Unknown Caller by U2

Album: No Line on the Horizon (2009)

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Songfacts®:

The Edge explained to Rolling Stone that the idea of this song is that, "the narrator is in an altered state, and his phone starts talking to him."
This song opens with the sound of birdsong, which was recorded live in Fez, Morocco. Bono explained to CNN how U2 ended up there: "Fez is beautiful little city. It's the religious capital of Morocco, and they have a religious music festival there - you know, Sufi singers and Bango drummers from all over the world. I was invited to speak there, and I asked the band - would they be interested in coming along? And surprisingly, they agreed. We set up in a little hotel - they call them riads - and it's a hotel around a courtyard. We set up the band in the courtyard with the square sky over our heads and birds flying in used to come [and] s--t on Larry Mullen's drum kit. He wasn't happy with that."
According to Q magazine, The Edge's long-time guitar tech Dallas Schoo described this tune as "one of Edge's major solos in his life - you won't hear better than that on any other song."
This song is about a junkie character that Bono invented. The frontman also sings about a soldier in Afghanistan in "White as Snow," a traffic cop in "Fez – Being Born" and a war correspondent in "Cedars of Lebanon." In interviews, Bono explained that he got tired of writing in the first-person so he invented different characters.
Co-producer Daniel Lanois (from The National Post): "The guitar solo at the end was right from the backing track. There was no monkey business, it pretty much had its personality intact from day one."

Comments: 7

Greg from Harrington Park, NjJ -- amazing interpretation. I: have a newfound interpretation and understanding of this song after reading your analysis. Beautifully interpreted and explained.
Banana from Canberra, AustraliaJ I really like your explanation and I would like to use it in a devotion if you don't mind.
Thanks!
Davíd from Woburn, MaHey J... why don't you let us have our own ideas? Just kidding, that was well done. You ever considered getting a job at Soundfacts? This is easily my favorite song on the album. The story of this song is great. Frankly, the chanting of God's instructions make them all the more potent and drive home the narrator's destructive nature; he/she needs to be shouted at. In a sense, this kind of reminds me of "Bad" in the sense that there is an addict receiving help from someone. Well done U2, well done indeed.
Danleichty from Rochester, MnThis is definatly about a phone call from God. This song is very inspirational.
Eric from Springfield, MaJ, Nice job. After the 40th or so time through the album, the first notes of the album are 7 tones (3 of one then 4 of another) repeated several times . . . much like a dialing a phone. I realize phone numbers are different in Ireland, but I feel it isn't a coincidence (speed dialing with no signal at all).
Lisa from Perry, GaWow J, VERY astute! I find this whole CD WILDLY dense in all it conveys! Each listen reveals just how laden with meaning each song is and even each individual line and word. U2 remain wonderfully fearless in the rock and roll spotlight which they continue to refocus on the Truth and on God! I give this album and the band my resounding and joyful "YES"!!
J from Salt Lake City, UtMy interpretation of the song:

The song is nonlinear. It is looking back at an event with narration spliced through the event. It's easier to understand by regrouping the lyrics. Everything Bono sings solo is the main character of the song narrating or recalling his state previous to the event. The Bono/Edge harmony is the character of God. God's words are nonlinear also. The character is retelling them in a different order.

The soft opening, bird sounds, and Sunshine, Sunshine is the present time. The character wakes with new meaning seeing the Light (Light of Christ, John 8:12) in a new way.

Bono solo/recalling the character's situation.

I was lost (these three words give all the meaning. He was lost. Isaiah 53:6) between the midnight and the dawning
In a place of no consequence or company
3:33 when the numbers fell off the clock face (the call from God comes at 3:33 Jeremiah 33:3)
Speed dialing with no signal at all

I was right there at the top of the bottom (he was stuck in the middle of nowhere)
On the edge of the known universe where I wanted to be (he didn't exactly realize he was lost or stuck, he thought he was where he wanted to be)
I had driven to the scene of the accident
And I sat there waiting for me (his life was out of control and he was about to crash)

Words of God:

(first grouped by the technical metaphor, then the rest)

Force quit (This Macintosh metaphor is a poetic masterpiece. Force quit in Mac language is the method to quit a program that is out of control and can't be stopped the normal way. It needs a different kind of intervention. God is doing a force quit on this guy's life.) and move to trash (Mac language for delete. God is deleting the man's life. Isaiah 1:18)
Restart and re-boot yourself (John 3:3, 2 Cor 5:17)
Password, you enter here, right now
You know your name so punch it in

Go, shout it out, rise up
Escape yourself, and gravity
Hear me, cease to speak that I may speak, Shush now (You've been so busy doing your own things to hear me before. Stop and listen.)
You're free to go
Shout for joy if you get the chance (Psalm 40:3. This is a U2 theme. They have been shouting the joy of God and redemption throughout their time in the spotlight. Gloria, 40, October, WTSHNN Elevation tour version, Yahweh.)
Hear me, cease to speak that I may speak
Shush now
Don't move or say a thing (Psalm 46:10 Be still and know that I am God.)

The last part of the song is the best. My interpretation is that the message we hear in the lyrics of the song is "be quiet so I can teach you" and the generic message "leave your old life and start a new life in me", but there is much more after the lyrics end. After God speaks the final words of "Hear me, cease to speak that I may speak, Shush now, don't move or say a thing", the song goes right into non-lyrical music as if it is a continuation of the lyrics. I believe U2 is using music as a way to imply spiritual communication (Ephesians 5:19, see U2's interpretation of the Holy Ghost in The First Time "She got soul, soul, soul, sweet soul. And she teach me how to sing").

The music starts out with beautiful organ/cathedral style music and then moves into an amazing Edge guitar solo, as if the meaning and feeling God is speaking is too beautiful to put into words and instead is portrayed by music over the final minute and half of the song.

addendum: after discovering the final 1:30 of the song including Edge's guitar solo is taken from the hymn "My Savior's Love".

This adds even more meaning to the song. This implies an alternate interpretation for the final 1:30. This could be cutting back to the present retelling of the account and is the character's answer and expression of God's admonition: "Shout for joy if you get the chance."

The words of that hymn:

I stand amazed in the presence
Of Jesus the Nazarene,
And wonder how He could love me,
A sinner, condemned, unclean.

Refrain
O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
And my song shall ever be:
O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
Is my Savior's love for me!

For me it was in the garden
He prayed: "Not My will, but Thine."
He had no tears for His own griefs,
But sweat drops of blood for mine.

O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
And my song shall ever be:
O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
Is my Savior's love for me!

In pity angels beheld Him,
And came from the world of light
To comfort Him in the sorrows
He bore for my soul that night.

O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
And my song shall ever be:
O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
Is my Savior's love for me!

He took my sins and my sorrows,
He made them His very own;
He bore the burden to Calvary,
And suffered and died alone.

O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
And my song shall ever be:
O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
Is my Savior's love for me!

When with the ransomed in glory
His face I at last shall see,
'Twill be my joy through the ages
To sing of His love for me.

O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
And my song shall ever be:
O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
Is my Savior's love for me!

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