U2 Songs - The Electric Co. Lyrics

U2 - The Electric Co.

U2 - The Electric Co. Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Boy
Released: 1980

The Electric Co. Lyrics

Somebody cry, somebody cry, somebody cry
Well, somebody try, somebody try, somebody try
Something quick
Did you look back, did you look back, don't you look back
Well, somebody cry, somebody cry, somebody cry
Well, I can't see why or what for
What for, what for?

Break it up
Boy, stupid boy
Don't sit at the table
'Till you're able to

Toy, broken toy
Shout, shout, you're inside out if you don't know

Electric co. (Electric co.)
If you don't know Electric co.
Electric co.

Red, running red
You'll play for real
The toy could feel
A hole in your head
You go in shock
You're spoon-fed

If you don't know Electric co.
If you don't know Electric co.

Break it up
Div it up

If you don't know Electric co.
If you don't know Electric co.
If you don't know Electric co.
If you don't know Electric co.

Writer/s: ADAM CLAYTON, DAVE EVANS, PAUL HEWSON, LARRY MULLEN
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

The Electric Co. Song Chart

The title refers to Electro Convulsive Therapy (ECT), which was a popular treatment in Irish mental hospitals, but one that the band felt was inhumane.

There was a real mental institution in Dublin that inspired the song. It's was called Grangegorman District Mental Hospital (or "The Grangegorman"), and later renamed St. Brendan's Psychiatric Hospital. A school friend of the band was confined to the institution, and when Bono visited him, this friend talked about killing himself as a way out of the place.

A live favorite, this appears on Under A Blood Red Sky. On that version, Bono sang 27 seconds of Stephen Sondheim's "Send In The Clowns." Because they did not get permission, they had to pay Sondheim $50,000 and edit it out of US releases. It remains on non-US releases because the US copyright law does not apply. The song is listed as 5:18 on US versions of Under A Blood Red Sky, but the actual length is 4:51.

U2 included this on the set list for many of their 2005 shows.