U2 - How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb - City Of Blinding Lights

Track #5 - City Of Blinding Lights

The more you see the less you know
The less you find out as you go
I knew much more then than I do now

Neon heart dayglo eyes
A city lit by fireflies
They’re advertising in the skies
For people like us

And I miss you when you’re not around
I’m getting ready to leave the ground….

Ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh

Oh you look so beautiful tonight
In the city of blinding lights

Don’t look before you laugh
Look ugly in a photograph
Flash bulbs purple irises
The camera can’t see

I’ve seen you walk unafraid
I’ve seen you in the clothes you made
Can you see the beauty inside of me?
What happened to the beauty I had inside of me?

And I miss you when you’re not around
I’m getting ready to leave the ground

Ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh

Oh you look so beautiful tonight
In the city of blinding lights

Time… time
Won’t leave me as I am
But time won’t take the boy out of this man

Oh you look so beautiful tonight
Oh you look so beautiful tonight
Oh you look so beautiful tonight
In the city of blinding lights

The more you know the less you feel
Some pray for others steal
Blessings are not just for the ones who kneel… luckily
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Hulkster on the Circle 6 boards nailed this one, so I am just going to steal his post, I couldn't have said it better....

Hulkster said:

I think Bono is just saying that, the older we get, the more complicated things tend to get in our lives. The more complicated things get, the more gray things become, and answers seem less black and white.

The line about knowing much more "then" than now is just a look back to his youth when he no doubt(like us all) thought we knew it all. And again I think it's just a way Bono in saying "back then things were a little bit more simple than they are now." Everything now is complicated. He's having to jump through government hoops across the world to get things done in Africa, whereas before he thought(mistakenly) that he could change the world with a song, like Sunday Bloody Sunday. It's just a wakeup call of sorts, an admission of the reality of what he's facing.