The song is about the fact that the very basic things in life often shape who you are, that goes back to the way you related to your siblings, your father and most essentially- your mother. Bono’s pleas to his mother are obvious, the abandonment and loneliness he felt after her death. There are allusions to Salman Rushdie (looking to fill that God-shaped hole) and Yeats (still looking for the face I had before the world was made) but the central theme, as in many of his lyrics, is Bono’s mother. As Gavin Friday once remarked, “He makes references to his mother in earlier songs, it was obscure. But in the middle eight (of this song) it sends a chill down your spine. Like it’s the whole reason he’s in a band- because his mammy died when he was a young fellow.”
Click here to download the guitar tab for Mofo
Looking for to save my save my soul
Looking in the places where no flowers grow
Looking for to fill that God shaped hole
Mother… mother sucking rock and roll
Mother… mother sucking rock and roll
Holy dunc, spacejunk coming in for the splash
White dopes on punk staring into the flash
Looking for the baby Jesus under the trash
Mother… mother sucking rock and roll
Mother… mother… mother…
Mother… mother… mother…
Mother… am I still your son
You know I’ve waited for so long to hear you say so
Mother… you left and made me someone
Now I’m still a child but no one tells me no
Looking for a sound that’s going to drown out the world
Looking for the father of my two little girls
Got the swing got the sway got my straw in lemonade
Still looking for the face I had before the world was made
Mother… mother sucking rock and roll
Bubble popping sugar dropping… rock and roll
Mother… mother… mother…
Mother… mother… mother…
Soothe me mother
Rule me father
Move me brother
Woo me sister
Soothe me mother
Rule me father
Show me mother
Show me mother
Show me mother
Show me mother
Show me mother
Show me mother
Subpages: