What Matters More?

Derek Webb’s new song is getting a lot of talk around the Interwebs these days.

I think the song is great. And I could care less about who his “target audience is.” I think it’s got a great challenging message.
Continue reading What Matters More?

10 (additional) spiritual lessons from U2

As I mentioned last week, I’ve been reading “We Get to Carry Each Other – The Gospel According to U2.” A great read from Greg Garrett (who also wrote “Stories from the Edge – A Theology of Grief).

As a closing section in the book, Greg shares 10 spiritual lessons we can learn from U2.

I thought I’d share an additional 10 that I’ve learned along my journey as well. So here they are, in no particular order…
Continue reading 10 (additional) spiritual lessons from U2

U2 on Letterman

For my friends in the UK and elsewhere who either don’t get Letterman – or missed seeing U2 last night, YouTube’s got the video (for now).

There’s nothing from the band’s performance on Letterman’s Website yet, but there is a hillarious “Ask U2” bit that I’d encourage you to check out.

Every day I die again, and again I’m reborn
Every day I have to find the courage
To walk out into the street
With arms out
Got a love you can’t defeat
Neither down nor out
There’s nothing you have that I need
I can breathe
Breathe now

This song is quickly becoming one of my favorites on the album. It’s getting harder to pick a top song now.

Now that the album’s been released, what’s your favorite? What’s your favorite lyric? What songs are you dying to see and hear in the stadiums?

BTW – I picked up the “Limited Edition CD/Digi pack” today from Best Buy thanks to my sister and brother-in-law, who gave me a gift card for my birthday (you can order a copy from Amazon through the link above). Very pleased with the packaging — except that the poster is glued to the cardboard! That’s not frustrating at all!! Not that I expected Laurie to let me put the poster up in our living room — but I did have a spot for it in my cubicle at work! I’m hoping I can get it off without damaging either the poster or case too much. I’ll keep you posted.

Oh and BTW – I just noticed U2.com has been completely redesigned. Check it out.

U2’s ‘White as Snow’

shirt-lamb-large

While some have told me they’re not digging U2’s new album, I’m loving it more and more as I listen to it.

Did a little research on the somber track “White as Snow,” of which I originally said, “The opening guitar, bass and vocals immediately remind me of Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson (U2’s worked with and written songs for both musicians in the past). Yet the melody reminds me of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” It will be interesting to see if Bono blends the songs in concert.”

Turns out, according to the Guardian, the melody is intentionally that of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.”

“There are a couple of songs from the point of view of an active soldier in Afghanistan,” Bono told me back in June 2008, at the group’s Hanover Quay studio in Dublin, during a break in recording, “and one of them, White As Snow, lasts the length of time it takes him to die”….

The song’s melody is based on an old hymn, Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel, that, according to The Handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal, was composed by “an unknown author, circa 1100″…

The idea of a song based on the dying thoughts of a soldier initially came to Bono after he read William Golding’s ambitious novel, Pincher Martin, which is told from the point of view of a British sailor who appears to have survived the torpedoing of his ship. As he approaches death, his thoughts roam back over his life, and the moral choices he made or avoided.

While the dying soldier isn’t quite what I had in mind when listening to it – it does add a whole new dimension to the lyrics and the song… another reason I keep digging U2.

And here are the some of the lyrics I was originally looking for, before my pleasant sidetrack…

Who can forgive forgiveness where forgiveness is not
Only the lamb as white as snow…

Now this dry ground, it bears no fruit at all
Only poppies laugh under the crescent moon
The road refuses strangers
The land, the seeds we sow
Where might we find the lamb as white as snow

As boys we would go hunting in the woods
To sleep the night shooting out the stars
Now the wolves are every passing stranger
Every face we cannot know
If only a heart could be as white as snow
If only a heart could be as white as snow

BTW – I think I’m gonna buy the Vinyl LP next week when it’s released and maybe the Digi-Pack. What about you?

U2 – Stand Up Comedy

Loving this song…

“Stand Up Comedy” – U2

Love love love love love
Love love love love love

I got to stand up and take a step
You and I have been asleep for hours
I got to stand up
The wire is stretched
In between our two towers
Stand up in this dizzy world
Where a lovesick eye can steal the view
I’m gonna fall down if I can’t stand up
For your love

Love love love love love

Stand up, this is comedy
The DNA lotto may have left you smart
But can you stand up to beauty
Dictator of the heart
I can stand up for hope, faith, love
But while I’m getting over certainty
Stop helping God across the road like a little old lady

Oh, oh
Out from under your beds
C’mon, ye people
Stand up for your love

Love love love love love
Love love love love love

I gotta stand up to ego but my ego’s not really the enemy
It’s like a small child crossing an eight lane highway
On a voyage of discovery

Stand up to rock stars
Napolean is in high heels
Josephine, be careful
Of small men with big ideas

Oh, oh
Out from under your beds
C’mon, ye people
Stand up for your love

Love love love love love
Love love love love love

God is love
And love is evolution’s very best day

Soul rockin’ people moving on
Soul rockin’ people on and on
C’mon, ye people
We’re made of stars
C’mon, ye people
Stand up then sit down for your love

Love love love love love
Love love love love love
Love love love love love
Love love love love love

(HT @u2)

See all the lyrics from the new album.

Listen to the album

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