U2 countdown day 5: sometimes you can't make it on your own

some of the best songs bono has written are about his relationship with this father.  this is one that everyone can relate to in one capacity or another.  i don't even know if i could possibly pick out a favorite lyric, but it would probably be, "and it's you when i look in the mirror, and it's you whenever i pick up the phone, sometimes you can't make it on your own." this lyric had very special meaning to me when i listened to it right after my grandfather's death on my 21st birthday, who called me incessantly (i loved it) and had sent me flower for my birthday - which arrived after he died.  but the other best lyric would be, "you don't have to put up a fight, you don't have to always be right, let me take some of the punches for you tonight."  it's so beautiful and selfless to have a love like this for someone.  and i think we all have those people in our lives - that we are so close to yet there's that distance that sometimes seems uncrossable.  this is for those people. 


this is sometimes you can't make it in your own, from 2004's how to dismantle an atomic bomb.


tough, you think you've got the stuff
you're telling me and anyone
you're hard enough

you don't have to put up a fight
you don't have to always be right
let me take some of the punches
for you tonight

listen to me now
i need to let you know
you don't have to go it alone

and it's you when i look in the mirror
and it's you when i don't pick up the phone
sometimes you can't make it on your own

we fight all the time
you and i, that's alright
We're the same soul
i don't need, i don't need to hear you say
that if we weren't so alike
you'd like me a whole lot more

listen to me now
i need to let you know
you don't have to go it alone

and it's you when I look in the mirror
and it's you when I don't pick up the phone
sometimes you can't make it on your own

i know that we don't talk
i'm sick of it all 
can - you - hear - me - when - i -
sing, you're the reason i sing
you're the reason why the opera is in me

where are we now?
i've got to let you know
a house still doesn't make a home
don't leave me here alone...

and it's you when i look in the mirror
and it's you that makes it hard to let go 
sometimes you can't make it on your own
sometimes you can't make it 
the best you can do is to fake it
sometimes you can't make it on your own