By iTunes Store, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3321867
The song “Fire” by Bono weaves biblical imagery into its lyrics, echoing the apocalyptic themes found in the New Testament. The references to the sun burning black, the moon running red, and stars falling from the sky resemble Jesus’ apocalyptic statements in Mark 13, derived from Joel 2:30, but Bono’s lyrics come directly from the book of Revelation: “the sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth” (Revelation 6:12-13, NIV). These elements symbolize catastrophic events foretelling the end times.
Surprisingly given the clear allusion, Bono humorously dismissed “Fire” as “nonsense,” reflecting on the song’s creation with a mix of self-criticism and nostalgia: “God knows where our heads were at,” Bono laughed, adding, “There was something good about it – I just can’t remember what it was” (Stokes, Into the Heart, 28).
Niall Stokes noted that without prior knowledge of U2’s religious interests, listeners might interpret the song in a more secular light, possibly as “some imagined nuclear-fuelled Armageddon” (Stokes, Into the Heart, 28). But he too recognized that clearly, “With its roots in the Book of Revelations [sic] and the circumstances of the second coming, it is apocalyptic in tone” (Stokes, Into the Heart, 28).
