Kite (song)
Encyclopedia
"Kite" is the fifth track from U2
's 2000 album, All That You Can't Leave Behind
.
-flying outing on Killiney Hill
overlooking Dublin Bay
that Bono
attempted with his daughters. The outing went quickly awry when the kite crashed and one of the girls asked to go home and play a video game. So the song was at first written with Bono's daughters in mind, or more generally, about a kite as a metaphor for someone or something escaping one's realm of control; the song is, more or less, about Bono realizing a day will come when his daughters will "no longer need him".
Guitarist The Edge
assisted Bono in writing the lyrics and felt that they were actually about Bono's emotionally-reserved father, Bob Hewson, who was dying of cancer at the time: "[Bono] couldn't see it, but I could." Bono recalled a similarly ill-fated kite-flying outing in his own childhood with his father in the County Dublin
seaside towns of Skerries
or Rush
. During early promotional appearances Bono emphasized the song could be about letting go of any kind of relationship.
The music to "Kite" was equally evocative. The song begins with a string loop that The Edge had arranged. The verses feature The Edge playing a simple repeating slide guitar
piece, while the chorus featuring an emphatic wail from Bono set against The Edge's churning guitar lines. The song concludes with an odd coda
in reference to the new media
. In concert the coda is sometimes repeated, with almost all instrumentation dropped out; Bono later said the coda was intended to pinpoint the narrative by "just setting it in time, saying that's the moment, and then leaving it behind you."
magazine saw it describing "the plight of a fraying couple; when Bono glimpses 'the shadow behind your eyes,' his lyric evokes the music's slanted conversations of melody and rhythm and guitar figures." The New York Times
entitled their review of an Elevation Tour concert "Like a Kite, Grounded But Soaring To the Skies", and said the song was "music made after the fall," merging idealism with experience. A United Methodist Pastor in McGregor, Texas
took the song's lines "I'm not afraid to die / I'm not afraid to live" and related it to his belief that Christians should not think of God as a stern judge and should not be afraid to live to the fullest, while a London memorial service honoring The Door
magazine founder and religious figure Mike Yaconelli
used it as the spiritual pivot of the service. Author Višnja Cogan partially echoed Edge's interpretation, seeing the duality of Bono's role as both father and son embodied in the song's interior climax "I'm a man, I'm not a child...."
, "Kite" was played to a set of swirling images projected against a scrim
above the stage, furthering the song's central theme. "Kite" took on an additional meaning later in 2001 on the tour, when Bono's father, Bob Hewson, died after a long bout with cancer. Bono would alter the line "The last of the rock stars" to "The last of the opera stars", a reference to Bob's past as an amateur opera
singer. Bono paid tribute to him with a tearful rendition of this song on the live release, U2 Go Home: Live from Slane Castle
, which depicts the band's memorable performance at Slane Castle
, one day after Bob Hewson's funeral. Prior to the song, Bono fondly recalls his father and The Edge's father, Garvin Evans, walking down Madison Avenue
late-night in New York City
drunk together and singing "the duet from The Silver Fish".
"Kite" was played for the first time on the Vertigo Tour
on 7 November 2006 in Brisbane, Australia, when the tour resumed after a long hiatus. It was also the first time that "Kite" has closed a concert, and was the regular closer on the Australian leg of the tour, while it also closed the first show in Auckland, New Zealand. A live version of the song from the Vertigo Tour, recorded in Sydney
's Telstra Stadium
on 11 November 2006, was released as a B-side to "Window in the Skies
" on 1 January 2007. The live Australian version featured the use of didgeridoo
(especially audible toward the end).
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
's 2000 album, All That You Can't Leave Behind
All That You Can't Leave Behind
All That You Can't Leave Behind is the tenth studio album by rock band U2. It was released on 30 October 2000 by Island Records in the United Kingdom and Interscope Records in the United States...
.
Composition
The idea for the song came from a kiteKite
A kite is a tethered aircraft. The necessary lift that makes the kite wing fly is generated when air flows over and under the kite's wing, producing low pressure above the wing and high pressure below it. This deflection also generates horizontal drag along the direction of the wind...
-flying outing on Killiney Hill
Killiney Hill
Killiney Hill is the southernmost of the two hills which form the southern boundary of Dublin Bay . Crowned by an obelisk, the hill is 153 metres high and offers beautiful views over the surrounding areas : Dublin to the northwest; the Irish Sea and the mountains of Wales to the east and...
overlooking Dublin Bay
Dublin Bay
Dublin Bay is a C-shaped inlet of the Irish Sea on the east coast of Ireland. The bay is about 10 kilometres wide along its north-south base, and 7 km in length to its apex at the centre of the city of Dublin; stretching from Howth Head in the north to Dalkey Point in the south...
that Bono
Bono
Paul David Hewson , most commonly known by his stage name Bono , is an Irish singer, musician, and humanitarian best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his...
attempted with his daughters. The outing went quickly awry when the kite crashed and one of the girls asked to go home and play a video game. So the song was at first written with Bono's daughters in mind, or more generally, about a kite as a metaphor for someone or something escaping one's realm of control; the song is, more or less, about Bono realizing a day will come when his daughters will "no longer need him".
Guitarist The Edge
The Edge
David Howell Evans , more widely known by his stage name The Edge , is a musician best known as the guitarist, backing vocalist, and keyboardist of the Irish rock band U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 12 studio albums with the band and has released one solo record...
assisted Bono in writing the lyrics and felt that they were actually about Bono's emotionally-reserved father, Bob Hewson, who was dying of cancer at the time: "[Bono] couldn't see it, but I could." Bono recalled a similarly ill-fated kite-flying outing in his own childhood with his father in the County Dublin
County Dublin
County Dublin is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Dublin Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the city of Dublin which is the capital of Ireland. County Dublin was one of the first of the parts of Ireland to be shired by King John of England following the...
seaside towns of Skerries
Skerries, Dublin
-The 20th century and today:Historically, Skerries has been a thriving fishing port and a major center of hand embroidery. In the late 20th century, it became a resort town , and another suburb for commuters to the city of Dublin....
or Rush
Rush, Dublin
Rush is a small seaside town, with a population of 8,280, situated between the communities of Skerries and Lusk in Fingal, Ireland. There has been a large population increase since the previous census in 2002, comprising mostly people from north Dublin....
. During early promotional appearances Bono emphasized the song could be about letting go of any kind of relationship.
The music to "Kite" was equally evocative. The song begins with a string loop that The Edge had arranged. The verses feature The Edge playing a simple repeating slide guitar
Slide guitar
Slide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide refers to the motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides: the necks of glass bottles...
piece, while the chorus featuring an emphatic wail from Bono set against The Edge's churning guitar lines. The song concludes with an odd coda
Coda (music)
Coda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence...
in reference to the new media
New media
New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community...
. In concert the coda is sometimes repeated, with almost all instrumentation dropped out; Bono later said the coda was intended to pinpoint the narrative by "just setting it in time, saying that's the moment, and then leaving it behind you."
Interpretations
As is often the case with U2 songs, listeners heard various things from "Kite". Rolling StoneRolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine saw it describing "the plight of a fraying couple; when Bono glimpses 'the shadow behind your eyes,' his lyric evokes the music's slanted conversations of melody and rhythm and guitar figures." The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
entitled their review of an Elevation Tour concert "Like a Kite, Grounded But Soaring To the Skies", and said the song was "music made after the fall," merging idealism with experience. A United Methodist Pastor in McGregor, Texas
McGregor, Texas
McGregor is a city in Coryell and McLennan Counties in the U.S. state of Texas. The population was 4,727 at the 2000 census.McGregor lies in two counties as well as two metropolitan areas...
took the song's lines "I'm not afraid to die / I'm not afraid to live" and related it to his belief that Christians should not think of God as a stern judge and should not be afraid to live to the fullest, while a London memorial service honoring The Door
The Door (satirical Christian magazine)
The Wittenburg Door, sometimes known as simply The Door, is a Christian satire and humor magazine, published bimonthly by Dallas, Texas USA based, non-profit Trinity Foundation. The publication bills itself as "The World's Pretty Much Only Religious Satire Magazine"....
magazine founder and religious figure Mike Yaconelli
Mike Yaconelli
Mike Yaconelli was a writer, theologian, church leader and satirist. Co-Founder of Youth Specialties, a training organization for Christian youth leaders, and The Wittenburg Door , a satirical magazine, Yaconelli was also the pastor of a small church in Yreka, CA - "the slowest growing church in...
used it as the spiritual pivot of the service. Author Višnja Cogan partially echoed Edge's interpretation, seeing the duality of Bono's role as both father and son embodied in the song's interior climax "I'm a man, I'm not a child...."
Live performances
During the band's Elevation TourElevation Tour
The Elevation Tour was a worldwide concert tour by the Irish rock band U2. Launched in support of the group's 2000 album All That You Can't Leave Behind, the tour visited arenas in 2001. After the band's previous two extravagant stadium tours, Zoo TV and PopMart, the Elevation Tour returned the...
, "Kite" was played to a set of swirling images projected against a scrim
Scrim (lighting)
A scrim is a device used in the film and television industries, as well as by photographers, to modify properties of light. There are a variations on types of scrim, depending upon its use, whether with natural light, or on man made light sources...
above the stage, furthering the song's central theme. "Kite" took on an additional meaning later in 2001 on the tour, when Bono's father, Bob Hewson, died after a long bout with cancer. Bono would alter the line "The last of the rock stars" to "The last of the opera stars", a reference to Bob's past as an amateur opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
singer. Bono paid tribute to him with a tearful rendition of this song on the live release, U2 Go Home: Live from Slane Castle
U2 Go Home: Live from Slane Castle
U2 Go Home: Live from Slane Castle, Ireland is a concert video release by rock band U2 from the European leg of their Elevation Tour. Recorded on 1 September 2001 at Slane Castle on the band's featured stop in County Meath, Ireland, it was released on DVD in November 2003. Although Slane Concerts...
, which depicts the band's memorable performance at Slane Castle
Slane Castle
Slane Castle is located in the town of Slane, within the Boyne Valley of County Meath, Ireland. The castle has been the family home of the Conyngham Marquessate since the 18th century....
, one day after Bob Hewson's funeral. Prior to the song, Bono fondly recalls his father and The Edge's father, Garvin Evans, walking down Madison Avenue
Madison Avenue (Manhattan)
Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square to the Madison Avenue Bridge at 138th Street. In doing so, it passes through Midtown, the Upper East Side , Spanish Harlem, and...
late-night in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
drunk together and singing "the duet from The Silver Fish".
"Kite" was played for the first time on the Vertigo Tour
Vertigo Tour
The Vertigo Tour was a worldwide concert tour by the Irish rock band U2. Launched in support of the group's 2004 album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, the band visited arenas and stadiums from 2005 through 2006. The Vertigo Tour consisted of five legs that alternated between indoor arena shows in...
on 7 November 2006 in Brisbane, Australia, when the tour resumed after a long hiatus. It was also the first time that "Kite" has closed a concert, and was the regular closer on the Australian leg of the tour, while it also closed the first show in Auckland, New Zealand. A live version of the song from the Vertigo Tour, recorded in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
's Telstra Stadium
Telstra Stadium
Stadium Australia, currently also known as ANZ Stadium due to naming rights, formerly known as Telstra Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium located in the Sydney Olympic Park precinct of Homebush Bay...
on 11 November 2006, was released as a B-side to "Window in the Skies
Window in the Skies
"Window in the Skies" is a song by rock band U2 and is one of two new songs featured on their 2006 compilation album U218 Singles. It was released on 1 January 2007 as the album's second single...
" on 1 January 2007. The live Australian version featured the use of didgeridoo
Didgeridoo
The didgeridoo is a wind instrument developed by Indigenous Australians of northern Australia around 1,500 years ago and still in widespread usage today both in Australia and around the world. It is sometimes described as a natural wooden trumpet or "drone pipe"...
(especially audible toward the end).