List of U2 songs worth a second Listen

What are the best U2 songs to have a second listen to?

U2 is a band well known for its big singles. Songs like Where the Streets Have No Name, Beautiful Day and Desire all popular the world over.

Some U2 songs sometimes get over looked by the casual fan.

Here's a list of U2 songs that I think are worthy of a second listen.

Please, from the album Pop.

Pop is probably Bono’s best effort lyrically across an album. With wordplays on Michael Jackson being history over Jackson’s own HIStory pun, the blind leading the blonde and the line from Please, “Your Catholic blues, Your convent shoes” pretty much summing up Bono’s eternal search for his place and pace in the world - this song was depressing yet uplifting at the same time. Overall, it was a question being asked of Ireland's political leaders.

Dirty Day, Zooropa

“These days, days, days run away like horses over the hill” being sung over and over at the end always remind me that I never have enough time to do what ever it is I wanted do. This song did make me go see a documentary on the guy it was dedicated to, the author Charles Bukowski and read some of his books.

Van Dieman’s Land, from Rattle and Hum

This song has the Edge singing about the life of the John Boyle O'Reilly, who was deported to Australia for writing bad poetry. The song's sentiments reflect the hard life that immigrants faced when they arrived in Van Dieman's Land. It's probably the best vocal the Edge ever did.

Unchained Melody

Clearly not an original U2 song but when you hear Bono sing it, it has the emotion that all their big hits have. Released as a B-side to With Or Without You, it has been a favourite amongst the U2 hardcore for years.

MLK, The Unforgettable Fire album

While the fire is a reference to atomic bombs being dropped in Japan (an early portent of How to dismantle an Atomic Bomb maybe?) the album seemed dedicated to two Kings – Elvis and Martin Luther King. MLK is sung like a lullaby. While Bono’s politic rants and beseeches and besmirches of The Man might put the more jaded and cynical amongst us to sleep, you can’t complain that this song does the same in a nice under the covers on a rainy day kind of way.

Beat on the Brat, cover of The Ramones, from the We’re a Happy Family Ramones Tribute Album.

Beat on the brat with a baseball bat. Yeah punk. U2 started out playing Ramone’s covers trying to pass them off as their own. Which is pretty much the music industry down pat these days. What can you do?

Original of the Species

Coming from their popular How to Dismantle and Atomic Bomb album, Original of the Species is almost like a classic father to daughter message, 'Don't Grow Up Too Fast, Baby'.

What are your favourite U2 songs you think are worthy of a second listen?

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"Please" Song Lyrics by U2

U2's "Please," from the Pop album, is a haunting exploration of the political and emotional toll of The Troubles in Northern Ireland. The song reflects the band's deep frustration with the violence and division that characterized the conflict.

By drawing on the personal cost of political strife, Bono uses the lyrics to convey both individual disillusionment and a larger, collective plea for peace. The opening lines, "So you never knew love until you crossed the line of grace," introduce a sense of exhaustion with the cycle of violence, suggesting that recognition of its futility often comes too late, only after irreversible harm has been done.

The song’s refrain, "Please... get up off your knees," can be seen as an appeal to political leaders to abandon empty rhetoric and take concrete action for peace. This phrase critiques the passivity of relying on faith or entrenched ideologies to solve the conflict. It also underscores the hopelessness many felt during The Troubles, when political solutions seemed distant, and peace was continually delayed.

The single cover for this song features the pictures of four Northern Irish politicians — Gerry Adams, David Trimble, Ian Paisley, and John Hume in an effort to draw attention to the issues.

Bono said of the song in U2 by U2 that is was about a "certain kind of person you'd meet in middle class Dublin. who are very sympathetic to the IRA paramilitaries and provide the support base for militant REpublicanism. It's people who think ideas more valuable than other people. It was the Docklands bombing that it referred to an the breakdown of peace talks in Northern Ireland but after 9/11 it became impossible to sing." 

The lyric "Your holy war, your northern star" encapsulates the religious and ideological motivations driving the violence. The Protestant-Catholic divide, a core element of the conflict, is evoked through this imagery, highlighting how deeply ideology entrenched the divisions. Bono’s plea for truth, to "stop living a lie," signals the false promises and justifications for violence that political and religious leaders continued to perpetuate, further prolonging the suffering.

U2's "Please" song lyrics from the Pop album 

So you never knew love
Until you crossed the line of grace
And you never felt wanted
Till you had someone slap your face
So you never felt alive
Until you almost wasted away

You had to win, you couldn't just pass
The smartest ass at the top of the class
Your flying colours, your family tree
And all your lessons in history

Please, please, please
Get up off your knees
Please, please, please
Please

So you never knew how low you'd stoop
To make that call
And you never knew what was on the ground
Until they made you crawl
So you never knew that the heaven you keep
You stole

Your Catholic blues, your convent shoes
Your stick-on tattoos, now they're making the news
Your holy war, your northern star
Your sermon on the mount from the boot of your car

Please, please, please
Get up off your knees
Please, please
Leave me out of this mess

So love is hard and love is tough
But love is not what you're thinking of
September, streets capsizing
Spilling over, down the drain
Shards of glass, splinters like rain
But you could only feel your own pain
October, talk getting nowhere
November, December
Remember, are we just starting again

Please, please, please
Get up off your knees
Please, please, please
Please
So love is big, it's bigger than us
But love is not what you're thinking of
It's what lovers deal, it's what lovers steal
You know I found it hard to recieve
'Cause you, my love, I could never believe

Check out the lyrics to "If God Will Send His Angels" which was a popular song from Pop.

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