Ian+L+-+example

Summary

 * Choice of song
 * Sound of song
 * Organisation of the lyrics & framework for the text
 * Message, references and imagery (verse by verse)
 * Final, poignant, statement

==== First of all, it is a powerful rhythmic song that pounds you with an angry energy. Performed by the legendary U2 it never fails to impress. The lead guitar soars above the screaming rhythm section, while the lyrics break through the discord, spoken in a harsh deep voice. ====

==== These lyrics are my main reason for selecting this song. There are five verses and a chorus. But unlike many ‘pop’ songs, there is very little repetition. Each phrase carries its own message. Nothing is included just to maintain rhythm or rhyme. More importantly, the majority of the language can be understood at more than one level of interpretation. ====

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So what do the lyrics say?
Overall, the song is a clear attack on the US gun culture and US external politics. In fact, Bono himself said that he wrote the song after seeing the results of US sponsored state terrorism in El Salvador in the 1980s. However, during their concerts, U2 would play this song against a backdrop of videos of children carrying guns in the US and would accompany the song with comments that, within 20 years, guns were predicted to kill 676,000 people in the US.

What makes the message more compelling for me though, is the way that references to machines of war and to death are interwoven with words and images associated with biblical stories and the natural world. The first verse describes an attack by planes or helicopters on a village: reminiscent of the opening scene of Apocalypse Now or any number of Vietnam movies. The rain of machine gun bullets are compared to the nails driven into the body of Christ, while the deadly helicopters or planes are compared to soft harmless fire-flies – the type of creature that should be flying around the village.

The second verse has a clear reference to the dropping of a bomb or planting of a mine and the resultant ball of fire when it explodes. However this is also a clear metaphor for the support given by the US to dictators or terrorists who later become enemies – such as Obama Bin Laden who was trained by the CIA. It can also be understood as a reference to planting the seed of discrimination and hate, which results in lynching and modern-day crucifixion, in this case of negroes by the KKK in the southern USA.

The next two verses describe and demonify the behaviour and attitude of the gun-runners or arms dealers. The two verses shudder with the sound of onomatopoeia: flush, slapping, peeling, groan, etc.

The final verse returns to the image of the rain-swept valley full of fire and the sound of war. Then suddenly the rhythm and the accompanying volume change, focussing our attention on the final words: the women and children…”run into the arms of America”. This last line is sick and cynical: there is no loving embrace, although there should be. Quite the contrary: it is American arms or weapons which have caused the people’s suffering.

** The lyrics **
In the howling wind comes a stinging rain See it driving nails Into the souls on the tree of pain From the firefly, a red orange glow See the face of fear Running scared in the valley below Bullet the blue sky Bullet the blue sky Bullet the blue Bullet the blue In the locust wind comes a rattle and a hum Jacob wrestled the angel And the angel was overcome You plant a demon seed You raise a flower of fire See them burning crosses See the flames higher and higher Bullet the blue sky Bullet the blue sky Bullet the blue Bullet the blue

This guy comes up to me His face red like a rose on a thorn bush Like all the colors of a royal flush And he's peeling off those dollar bills Slapping them down One hundred, two hundred

And I can see those fighter planes And I can see those fighter planes Across the mud huts where the children sleep Through the alleys of a quiet city street You take the staircase to the first floor Turn the key and slowly unlock the door As a man breathes into a saxophone And through the walls you hear the city groan

Outside is America Outside is America Across the field you see the sky ripped open See the rain through a gaping wound Pounding on the women and children Who run Into the arms Of America


 * This last line really makes my hair stand on end every time that I hear it. It reminds me of the following photo: **

This is the image from Vietnam which changed the course of the War and the way we look at all wars: Nick Ut's photograph of 9-year-old Kim Phuc, running up the road outside the village of Trang Bang, her skin on fire. The girl is naked and screaming in pain.

This photograph, taken June 8, 1972, was printed on front pages of newspapers around the world. It won a Pulitzer Prize for Nick Ut – but more importantly the image of an innocent child fleeing napalm horror became part of our collective conscience, and instant fame for the subject of the photograph.

From that moment on, wherever she travelled in the world, Kim Phuc would never escape her picture. She would always be recognized as //that// girl…the girl in the picture.

Kim, now a Canadian citizen living in Ajax, Ontario, has been invited to speak at Barnstorm '99, to tell her side of the story of the picture to a prestigious assembly of editors and journalists. She intends to talk about the power of the image: how her life was altered by the click of a camera perhaps saved by it. Because, had it not been for that picture, and for the recognition factor it gave her, she would probably have died. She would never have received the first-class medical attention she did, or recovered as well as she has.

**"If I could talk face to face with the pilot who dropped the bomb," Kim said recently,**
 * "I would tell him we cannot change history, but we should try to**
 * do good things for the present. ..."**

//EXAMPLES OF TASKS YOU CAN SET - you only need to set one task for the first two minutes of the song.//
**CHOOSE THE CORRECT OPTION**

In the howling wind comes a **stinging / singing** rain See it driving **nails/ sails** Into the souls on the tree of **pain / shame** From the **dragonfly/ firefly**, a red orange glow See the face **of fear/ over here** Running **fast/ scared** in the valley below

Chorus: Bullet the blue sky x2 Bullet the blue x2

**REORGANISE THE LINES, THE****N LISTEN** In the wind locust comes rattle a hum and a In the… wrestled Jacob angel the Jacob… And overcome angel the was And… You seed plant a demon You… You raise a flower of fire See them burning crosses See the flames higher and higher

**MATCH THE LINES, (THEN LISTEN)** This guy comes ......................................................................down His face red like a rose ............................................................of a royal flush Like all the colors ....................................................................off those dollar bills And he's peeling ......................................................................on a thorn bush Slapping them .........................................................................up to me One hundred, two hundred

**FILL THE GAPS, (THEN LISTEN)**

And I can see those.................................... And I can see those .................................... Across the .................................where the children sleep Through the.................................of a quiet city street