Clearly this song is once again about Bono's mom, in the booklet of the new album he wrote " My mother died that year (1974) so did my grandad.. as her father was being put into the ground Iris collapsed by the side of the grave and a few days later followed him into the clay... beautiful Iris, humor as black as her curls.. practical and magical. On dead....we tend to look the other way until the spectre's face enters our frame... a staring match that death always wins and we are left broken by the death of someone really close to us. I owe Iris. Her absence I filled with music. after grief comes rage..the molten lava that turns to rock if it can.. this kind of fire in the belly cannot sustain. If you are lucky it burns out. Before it burns you out..." I was wondering why didn't he write a song about her, the way he did with his dad with "Sometimes you cant make it on your own.." I guess it was really deep inside him that it had to wait for so many years to talk so clearly about her. This time it says it all!
Vivian Chavarría R vi.charod
gmail.com (18th of September 2014)