Red Hill Mining Town
By joshua_w
@joshua_w (501)
Malaysia
September 18, 2007 2:21am CST
Just want to share and discuss (if any) the words to one of my favourite u2's song, Red Hill Mining Town.
"From father to son
The blood runs thin
See faces frozen still
Against the wind
The seam is split
The cold face cracked
The lines are long
There's no going back
Through hands of steel
And heart of stone
Our labour day
Has come and gone
Yeah, you leave me holding on
In red hill town
See the lights go down
I'm hanging on
You're all that's left to hold on to
I'm still waiting
Hanging on...
You're all that's left to hold on to
The glass is cut
The bottle runs dry
Our love runs cold
In the caverns of the night
We're wounded by fear
Injured in doubt
I can lose myself
You, i can't live without
We'll scorch the earth
Set fire to the sky
We stoop so low
To reach so high
A link is lost
The chain undone
We wait all day
For night to come
And it comes
Like a hunter child
Love
Slowly strips away
Love
Has seen its better days
Hangin on...
Lights go out on Red Hill
Lights go out on Red Hill
Lights go out on Red Hill Town."
Lyrics that sounds like a poem to a such a harsh subject- coal miners lives in England during the 80's miner's strike. A rock song and the melody of the song itself is even more beautiful when you listened to it.
Seldom does a song describes the lives of the downtrodden so truthfully and sung with so much passion and conviction.
Most of us have a good life without realising it. There are many people in this world who really had to struggle with a hard life. And many of us are totally oblivious of them or we chose to be ignorant of them.
We're born into those circumstances and most just do not choose. Most are not even aware of the choices they could have. Or maybe they really have no other choice. What do i know? I have not been in their shoes. The fact remains that life is hard for most people in this world.
1 response
@drannhh (15219)
• United States
18 Sep 07
Your verse reminds me of one by Sarah Cleghorn on the same subject:
The golf links lie so near the mill
That almost every day
The laboring children can look out
And see the men at play.
In other words, the children were working inside the factories and the men were outside playing golf. In a few words, this poet makes us understood how deeply wrong ths situation is. The attention she helped bring to the matter did much to bring about social change, but there are still many exploited children in the world, even today.
@joshua_w (501)
• Malaysia
18 Sep 07
The words are not mine but written by the lead singer of the group. It is a sad fact of life that many people lived in hardship and it's even more sad when they are children.
There are millions of children who lived in poverty and lacks even basic human necessities which we called life.
Your words also reminds me of an article i read ages ago that mentioned child labour in poor country such as India and a few South East Asian countries like Vietnam and Cambodia. I still think they exist even to these days.
Though we may not be able to help them, we are at least aware of this problem. Hopefully, we may help others be aware of this situation. We may not be able to help those faraway but we can always strive to help those near us. And count our blessings in life for we did not suffer such fate.
As always, it was good to hear from you again.
