The " 'Yahweh' Is Completely Overrated" Thread

[neutral]

To adopt an American persona, 'You don't half, talk some shit'

 

[IrishDawg]

So 3 of U2's album closers walk into a bar and introduce themselves to each other:

"Hi, my name is Love is Blindness. Half of U2's fans think I close out their best album. I am a summary of all that is on that album. I am lyrically brilliant. I am that man featured throughout the album at the end of the night after he's lost everything, due to some or all of the reasons we covered throughout the rest of the album. Or maybe I am that man at the beginning, maybe I am wrapping myself in the darkness before I head out into the world that creates the rest of the songs on that album. What I really am is the feeling deep within the soul of the album and either I've been forced their post-experiences, or it's the view I've taken from the beginning. I could be the person on either side of the fence in those Achtung songs. I could be the person who is cruel, or the person singing So Cruel. How you interpret that will depend on your own life experiences. I'm one of U2's darkest sounding songs as well. I swirl and slow dance with you and around you, dance you down a set of stairs further and further into a dark and lonely night. I also feature one of The Edge's most beautiful and stunning guitar parts, a part that surely came from a very real and raw feeling due to his own life at the time, and a part that many say expresses the feeling of loneliness, desperation, heartbreak and downright depression better than any lyric ever could. My guitar part has even been described as a prayer. I mean a lot of things to a lot of people. I am a very raw and powerful song."

"Hi, my name is Wake Up Dead Man. I close out an album that describes a complicated and cluttered life, where all that has depth and meaning, all that is spiritual, all that is beautiful, has been replaced by all that is commercial, all that provides instant gratification, all that is on the surface, all that is shallow and superficial. I am a person who is fed up with this life and world that has strayed so far and become so noisy, so cluttered, so crass. I have followed that road too and am now very lost. I am a person crying out for both my personal spiritual needs, and for the world around me to realise how far they've come and to pull back and realise what is truly important in life, and to realise the calm, the beauty, the simple things, something as simple as the reed in the saxophone for example. I am crying out in the hope that something I do still hang onto, despite it long losing a presence or feeling within me, can return and guide me. I feel lost and empty. I am also at the end of a hard day, a hard period in time. I also dance and swirl with you, but it's more the clutter of ideas and thoughts and images spinning around as I lie there in bed, unable to sleep. I am one of U2's most complicated recordings, with many, many layers of sound and song, spinning forwards, spinning backwards. The random sounds of a day and night spinning in your head as you try to go to sleep. In all of that is an incredible beauty, the exact beauty I am trying to find. Listen closely. I am also a very raw and powerful song. Maybe U2s best spiritual song."

Wake up Dead Man? Raw and powerful? Sounds like someone crying over someone that has died, and can't move on into the future, or get over that person. People die, get over it, move on, don't get stuck in the past.

Love is Blindness summarizes Achtung Baby? I think Acrobat summerizes Achtung Baby. It is dark, powerful, has increadible meaning, and a killer guitar solo. Love is Blindness has none of that. I could make better sounds come out of a kazoo rather than that horrible sound that is called a "guitar solo."

You my friend should be a commedian, I had quite a laugh with your post.

 

[VertigoGal]

I didn't know it was so well rated in the first place. The album version does absolutely nothing for me, but the live acoustic version is nice.

 

[thrillme]

Everything you have said is the exact opposite of the truth. The lyrics DO scream the whole 'god is good god is great' thing and that is one of its problems. Bono has always been good at writing his religious lyrics in a way that you can enjoy them even if you don't believe, but this song is an exception. I do not believe in Christianity or any other religion, and these lyrics are too religiously abrasive for my tastes. Musically, the song is utterly bland on the record, decent on the alternative take, and enjoyable/kind of pretty but nothing more live.

So basically, Bono should play it safe, and be so subtle and vague no one would even know it has anything to do with a religious belief?

Well, that's up to Bono, and he didn't do it for this song. He's quite capable of doing that, "All Because of You" rings a bell.

Some people claim U2 are playing it safe, making easy to listen to albums that anyone can like, but right there, at the end of Atomic Bomb, is the "nay" to that. "Grace" was the "nay" to that on ATYCLB, but Bono did go more vague on that one.

So you want, non-religiously abrasive songs, so anyone can enjoy them regardless of what they believe?

That pretty much describes the majority of rock, pop, hip hop, country, heavy metal, etc., songs on the radio today.

+++++++++++++

Musically, well Edge is a musician, he commented how the bass line is the key to the song, something like that.

I'm not a musician, if I like what U2 recorded, so be it, if I don't, I don't, but I'll never label them sellouts so long as they're still writing songs for themselves, and from themselves. Bono writes what he feels, just like every other singer.

 

[MacPhistoPT]

I don't understand what's the problem with Yahweh. It's a beautiful song, my favourite on HTDAAB. I'm sorry, I like the "epic-uplifting" style.

Although, IMO it's only their 3rd best album closer.
"All I want is you" and "Love is Blindness" are better.

 

[LMP]

Love is Blindess was only good for me when it was played live, and I didn't have to boost up the volume on my headphones to hear the album version.

Wake up Dead Man is a good song, but to I only listen for it to hear all of the "hidden stuff" and covered up Van Diemen's Land. The production on the song overshadows the song itself, and it's a shame because it's lyrically a powerful song.

Yahweh is good for me, and a good close for How to Dismantle... This song is also amazing live like Love is Blindness. It's not the best closer, but it's sure not the worst, why the negativity on this one?

Everyone's entitled to their own opinion, even people who don't have 1000+ posts. Just because it's your opinion doesn't mean it's a scientific fact... Agree to Disagree ya know, but hey, that's just my opinion. I like Yahweh and no one can change that so don't even bother

 

[MacPhistoPT]

I like Yahweh and no one can change that so don't even bother

 

[BonosSaint]

Earnie Shavers-- once again!



(And I'm not easy on my knees)

Had to print it out. Both the "Love is Blindness" and "Wake up Deadman" ([particularly "Love is Blindness") commentary are so descriptive, it's definitely going to affect the way I listen to the songs.

 

[BonosSaint]

What are you trying to say here? It makes no sense.

It's a compliment.

 

[zwervers2]

So 3 of U2's album closers walk into a bar and introduce themselves to each other:

"Hi, my name is Love is Blindness. Half of U2's fans think I close out their best album. I am a summary of all that is on that album. I am lyrically brilliant. I am that man featured throughout the album at the end of the night after he's lost everything, due to some or all of the reasons we covered throughout the rest of the album. Or maybe I am that man at the beginning, maybe I am wrapping myself in the darkness before I head out into the world that creates the rest of the songs on that album. What I really am is the feeling deep within the soul of the album and either I've been forced their post-experiences, or it's the view I've taken from the beginning. I could be the person on either side of the fence in those Achtung songs. I could be the person who is cruel, or the person singing So Cruel. How you interpret that will depend on your own life experiences. I'm one of U2's darkest sounding songs as well. I swirl and slow dance with you and around you, dance you down a set of stairs further and further into a dark and lonely night. I also feature one of The Edge's most beautiful and stunning guitar parts, a part that surely came from a very real and raw feeling due to his own life at the time, and a part that many say expresses the feeling of loneliness, desperation, heartbreak and downright depression better than any lyric ever could. My guitar part has even been described as a prayer. I mean a lot of things to a lot of people. I am a very raw and powerful song."

"Hi, my name is Wake Up Dead Man. I close out an album that describes a complicated and cluttered life, where all that has depth and meaning, all that is spiritual, all that is beautiful, has been replaced by all that is commercial, all that provides instant gratification, all that is on the surface, all that is shallow and superficial. I am a person who is fed up with this life and world that has strayed so far and become so noisy, so cluttered, so crass. I have followed that road too and am now very lost. I am a person crying out for both my personal spiritual needs, and for the world around me to realise how far they've come and to pull back and realise what is truly important in life, and to realise the calm, the beauty, the simple things, something as simple as the reed in the saxophone for example. I am crying out in the hope that something I do still hang onto, despite it long losing a presence or feeling within me, can return and guide me. I feel lost and empty. I am also at the end of a hard day, a hard period in time. I also dance and swirl with you, but it's more the clutter of ideas and thoughts and images spinning around as I lie there in bed, unable to sleep. I am one of U2's most complicated recordings, with many, many layers of sound and song, spinning forwards, spinning backwards. The random sounds of a day and night spinning in your head as you try to go to sleep. In all of that is an incredible beauty, the exact beauty I am trying to find. Listen closely. I am also a very raw and powerful song. Maybe U2s best spiritual song."

"Hi, my name is Yahweh. I flat out suck. I am a rehash of a lyrical idea previously used to far greater effect and far greater meaning. I am the sound of U2 pre-programmed on a keyboard by a guy who can't quite get the sound of U2 right, because U2 would never sound this bland or generic. Granted, my theme and meaning fits in with the album, and indeed is closure to the album, but I've done it in such a weak arse way, I get the feeling that I'm just a quick summary written in 5 minutes, not really expressing anything of true feeling or depth. I am a U2-does-spirituality-for-beginners song. I am regression not progression in every sense. I am an embarrassment to this great band who have covered the topic so fucking well in the past. I will now shrink away from this bar. I am in the company of greatness, something I can never dream of living up to. I will roll over and die in a dark alley somewhere as I should."

 

[zwervers2]

i still think that YAHWEH is one of the 5 better songs on the album. but i will always prefer the alternative YAHWEH cause it has a very special AB-feeling (melancholic optimism)

couldn't agree more about the last bit!

 

[rock888nwo]

i actually think yahweh is underrated...imo, its a really, really good song...by the way, i do NOT like the alternate version

 

[U2girl]

Actually if we're talking overrated closers, Wake up dead man ought to be the no. 1 choice.

 

[boystupidboy]

Yahweh is a superb song,u2 at their most uplifting....................and i don't even believe in god

 

[namkcuR]

Actually if we're talking overrated closers, Wake up dead man ought to be the no. 1 choice.

Wake Up Dead Man is a masterpiece in and of itself. The lyrics are some of Bono's best ever. They are posing some dark, hard questions to/about 'dead man'(Jesus).

WUDM >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Yahweh

 

[U2girl]

POP has better songs, and U2 has had better closers. Not a masterpiece.

(wow, I totally didn't know what the song was about. as for quality of lyrics, he did much better on AB and Zooropa)

 

[starvinmarvin]

yahweh is a great closer. time will tell if it will be a classic, but for now it is clear that it is a very good song. the alternate version stinks though. i also don't care much for the acoustic live version - they need to do an all-band performance.

 

[bathiu]

 

[bedouin fire]

you can't find much better of the 2000's edge guitar than that superb gothic intro from yahweh. the passion and belief all over the song is just of the best from u2 in the last five years. yahweh is a good reason to keep listening htdaab until the end of the album.

they're killing the song live with that acoustic version, but that's another story...

if you want to say something about u2 on automatic pilot with recycled and empty lyrics, your words fit better on "city of the more you take the less you know that i am a boy and a man and i miss you so beautiful in the blinding lights"

 

[starvinmarvin]

Down with the acoustic Yahweh!!!! Bring on the full band version!!!!!!

 

[bathiu]

 

[Axver]

i actually think yahweh is underrated...imo, its a really, really good song...by the way, i do NOT like the alternate version

I love the HTDAAB version, it's beautiful and soaring, and I love the live version just as much, as it's so tender. But the alternate version ... it just seems to lack the spark that the HTDAAB/live versions have.

 

[namkcuR]

POP has better songs, and U2 has had better closers. Not a masterpiece.

(wow, I totally didn't know what the song was about. as for quality of lyrics, he did much better on AB and Zooropa)

Rest assured, Pop is Bono's lyrical zenith. AB is damn close, but Pop is Bono's lyrical masterpiece.

 

[Axver]

Bono has always been good at writing his religious lyrics in a way that you can enjoy them even if you don't believe, but this song is an exception.

I don't see how it's different to Gloria. In fact, I'd say Yahweh is more subtle than Gloria. But I don't see anyone slagging off Gloria or rejecting its classic status ...

 

[namkcuR]

This thread is proving the point it was started on - that Yahweh is completely, obscenely overrated. A very average(and I'm being kind by saying average) song that for some reason is adored. Worst closer of U2's career.

WUDM>LIB>AIWIY>Shadows And Tall Trees>Wanderer=MOTD=Grace>"40"=MLK>Is That All>Yahweh

 

[Axver]

Rest assured, Pop is Bono's lyrical zenith. AB is damn close, but Pop is Bono's lyrical masterpiece.

Now there's something we can agree on, though I personally think the second half of the eighties are tied with Pop in the lyrics department.

 

[namkcuR]

I don't see how it's different to Gloria. In fact, I'd say Yahweh is more subtle than Gloria. But I don't see anyone slagging off Gloria or rejecting its classic status ...

Point taken, but in Gloria the religiously abrasive lyrics are more than made up for with great music, something Yahweh sorely lacks. And even then, lyrically, Gloria could be interpreted more than one way. That can't be said of Yahweh.

 

[Axver]

This thread is proving the point it was started on - that Yahweh is completely, obscenely overrated.

How has it proven that? I don't see proof, and I certainly have not been swayed in my opinion that Yahweh is an excellent closer (if anything, I've actually been more convinced of that because of this thread).

 

[Axver]

Point taken, but in Gloria the religiously abrasive lyrics are more than made up for with great music, something Yahweh sorely lacks. And even then, lyrically, Gloria could be interpreted more than one way. That can't be said of Yahweh.

Take out the word 'Yahweh' and the song could be to just about anyone.

 

[namkcuR]

How has it proven that? I don't see proof, and I certainly have not been swayed in my opinion that Yahweh is an excellent closer (if anything, I've actually been more convinced of that because of this thread).

The proof is the number of people in this thread are saying I'm wrong and that Yahweh is a great song. It is unfathomable to me how anyone could seriously think it is better than LIB, WUDM, AIWIY, etc. I know it's all subjective and all that, but it just strikes me as being VERY overrated, at least on Interference. Among the U2 fans I know in real life, it's not the case.