I recieved this email from my friend Pete. Knowing the meaning behind the lyricss makes the song that much more special. I have posted the full lyrics below.

it was written about bono's friend and assistant who died in a motorcycle accident during a rain storm (see below)

so these lyrics are just so much more powerful now (and bono's delivery is haunting when he screams this at the 3:45 mark)

And when it's raining
Raining hard
That's when the rain will
Break the heart
Raining...raining in your heart
Raining into your heart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xqjsP9Un8I

The single was released exclusively in New Zealand in 1988 where it went to number one. The title of the song refers to One Tree Hill, a volcanic peak in Auckland, New Zealand. At the time of the song's release, a single Monterey pine tree stood on the hill. The tree was removed in 2000, 6 years after being chainsawed by a Māori activist. The song was written in memory of Bono's personal assistant and quickly close friend, Greg Carroll, a native of New Zealand, who died in a 1986 motorcycle crash in Dublin: he was delivering Bono's motorcycle and the accident was in rain. The lyrics also reference Chilean folk singer Victor Jara.

The song debuted live on 10 September 1987 and was played frequently at the start and finish of the Joshua Tree Tour's third leg (though with a two month absence in the middle) and throughout the Lovetown Tour, with its last performance in Rotterdam on 9 January 1990. It was not played again until 2006, when it was played twice in Auckland during two Vertigo Tour shows and twice at two of the following shows in Tokyo. It has been performed a total of forty times. The two 2006 Auckland performances notably occurred within sight of the song's namesake, One Tree Hill.

---------------------------------

One Tree Hill

We turn away to face the cold, enduring chill
As the day begs the night for mercy love
The sun so bright it leaves no shadows
Only scars carved into stone
On the face of earth
The moon is up and over One Tree Hill
We see the sun go down in your eyes

You run like river, on like a sea
You run like a river runs to the sea

And in the world a heart of darkness
A fire zone
Where poets speak their heart
Then bleed for it
Jara sang, his song a weapon
In the hands of love
You know his blood still cries
From the ground

It runs like a river runs to the sea
It runs like a river to the sea

I don't believe in painted roses
Or bleeding hearts
While bullets rape the night of the merciful
I'll see you again
When the stars fall from the sky
And the moon has turned red
Over One Tree Hill

We run like a river
Run to the sea
We run like a river to the sea
And when it's raining
Raining hard
That's when the rain will
Break my heart

Raining...raining in the heart
Raining in your heart
Raining...raining to your heart
Raining, raining...raining
Raining to your heart
Raining...raining in your heart
Raining in your heart..
To the sea

Oh great ocean
Oh great sea
Run to the ocean
Run to the sea