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salome

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Carl:
A very interesting discussion, the only knowledge of blue blood I had was that of claims made by European royalty.

On the second wikipedia entry it ended "there is another legendary version saying that John the Baptist refused sexual propositions from Herodias and Salome, and that contributed to his death." I always kind of associated that with the song, although it would only make sense if John had given in.  It'd be useful to read Wilde's play, as I'm sure Bono is familiar with it.

I remember reading somewhere that this song kind of fit with Mysterious Ways (like wowy, walk to the water, and luminous times) - with dancers and "Johnny" the baptist, can't recall if it was official or fan speculation. Of course taking Mysterious Ways in the light of John singing to Salome (wasn't he imprisoned, "living underground, eating from a can") casts an interesting light on things (as does the fact he was beheaded and "will she be there when you hit the ground, ow!" hehe).

re: the remix on the best of album it had <a href="http://www.u2wanderer.org/disco/songs.html">shown up earlier</a> - it just got an unannounced edit on the album. Not sure if it's all that important though.

jimbo913:
Thanks for updating wikipedia... good move :)

I am glad this post has stirred some discussion.

Again, I could be way off on the blue blood thing, but I have always associated blue blood with incest.  But that could be my ignorance.  I have also heard it in terms of hard work ("blue-blooded American").  But sometimes my mind takes a piece of information and fills in the dots, often in a wrong way.

I hadn't made the connection to Mysterious Ways, very interesting.  I have the U2 book about the songs and meanings, I will have to go look up these songs to see what it says.  I am not sure it has Salome in it though.

I would love to hear more interpretations :)

Carl:
ah - apparently the board autocensors some words like in_cest hehe. hence the blank after 'with' at the end of the first sentence in the third paragraph.

I'll play with that and fix it up.

slaneman:
Excellent stuff Jimbo! I too was wondering if there is any significance to "cherry tree".  I certainly don't know the Bible as well as Bono. Maybe Between Two Worlds has some idea.

I think the blue blood tie-in to in..cest makes sense. "My blood turned blue when I crawled from your door"

Strauss' opera "Salome" caused quite a scandal in it's day (1905).  Strauss took many liberties with the German libretto based on Wilde's equally notorious play. The music is very difficult to sing and not often performed live today, though the theme now causes less concern. It's amazing how many cross references flow from this song.

[Edited on 2005-7-21 by slaneman]

Carl:
I took the cherry tree line as referring to george washington - the one where he cut down a cherry tree (won't you swing down low) but refused to lie about it, I suppose how John didn't recant and was put to death?

Not exactly sure how it fits in, but having a cherry tree along with an ax seems to make it an apt fit in my mind.

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