U2 'In a Little While'@São Paulo, Brazil, 2011

Morumbi Stadium, April 9th, 2011

In a little while
Surely you'll be mine
In a little while, I'll be there
In a little while
This hurt will hurt no more
I'll be home, love

When the night takes a deep breath
And the daylight has no air
If I crawl, if I come crawling home
Will you be there?

In a little while
I won't be blown by every breeze
Friday night running to Sunday on my knees
That girl, that girl she's mine
Well I've known her since
Since she was

A little girl with Spanish eyes
When I saw her first in a pram they pushed her by
Oh uh my, my how you've grown
Well it's been, it's been a little while

Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh

Slow down my beating heart
A man dreams one day to fly
A man takes a rocket ship into the skies
He lives on a star that's dying in the night
And follows in the trail, the scatter of light
Turn it on
Turn it on, you turn me on

Slow down my beating heart
Slowly, slowly love
Slow down my beating heart
Slowly, slowly love
Slow down my beating heart
Slowly, slowly love
....

U2 played this song on their Elevation tour. Bono said it was written about a hangover - the night before appears to be a distant memory. "I had this idea of writing about the temporal nature of being, but setting it in a hangover gives it some comedy and earthiness that balances out the philosophical pretensions."

Bono was running on two hours of sleep when he arrived at the studio to record this and improvised the lyric and melody.

Bono mentions in the book U2 by U2 that the lyrics "A little girl with Spanish eyes/When I saw her first in a pram they pushed her by" refer to his wife, Alison. She was a year younger than him in school, and Bono was often teased as being a baby-snatcher for dating a younger girl. 

This was the last song that Joey Ramone listened to before he died in 2001. Bono said that Joey turned a song about a hangover into something religious.

Joey's brother Mickey recalled to Mojo May 2011 how this song was playing as he watched his bro pass away: "It was just so applicable and sad, hearing these words, 'In a little while, this hurt will hurt no more.' The song ended and the nurse said, 'He's gone now.' He went with the song, I thought, to that place where songs go after they're played - wherever that is."

A man dreams one day to fly
A man takes a rocket ship into the sky
He lives on a star that's dying in the night
And follows in the trail, the scatter of light

Bono explains the above tangent in the book U2 by U2: "It's the divine comedy. Christ described the assembled gathering as sheep, which I think is one of the best metaphors of mankind. There's such comedy to that. Have you ever watched a flock of sheep? No one is in charge. They change direction without any seeming logic. I love the idea of human beings (and don't take this personally because I'm one of them). There's a sort of audacious side to human beings that puts himself at the centre of the universe. I'm capable of it in a lot of ways, reasoning with the Almighty, doing deals. The big question, for me, is not if we believe in God but, much more importantly, does God believe in us?"

As the 20th century came to a close, Bono was thinking of all the scientific accomplishments mankind achieved like putting a man on the moon and discovering groundbreaking medicines to cure diseases. But, he says, it still wasn't enough: "The world's problems are not going to be all sorted by science. These huge problems come down to poverty and depression and greed... All this stuff was in my head as I was writing a beautiful little pop song. The tangent makes the song for me. It should be called 'The Pilgrim and His Lack of Progress.'"