Pre Sketch – Prep Sketch – Large – Full Size
This is the only 100% Grade that I’ve gotten from a teacher and regretted. I don’t think this lives up to the power and intensity of the song, and I also feel Mothers and Streets (which my teacher graded as worse) are easily stronger paintings. Maybe it’s because the final is so similar to the prep-sketch that I’m disinclined to feel this is a particularly exciting work. It works as a sketch, but on the big canvas, I don’t think it does much of anything, and it says far less than the song. This painting is based on the video Anton Corbijn directed for the song; there was originally to be a young girl in front of the silhouetted businessmen, but the detail required to pull that out was a little out of my scope. I’m terrible with figures.
Lyrics:
So you never knew love
Until you crossed the line of grace
And you never felt wanted
Unil you had someone slap your face
And you never felt alive
Until you’d almost wasted away
You had to win
You couldn’t just pass
The smartest ass
At the top of the class
Your flying colors
Your family tree
And all your lessons in history
Please…please…please…
Get up off your knees, now
Please…please…please…
Leave it out…
So you never knew
How low you’d stoop to make that call
And you never knew
What was on the ground until they made you crawl
So you never knew
That the heaven you keep, you stole
Your Catholic blues
Your convent shoes
Your stick-on tattoos
Now they’re making the news
Your holy war
Your northern star
Your sermon on the mount
From the boot of your car
Please…please…please…
Get up off your knees, now
Please…please…please…
Leave it out…
‘Cause love is big
And love is tough
But love is not
What you’re thinking of
September
Streets capsizing
Spilling over
Down the drain
Shards of glass
Splinters like rain
But you could only feel
Your own pain
October
Talk getting nowhere
November
December
Remember
Are we just starting again
Please…please…please…
Get up off your knees, now
Please…
Please…
‘Cause love is big
Is bigger than us
But love is not
What you’re thinking of
It’s what lovers deal
It’s what lovers steal
You know I’ve found it hard to receive
‘Cause you my love
I could never believe