“I’m Not Your Baby,” a collaboration between U2 and Sinéad O’Connor, explores themes of autonomy, emotional boundaries, gender roles, and identity within relationships.
The song voices a woman's firm rejection of being objectified, controlled, or rescued, asserting self-definition in the face of societal and romantic expectations.
Lines like “Don’t want you to cover me, smother me or mother me” reflect a resistance to conventional roles projected onto women: lover, caretaker, victim. O’Connor’s vocal delivery, intimate and defiant, centers a personal narrative of reclamation, layered with wit and sarcasm.
The tension between exposure and withdrawal, desire and detachment, underscores the broader search for individuality and self-possession.
I'm not your baby ' lyrics by U2 and Sinead OÇonner
It's a beautiful day today, everything is going my way
Even the words do what I say, oh babe, got to get away
To be impossible, isn't that difficult
In the city you're invisible, when you come from a small town
Everything is all right, everything is all right
I'm not your baby, please
A tourist in a traffic jam, baby sham and handy cam
I'm not your mother, you're not my man, I'm not your baby
Don't treat me like I'm a trick, I won't treat you like you're a prick
Don't need no doctor, I'm not ill, I'm not your baby
Everything is all right, everything is all right
I'm not your baby, please
Cut out the poetry, lets hit the main artery
No time for a tourniquet, the colors all run out of me
You brought me all kinds of goods, now my heart is so full up it hurts
It's heavy as a shopping bag, it's full of things I should give back
Everything is all right, everything is all right
I'm not your baby, please
I'm not your baby
I'm not your baby
Don't want you to cover me, smother me or mother me
I like to feel this incomplete, I'm not your baby
Everything is all right, everything is all right
I'm not your baby, please
Not dizzy, just busy, didn't drink nothing fizzy
No pills to feel easy, don't know what got into me
Daylight's a kind of robbery, the night is your geography
So you're not white, you're pink and rosy
You could be right, but you're way above me
Me, I'm in recovery, a star of pornography
I'm a tourist, there's a lot to see
You don't like the photographs of me
So you've got a lot to say
You don't sleep around, but sometimes you stray
You don't believe, often times you pray
For something, what is it babe
Don't treat me like I'm a trick, I won't treat you like you're a prick
Don't need no doctor, I'm not sick, I'm not your baby
Everything is all right, everything is all right
I'm not your baby, please
I'm not your baby, I'm not your baby, I'm not your baby
I'm not your baby, I'm not your baby, I'm not your baby
I'm not your baby
U2’s history with Sinéad O’Connor adds contextual weight to this track. Both emerged from the Dublin music scene and shared artistic interests in spirituality, politics, and social critique.
Lyrically, “I’m Not Your Baby” stands out in U2’s catalog for its directness, irony, and conversational tone, qualities that resonate strongly with O’Connor’s songwriting style.
The song's structure avoids traditional verse-chorus symmetry, instead unfolding as a series of revelations and refusals.
It was recorded during the
Pop sessions in 1997 but was not included on the album. Instead, it was released on the soundtrack for the film
The End of Violence (1997), directed by Wim Wenders.
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