Tag: u2

Get on Your Boots

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U2.com has just published the lyrics to U2’s new single, Get on Your Boots.

Haven’t heard it yet? As of today, you can still listen to the full song online at http://goyb.u2.com/.

Loving the song. Instrumentally I think its a great mix of Elevation, Vertigo and The Fly. And lyrically its inspiring as well. It’s one of those great classic U2 lyrics where they can take on several different meanings.

And I love these two lines ::

Night is falling everywhere / Rockets at the fun fair / Satan loves a bomb scare / But he won’t scare you…
Here’s where we gotta be / Love and community / Laughter is eternity / If joy is real

While the song is supposed to be released on Feb 15th for download, you can download it from iTunes today (in the US at least).

Can’t wait till March 3rd (March 2nd US) when the six different versions of the full album, No Line on the Horizon, are released ::

  • Standard jewel case – with album CD and 24 page booklet
  • Digipak format – limited edition with album CD, 32 page colour booklet and fold out poster. Features access to exclusive downloadable Anton Corbijn film.
  • Magazine format – limited edition with album CD, with 64 page magazine. Features access to exclusive downloadable Anton Corbijn film.
  • Box format – limited edition bespoke box containing digipak format album CD, DVD of Anton Corbijn’s exclusive film, 64 page hardback book, plus a fold out poster. (currently on pre-order sale for $66 as opposed to $95)
  • LP vinyl – limited edition with 2 black vinyl discs, gatefold sleeve, and a 16 page booklet.
  • Special edition digital download version (I’ve only seen this mentioned on iTunes so far).

So here’s what you’re really waiting for – the lyrics to Get on You Boots ::

The future needs a big kiss
Winds blows with a twist
Never seen a moon like this
Can you see it too?

Night is falling everywhere
Rockets at the fun fair
Satan loves a bomb scare
But he won’t scare you

Hey, sexy boots
Get on your boots, yeah

You free me from the dark dream
Candy floss ice cream
All our kids are screaming
But the ghosts aren’t real

Here’s where we gotta be
Love and community
Laughter is eternity
If joy is real

You don’t know how beautiful
You don’t know how beautiful you are
You don’t know, and you don’t get it, do you?
You don’t know how beautiful you are

That’s someone’s stuff they’re blowing up
We’re into growing up
Women of the future
Hold the big revelations

I got a submarine
You got gasoline
I don’t want to talk about wars between nations

Not right now

Hey sexy boots…
Get on your boots, yeah
Not right now
Bossy boots

You don’t know how beautiful
You don’t know how beautiful you are
You don’t know, and you don’t get it, do you?
You don’t know how beautiful you are

Hey sexy boots
I don’t want to talk about the wars between the nations
Sexy boots, yeah

Let me in the sound
Let me in the sound
Let me in the sound, sound
Let me in the sound, sound
Meet me in the sound

Let me in the sound
Let me in the sound, now
God, I’m going down
I don’t wanna drown now
Meet me in the sound

Let me in the sound

Let me in the sound
Let me in the sound, sound
Let me in the sound, sound
Meet me in the sound

Get on your boots
Get on your boots
Get on your boots
Yeah hey hey

Finally, read what Dave Fanning has to say about the new song and the new album…

First impressions is that there’s eleven tracks on the album and ‘Get On Your Boots’ is the one you’d instantly say is the single. It’s the ‘Vertigo’ of the album – although a completely different kind of song. That was a new song which was an instant hit night after night on the last tour and this song will be the same on the next tour. People will be impressed, it’s very U2 and there’ s nothing wrong with that, a big song with lots of layers but not overproduced. Great track.

10/365


10/365
Originally uploaded by Jonathan D. Blundell.

achtung yall

In 1991 (or maybe 92) I was given my first CD player/boombox for Christmas, and the first CD I purchased was U2’s One single. I wore that CD out – as well as the Achtung Baby album.

My friends and I were just getting into U2 for the first time and loving every bit of it. As soon as we saw pictures and video of Bono walking on stage during the opening bars of Zoo Station, doing his "Bono dance" (as we called it) we imitated it profusely.

We did this dance/walk/pose over and over again in pictures, videos or just walking down the street. I couldn’t tell you why, but we thought it was cool.

For some reason while trying to get a picture today Zoo Station came back in my head — hence the picture.

Otherwise a pretty uneventful day — took the Christmas lights down, took an elliptical machine to the thrift store and took our old washer to a scrap yard — apparently thrift stores don’t like em.

I also wrestled with holding on to things too tightly and making the mistake of taking those same things for granted — a mistake I probably make more than I’d like to admit.

But maybe that’s what Zoo TV was all about. Mocking the excess and challenging us to consider what really matters.

Time is a train
Makes the future the past
Leaves you standing in the station
Your face pressed up against the glass

Looking forward to the bands new album, No Line on the Horizon. We’ll see where the band challenges us to go next.

The Wanderer

Bono

Back in the early 1990’s my friends turned me on to the music of U2. It was right before the release of their album Achtung Baby. In fact the first CD I ever bought was U2’s One single, followed soon by the Achtung Baby album.

As I came to learn more and more about the band I was even more intrigued by the suggestions that they might be a “Christian band.” The continual argument against their “conversion” was the rock lifestyle they led and the fact that they wrote and sang lyrics that often talked just as much about doubting their faith as accepting what God was doing in the world around them.

I’ve come to see more and more that perhaps that’s also what attracts many people (and me more and more) to their music – they’re real, authentic and don’t claim to have it all figured out.

@U2 shared a list of U2’s Top 10 Spiritual Songs last month.

The list included ::

Tomorrow
Drowning Man
The Wanderer
Love Rescue Me
The Playboy Mansion
Wake Up Dead Man
Mercy
Yahweh
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
40

I’m glad they included “Wake Up Dead Man” on the list. The first time I heard that song I thought perhaps Bono and U2 had given up on any faith they might have had. But then I came to see it as real, raw, honest seeking of God.

@U2 writes ::

Bitter, enraged and at times desperate, the final song on the Pop album is a fierce antidote to any rose-tinted view of the spiritual life. Bono states his predicament bluntly and uncompromisingly in the first few lines, painting a grim picture of what is perhaps his boldest depiction of a life lived in isolation from both God and the wider world.

Crying out to a deity who may or may not have abandoned him, in “Wake Up Dead Man” (the lyrics of which were partly written by the Edge), Bono describes a bleak situation, one of being so consumed by naked anger with God that it makes hard listening for any believer. However, I’ve often found it the perfect sound track to those blackest of black moments, as the song almost perfectly articulates what it feels to have what Bono has called that “very valid” sense of outrage at a God who at times seems indifferent to the awfulness of the human condition.

The song goes to prove that sometimes we will feel lost, confused and alone in the world. And those times may leave us asking “God, why have you forsaken me.” Yet, the picture doesn’t remain bleak – as the next song U2 released was “Beautiful Day.” The song contrasts the previous one like Good Friday contrasts with Easter Sunday.

I’ve come to realize in my own life that it’s those deep, dark, lonely moments that make the moments of resurrection and reconciliation that much more beautiful.

What songs would you add to the list? Are there other songs, albums or movies that paint beautiful pictures of God’s reconciliation with you and the world around us? Are there other stories that you’ve heard that have brought about new understandings of God’s working in the world?

emerging worship

Earlier this week blogger Mike Morrell asked “what sould emergent/emerging worship look like and sound like?”

I’m sure everyone has different ideas. Jonny Baker is big into the alt.worship scene. Others like Solomon’s Porch, are big on their community of faith writing their own songs and sharing them together. Others I know could care less what the music looks or sounds like – they’re more interested in the celebration and the sharing of stories/testimonies. They admit that their mind wanders during community singing and they may start thinking about work, home or motorcycles instead.

Either way I believe our worship should be defined as “celebrating what God is doing.”

Michael points to 4 key elements (suggested by Adam Walker Cleveland) that should be a part of “emerging worship” ::

  • gender-inclusive language (esp. in our language for God)
  • a shift from a I-YOU-me & God focus, and a refocusing on the community
  • a passion for the biblical themes of social justice, peace and a desire to speak for the oppressed
  • maybe just some more songs straight from scripture (or from saints and desert fathers), letting God’s work speak for itself, instead of pressing our own interpretation onto it, and onto the congregation that will sing the song

Some may say the words to the songs don’t mean much – but I’m a big believer that they do. When I play an artist like Derek Webb, Bob Dylan or Flobots on my Zune – their lyrics move me to action (or at least increase my desire to do something). U2‘s Sunday Bloody Sunday doesn’t allow me to sit back and ignore the violence going on in the world – it calls me to action.

And likewise, as I and others have said before, when I walk into church and only sing songs about being hungry or thirsty — I’ll probably leave feeling hungry and thirsty. But if the weight of the world is on my shoulders and I can sing songs of How Great Thou Art and How Great is Our God or other songs about the strength and might and love of my God, my burden is lightened and I’m more willing to submit control of my situation to God.

Michael points out one band that is attempting meet these four keys to emerging worship, Zehnder.

I got a copy of their album and it’s definitely a mix of musical styles. A little something for everyone perhaps. (That may be something that’s missing at encounter. We tend to lean more towards the rock or the softer acoustic/unplugged rock sound.)

On Going Up, the Zehnder brothers lyrically fit the 4 points that Michael and Adam point to, while mixing in original tunes as well as a rendition of What Wondrous Love is This. Musically I wasn’t as impressed the first time I listened to the album, but upon further listening and as the words began to sink in I’ve became more and more attracted to the music.

Musically I would say several of the songs are similar in style to Simon and Garfunkle others have more of an upbeat sound with almost a choral backing, especially on the song Rise Up ::

Rise up, feel the change!
The Resurrection comes again!
Rise up, believe the change!
We’ll never be the same again!

Spirit Born seems to have it’s musical and vocal styling influenced by Sting (download the free Mp3).

You know the wind blows, wind blows where it chooses
You hear the sound of it
But you don’t know, don’t know where it comes from
Or where it goes, it goes, it goes
Yeah, you know don’t know, don’t know where it comes from
Or where it goes, it goes, it goes

Blow through me, Wind, breathe on me, Breath, make Spirit born,
All of my soul, make Spirit born, Spirit born.

And Justice Jam could be possibly be confused with a Flobots track using backing strings, a hip-hop beat and heavy social justice lyrics (listen to a sample).

For justice I bust this flow for free
Used to be blind but now I see
Through the eyes of the elders who came before me
Like Malcolm and Martin and I can’t forget Mahatma Gandhi
Take a knee, homey / Hug an old bodhi tree
Realize how to be revolutionary
Destiny is divine when aligned with the truth
That resides deep inside that g-ride of my youth
Now I got proof of insurance and a photo ID
But I choose to tell time by Mayan prophecy – Oo, Let justice roll down…

Overall I think the Zehnder brothers have created an album that challenges us to much greater themes than much of the music you’ll hear on your local “Christian radio station.” It challenges us to think about our faith and how it impacts (or doesn’t impact) our daily lives.

I’m not sure the songs are as singable in a community settings as some that Dave Andrews has written but I definitely wouldn’t object to trying them out in a community setting.

But don’t take my word for it.

Go check out the band’s website ztheband.com and then purchase their CD from CDBaby.

And while you wait for the album to arrive, check out their 2003 rendition of Song of Peace ::

Give the band a listen and let me know what you think.

Together as One

Great U2, Beatles, Dianah Ross, Mariah Carrey mashup!

wonder if this could become a theme song for community groups in (y)our local churches… hmmm. 🙂 I can see the emails now.

may be worth using for an upcoming podcast at least…… maybe.

related::
dj earworm