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In every way possible, this is a big song choice.
Musically and emotionally, its expansive, the kind of ballad designed to reverberate in a stadium setting.
And its the song that helped U2 credibly claim the title of worlds biggest rock band.
But there are U2-related reasons that make it even more fitting.
I always wondered, he says, What am I?
Am I Protestant or Catholic?
Am I working-class or middle-class?
We were obsessed by America at the time.
Americas a sort of promised land for Irish people and then, a sort of potentiallybrokenpromised land.
America as promised land and potentiallybrokenpromised land: My God, thats certainlyThe Americans, isnt it?
Theres also a generationally appropriate element to the use of With or Without You.
But it also provides the soundtrack to Paiges escape.
Shes just liberated herself from her parents and all their constantly conflicted expectations of who she should become.
(Paige is obviously not Irish, and she was always the Christian one in the family.
But like Bono, she was raised by parents who believed in different religions.)
