deep
Blue Crack Addict
What the heck is this premium silver/gold thing anyway? I never even noticed it!
Judas preferred silver (30 pieces)
What the heck is this premium silver/gold thing anyway? I never even noticed it!
That's the most awkward one for me as well (and is anyone else weirdly reminded of Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin by it? ). It's an OK song IMO, but the lyric has a throwaway feel to me; it might work in some other lineup, but as it is, it seems kinda pointless with reference to the thematic flow of the rest of the album, so far as I can determine that. Personally, I'm not too fond of I'll Go Crazy either--it tries hard, I'll grant it that, but I was left unconvinced there's a really great song in there--but at least that one seems to tie in somewhat with Boots (which I like; it's nothing deep obviously, but fun, in a restlessly, nervily dreamy kind of way). The closing quartet of songs is gorgeous, and I love the first two as well. I'm not as wild about MoS and Unknown Caller as many others seem to be--I find the former 'nice' but bland in a way too many ATYCLB songs were IMO, and the latter fun but a bit too clever for its own good--but still, they're fine; there's nothing eminently dislikeable about them for me. Really, there's not a single song on here I actively dislike, which is great. I think several of these songs are gonna be fantastic live, wish I could see that.There's only one as far as I'm concerned. I don't really care for Stand Up Comedy.
(and is anyone else weirdly reminded of Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin by it? ).
Although I'm not a huge fan of U2, I am a huge fan of many U2 fans.
(But, Irvine, I suggest you don't do it. I don't want to ruin the song for you).
conservative Christians think that Bono is Really One Of Them
that we need to "get on our boots" and worship God so that we can remove the "line on the horizon" between heaven and earth.
Right, I can hear that too, in terms of the overall genre type the song seems to belong to. The Sly Stone reference was more of a gestalt thing pertaining to the flow of the song, the to me rather '70s-ish way in which the "Stand up!s" soar over the thick, heavy, funky main riff. Something like the way several critics heard Dylan's slap-happily frenzied declaiming on 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' in Boots, and I can totally see that too.We'll I don't know about that, but all I can hear is a Christian artist by the name of Michael W. Smith. It's very disconcerting. Seriously, do a youtube search of one of his songs--say "I Still Have the Dream".
Not sure if this is true for you or not, but Reed is another one of my favorite artists, I think ultimately for a similar reason--the monumental presence, the almost overwhelming force of personality that seems to fill the room when you put on one of his records.I like the moodiness of the music and dark reflections of thought. It reminds me of Lou Reed.
I basically share the same grievance, but at the same time I can understand the impulse towards that kind of interpretation. It becomes a way of turning the act of listening and taking it in into a spiritual exercise. Maybe in something like the way certain ultracerebral lit-crit writers--Kristeva or Irigaray, say--go at any and every text they analyze so rigorously that at times you find yourself thinking, Oh for God's sake, can't you just enjoy the freaking narrative for once, all the richness and tension and human contradiction that's already right there on the surface, and stop soaring off into the ether with your relentless babble about dis-semination and intertextuality and signifiers just for once. But ultimately it's not that they're immune to that level of beauty, it's just that they're seizing the act of reading as an opportunity for meditation on the ideas they've really devoted their lives to, their Muse in a sense.i just get queasy when, 1) conservative Christians think that Bono is Really One Of Them, and 2) every lyric by the band is intended to be a statement of praise and worship...what makes Bono credible, and interesting, imho, is how much doubt and humility is there in the face of the big questions, and his lack of certainty and his continual crisis of faith.
--Kristeva or Irigaray, say--
i totally understand that, it's just when i hear things about how, since Bono believes in the divinity of Jesus Christ, then that means that Bono also believes that the Hindus are going to Hell ... that is not Bono at all. it's the difference between pointing out a commonality between yourself and Bono, and the assumption that because you have this point in common, therefore, Bono must logically believe everything else that you believe.
that's all.
I wouldn't listen to a band that embraced a narrow interpretation of that.Jesus Christ
I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
I'm not a Deep Thinker when it comes to lyrics either, nor am I particularly capable of it even if I wanted to try--I was never more than an average student at interpreting poetry, I'm basically rather literal-minded when it comes down to it and the kinds of inspired associative leaps such minds make are often tough for me to follow. (I'm married to a publishing poet though, so I'm forced to get some Here,-Read-This critical practice at regular intervals anyway. ) And when it's not your native language or culture in question, it only makes it that much harder. I remember during a final exam for my Tamil class in grad school, the professor 'surprised' us by having us listen to, transcribe and interpret a few Kollywood songs (Kollywood=Chennai's 'Bollywood'), ranging from an eloquent, densely literary lyric from the film version of a Hindu epic to a cheesy but wordplay-filled love song. Gah, now that was tough! So many levels of meaning that are readily apparent to a native speaker living inside the culture fly right over your head, and the colloquialisms--well you know how that is, you're sitting there scratching your head, completely bewildered by how the heck this combination of words could possibly make sense together, when if you only knew that the whole unit has some specific slang meaning all by itself, you could've just breezed right through and not wasted all that time. Not long ago at a conference, I was intoduced to a professor who'd just translated Ulysses into Mandarin and I thought, Good God! how can you possibly do that? It's hard enough for a native English speaker unfamiliar with Ireland to grasp much of it, and harder still for a non-native speaker...how on earth do you go about recreating that world for a Chinese audience? (And it was actually listening to Breathe that made me recall that earlier today; some obvious nods to Ulysses in there.) But I guess if you can force Hegel to make sense in English than anything must be possible, right.But I'm a person who never really dives into the lyrics of songs, and hence often couldn't tell another person what this song was about. And I don't care.
Now if only it always worked that way on students at the time, right?you just made the little undergraduate's heart that still beats in my chest go pitter-patter.
oh, Kristeva ...
i'm totally fine with the religion of the band, and Bono in particular, and i like much of the coded but clear biblical references and slippery wordplay when it comes to addressing big theological concerns. i've always liked that about them.
i just get queasy when, 1) conservative Christians think that Bono is Really One Of Them, and 2) every lyric by the band is intended to be a statement of praise and worship.
Hey Maycocksean,
How do you pronounce your screen name anyway?
Is it:
May kock-shun?
Curious is all..
<>
i totally understand that, it's just when i hear things about how, since Bono believes in the divinity of Jesus Christ, then that means that Bono also believes that the Hindus are going to Hell ... that is not Bono at all. it's the difference between pointing out a commonality between yourself and Bono, and the assumption that because you have this point in common, therefore, Bono must logically believe everything else that you believe.
that's all.
I'm not a Deep Thinker when it comes to lyrics either, nor am I particularly capable of it even if I wanted to try--I was never more than an average student at interpreting poetry, I'm basically rather literal-minded when it comes down to it and the kinds of inspired associative leaps such minds make are often tough for me to follow. (I'm married to a publishing poet though, so I'm forced to get some Here,-Read-This critical practice at regular intervals anyway. ) And when it's not your native language or culture in question, it only makes it that much harder. I remember during a final exam for my Tamil class in grad school, the professor 'surprised' us by having us listen to, transcribe and interpret a few Kollywood songs (Kollywood=Chennai's 'Bollywood'), ranging from an eloquent, densely literary lyric from the film version of a Hindu epic to a cheesy but wordplay-filled love song. Gah, now that was tough! So many levels of meaning that are readily apparent to a native speaker living inside the culture fly right over your head, and the colloquialisms--well you know how that is, you're sitting there scratching your head, completely bewildered by how the heck this combination of words could possibly make sense together, when if you only knew that the whole unit has some specific slang meaning all by itself, you could've just breezed right through and not wasted all that time. Not long ago at a conference, I was intoduced to a professor who'd just translated Ulysses into Mandarin and I thought, Good God! how can you possibly do that? It's hard enough for a native English speaker unfamiliar with Ireland to grasp much of it, and harder still for a non-native speaker...how on earth do you go about recreating that world for a Chinese audience? (And it was actually listening to Breathe that made me recall that earlier today; some obvious nods to Ulysses in there.) But I guess if you can force Hegel to make sense in English than anything must be possible, right.
There's something to be said for being content to just grasp the broad outlines of a lyric and leave it at that, though...you're never gonna know exactly what the songwriter had in mind at the time anyway (unless s/he explains it in detail), so why not just enjoy a little mystery and ambiguity and the places they can take you to. Understanding precisely how each and every part fits together isn't likely to make you love the whole anyway if it failed to grab you from the beginning, even though it might enrich the listening for you if it did; that's one of the wonderful things about art.
Now if only it always worked that way on students at the time, right?
I loved reading her too, but she did make me feel like tearing my hair out at times.
Same can be said about some of the liberals as well.....isn't it a neat experience when an applicable statement about all people is discovered.
you mean the liberals who try to imply that because Bono supported intervention in Bosnia that he therefore was a big supporter of the Iraq invasion?
those liberals?