Eerie 9/11 references on ATYCLB

[oliveu2cm]

yes, Ally - I was looking for that Spin article! here's another appropriate quote, I think:

Clayton: There was an emotional depth that we felt comfortable with, and a lot of that was about friends and family. It was created against the backdrop of Bono's father having a terminal illness. So all that was on the
album, but people that didn't have a recent tragedy in their lives weren't necessarily going to get that. And somehow the events in New York and D.C. have actually focused people on that aspect of the record that is about loss, which is amazing. You couldn't have planned it.


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my thoughts on the tangent about the grammys: it'll be a shame if 9/11 is the "reason" u2 wins awards, if they get tagged w/ that awful label. You know U2 would never want a horrible tragedy, on any level, so people could relate to their albums. It's not U2's fault that all of a sudden "soul music" is relevant in mainstream America. I'd just be angry if radios, etc say they won b/c of 9/11. the songs stand up on their own, they don't need something like that to make them strong- as a song like five for fighting's "superman" does, IMO.

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"Songs are the language of the spirit... the melodies are how you sing to God. It's a deep language. But they can't explain everything, because really great songs touch places that you can't explain." -Bono

U2 Take Me Higher

MPS: "Evil shouldn't look this good"

"The way I might look at you" ~Adam

 

[*Ally*]

here are some of bono's thoughts on 9/11 and his songwriting, from Rolling Stone magazine:

Interviewer: What are you thinking about the future?

Bono: I just made up a shirt that says "2002." It's odd for us, having started out the year making an album with all the artwork of airports and the title and the themes, and all of us walking out onstage in military clothes with flowers woven into them, playing with the symbolism of the peace movement. And to then suddenly be in it is quite odd. I got a call from Ali, my wife, the other day. She was just trying to get rid of stuff at home and found a videotape of us on the MTV Video Music Awards a few years ago in New York doing the song "Please." She said she thought it was one of our worst performances but told me to go back and listen to the song. I put it on and I couldn't believe what I heard. ["September, streets capsizing/Spilling over down the drain/Shards of glass splinters like rain/But you could only feel your own pain . . . October, talk getting nowhere/November, December; remember/We just started again."] It's essentially about fundamentalism, political or religious. Religious fundamentalism is where you get to shrink God; you remake God in your own image, as opposed to the other way around. It gave me a bit of a fright, and we're going to put it back into our show.

 

[HeartlandGirl]

Just my two cents: Unlike some in this thread, but like others, I listened to ATYCLB a lot after 9/11. America suddenly had our own mortality thrust in our face. It was soothing to me to think about mortality while listening to beautiful music and lyrics that helped me realize that mortality and death and moving on didn't have to be this ugly, scary thing.

On the other hand, there is one part of New York that always gets to me:

Voices on the cell phone
Voices from home
Voices with the hard sell
Voices down the stairwell in New York

It always makes me think of people in the stairwell of the WTC, trying to get out and calling loved ones on their cell phones. And of course, the firemen going up the stairs instead of down.

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U2 @ The Blooming Heart

 

[scatteroflight]

Originally posted by HeartlandGirl:


On the other hand, there is one part of New York that always gets to me:

Voices on the cell phone
Voices from home
Voices with the hard sell
Voices down the stairwell in New York

It always makes me think of people in the stairwell of the WTC, trying to get out and calling loved ones on their cell phones. And of course, the firemen going up the stairs instead of down.

Exactly. I know that the song is intended to be a celebration of New York, and though I've never been to NY I loved the song from the start. But those lines in particular, and a few others, tend to make me cry now. I definitely don't think anything prophetic was happening, but it is eerie how the words could apply in different ways and how they suddenly seemed so dreadfully appropriate.

I really started to cry when I watched the webcast of the first concert after Sept 11 and they did New York. I could see Bono wiping away a tear too.



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Your seven worlds collide
Whenever I am by your side
Dust from a distant sun
Will shower over everyone

-Crowded House

 

[Salome]

Originally posted by sulawesigirl4:
Has 9/11 contributed to the success and recognition of the album? Probably so.

even though I recognize the importance of 9/11 I'm fairly certain not many outside the U.S. feel different about the album since this tragic event

so it wouldn't explain the global success ATYCLB had

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Salome
Shake it, shake it, shake it

 

[what a bomb!]

sighs... knew a topic like this would come up sonner or later! We could all find songs written a hundred years ago and shit out pants about how close the lyrics are to 11/9/01! It happened lets not forget that, this is coming from someone in the uk who has a relative 8 seconds from death in the pentagon when the plane hit!