The Wanderer U2 Featuring Johnny Cash

From Zooropa, Featuring Johnny Cash

I went out walking
Through streets paved with gold
Lifted some stones
Saw the skin and bones
Of a city without a soul
I went out walking
Under an atomic sky
Where the ground won't turn
And the rain it burns
Like the tears when I said goodbye

Yeah I went with nothing
Nothing but the thought of you
I went wandering

I went drifting
Through the capitals of tin
Where men can't walk
Or freely talk
And sons turn their fathers in
I stopped outside a church house
Where the citizens like to sit
They say they want the kingdom
But they don't want God in it

I went out riding
Down that old eight lane
I passed by a thousand signs
Looking for my own name

I went with nothing
But the thought you'd be there too
Looking for you

I went out there
In search of experience
To taste and to touch
And to feel as much
As a man can
Before he repents

I went out searching
Looking for one good man
A spirit who would not bend or break
Who would sit at his father's right hand
I went out walking
With a bible and a gun
The word of God lay heavy on my heart
I was sure I was the one
Now Jesus, don't you wait up
Jesus, I'll be home soon
Yeah I went out for the papers
Told her I'd be back by noon

Yeah I left with nothing
But the thought you'd be there too
Looking for you
Yeah I left with nothing
Nothing but the thought of you
I went wandering

All lyrics by Johnny Cash/U2

Category:

Music

Tags:

• U2
• Bono
• The
• Edge
• Adam
• Clayton
• Larry
• Mullen
• Best
• of
• 1990
• 2000
• Beautiful
• Day
• Mysterious
• Ways
• Even
• Better
• Than
• the
• Real
• Thing
• One
• Walk
• On
• Discotheque
• First
• Time
• Lemon
• Numb
• Stay(Faraway
• so
• close)
• Miss
• Sarajevo
• Stuck
• in
• Moment
• You
• Can't
• Get
• Out
• Of
• Your
• Blue
• Room
• Zooropa
• Daddy
• Gonna
• Pay
• For
• Crashed
• Car
• Wanerer
• Johnny
• Cash

[shayneby]

@1:25 I stopped outside the church house where the citizens like to sit.

They say they want the kingdom but they don't want God in it.

This is what is happening now to America. How Sad

[Armeniacolombia29]

@shayneby  What's sad about it?

[shayneby]

Kind of sad that what Johnny cash was singing is what is happening to America now. Listen to the song. Touching lyrics. Don't you see.

[Armeniacolombia29]

@shayneby Yea I listened to the song a number of times, I wouldn't consider it necessarily a sad thing.

[Rutlefan]

@Armeniacolombia29

The line means that people are content with a safe, complacent faith, at peace with the status quo; that is, they don't want their attitudes/actions to be challenged. It's the same criticism Keirkegaard and MLK had of the established churches of their times. So you don't see why this would sadden someone? No wonder that there are many like you, and so what, but I'm surprised someone as dense as you appear to be would post such a profound song.

[Armeniacolombia29]

@Rutlefan Wow what a way to characterize someone you don't know.

[MiscellaneousOther]

@cleo715 I like your interpretation of god's message (loving and accepting your peers, forgiving etc.) but it doesn't fit with what is in the bible. I see in the old testament a god for just the israelites who encourages them to commit genocide on others (the canaanites) and to offer up their own daughters to be raped instead of their guests. The new testament god and the old testament god cannot be reconciled. I agree with your beliefs of tolerance and forgiveness, but I don't think god does.

[Thrashslashedmashedp]

I'm not going to lie, calling a spade a spade here. I think religion is bullshit, and more a crutch in fear of their life ending and not being remembered. that's my opinion, but what I came here for was a man that inspired music I want to write and who I grew up with. Johnny Cash.

[ZackisDead]

@Rutlefan Your religious knowledge is surpassed only by your readiness to judge others. The OP that the uploader was responding to was basically saying it's sad that people in America don't want to be Christian (separation of church and state), which is a far greater misunderstanding of the song than you're projecting onto others.

In any event, you're interpretation is wrong. Per Johnny Cash and U2: "The lyrics describe a man searching for God in a post-Apocalyptic world." So much for your ego

[AnelIsaac]

@shayneby Not only there. Some other places, such as my hometown. I'm ashamed of it...

[cleo715]

@Armeniacolombia29 I do consider sad having a church were people don't have any intention of listening to God's message, and much less acting like it (meaning loving and accepting your peers, forgiving)...if the intention is just for citizens to sit, well a public park would suffice, I guess what's sad it's that the "church house" that this song refers to gives people the feeling of entitlement to be judgemental since they're "church-going" people, when in reality they're basking in emptiness

[djbarcode5xyz]

This reminds me of Alpine, TX, and west Texas in general. Listened to it a lot for the short time I lived out there. Reminds me of when I was happy.

[tangerinespeed0]

@Armeniacolombia29 What @shayneby is trying to say is, "religious" people sit outside the churches and proclaim that America is the kingdom of god... but they don't really want god in their "kingdom." They just want some way to justify discriminating against people who are not like them.