On a bed of nails she makes me wait/
And I wait, without you.
U2’s “With or Without You” sounds like a lover’s quarrel has turned into a semi-breakup. The man tells the woman he’ll wait for her to figure her shit out, but at the same time he is thinking to himself “I can’t live with her and I can’t live without her”. In his particular case, he keeps giving a lot of himself to the relationship, when it is not clear that he is receiving the same love back. He realizes the absurdity of it but can’t break the pattern yet.
“With or Without You” was U2’s biggest hit. For one, its veiled lyrics allowed you to take from the song whatever you wanted to, really. It is a great 80s power ballad, with excellent vocals and instrumentation but without the cheesy experimental production methods that were used on many 80s records.
“With or Without You” is very much a rock song in the rock tradition, in a decade that was fairly light of it. Bono’s voice sounds emotional and vulnerable on this song; I believe this was the song that catapulted him to superstardom. While this was their most famous song, I believe there is one song that is better.
With or Without You Lyrics
See the stone set in your eyes
See the thorn twist in your side
I’ll wait for you
Sleight of hand and twist of fate
On a bed of nails she makes me wait
And I wait, without you
With or without you
With or without you
Through the storm we reach the shore
You give it all but I want more
And I’m waiting for you
With or without you
With or without you
I can’t live
With or without you
And you give yourself away
And you give yourself away
And you give
And you give
And you give yourself away
My hands are tied
My body bruised, she’s got me with
Nothing to win and
Nothing left to lose
And you give yourself away
And you give yourself away
And you give
And you give
And you give yourself away
With or without you
With or without you
I can’t live
With or without you
Oh
With or without you
With or without you
I can’t live
With or without you
With or without you
written by U2