Tomorrow

🎶 Tomorrow by U2

I woke up this morning from a pretty vivid dream. That’s not unusual for me at all, it happens fairly regularly. What was unusual, was that there was a song playing in the background of my dream. Which of course was immediately stuck in my brain and is now refusing to budge, despite having listened to it several times before writing this.

Given that I generally spend quite a lot of time listening to music, you’d think my dreams would have a soundtrack more often. That’s definitely not the case though, in fact I can’t remember a single other time when that’s happened. My dreams are frequently weird and sometimes quite terrifying, but never musical. Oh, apart from that time I dreamt I was stuck in the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but that was more about the show than the music.

Why the song Tomorrow? You’d have to ask my dream brain that. From what I remember of my dream, it probably just fit the mood. I don’t remember many precise details, (other than sex in a very luxurious hotel room - yeah that was definitely a dream) but as always I was left with an impression of its mood. In this case that would be dark and sultry, with an air of danger. Which I suppose meshes with the song pretty well.

Outside, somebody’s outside
Somebody’s knocking at the door
There’s a black car parked at the side of the road
Don’t go to the door
Don’t go to the door

I’m going out
I’m going outside mother
I’m going out there

I always assumed the song was primarily about life during “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland. Obviously in a much more subtle way, compared to songs like Sunday Bloody Sunday. A quick search revealed that though this may have also been an intended theme, the song is actually connected to the sudden death of his mother when he was 14. Whatever the precise meaning, it’s an incredibly haunting and powerful song. I think it holds echoes of both - overwhelming grief being a connecting central theme.

Who broke the window?
Who broke down the door?
Who tore the curtain?
And who was it for?
Who heals the wounds?
Who heals the scars?
Open the door, open the door

It’s not a cheery song by any means, but it is one of my favourites of theirs, and features on one of my favourite albums, October. I was a massive fan of U2 during my teenage years and eagerly consumed anything they released. Sadly I fell out of love with them once they’d released the album Rattle and Hum. As with so many bands, they changed direction (a change that really began with the album The Joshua Tree). Which is absolutely fine - growth is expected of artists so I’m not complaining. I just wasn’t a huge fan of the changes.

The thing I loved and admired most about U2 was the emotional rawness and the honesty of voice within that. On those early albums, you knew that when Bono sang he was pouring every ounce of depth and emotion he had into those songs. You could feel it when he sang. His live performances were incredible. Sadly I only got to witness those through video, something I’ll always regret but at the time couldn’t do much about.

Those early albums (Boy, October, War) are amongst my favourites of all time. If you never listen to any of their others, you should listen to those. They don’t necessarily make for easy listening, especially October, but they are masterpieces that will belong in my collection of favourites until the day I die.