In "Tomorrow," a track from U2’s 1981 album October, Bono plunges into the raw, haunting depths of personal loss with an intensity that cuts straight to the bone.
On its surface, the song carries a foreboding weight that seems to speak to the tragedies of the broader world, particularly the violence and death in Northern Ireland.
But beneath this, "Tomorrow" is profoundly personal, rooted in Bono’s harrowing experience of his mother’s death.
At the age of 14, Bono’s mother, Iris Hewson, collapsed from a brain hemorrhage during her father’s funeral and died just a few days later. This event marked the future U2 frontman with an indelible scar, one that echoes through much of U2's early work. The song's reflection on mourning, loss, and longing taps into both the intimate and the universal, weaving Bono’s personal grief into a wider contemplation of death and spirituality.
The song’s lyrics vividly evoke the morning of Iris Hewson's funeral, with haunting imagery of a black car parked by the roadside and a knock at the door.
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| Iris with Bono and husband 'Bob'. |
These scenes bring to life the surreal, almost dreamlike quality of death’s arrival, a feeling many who have experienced sudden loss will recognize. Bono’s refusal to "go to the door" (A complete opposite need to the character in The Rolling Stone's Paint it Black which U2 would later cover) speaks to his youthful denial, a deep unwillingness to face the harsh reality of his mother’s death.
The black car, a metaphor for the funeral procession, symbolizes the inevitability of the event, pulling him toward a ritual he’s not ready to participate in. It’s a stark portrayal of a young boy’s helplessness in the face of something so overwhelming, an expression of grief that Bono may not have fully understood until later in life.
As the song progresses, there is a profound shift in the narrative. The repeated refrain of "Won’t you come back tomorrow" reflects an impossible yearning for his mother’s return, an emotional cry against the finality of death. Bono’s repetition of these lines hints at a circular, almost obsessive grief—one that keeps coming back, night after night, haunting the dreams of the living.
There’s a desperate sense of bargaining here, a pleading for just one more day, one more moment with her. This longing bleeds into a greater existential crisis, asking not only for her physical return but also for a way to heal the wounds and the scars left in the wake of her death.
Spirituality, always a central theme in U2’s music, takes on particular resonance in "Tomorrow." The latter part of the song finds Bono turning towards religious imagery as a source of solace. "Open up to the love of God," he sings, weaving Christian hope into his grief. For Bono, raised in a household divided between his Protestant mother and Catholic father, faith became a complex but essential part of his identity.
In the song’s closing moments, there’s a merging of his grief for his mother with a yearning for redemption through Christ. "Jesus is coming," he declares, offering a glimmer of hope that in the afterlife, they will be reunited. This spiritual longing provides a counterpoint to the song’s earlier despair, hinting at a future where death does not have the final word.
Bono would later return to address the loss of his mother in Iris (Hold Me Close).
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