My Gen X Playlist: One Tree Hill – U2

My sister has been chatting with my mom about distant relatives and began sketching out our family tree. She has different drafts on various pieces of paper. I’d been meaning to sign up for Ancestry.com for awhile, but my good intentions remained just that. After a recent family gathering, I told myself to look into it again. If I found a sale price, I’d pull the trigger. The universe was listening. Thirty percent off. Sold.

I’m still trying to figure out the best way to use the site. I’ve only used an app on my iPhone and have been muddling my way through it. So far my most interesting find is discovering a document that recorded my great grandfather’s entrance into the US in 1899. I was floored. I signed up for the global version. Anything I find prior to that will be gravy.

I get why they call it a family tree with the older descendants at the top, with generational branches spreading down from above. But the more I thought about it, I kept thinking of my great grandfather at the base, holding steady as our family tree grew skyward. The aesthetics aren’t quite as nice as the traditional way, but I like the thought of generations working hard to hold up the rest of the family. After all, that sounds like a closer picture to reality.

You would think it would be easy to find a song about strength of family or even about a tree. I wasn’t in the mood for Sisters Sledge’s We are Family and I drew a blank for songs about redwood trees. Although a stretch, I decided on a song from U2’s Joshua Tree album. Joshua trees are nowhere close to the imagery I had in mind, but I do like the song One Tree Hill. Bono wrote this song about a close friend who tragically died in a accident.

U2 wrote this song about Greg Carroll, a Maori from New Zealand who became an assistant and close friend to Bono.

Carroll was killed in Dublin on July 3, 1986 when he was hit by a car while running an errand for the band on Bono’s motorcycle. The album The Joshua Tree, as well as this song, are dedicated to him.

One Tree Hill is the tallest of five volcanic islands in Auckland where Greg Carroll took Bono his first night in New Zealand.

Bono felt he could perform this only once, and did just one take in the studio. The band left the song off their set on The Joshua Tree Tour until the third leg, when Bono felt he had a better handle on his emotions. It made its live debut on September 10, 1987 at a concert in Uniondale, New York.

Songfacts

Like I said, it’s not really a song about a tree at all. But I do appreciate the bond between people. And I guess as I’m scrolling through databases creating my family tree, I’m also reminded that there is a larger umbrella of family that includes both blood relatives and not. Family extends far beyond what you find in Ancestry.com.

One of the biggest lies ever told is that blood makes you family. Blood makes you related. Loyalty, love and trust make you family.

Unknown

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For a complete playlist, please click here.

For the Spotify playlist, please click here.

We turn away to face the cold, enduring chill
As the day begs the night for mercy, love
The 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 run like river on like a sea
You run like a river runs to the sea

And in the world, a heart of darkness
A fire zone
Where poets speak their heart
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 runs to the sea
It runs 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 run to the sea
We run like a river to the sea

And when it's raining
Raining hard
That's when the rain will break my heart

Raining, raining in your heart
Raining in your heart
Raining, rain into your heart
Raining, raining, raining
Rain into your
Raining, ooh, rain in your heart, yeah
To the sea

Oh, great ocean
Oh, great sea
Run to the ocean
Run to the sea