U2MoL

All that You Can't Leave Behind

New York

  1. I have heard that New York is a dedication to Lou Reed, a friend of Bono. Bono said that "Lou Reed is to New York what Mark Twain is to Dublin". "In New York I found a friend to drown out the other voices", is probably Lou Reed. Bono acctually wrote a verse that didn't make it on the record that was a pure dedication to Lou Reed.

    Karl Otto Emanuelsson otto@dublin.com (29:th of April 2001)

  2. I think that New York is about Bono becoming over the hill. At the release of All That You Can't Leave Behind Bono was 40. The lines ...to drown out the other voices, voices on a cell phone, voices from home... seem to say that the busy world is even getting to Bono, and that it's hard for him to maintain his larger-than life status and still have time for his family. There are are also little snippets that point to this: I hit an iceberg in my life... and I'm still trying to figure out my mid-life crisis. Also, during U2's Elevation Tour, when they sang New York, Bono would walk around the stage as if he was old and decrepit.

    David Hayes trespassersix@aol.com (25:th of May 2001)

  3. The song New York is about someone from the suburbs who wants to leave their "boring" suburban life behind and move to a city, like New York, where life is very exciting. Unfortunately, this person is being kept back by something, presumable a wife and children as alluded to in the line You got to put women and children first. Bono explains this in an interview with Gary Graff: The song New York is not my story; it's somebody who's had it with the country and the quiet life or the suburbs and is going to the big city with the hope that the big city will crack them wide open and they'll discover other sides of themselves. And it happens. But that's not me; if anything, I would love some of the suburbs right now.

    John Koutris MetalliFan21@hotmail.com, (14:th of October 2001)

  4. The New York lyric are reflecting Bono's opinion on the diversity of NYC and he is contemplating the possibility of peace between the people of all different races on the small scale before he move to the later song on the album peace on earth.

    Philip Tully swimmer4life8@gmail.com (23rd of May 2006)

  5. "As the disc winds to a conclusion, it becomes more minimal and less overt. New York is an intriguingly bleak little tale about displacement both geographical and emotional, which wouldn't have sounded out of place on The Unforgettable Fire back in 1984." -The Guardian, 31.10.00

    From Salvation in the Blues, compiled by Chris Taguchi chris@taguchi.ca (3rd of April 2007)

  6. " 'New York' (U2, Bono). An undeniable love letter to one of the world's most famous cities, penned from the wide-eyed perspective of a European seeking the so-called promised land. Encased in a slow-building rock framework, 'New York' is a clever, often amusing ditty that tempers its ardor with a fair amount of realism." -Billboard, 09.30.00

    From Salvation in the Blues, compiled by Chris Taguchi chris@taguchi.ca (3rd of April 2007)