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Rating: One
Two
Three.
Three strokes of sticks and...
"Is it getting better?
Or do you feel the same?
Will it make it easier on you now?
You got someone to blame."
The magic begins.
"One" is a special song, a true one. The dirty guitar accompanies Bono's melancholic voice singing about love, one life. Bass and drums support each other and create a simple yet essential rhythm, like that of heartbeats.
But it's not a love song, not at all.
"One" isn't that kind of song, it talks about division, separation, clash, conflict.
It is the song that saved the band when in the early 90s they were in a deep creative crisis. One day, however, during the "Achtung Baby" album recording sessions, a brilliant bridge suddenly came from the sky, as a godsend. The same goes for the lyrics, one of the best in all music history.
The latter doesn't only refer to the separation between Edge and his wife; in fact, Bono initially wrote it thinking about the disagreements between the band members who wanted to take different paths.
"We're one, but we're not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other
One"
In any case, the lyrics are not explicit, and the beauty lies in the fact that there is no precise interpretation, so each of us can find ourselves in it.
It indeed has a myriad of meanings; it could refer to the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall (which happened recently during the album recordings);
It might also be a dedication to Bono's father, or it could tell the story of "One", a gay son confessing to his father that he has HIV.
In any case, the lyrics and the music deeply touch each one of us, as we sing this legendary anthem with open hearts. One...
"One love
One blood
One life
You got to do what you should
One life
With each other
Sisters
Brothers
One life
But we're not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other"
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 One (04:35)
Is it getting better?
Or do you feel the same?
Will it make it easier on you, now
You got someone to blame
You say one love, one life
When it's one need, in the night
One love, we get to share it
It leaves you, baby, if you don't care for it
Did I disappoint you?
Or leave a bad taste in your mouth?
You act like you never had love
And you want me to go without
Well, it's too late, tonight
To drag the past out into the light
We're one, but we're not the same
We get to carry each other, carry each other
One...
Have you come here for forgiveness
Have you come to raise the dead
Have you come here to play Jesus
To the lepers in your head
Did I ask too much, more than a lot
You gave me nothing, now it's all I got
We're one, but we're not the same
Well, we hurt each other
Then we do it again.
You say love is a temple, love a higher law
Love is a temple, love the higher law
You ask me to enter, but then you make me crawl
And I can't be holding on, to what you got
When all you got is hurt
One love, one blood
One life, you got to do what you should
One life with each other: sisters, brothers
One life, but we're not the same
We get to carry each other, carry each other.
One (lone)
One...
Make in it, make in it, higher...
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Other reviews
By Ocean
"We are one but not the same. We get to carry each other."
"Love is something that cannot be limited to physical union or happy moments; it requires care or it dies."
By Abraham
Rhetoric for its own sake is the hidden evil of our days.
The pacifism of three major chords, let’s hug and love each other... predictable.
