U2 “Hawkmoon 269”

All Time Top Five Songs About Motel Rooms . . .

Throwing a monkey wrench into this post: Turns out this song is not really about a motel room.

I’d heard, years and years ago, that this song was inspired by an experience Bono had at a hotel called “The Hawkmoon” in room #269.

And I’d always assumed that to be the truth. If you check out the lyrics, it would make perfect sense that Bono (or the narrator), who is desperately begging for “your love” would be telling you how much he needs it, in a hotel room. What other explanation is there for the name?

Well, it turns out there is quite a handful of explanations.

While trying to research where this non-existent hotel might be, I ended up down the rabbit-hole of U2 fan site theorists.

Maybe the title has to do with the number of times the song was remixed (269 times). Maybe it has to do with a Sam Shepard book. Maybe it is something only in Bono’s head.

What’s fascinating is that this information exists at all. The internet is just an amazing thing. To have access to this information is incredible. That someone, and groups of someones, took the time to compile this information, gleaned from interviews and articles and appearances and such, to provide definitive answers to questions of U2 minutiae, is stunning, particularly because, until you stop and think about it, here in 2010, such things are pretty mundane.

Imagine if the internet were available when something like “Ode To Billie Joe” came out in the 60s?