It's about Bono and his family, how he feels when on the road while touring and has to leave them behind. I got this from the tour book. I bought at the Salt Lake City Concert, it quotes Bono and the rest of the group on the meaning of most of the songs. Moreover, it also represents his past life.I'll be up with the sun/Still holding on/I'm not coming down And he doesn't want to come back anymore. He's now happy and accept himself.
Karine Maucourt kmaucour
igr.fr (contributed before the 20:th of February 1998)
The song finds the singer looking around the people who love him (fans or family) and telling them he is leaving, and he doesn't mind going. It is more than a song about a family man going back on tour. Bono said: "That is a mad song. It's a goodbye song of some kind. I feel like walking away from being in a band sometimes. Sometimes you feel like walking away from life itself. 'You can keep this suit of lights'. It's a song of defiance as well. I guess some of the people out there who buy our records say that U2 has gone out in to ether and wish we'd come back to earth. Well, the bad news is, we are not coming back. I like it out there"
Bergero drirocketmail.com (contributed before the 20:th of February 1998)
I believe Gone is about suicide. The verses are in the second person, but Bono really talks about himself, because chorus is in the first person. In the first verse Bono talks about feeling guilty for having so much wealth for so little work. In the second verse he mentions he changed himself and his name to become what he is now. In the bridge (Cause Iâm already gone...) he says his soul is empty, dead, and he is getting closer to God and death. In the last verse he says he has learnt how to be a messiah for so many people, although he did not want to be one. He makes himself and his family suffer in order to satisfy his fans. In the end he finds out that he is doing all of this for the money, or at least that is what he is told. In the chorus he says he is giving away his suit of lights, which is actually his life, because he is always in the spotlight and being photographed or filmed. He will commit suicide (physical or professional), become a legend and shine like the sun.
Blaz Preglau apis38email.si (21st of October 2006)