spanisheyes
Forum Moderator, The Goal Is Soul
While listening to both The Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree recently, I had this visual stream of consciousness happen of a possible relationship between The Unforgettable Fire's closing song, MLK, and The Joshua Tree's opening song, Where The Streets Have No Name.
MLK's verse is alive in translucent images of Martin Luther King posthumously asleep in the context of his labors in giving his life for freedom and civil rights, the ultimate sacrifice for all people, of all races, that someday his dreams would become reality, despite the thunderstorm of prejudice and injustice that may come. Here rain seems to be represented in his reward for his perseverance that would come to water the seeds sown in his "I Have a Dream" speech, represented in his life work thereafter, and through the lives of many others who would choose to pick up the mantle of change?"in the name of love"?
Sleep
Sleep tonight
And may your dreams
Be realized
If the thundercloud
Passes rain
So let it rain
Let it rain
Rain on him
This beautiful hymn of release closes out with a poignant, organ postlude that is like the ending of the longest day, like a hush that comes to break the moments of uncertainty and unrest?the setting of the sun that leaves no shadows, only scars?scars that need the rest of night.
What I noticed is that this organ postlude picks up again at the beginning of Streets with the familiar organ prelude to The Edge's chiming guitar that sounds like the dawning of a new day, with new, and infinite possibilities. I would encourage anyone to listen to Streets with the sun rising and you will see how The Edge's guitar paints the colors of orange and blue against the canvas sky, a landscape of promise and hope. Then Bono adds his painting in words and verse that are all at once celebratory, because they speak of the change and difference we can make in the face of our fears and limitations?to reach out and touch the flame of transformation from night to day, from wrong to right, from blindness to sight?
I want to run
I want to hide
I want to tear down the walls
That hold me inside
I want to reach out
And touch the flame
Where the streets have no name
I want to feel sunlight on my face
I see the dust cloud disappear
Without a trace
I want to take shelter from the poison rain
Where the streets have no name
Chris
MLK's verse is alive in translucent images of Martin Luther King posthumously asleep in the context of his labors in giving his life for freedom and civil rights, the ultimate sacrifice for all people, of all races, that someday his dreams would become reality, despite the thunderstorm of prejudice and injustice that may come. Here rain seems to be represented in his reward for his perseverance that would come to water the seeds sown in his "I Have a Dream" speech, represented in his life work thereafter, and through the lives of many others who would choose to pick up the mantle of change?"in the name of love"?
Sleep
Sleep tonight
And may your dreams
Be realized
If the thundercloud
Passes rain
So let it rain
Let it rain
Rain on him
This beautiful hymn of release closes out with a poignant, organ postlude that is like the ending of the longest day, like a hush that comes to break the moments of uncertainty and unrest?the setting of the sun that leaves no shadows, only scars?scars that need the rest of night.
What I noticed is that this organ postlude picks up again at the beginning of Streets with the familiar organ prelude to The Edge's chiming guitar that sounds like the dawning of a new day, with new, and infinite possibilities. I would encourage anyone to listen to Streets with the sun rising and you will see how The Edge's guitar paints the colors of orange and blue against the canvas sky, a landscape of promise and hope. Then Bono adds his painting in words and verse that are all at once celebratory, because they speak of the change and difference we can make in the face of our fears and limitations?to reach out and touch the flame of transformation from night to day, from wrong to right, from blindness to sight?
I want to run
I want to hide
I want to tear down the walls
That hold me inside
I want to reach out
And touch the flame
Where the streets have no name
I want to feel sunlight on my face
I see the dust cloud disappear
Without a trace
I want to take shelter from the poison rain
Where the streets have no name
Chris
