this song is about sexual jealousy, more than just a love song, though. this song went through many incarnations, having near as many mixes as hawkmoon 269 might.
katie duncan nick_tiger_baby
yahoo.com (contributed before the 20:th of February 1998)
I read somewhere that Larry said this song was about an affair one member of the band (they never said who) had with a fan while they were on tour. That is why the lyric says you are dangerous 'cos you are honest, because she can tell someone about this secret relationship. took a drive in the dirty rain/to a place where the wind calls your name That part could be about their unknown meetings. And when it says baby... can we still be friends? it may be that he has realised that they are not doing the right thing, and (although he loves her), he breaks up with her and asks her to be just friends. To say more, when bono sings the song in the Zoo Tv he says baby... i'm glad that we are friends; may be this affair gave birth to a very nice friendship.
Bergero drirocketmail.com (contributed before the 20:th of February 1998)
In an interview where fans had the chance to ask the questions, Larry responded to the following question:
JO WHILEY: Charlene says, are there any songs that you've worked on that now make you cringe?
LARRY MULLEN: The U2 songs that make me cringe don't make me cringe because I think they're not very good, thankfully. I cringe sometimes -- I mean, I hear them, "Who is Going to Ride Your Wild Horses"...I happened to be in a drinking establishment, and they were just all playing some U2 music, and this came on. I thought, what a brilliant song, and how we -- how, well certainly from my point of view, how I screwed it up, how it could have been so much better, potentially so much better. I cringe because we weren't smart enough, or proficient enough at our job to actually bring that to its conclusion. So, there are several songs that I feel like that about.
Jonas Steverud (Maintainer of U2MoL) (21:th of October 2004)
Robbie Williams quoted how he finds it hard to write songs about other people other than himself then said how he was amazed how many [songs] Bono writes about others and said "Did you know he wrote Who's gonna ride your wild horses about the Edge? - I think that is amazing"
James McLaughlin jmclaughlinscotsman.com (2005-10-18)
"The river laughing at you and me" comes from the Herman Hesse novel "Siddhartha".
Matt matt_2954yahoo.com.au (17th of June 2009)
I read somewhere that WGRYWH is actually about Edge's break-up with his wife, sung from the point of view of Edge's wife. It was meant to be a present from Bono to Edge to help him get through the divorce he was going through at the time of recording Achtung Baby, but turned out to be a track on the album.
Nick Bibby nickbibbyyahoo.co.uk (23rd of October 2011)