I’ve written in the past about Bono’s ability to write lyrics that seem to be about more than one thing. I feel that it’s probably his greatest gift as a songwriter, and today’s song is one of the earliest examples of this talent in action. From 1981’s October “Tomorrow” is one of the most overtly obvious songs about Bono’s mother, but it’s also one of U2’s most conspicuously Christian songs.

Unless you’ve been there, it’s hard to imagine the profound effect that the death of Bono’s mother had on him, not just as an artist but as a person. Especially considering what we know now about the difficult relationship that Bono had with his father, for the young man to lose the person who was presumably his greatest advocate at such a tender age mus have been a near-insurmountable blow. It must have seemed that Bono’s whole world had come crashing down around his ears, and it’s no surprise that Bono chose to write about this loss in his songs. It’s been said that from great pain comes great art, and “Tomorrow” definitely stands as proof of that adage.

In “Tomorrow”, Bono writes and sings about the funeral day of his mother, referencing the “black car parked at the side of the road”, which I’ve always taken to be about the car come to take what remained of his family to the funeral. “Don’t go to the door” is young Bono insisting that if they refuse to face reality about his mother’s death, it won’t be real, then “I’m going outside, mother…I’m going out there” is the realization that there’s no choice but to move forward and face the hard truth of the day. In his day to day life, Bono would eventually turn to religion to help him deal with the loss of his mother, and this faith is reflected in some of the later lyrics of “Tomorrow”. The end of the second verse asks the questions “who heals the wounds, who heals the scars” and the unspoken answer is that for Bono, at least, a belief in Jesus Christ healed those wounds. The end of the song finds Bono singing his belief that Jesus will return someday to reunite mother and son.

The music of “Tomorrow” echoes the profoundly personal words that Bono penned. This song, with the uilleann pipes provided by Vincent Kilduff, was the first time that U2 really incorporated traditional Irish music into their sound. The tempo is noticeably slower than most of the songs that U2 had recorded up to that point, and, for the first half of the song, the band’s playing is quiet and subdued. When the electric guitar and drums do kick in at about 2:42, the timing roughly coincides with Bono singing about his acceptance of his mother’s death, and as we all know, acceptance is the final stage in the grieving process. This represents Bono making some peace with his loss and starting to heal.

“Tomorrow” hasn’t been played live since midway through the War Tour, in 1983. It would be an exciting addition to their live set if U2 were to revive this emotional and dynamic song for the (hopefully) upcoming second half of the Innocence+Experience tour, but I wouldn’t bet that it’s on their short list of songs to play. Fortunately, we live in the age of the internet, so recordings of “Tomorrow” being performed live aren’t that hard to come by, including this gem from 1983. October may be low down on lots of fan’s favorites list, but songs like “Tomorrow” prove that the album deserves another listen.