White As Snow... "Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel"?

[hatrickpatrick]

Not sure how well known this song is, but there's a christmas hymn which gets played every year at my local church, "Oh come oh come emmanuel". I was listening to White As Snow earlier and it just struck me that the tune Bono sings in the verses is almost identical to the hymn... Was this an intentional tribute or a coincidence? It sounds like the kind of song U2 would want to tribute, but I was just thinking how cool it'd be if this was a coincidence, given how religious some of U2's songs are... Both great songs! Anyone know if the band mentioned the hymn at all when talking about the album?

YouTube - O Come, O Come Emmanuel (with Computer Graphics)

 

[phillyfan26]

Yes, Bono took the melody from O Come O Come Emmanuel, and I also believe the chord structures are the same, as well.

 

[BVS]

I know Bono fully acknowledged the fact that he purposefully used this melody. I didn't know about the chord structure I haven't looked at that...

It reminds me of when Simple Minds used a traditional arrangement to write Belfast Child.

It would make an interesting remix for those that had the talents to do so to mix the two together.

 

[Mr. V]

In the liner notes it says "Music: Traditional, arrangement by U2 with Brian Eno and Danny Lanois".

 

[niterpi]

very cool - i hadn't looked at the liner notes on that. i love white as snow and i love oh, come emmanuel but never made the connection before

 

[BEVERLY56]

My favorite song on the album.

 

[LedHed1234]

Yikes, it took until today for me to realize this was the tune for the song. Things really fell apart for them trying to pick songs for this album, had to use an old Christmas hymn arrangement. What a mess...

 

[DaveC]

brutal isn't it? at this rate, soon they're just gonna start lazily using a bunch of lyrics copied right out of the bible.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Well when a band had been around for 40 years thru get lazy...

 

[MattD]

Yikes, it took until today for me to realize this was the tune for the song. Things really fell apart for them trying to pick songs for this album, had to use an old Christmas hymn arrangement. What a mess...

It's a very tasteful adaptation of the melody. These traditional tunes deserve to be remodelled and I think its quite an ambitious thing for U2 to adapt.

Shows greater artistry and sophistication in their work, and it sounds it too. Compare that to pretty boy teeny bopper Ryan Tedder writing them melodies and, no surprise here, its miles apart in quality.