Fraters Libertas

If You Don't Know...

I found an interesting side note in an article in the September 15th edition of The Economist on electroconvulsive therapy (ECT):

Ever since ECT was pioneered by Ugo Cerletti, an Italian neurosurgeon, in the late 1930s, it has had a bad press. In books ("The Bell Jar", "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"), in song ("Electric Co" by U2) and in film ("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Tarnation"), it has been portrayed as a sinister procedure that leaves the patient a dribbling dullard. But in spite of this, ECT remains one of the fastest-acting and most effective antidepressant treatments known.

As a long-time U2 fan, I had no idea that "Electric Co" was about ECT. In fact, the lyrics seemed completely meaningless to me. After reading them, you can see possible references to ECT, but they are certainly not obvious:

Boy, stupid boy
Don't sit at the table
Until you're able to
Toy, broken toy
Shout and shout
You're inside out

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

Red, running red
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.

One three four
I can't stop
You stay still in the song
You stay still in the song
Say reach out

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

See someone breaks the willow
To say the sound go
To the top of casandro
Covering me
Just to hear me
Two hours...
Two hours and two hours
Listen I can't find my way home
So alone...
(Can't you, can't you get it)

You know
And you know
And you know
And you know
And you know

I still think you could make an argument, as some have, that the song is actually about this.