One Tree Hill
ONE TREE HILL
We turn away to face the cold, enduring chill
As the day begs the night for mercy
Your sun so bright it leaves no shadows, only scars
Carved into stone on the face of earth
The moon is up and over One Tree Hill
We see the sun go down in your eyes
You ran like a river to the sea
Like a river to the sea
And in our world a heart of darkness, a firezone
Where poets speak their hearts and then bleed for it
Jara sang, his song a weapon, in the hands of love
You know his blood still cries from the ground
It runs like a river to the sea
Like a river to the sea
I don’t believe in painted roses or bleeding hearts
While bullets rape the night of the merciful
I’ll see you again when the stars fall from the sky
And the moon has turned red over One Tree Hill
We run like a river to the sea
Like a river to the sea
(Greg Caroll’s Funeral, Wanganui, New Zealand, 10th July 1986.)
Greg Caroll and One Tree Hill
Greg Caroll was a New Zealander who joined the U2 team after the Auckland concert of their 1984 Unforgettable Fire tour. Greg became Bono’s personal assistant and the two were close friends.
When they first met, Greg took Bono to visit One Tree Hill. Greg was Maori, and One Tree Hill’s significance to Maori dates back to around 1600, when a totara tree was planted on the hill to commemorate a noble birth. The hill was named Te Totara i Ahua (“The Totara that Stands Alone”).
The totara is thought to have stood on the hill until 1852, when settlers cut it down (though this article suggests the totara fell at an earlier date, and a solitary pohutukawa stood on the hill when Europeans arrived). One Tree Hill was given its name in 1840 by Sir John Logan Campbell – known as the “Father of Auckland”. Campbell attempted to re-establish a native tree on the summit in the 1870s. He planted five Pinus radiata to shelter a grove of native trees, but only the pines survived. In 1962, the second to last surviving pine was vandalised and had to be felled, leaving the famous solitary pine on the summit. In October 2000, One Tree Hill’s last pine was removed, due to damage from chainsaw attacks by Maori activists in 1994 and 1999.
In July 1986, Greg was killed in Dublin when a drunk driver struck his motorbike. Bono and his wife Ali, Larry and his girlfriend Anne, and several U2 crew members flew back to New Zealand with Greg’s body. They attended his funeral at Kai iwi Marae, near Wanganui. Upon his return to Dublin, Bono wrote ‘One Tree Hill’ which is dedicated, along the The Joshua Tree, to Greg.
enduring chill
American author Flannery O’Connor wrote a short story titled ‘The Enduring Chill’. Bono and the other members of U2 said that O’Connor was a chief inspiration for The Joshua Tree and they thanked her in their Grammy acceptance speech.
heart of darkness
Joseph Conrad’s famous novel of the same name.
Jara sang, his song a weapon
Víctor Jara was a Chilean poet, folk singer/songwriter, and political activist who became a symbol of the struggle against military oppression and injustice across Latin America (a theme that runs throughout The Joshua Tree).
Jara was prominent in the development of the New Chilean Song movement that acquired considerable prominence during the socialist Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende. On September 11, 1973, a military-organised (and CIA-backed) coup led by Augusto Pinochet overthrew Allende’s government. Jara was one of tens of thousands of political prisoners taken to the Chile Stadium on 12 September. Jara was repeatedly beaten and tortured. With the bones in his hands and upper torso broken, soldiers mockingly suggested Jara play guitar for them. He managed to sing a portion of the song of the Popular Unity coalition. Jara was murdered on 15 December, after further beatings.
You know his blood still cries from the ground
Genesis 4:8-10: “And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother and killed him….The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.”"
I’ll see you again when the stars fall from the sky
And the moon has turned red over One Tree Hill
Revelation 6:12-13: “I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned as black as dark sackcloth, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth.”
Matthew 24:29: “Immediately after the distress of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky”
Acts 2:20: “The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood”
We run like a river to the sea
Ecclesiastes 1:7: “All the rivers run to the sea; yet the sea is not full.”
[sources]:
One Tree Hill still bare six years on
Axe taken to One Tree myth
One Tree Hill summit project
Cornwall Park Trust - History
Bono makes emotional plea
U2 New Zooland - A History of One Tree Hill - The U2 Perspective
U2faqs.com - Songs/Lyrics FAQ
U2.com – One Tree Hill
U2MoL – The Meaning of U2 Lyrics
Flannery O’Connor at Wikipedia.org
The Dark Side of the Cross: Flannery O’Connor’s Short Fiction
Victor Jara at Wikipedia.org
CIA Acknowledges ties to Pinochet’s Repression
CIA Activities in Chile
Documents Reveal US Funding for Chile Coup
parque por la paz
@U2 – U2 Lyrics – Bible references
U2Literary.com
U2’s Christian Subterfuge
