"The Cedars of Lebanon," the
closing track on No Line on the Horizon, stands as one of U2’s most introspective and world-weary lyrical works.
Sung from the perspective of a jaded war correspondent, the song is a meditation on the emotional and moral exhaustion that comes from witnessing conflict, separation, and humanity’s inability to reconcile its divisions.
Bono’s narrator, having spent years compressing the complexities of life into the sterility of news reports, is left disillusioned, caught in a landscape where violence and beauty coexist in unnerving proximity.
Lines like "This shitty world sometimes produces a rose" encapsulate the painful contradiction:
fleeting moments of grace arise amid the brutality of war, only to dissipate without leaving a lasting imprint. The song resonates as a reflection on desensitization—the rose’s scent, once savored, is now lost, just as the journalist’s emotional compass is blunted by the daily grind of reporting human suffering.
Thematically, "Cedars of Lebanon" is akin to both "
Moment of Surrender" and "
White as Snow."
In "Moment of Surrender," the speaker's personal crisis mirrors the war correspondent’s weariness, though it takes place in a spiritual realm—trading headlines for a soul’s reckoning. Both songs wrestle with the fallout of detachment: the former contemplates a surrender to life's chaos, while the latter wonders what is left after a life of exposure to violence and strife.
Meanwhile, "White as Snow" tells the story of a dying soldier in Afghanistan, offering a mournful reflection on death and isolation.
Together, these songs form a thematic triad that delves into the personal toll of conflict, each from different vantage points.
In "Cedars of Lebanon," the journalist is numbed by his need to simplify human suffering for mass consumption, while in the other tracks, the protagonists grapple with the internal, existential repercussions of living in a world that seems perpetually at war. The war correspondent's isolation echoes these themes, a figure stranded between worlds, writing from the front lines yet increasingly estranged from his own humanity.
Bono is probably touching on the
Cedar Revolution. It may also be referencing the book of
Isaiah from the Bible.
"Cedars Of Lebanon" Song Lyrics by U2
Yesterday I spent asleep
Woke up in my clothes in a dirty heap
Spent the night trying to make a deadline
Squeezing complicated lives into a simple headline
I have your face here in an old Polaroid
Tidying the children's clothes and toys
You're smiling back at me
I took the photo from the fridge
Can't remember what then we did
I haven't been with a woman, it feels like for years
Thought of you the whole time, your salty tears
This shitty world sometimes produces a rose
The scent of it lingers and then it just goes
Return the call to home
The worst of us are a long drawn out confession
The best of us are geniuses of compression
You say you're not going to leave the truth alone
I'm here 'cause I don't want to go home
Child drinking dirty water from the river bank
Soldier brings oranges he got out from a tank
I'm waiting on the waiter, he's taking a while to come
Watching the sun go down on Lebanon
Return the call to home
Now I've got a head like a lit cigarette
Unholy clouds reflecting in a minaret
You're so high above me, higher than everyone
Where are you in the cedars of Lebanon
Choose your enemies carefully 'cause they will define you
Make them interesting 'cause in some ways they will mind you
They're not there in the beginning but when your story ends
Gonna last with you longer than your friends
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U2's career has long been
marked by reflections on war, with several iconic tracks tackling the theme from different perspectives.
"Sunday Bloody Sunday," perhaps the band’s most famous protest song, confronts the violence of the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre in Northern Ireland.
Its biting lyrics, “How long must we sing this song?” resonate as a demand for peace in the face of cyclical bloodshed, while the martial drumbeats evoke the ever-present threat of conflict.
In "Bullet the Blue Sky," from The Joshua Tree, Bono shifts focus to U.S. intervention in Central America, painting a grim picture of imperialistic violence. The lines "Jacob wrestled the angel, and the angel was overcome" frame war as a theological battle between justice and exploitation, reflecting the band’s critique of unchecked power.
From a more intimate lens,
"Mothers of the Disappeared" reflects on the suffering caused by the forced disappearances in Argentina and Chile during the military dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s. The song mourns the loss and anguish of the families left behind, offering a haunting,
subdued reflection on the personal toll of political violence. Another powerful meditation on war is found in
"Love and Peace or Else," from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, where the lyrics wrestle with the contradictions of advocating for peace in a world addicted to violence.
