Life After R.E.M.: Discussion Thread

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cobl04 said:
I'm not religious at all. I love it. I find it really compelling. Same reason I love Sufjan Stevens' music. They have both explored themes of religious questioning in their lyrics, which I find very fascinating.
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Sufjan is incredible. :up:
Thanks for the response.


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cobl04 said:
I'm not religious at all. I love it. I find it really compelling. Same reason I love Sufjan Stevens' music. They have both explored themes of religious questioning in their lyrics, which I find very fascinating. I much prefer the Bono who penned Wake Up Dead Man than the one who writes some of the tripe that is found on SoI.
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Yeah if music must have religious themes, I'm always going to take something like Wake Up Dead Man.

I admit I'm a total hypocrite on this front. My hyper U2 fandom closely coincided with my brief bout of hyper-religiosity, so I related to the religious lyrics then and now that I'm an atheist I barely even notice or pay attention to it. Yet I know that if I discovered a band today and heard the likes of Gloria, With a Shout, Drowning Man, 40, The First Time, Grace, Yahweh, etc., I'd judge them quite negatively for it.

It does irk me mildly when Bono blathers about god in concerts (what god who created music, Bono? shall we pause this gig to debate theology?), and the really strong religious bent of atu2's coverage is off-putting to me. I suppose Interference has run articles in the past with a religious bent too but I never look at the homepage.
 
Oregoropa said:
Its tough for the GOP to use campaign music outside of country, Kid Rock, or Sammy Hagar.

The Dems milk that COBL for all it's worth. I bet some campaign operatives are going to start bitching about it being a warhorse. haha
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If I was a politician, my campaign song would be Exit. It's a great, uplifting anthem.
 
I no more have a problem with U2 having religious themes, ideas, questioning and/or imagery than I do Bob Dylan or anyone else. I know it doesn't look like it in 2015, but this stuff is part of the cultural inheritance (and so in that vein I would not necessarily care what the songwriter's own private beliefs were, if any; it's 50/50 whether Nick Cave, to name another, does literally believe, for instance).

The imagery and memes associated with primitive Christianity particularly, are a well that never runs dry when it comes to art concerned with questions of justice, and good and evil (and yes, evil exists, just because it isn't a devil with a pointy tail and horns does not make it any less real).
 
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I've been an agnostic/atheist since I was a teenager, and have been pretty militantly anti-religion since my mid-20s. When it comes to U2, I became a fan between Rattle & Hum and Achtung Baby, so I heard the whole spectrum of what they had done to that point, and saw their beliefs as just one shade of that spectrum. While it does inform a good deal of Bono's writing, he's had worthwhile and poetic things to say about a myriad of subjects. Of the religious songs, there are many that deal with spiritual crises and are more than mere proselytizing. Though even something like Yahweh reaches me on a certain level because I can feel the joy behind it even if the subject matter isn't something I connect with intellectually.

And ultimately, the members of the band are socially conscious and charitable people. They don't just talk the talk but have been giving back to communities both local and global for most of their career. So more power to them if they're using their beliefs for those purposes and not as shields for intolerance.

As for Michael Stipe and R.E.M., I'm obviously a big supporter of their politics. But Ignoreland is still one of the worst pieces of shit ever recorded and sticks out like a sore thumb on its respective, otherwise non-political album.
 
No problems with U2's religious perspective whatsoever, since it is more faith-based and less to do with organised religion, which they tended to crucify in the past.

Some of Bono's god-loving speeches during concerts were a bit much though, especially on the 3rd leg of the Elevation Tour.

And I love most of October, which is pretty much a Christian record. Even something as deeply personal as Tomorrow gets to that point in the climax. Hell, I even love With a Shout. No matter what one feels about religion, it is a well of powerful imagery and can obviously inspire tons of songwriters, even those who are staunch atheists.
 
lazarus said:
Of the religious songs, there are many that deal with spiritual crises and are more than mere proselytizing.
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This is basically it for me. The only real issue I take with religious people is the proselytism, which is something I have not felt U2 do in their music.
 
djerdap said:
And I love most of October, which is pretty much a Christian record. Even something as deeply personal as Tomorrow gets to that point in the climax.
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Bono shouting Jesus is coming is definitely the highlight of that song. On the face of it, I can't connect with that lyric at all but knowing its context and Bono's delivery make it one of his most emotionally hard-hitting lyrics. I think that applies to most of his religous lyrics.
 
I just went to the REM Facebook page and posted something in relation to the Trump thingie. Pretty much told the "haters" that if they didn't know that REM were a political band, they were living in a cave for the last 30 years and that Trump was wrong to not at least attempt to get their permission to use their song. (Which they wouldn't have given anyway. :wink:)
 
The_acrobat said:
Two topics that I avoid like the plague are Religion and Politics. I don't talk about them, it just leads to pointless debating. I have no strong feelings about either subject, I'm just a man trying to live my own life and do what's best for my family.

But that has never affected how I feel about U2 or REM's music, or anybody else. A song like "40", for example, has no religious meaning to me, even though it's taken directly from the Bible. I just like it.
.
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Pretty much sums my take up.
 
U2 should be role models for Christians. In the Bible there are instructions 'to be in the world, but not of it'. Bono is a good example of this, by being in the public eye, and using his gifts to benefit others by Aid to Africa and fighting the scourge of AIDS. He successfully courted both sides of the aisle and enlisted evangelicals to help.

My mother had an evangelical phase when I was a teenager. It was pretty evident that the congregation wanted to seal themselves away from the world. It was a club that had different meetings every night, so you could basically isolate your entire existence outside of the workplace. They weren't able to navigate their place 'in the world'.
 
Oregoropa said:
U2 should be role models for Christians. In the Bible there are instructions 'to be in the world, but not of it'. Bono is a good example of this, by being in the public eye, and using his gifts to benefit others by Aid to Africa and fighting the scourge of AIDS. He successfully courted both sides of the aisle and enlisted evangelicals to help.
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That's great and all, but this is the REM thread. :huh:


Btw, U2 are role models for humanity, not just Christianity. They are all inclusive.
 
REM has announced that they are suing Trump and Cruz for 2.5 million dollars over their unauthorized usage of the song It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine). :up:
 
Was there ever an R.E.M. survivor? If so, anything other than Country Feedback having won is a questionable result.
 
There was one a number of years back. Radio Free Europe won. It got weird at the end. Less and less participation as we went along. A common theme.
 
cobl04 said:
Still not an REM fan but goddamn do I love that song. Stands out like dogs balls on the album.
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Is that a dig at the album? Out Of Time is a tremendous record, my personal favorite of R.E.M.'s. It's an incredibly intimate, primal piece of work for me. There's a soul-baring quality to it that just kills me every time.
 
I like Out of Time, with exception of two tracks. Radio Song and Shiny Happy People. Never could get into those songs.


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