These Are the Hands That Built America

[debjeopardy]

Just a thought I've had 1000 times since Sept 11th. The movie The Gangs of New York closes with These Are the Hands... and flashback scenes of all the different time periods in NY. The final flash is the skyline before 9/11 and shows the Towers.

The final verse of the song: "It's early fall there's a cloud on the New York skyline/ Innocence dragged across a yellow line..."

Sept 11 was early fall. We lost our innocence in the scene full of the yellow lines of police tape... I would love to see the group put this out as a memorial to our tragedy. "These are the hands that built America" with scenes of the firefighters, cops, smoke.

Wrote a letter to the public fan club address but no response. It could be a moving experience.

debjeopardy

 

[U2_860]

I know it's not THTBA, but I remember right after 9/11, MTV would play a version of Walk On that showed scenes of the firefighters, police and other images from that day. Maybe it's on YouTube...

 

[MrPryck2U]

The name of the song is simply Hands That Built America. Considering the song was released in 2002, it is possible that the song was written with 9/11 in mind, but also in reference to the film, Gangs of New York.

Welcome to Interference, btw!

 

[neatperson42]

I know it's not THTBA, but I remember right after 9/11, MTV would play a version of Walk On that showed scenes of the firefighters, police and other images from that day. Maybe it's on YouTube...

I remember that too. Everytime I hear Walk On, I think about 9/11 because of it. I was was 14 when it happened, but it really stuck with me.

 

[mad1]

its still a beautiful song but I MUCH prefer the version on their Best Of (2002) rather than the DVD video version on Best Of (2002)

the intro is more haunting and better.

 

[jacobus]

i just don't like any songs of U2 with that kind of cheesy sound. unfortunately they've done a lot of those songs in the last 10 years.

 

[Muldfeld]

Just a thought I've had 1000 times since Sept 11th. The movie The Gangs of New York closes with These Are the Hands... and flashback scenes of all the different time periods in NY. The final flash is the skyline before 9/11 and shows the Towers.

The final verse of the song: "It's early fall there's a cloud on the New York skyline/ Innocence dragged across a yellow line..."

Sept 11 was early fall. We lost our innocence in the scene full of the yellow lines of police tape... I would love to see the group put this out as a memorial to our tragedy. "These are the hands that built America" with scenes of the firefighters, cops, smoke.

Wrote a letter to the public fan club address but no response. It could be a moving experience.

debjeopardy

I think the lyric is enough. No offense to anyone who's lost someone, but America was always big on telling other countries and peoples to "get over it", and while I've never agreed with that sentiment, 9/11 has been used in a very ugly way to kill and hurt hundreds of thousands, if not millions to come, and I'd rather America not be consoled anymore. Or at least find a way to mourn without it leading to a destructive foreign policy.

Also, U2 could easily be seen as exploiting this tragedy further; they already did something for the superbowl, and did stuff at their concerts. If they did a video as you'd like, then it would be overkill.

U2 should talk about far less well-known tragedies than the most over-mourned tragedy in world history. If everyone forgot 9/11 right after it happened or if most U2 listeners didn't know about it, then fine, but it's so heavily publicized, that it's distracting from the tragedies in Gaza or Obama bombing the crap out of Pakistan or what's going on in Russia and so many other things that's so much worse than 9/11 because no one's singing about these victims' grievances.

And, honestly, I'm tired of people making heroes out of cops and firefighters. It's their damn job and they get paid for it. So much of the time cops and other forms of government authority figures pull all kinds of crap. I called my local police department about a problem and was treated like crap by half of the staff. They're no different than anyone else and are more likely to abuse their power.

You want to celebrate someone, how about the people who work at McDonalds and other jobs for minimum wage and no health benefits or even less, and are treated as losers in our culture. They're the real heroes for getting through every day with little reward and not going mad.

Again, 9/11 was a regrettable tragedy, but I think that's enough publicity. Mourn in a different way.

 

[jacobus]

@Muldfeld: great posting, thanks!

 

[2861U2]

I think the lyric is enough. No offense to anyone who's lost someone, but America was always big on telling other countries and peoples to "get over it", and while I've never agreed with that sentiment, 9/11 has been used in a very ugly way to kill and hurt hundreds of thousands, if not millions to come, and I'd rather America not be consoled anymore. Or at least find a way to mourn without it leading to a destructive foreign policy.

Also, U2 could easily be seen as exploiting this tragedy further; they already did something for the superbowl, and did stuff at their concerts. If they did a video as you'd like, then it would be overkill.

U2 should talk about far less well-known tragedies than the most over-mourned tragedy in world history. If everyone forgot 9/11 right after it happened or if most U2 listeners didn't know about it, then fine, but it's so heavily publicized, that it's distracting from the tragedies in Gaza or Obama bombing the crap out of Pakistan or what's going on in Russia and so many other things that's so much worse than 9/11 because no one's singing about these victims' grievances.

And, honestly, I'm tired of people making heroes out of cops and firefighters. It's their damn job and they get paid for it. So much of the time cops and other forms of government authority figures pull all kinds of crap. I called my local police department about a problem and was treated like crap by half of the staff. They're no different than anyone else and are more likely to abuse their power.

You want to celebrate someone, how about the people who work at McDonalds and other jobs for minimum wage and no health benefits or even less, and are treated as losers in our culture. They're the real heroes for getting through every day with little reward and not going mad.

Again, 9/11 was a regrettable tragedy, but I think that's enough publicity. Mourn in a different way.

This post is a joke, right?

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

sadly, no