don't let them kill us...

When Bono asks if there's a time for East 17 (a boy band that everyone has now forgotten) during the Bonsnian War, you've gotta ask what he's talking about.

The song's lyrics actually praises the rebellious spirit of the Sarajevan people who refused to surrender their way of life during the conflict.

And what did they do? They staged a beauty contest.

Which clearly inspired the chorus of the song, "Here she comes, heads turn around, here she comes, to take her crown".

Please

If you could consider that the IRA's disgraceful and disgusting campaign against the people of Ireland was a civil war of sorts then Please is U2 exhorting Ireland's Political leaders to stop the civil war they had been waging.

Mothers of the Disappeared

A lyrical expression of the suffering experienced by the mothers and grandmothers of the thousands of children abducted during the conflict in Central America during the late 1970s through to the mid 1980s, particularly during Argentina's so called "Dirty War" (1976-1983).

The Dirty war was a civil-style war that the American government covertly sanctioned in a bid to stop the 'communist threat' that was pervading at the time.

Given this song was written in the mid 80s one can see how it's a cousin of sorts to Bullet the Blue Sky - indeed both songs appeared on the Joshua Tree album.