There are some songs that should transcend the polls of Interference, and Bad is one of those songs. As a fan of 20 plus years, I get very concerned when we as fans cheapen U2 by mentioning songs they should play or shouldn't play live on stage. U2 have remained successful because of their fans, and despite their fans, and Bad is a song that will forever define the power that U2 possess within a song. It is a song that almost bigger than the very voice who sings it, the very players who play it, because within its message is a song of hope in the midst of consuming tragedy. So Bono can't sing with the same power in his voice that he sang the song when he sang it at Live Aid in 1985, but for God's sake, please understand everyone that he is 42 years old, and when you are that age, I have to believe that what you give away in power, you take back in the song coming from the soul, because you truly understand life better, and you realize that the very song you sing could easily be the song sung about yourself. Bono's voice is exactly where it should be, because you see, he has been giving his fans his all for 20 plus years, and who are we to sit here day after day, and have continual polls and post about how Bono's voice used to be, how if only he could still sing like that today. Please help me to understand this type of madness, and help please help me to understand how we think that somehow we have the power to influence U2 to take out of their live show a song that is almost more than themselves, or even their fans, but is a song that is the very essence of U2's life and message. Before their was Please, before their was One, and even before their was Peace on Earth, U2 gave us Bad and the power of hope in the face of hurt through their voices, their instruments, through ever fiber of their beings. I challenge you to go back and watch Bad at Live Aid, watch Bad on Rattle and Hum on the Joshua Tree tour, listen or watch Bad from Santiago, Chile on the Popmart Tour, and watch again Bad from the Boston DVD on the Elevation tour, and don't close your eyes and heart up and just listen to the voice, but watch Bono's expressions, his body language, watch as he pours every ounce of hope and deperation into the song, watch the regret, the pain, the relief, the overwhelming sense of exctasy that maybe somehow will not have to take that same journey that friends and loved ones did that inspired Bono to pen the very words in Bad. Just watch, and let your heart answer the question if Bad be taken away. It has never been a question of mine, but have reveled in the privilege and pride to have been in the audience many a time when Bad has been played from the Unforgettable Fire tour to the Elevation tour, and I still get the overwhelming sense that I'm hearing the very core being of Bono's soul, and we all know that in the end, soul will always win over power.
Chris