Interview on KRDU

Some of you might be interested in this podcast of an interview I did today for KRDU in California, just generally talking about U2 and faith.

If you get the chance

Does this make anyone else wonder if U2 and their team have arrived at the point of realizing the show really needs "Unknown Caller," even if Americans won't sing it?

Confab

A fun moment during the U2 conference was getting a shoutout from Bono onstage; the post linked there also lets you hear his much longer tribute to Agnes Nyamayarwo.

Footnote

Just a more experiential footnote to my post yesterday about how I didn't see this tour as engendering leitourgia as successfully as previous tours. I got a U2.com mail Friday whose purported link to Willie Williams' recent diaries from the 360 tour actually led to an entry from back in 2000. Typical U2.com, but the piece was one I had never read, a very arresting journal entry reacting to the concert U2 played at the Man Ray in Paris upon the release of ATYCLB.

The reviews of the 360 concerts are very, very good, because U2 put on a very, very good show and are very, very skilled at what they do. Very, very good is an admirable thing to be. But wanna read what somebody sounds like who has just experienced U2 leitourgia in full flight? Here.

Reflections on my own paper at the conference, and on the 360 show

My presentation at the U2 conference looked at 5 characteristics of leitourgia as set forth by a cluster of recent liturgical theologians (David Fagerberg, Alexander Schmemann, Aidan Kavanaugh, and Peter Fink) and described how U2 shows have fulfilled them, with examples from across several tours. I did this in deliberate contradistincton to the popular "church" metaphor -- which I don't think is all bad, but has significant potential for misprision and category mistakes. (The 5 characteristics of leitourgia were roughly: the sense of any divide between the sacred/secular is demolished and exposed as a psuedo-Christian lie, a group of people become something they were not as a mere collection of individuals through a deliberate process evoking a corporate connection, a promise of ultimate fulfillment is rendered perceptible to the senses, the world is done the way it ought to be done [justice is enacted], and people are engaged in a way that helps them offer up the totality of their uncensored lives and selves.) BTW if you are going to use even these brief paraphrases in connection with U2, please have the courtesy to cite me and link me.

Anyone who really knows that literature would have recognized that I was begging several questions and working with the source material in a very generalist way, but I was betting on the field of liturgical theology per se (as opposed to theology of worship or liturgy, practical theology, etc) being so tiny that hardly anybody there would be equipped to call me on it.

I had mostly finished the paper by the time I saw the 2 Foxboro shows, and of course several of us went to the Raleigh show during the conference. There's been a lot of discussion online about this tour, its audiences, and its setlist (or setlists, since they keep tinkering with them), with people coming out various places about whether it's working, and I don't feel a need to rehash any of that. It is true, though, that I had a bit of an existential crisis about the paper after Foxboro, because the current U2 show, in my opinion, does not successfully achieve the 5 characteristics I was working with. It is trying in several ways, I think -- even trying too hard -- but not succeeding. I want very emphatically to say that this assessment has nothing whatsoever to do with questions like whether spiritual themes are more or less to the front in the show (focusing on that would essentially violate my point 1, in fact).

Whether this is deliberate or simply something U2 have been pushed into by a combination of circumstances such as a pre-NLOTH commitment to the Claw, a low-selling album with no hits, and the need to please US stadiums full of casual fans, I don't know. But I ended up simply putting in a few small disclaimers that these 5 points reflected U2's modus operandi for much of their career. And nobody asked about it. But on some level, I guess I am still hoping that maybe there might still be some developments in this show (future legs?) that can foster the leitourgia experience that is what (unlike many many others, who of course have every right to come for very different reasons) I value most about the band live.

"too much theological content"

Tim Neufeld has responded to my post where I complained a bit about people treating U2 lyrics as Christian proof-texts in a wooden, decontextualized way. I smiled at his citation from the talk 3 members of U2 gave at a retreat for musicians in their early years (I'd forgotten that "We’re a Christian band! It’s all over. We’re finished!" story) but the more interesting point is Tim's challenge: so what constitutes theological content, anyway?

U2 Academic Conference T-shirt

Did you think the conference shirt was cool? (I did.) Now you can order one for yourself!

Sleep-deprived post-conference musings

A few VERY random takeaways mostly from Neil McCormick's talks at/after the U2 conference, purely because he is the most recent thing in my mind.

First, I was struck by McCormick saying flat-out that U2 are not an Irish band. One knows that only half the band are actually from Irish families, and that The Edge is Welsh and Adam Clayton is English, but McCormick's suggestion that the proper term would be "Anglo-Irish" made a penny drop for me.

Second, McCormick's assertion that the importance of U2's Christian commitment to both their work, and their career arc in general, simply cannot be overstated (and he says this as a skeptic himself.)

Third, this side anecdote. McCormick attended a paper presentation on conservative aspects of U2's work by Steve Catanzarite (who wrote that book on Achtung Baby grounded in Roman Catholic theology) and was critical of it as "hearing what he wanted to hear." Neil picked up the book at the conference and, during a conversation with Bono on Sunday, critiqued it to him, saying that the idea of approaching Achtung Baby as an extended working through the idea of the Fall was, again, inappropriately reading ideas into the album, simply an example of how listeners hear whatever they want to hear in U2's music. Bono responded, "It sounds to me like he's bang on."

Both this anecdote and the previous assertion Neil made ("cannot be overstated") tied in for me (personally) with working through a (completely unrelated) comment from a theologically trained acquaintance who said roughly that it was annoying hearing people "read too much Christian theology into" U2's lyrics. In thinking that over, my response would be that while I very often share a similar annoyance, I'm not sure that the problem is exactly quantity: "too much." I've been shocked a few times myself by the abstruse Christian ideas Bono has cited in connection with or as the actual source of U2 lyrics -- things that, had I heard them from someone else, I'd likely have responded to with "You're reading way too much theological content into that."

I'm annoyed when people choose bits of U2 lyrics as excuses to say something they want to say about theology without stopping to notice what the actual preoccupations of the whole text are. I'm annoyed when people highlight nothing else in U2 lyrics than the kind of material that would of necessity appear anywhere any Christian content is in play. I'm annoyed when people use U2 lyrics to claim U2 for their theological team. I'm annoyed when people pick a few U2 lyrics out of context to check off the "pop culture" box in their largely unrelated Christian talk. I'm annoyed when people act as if every U2 song must somehow be in code, a secret message that's "really" "about" some inner-circle Christian topic. I'm annoyed, in other words, when Christians interact exploitatively, superficially, thoughtlessly, or in a partisan way with U2 lyrics. And yeah, that happens a lot.

But I'm beginning to question if there's such a thing as claiming "too much" theological content for U2 per se. Maybe the real problem is just people claiming that content poorly.

conference resources continued

Through my exhaustion, I just wanted to say quickly that Tim Neufeld (linked below) blogged a number of other presentations including mine, and Steve Taylor also blogged several, of which I've randomly linked one. If you were blogging, I missed it, and you'd like your notes linked too, let me know.

conference followers....

Also FYI, the @U2 Blog is recapping the plenaries.

U2 Conference: Dr. Anthony DeCurtis

Here's a writeup from Tim Neufeld of Dr. Anthony DeCurtis' keynote at the U2 conference.

Presentation wordle

Just for fun and with thanks to Tim Neufeld who put up a Wordle of his presentation, here's one of my Sunday morning conference paper "U2 Live: Where Leitourgia Has No Name."

Reminder

If you're interested, again, I'll be on the radio at noon today Eastern USA time: 1 hr live on the U2 conference with Scott Calhoun, Matt McGee, and Agnes Nyamayarwo. Stream live, or listen to the podcast later....

U2 in DC writeup: God’s Politics Blog

Jim Wallis posts on U2’s Music and Mission–and My Kid’s First Rock Concert for Sojourners.

Durham, here we come

I'm leaving tomorrow for the U2 academic conference in Durham. Hope to meet many readers there! Remember you can follow on Twitter with #U2conf.

Soon

There's less than a week until The Hype and The Feedback, the first-ever academic conference on U2. I wanted to share a couple things with readers in the run-up:

--First, you will be able to follow at least some conference sessions and speakers on Twitter with the hashtag #u2conf which we will be asking everyone to use. Right now, follow http://twitter.com/U2Conference to make sure you get any further details needed.
--Second, at noon on Friday, just before the conference kicks off, I'll be on "The State of Things" on North Carolina Public Radio (WUNC) to talk about the conference with MattMcGee of @U2 and Agnes Nyamayarwo of TASO Uganda. It looks as if the station does have both live streaming and archived audio in case anyone would like to tune in.

White as new year's day snow

RTE has been doing a "30 years of U2" event, and in conjunction with this they put up a number of rare U2 radio and TV clips from their archives. Several of these are very early and well worth it purely for the hilarity value, but I do want to comment on one in particular.

Near the bottom of the first page of archives, there's a 5'45" clip where an especially horrifically-mulleted Bono talks to Gay Byrne about the video for "New Year's Day." Byrne asks: why snow? and Bono's response is so arcane as to have made me stop and rewind the player a couple times -- but indicative, I think. Essentially he says that the album they are about to release is titled War but its theme is actually surrender, and "I had this idea of using the snow as a sort of covering. [He explains about flying white flags as a symbol onstage.] And then I thought of the white snow, the ultimate sort of symbol of surrender."

I wonder what percentage of an audience would connect a white covering at all with surrender, much less see snow as its "ultimate symbol"? ("White as snow" is at least a direct quote that has some currency in the culture; this covering/surrender image is wandering around somewhere near the end of a series of conclusions drawn from... I dunno, things like Psalm 51:6-8, Rom 4:7, Rev 7:8-15, Gal 3:26-27 and maybe elsewhere?) It hits me how incredibly abstract, obscure and cerebral this intended symbolic message of the snow in the video is; if a fan independently argued for it on a forum, they'd probably be mocked for grasping at straws.

I sure never would have thought of snow = white covering = surrender, but for one thing, perhaps it throws a little more light on what's going on with the long-time live pairing of "Until the End of The World" and "New Year's Day."

...and not see it

Thanks to the folks at the Mockingbird blog for sending along Nathan's writeup of what spiritual connections he made with several moments in a recent U2 show at Giants Stadium. I'm really hearing a fair amount of confusion from people about what's going on with this tour, and am having a difficult time processing my own reaction to the two Foxboro shows, so it's nice to be able to share a piece by someone who seems to have had a pretty straightforward U2ey experience. (Also, make sure you catch his interesting comments about the steering wheel microphone.)

Researcher for the U2 conference looking for respondents in church leadership

The folks who are giving the paper "A Preacher Stealing Hearts in a Travelling Show: Bono and North American Evangelicals" at the U2 conference next weekend need your help! They are in search of survey respondents to answer a few questions about U2's influence in church circles in North America in the areas of worship, politics, and social justice. If you are a Christian leader of some kind and feel that you can speak to this subject, you're invited to fill out their U2 Paper Questionnaire.

Win a trip!

Here's some big news for anyone who wanted to come to Durham in two weeks, but couldn't quite swing it financially: The Hype and The Feedback is giving away a free trip to the U2 academic conference... and to U2's Raleigh 360 show! Find out how to win here.

Spoiler re: North American setlist but one that probably everyone already knows by now

Don't read if you are trying to avoid hearing about additions to the setlist.

I was interested to note discussion online about "Your Blue Room" which showed a sort of consensus that the song was thoroughly sexual, along with some lamentation that U2 just don't do that kind of thing anymore. I've always heard the song as intimate, yes, but deliberately ambiguous as to its context. This made me go have a look at Niall Stokes' book to see what commentary there was on it, and the initial quotes are typical Bono: "On one level it's purely carnal, but on another it's a prayer." "It's an incredible thing to say to your lover or your Maker, your instructions, whatever the directions..." etc.

But there were also added comments about the context: "Perspective is an incredible thing... You get moments of clarity every now and then, when you see things for a second and they make sense. I think religious experiences are like that. You see things from a higher perspective and you feel reassured by that. You quickly forget why -- but it did make sense. [And here's what made me take notice...] The astronauts had that kind of experience, and I think that's to do with perspective."

I'm not entirely sure what the connection with the song is intended to be here, but of course (from what I hear not having seen a show live yet), there are real astronauts in "Your Blue Room" this time around. The line also echoed some comments in an interview with the Edge which I recently skimmed (can't remember where; anybody?) that touched on the theme of how a faith commitment enables you to look at life from an overview sort of perspective, as if you were lifted above to see an entire landscape rather than your little issues. (That is my paraphrase.)

From everything I hear it seems as if this show has way too many themes going on, but perhaps this throws a sliver more light on one of them?

The Pinnacle of Power

The characteristically very thoughtful Andy Crouch writes about What I saw at the U2 concert. Worth a read, but make sure you read it all the way through if you're going to start.

Excerpt: "What became clear, and increasingly distracted me from the brilliant performance, was that the crowd wanted it all. They wanted to look alike (each, of course, alike in their own individually expressive way — each judiciously sized tattoo, placed where it would be covered by business attire, a personal statement). They wanted to pump their fists in unison. They wanted to vicariously exult, suffer, die (at the conclusion of one song Bono lay sprawled on the stage, motionless, just long enough for the crowd to catch its breath in anxiety), and triumph. The boys in front of me — was it so long ago that I was their age, their stage, full of their improbable joy and rage? — were almost palpably desperate to be drawn in...."

Grace Inside A Sound: Exploring U2’s New Horizon « The Institute of Evangelism

Henry VanderSpek of World Vision Canada, who will be giving a paper at the U2 conference in a few weeks, writes to share a link to his new piece on NLOTH, marking the start of the North American 360 Tour. Grace Inside A Sound: Exploring U2’s New Horizon does a fine job of running through the work's big themes and makes some interesting comments on particular songs as well.

Excerpt: "No Line on the Horizon, the album, begins in an unusual spot for U2. While the band’s past few albums start in a broken world but lead the listener to spiritual safety (see album-closing songs like 'Grace' and 'Yahweh'), NLOTH turns this approach upside down. The title track bursts open the album with a mix of heavy guitar, drums and Dr. Who-like sonic effects that conjure a sense of racing over a body of water—fitting, given the album’s cover art of merging sea and sky. Bono’s wavering vocals express how 'infinity is a great place to start' and 'time is irrelevant, not linear.' Bono has described 'No Line on the Horizon' as that place where the earth meets the sky, and possibilities seem infinite. U2 drew near to this space in songs like 'Gloria' (from the album October) and 'Where the Streets Have No Name' (from The Joshua Tree), but here they’ve gone deeper, crossed a line (no pun intended) and reached an altogether different place. Hints of that somewhere different can be found in Bono’s recent comparison of NLOTH to The Beatles’ White Album... [keep reading]"

The spirit of sharing

As the US leg begins, I thought I'd pass on this lovely personal reflection from South Africa comparing the 360 tour to the woman with the alabaster jar. Excerpt: "[Criticism of] the monumental costs of the stage and transport... is nothing less than that same spirit of poverty from thousands of years ago crying out 'we could have taken that money and donated to the poor.' Sharing boldly in love and taking all you have and just pour[ing] it out will create respect from some, but envy and anger from people who you think love you.... The spirit of sharing really has no problem with finance. It does not think about ROI and what’s in it for me. The spirit of sharing sees the bigger picture and act in the ways of the heart. When you let the heart guide your decisions, you will risk looking stupid and you might be attacked. But just like the woman with the alabaster jar you can create history and live forever."

Great stuff afoot in Durham

I returned last night from vacation and am delighted to learn about the expansion of the U2 conference program: Natalie Baker’s brand new documentary, Meet Me In the Sound, will make its U.S. debut Friday night, and then It Might Get Loud will be shown immediately following. If you can't make the whole conference, that Friday night can also be bought as a standalone event. Wow. It's also nice to see the press picking up on the conference more.

linking my own article

I'm told some readers had trouble accessing it, so here is a link to my piece for ReadTheSpirit about places to start exploring U2, with a special focus on small group possibilities and people who want to learn about their spiritual focus. This might be useful to give to friends, although I'll bet most everything in it is familiar to most readers here. (If you write about the band sometimes and I didn't link you in this piece, please do just remember they only gave me about 500 words and I had an awful lot to cover!)

Visitors, conference, links

Welcome to anyone visiting from ReadTheSpirit, which is running a couple things by me this week, one on the topic of what I'm looking forward to about the Hype and The Feedback U2 academic conference, and the other a general guide to the best places to begin learning more about U2, especially for those interested in their spiritual underpinnings. (Also, here's a post introducing this blog itself.) I personally am on the road right now and have very spotty access to the Internet, so will not be able to respond in as timely a way as I'd like to comments or emails; however, if you want to follow up on the conference in particular, their webpage is the place to turn and you can contact the conference director Scott Calhoun there. The early bird registration price is good until September 7!

Update...

Still would love a good quality picture of the mothers onstage from Popmart Santiago. Thanks to those who helped with quotes from my previous request; I'm all set on that now.

Well, the European leg is over, and I still have not had a chance to put up a "Drowning Man" post. Perhaps sometime in September. Or perhaps never.

Another request for the conference

I'm looking for a good quality photo of the mothers onstage with U2 during Popmart Santiago. Anybody?

looking for a quote

If anyone is feeling generous, I am having trouble finding some apt introductory quotes for the paper I am giving at the U2 conference in October, "U2 Live: Where Leitourgia Has No Name." (This may be the first of other calls for help!) I'm trying to give a quick kaleidoscope view of things U2 have said about what makes their shows/audience connection unique, and would like a brief comment from all 4 band members if possible, with a citation as to where it comes from. From Bono I have "live is where we discover what our songs are about [and] discover what we are about." From Larry Mullen I have "the sacred moment." I want comments from Adam Clayton and the Edge to round out the picture. (I could use from the Edge “such a special thing that goes on between the band and the audience at a U2 show, and we never get tired of that. It's always unique; it's always really uplifting,” but would like something more pithy.) I'm betting someone out there has examples at the ready.

NLOTH discussion resource

In verifying links for a quick guide to learning more about spiritual aspects of U2's work, I discovered that I'd missed a new discussion guide to No Line on The Horizon put up recently by the Damaris Trust. It does a nice job highlighting some of the album's own main themes: time, change, love, optimism (and I John 4) -- as well as linking songs to wider spiritual issues. FYI, Damaris also has previously made available, without cost, similar group study guides to All That You Can't Leave Behind and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.

Introduction and welcome

Welcome to readers visiting from ReadTheSpirit. We've been tracking the dialogue on U2 and theology since the U2 book I co-edited, Get Up Off Your Knees, was published in 2003. While most of the mission of the blog is simply to help readers find out where thoughtful, theologically-informed work on the band is happening, there's some original content as well. Here's one overview post of such material from 2006. Or, if you're interested in a look at the band's most recent album, check out (in reverse order, as is the way with blogs) the U2 Sermons series on that. If U2's live work attracts you, here are links to an analysis of their re-visioning over the years of "The Fly."

Most of the time, though, we track things like lectures, presentations, and small-group adult and teen studies on U2 and faith, including of course when groups use the study guide "Pursuing God with U2" that was in our own book (three sessions available free here). We pay attention (and serve as a reading assignment!) when, say, a college offers a U2 course. And since Get Up Off Your Knees is a book of homiletics, we link to at least some of the hundreds of uses of U2 in pulpits all over the world. Other labels over there on the right will help with further exploration.

The field of exploring the interface between U2's art and spirituality is huge, full of wonderful writers and theologians who have been working on the topic for years, and we're privileged to get to document it here at U2 Sermons. Enjoy looking around.

"Christian by faith not by genre"

I think regular readers here may crack a smile of recognition at this clever piece by Don Miller about his "Christian plumber" who "left the Gospel out of his work." (Interestingly, a number of the commenters don't get the joke.)

U2 can be pastor to the city

Fresno Dave, who always has an out-of-the-ordinary perspective, shares some thoughts on how the host cities are addressed from stage at U2 shows.

Author Interview

Here is an interview with Greg Garrett, author of the most recent, and the most simplistic and generic, book in the series of (now 4) books making the overall point that U2 have a spiritual component to their music, We Get To Carry Each Other. Anyone who has at all followed the outpouring of writing on this very popular topic over the years will find no new insights in the work, but judging from the tone of the interviewer there are still people to whom the basics are quite fresh. You may want to check it out even for that perspective. (FYI, people familiar with the literature may be a bit perplexed at some of the representations made in the interview.)

Steve Stockman on U2 Live at Croke Park

Readers might be interested to see what our contributor Steve Stockman had to say about the first Croke Park show. He seems to have managed to get there without previous knowledge of the setlist, which these days is a major triumph of self-discipline! I agree completely with the comment he makes that what we are seeing in U2 now is the freedom and joy of people who have found out how to live at the very heart of their vocation; as Stocki alludes to, the sight evokes poignacy for a pastor, because one so deeply hopes the people one pastors may get to that place as well.

Update: a video including the "I surrender" moment described in the piece is here.

How-to

While I don't yet have anything coherent to say about the flow of the current show, I have been interested to notice a couple instances of something that seems newish to me in the song intros. Is there an expanded crop of what one might call exhortations to the crowd about how to use the song they're about to hear? Not quite the "Bono preaching" that annoys so many people, and not quite the "This is a song about..." that annoys many more. Here, with "One," for example, Bono advises the crowd to "throw this song against God, mother, lover, friend, father - whoever it is you feel rejected you." A similar example in Milan leading into "Beautiful Day": "When the future is so uncertain, it makes the present moment so much more precious. It's a precious moment. We give it to each other. To be in the moment. Carpe diem. The heart is a bloom... look above the clouds!" Or has this been going on in other tours and I've just missed it?

U2 Academic Conference update

Here is the press release for U2: The Hype and the Feedback in Durham NC Oct 2-4. Please spread it around: "First Academic Conference on Renowned Rock Band U2." You can register beginning August 1st (and you can book at the conference hotel with an excellent rate now.)

Lessons

Jonathan Blundell shares a list of 10 spiritual lessons he has learned from U2, drawing on songs as far back as "Rejoice" and as recent as "Breathe." He asks his readers for additions, and I thought I'd make a few, focusing mostly on things it seems to me are especially characteristic of the band's message (i.e. not generic spiritual truths). Here's a quick list of some prominent U2 Lessons off the cuff (more input welcome):

-- "When I was three, I thought the world revolved around me. I was wrong." Or, to quote Rick Warren, "it's not about you." The de-centering of the ego, of the presuppositions, of the self-drama, is lifelong work. One of the good, tedious and therefore useful ways to work towards this is fidelity in community. "If I want to live, I've got to die to myself one day." Another is a sense of proportion in a world in which, say, your icemaker breaking one afternoon is not on a scale with 6000 people dying the same day of malaria. (Also cf the recent interview in which Bono talks about being allergic to people who have one painful thing happen to them and walk with a limp for the rest of their lives.)

-- You could cite so many songs for this one: Surrender is exquisite. Do not be confused by this fact and conclude that surrendering in and of itself is good. Who or what you surrender to is all-important. And yet you must surrender.

-- Listen to what you want. Speak it out until you get to a true statement. When you do, God will be there. "What do you want?" from ZooTV. "I want to tear down the walls that hold me inside." "I want... I want you... I want you to be back tomorrow." "You want heaven, heaven in your heart." "Looking for to fill that God-shaped hole." And then, the mature "I want the lot of what You've got and I want nothing that You're not."

-- "I wanted to meet God and you sold me religion," "love is big... but love is not what you're thinking of," and again, a zillion other lyrics and interviews: Religion is to be distinguished from God. The former is probably about as likely to be an idol and a force for division and hatred as not. Confusing the two can be lethal.

-- "We eat and drink while tomorrow they die," (which I still think is the most brilliant Bible allusion in the entire U2 oeuvre) "with the real battle yet begun: to claim the victory Jesus won." Also related is Bono's: "If you are not committed to the poor, what is religion? It's a black hole." Being a follower of Jesus entails implementing Jesus' victory in the real world. (See next point)

-- KINGDOM NOW! Let's have a little bit of the age to come NOW! Inaugurated eschatology NOW!

-- And finally, a point of personal privilege: When agony comes to you, process it in a mode as similar to "One Tree Hill" as you can muster. Don't give up until you've seen its resolution all the way out at the outer ring. (See above point)

U2 - Mofo / Top Chrétien

The French-language site Top Chrétien posts a U2.com video of "Mofo," along with a moving reflection on the song's spiritual message from a reader who lost his mother to cancer.

The Hype and The Feedback 2.0

Most readers will probably know that the academic conference on U2 has been rescheduled for Durham NC, October 2-4. The list of accepted papers/presentations is now available on the web. Check it out... and make plans to attend.

Sound and Light

The folks over at Interference asked if I might expand my comments here on the Claw into a brief article for them. If you'd like to read the results, here they are. Thanks guys! Thanks also to @U2 for linking the same U2 Sermons material in this week's OTR.

The Arch via the Claw

U2.com has a piece up today explaining "what an archbishop is doing in a rock'n'roll show." You can also see a video of the pre-"Streets" cameo by Desmond Tutu, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town from 1986-1996, whom U2.com refers to as "the world's most famous clergyman." This made me smile wryly (and not only because I dislike the word "clergyman.") Although I'd agree he might be in the top 5 or 10.

Es Ist Rot

And while I'm having fun, my favorite sincere Twitter moment from last night (winner in the comedy genre was "Kinder mit Masken auf dem catwalk. Kein Kommentar.") I had been reading earlier in the day about the neurophysiology of ritual, and the author remarked how neurologically vital it was, if a sense of awe were to be experienced by participants, for ritual to carry patterned, permanence-evoking repetition of visuals and movement. Yeah.

architecture class

I should have added this last night: the lights and so on on the top spire on the Claw are designed such that, when in use, it turns into a finial. (Here are a lot of finials for comparison.)

son et lumière

I had planned not to follow anything about the actual concert today until full good-quality audio became available in the next couple days, but became so interested in witnessing the scene unfold on Twitter, along with discovering the several sources for live cell phone streaming video and pictures, that the sense of event pulled me in. I'm very glad now I followed it, and all I want to say at this point is that the obvious star of the show is the Claw.

Willie Williams has so much more than outdone himself... I mean, just stunning beauty that leaves you gasping. For me it brings to mind first the son et lumière shows one sees staged on summer nights with some of the great European cathedrals as their screens (sample video here), and second, Willie Williams' own previous works with churches or cathedrals as his canvas: e.g. the mirrorball at all Hallows, or his Easter Vigil installation at Canterbury Cathedral. Except now, there are none of the intrinsic limitations of trying to do light-art on an aging, unchangeable building. Willie has a cathedral designed to his own dimensions and specifications, and he can make it do tricks.

Of course you have no real sense of a show from bits on YouTube and cell phone videos -- but my reaction to what I've seen is that the band themselves came off as more completely in the role of servants to the overall process than ever before. Astounding. Is this rock 'n' roll?? (However, lest I sound too glowing, it's 2009 and you can't play "One"?)

Opening night in Barcelona

"Originality consists in returning to the origin." - Gaudi

Wait... somebody out there is proposing that Catalonian hearers consider an analogy between The Claw and Gaudi's Sagrada Familia? Oh, yeah. That would be Bono.

Where are You in "cedars of Lebanon"?

I usually don't link more than once or twice when someone's posting a series on U2, figuring you can all follow it yourselves if you like. However, I thought since there is little else going on relevant to the topic of this blog at the moment, I might draw out one point in the closing installment of Steve Stockman's NLOTH series, a post on "Cedars of Lebanon." Most of what I've heard said about that phrase "cedars of Lebanon" has simply commented (accurately) that it's a term widespread in the Bible, with a variety of implications -- such that the lyrics would be using it mostly for Middle Eastern ambiance. Stocki suggests instead that perhaps a particular one of its meanings is actually in view: the way Isaiah and other prophets use a comparison to "the cedars of Lebanon" to indict human pride, and particularly linking such pride with waging war and destroying enemies. If this were so, it would help put the last verse about not being defined by enemies in a more tightly knit context with the overall setting/theme of the song, and might also lend the phrase "Where are You in the cedars of Lebanon?" a ring of something classically U2 that's almost completely absent on NLOTH: the lament genre. Comments on this idea, readers?

Drawing their fish in the sand update

Some of you may already have seen that the archive of Bible references in U2 songs has been updated. It now includes No Line as well as some recent extra tracks on the album remixes and elsewhere.

Stadium Prophets and Psalmists

At the UCCF Theology Network site, you can download a talk called "U2: The Stadium Prophets and Psalmists" given at a recent meeting of the European Leadership Forum by Mark Meynell, a name that will be familiar to readers here from previous links. It's in PDF. Though largely on an introductory level, there are some nice stops along the way: I quite like the charts (Bono personas, U2's articulations of human experience, more) and the section on distinctions between a poet and a preacher (especially its closing comment, so a propos to this band: "of course it gets confusing when poets do start to preach."

U2 Academic Conference site announced

Like many folks, I was disappointed when the economic downturn forced the postponement of the U2 conference. However, an announcement was made yesterday that The Hype and The Feedback is coming to Durham, NC Oct 2 -4, 2009. The host is the H. M. Michaux School of Education at North Carolina Central University in Durham. North Carolina Central is the nation’s first public liberal arts college founded for African-Americans. And another really cool thing about this: U2 are playing Raleigh on the 3rd, and the conference program is being designed so we can all attend (if we, uh, want to) and then have the next day to reflect on the experience. Hope to meet many readers there!

"U2 does it again"

Dick Staub, who interviewed me back when Get Up Off Your Knees came out, offers some comments on NLOTH. Not sure where the connection of "White As Snow" with King David comes from; haven't heard that one before....

U-asana-2

An anecdote from an interesting quarter, not unrelated to spiritual themes: The June 2009 issue of Yoga Journal features material on the use of non-traditional music in yoga classes, specifically live music, DJs, or playlists from rock albums. One of the interviewees, Michael Franti, discusses practicing to U2, specifically mentioning "The Sweetest Thing," which he used after losing his father, and he found "helped me cry, reminisce, let it all out, and heal" on his mat.

a random NLOTH review

The folks at Empire Remixed today repost a review of NLOTH by the Rev. Julie Golding Page. Not entirely sure I think the disorientation/orientation paradigm works for this album as well as for some others...

Welcome to our new look

As will be immediately evident, I've finally bit the bullet and updated the template for this blog. I'd been resisting doing so for literally years, mostly because of having to switch to the Blogger comment system, thus losing all our internal dialogue going back to 2003 (although I have archived the old comments separately, you will see that every post displays a rather depressing "0" now). However, the downsides of not upgrading finally got to be too much -- permalinks had stopped working, inconveniencing everyone who wanted to link a post, and the old comment system offered virtually no spam protection, making for more and more work for me to keep the comboxes clean. So here we are....

Kicking at the Darkness – Bruce Cockburn Weekend « Empire Remixed

PSA: Get Up Off Your Knees contributor Brian Walsh will be offering a workshop looking at the work of Bruce Cockburn, including a worship service using his music, on May 23-24 near Ottawa. "This one-day workshop will be an opportunity to explore with others the connections between faith, music, beauty and brokenness in the place where Cockburn’s musical and spiritual journey all began."

marks and layers

Thought I would pull this out of the comments: Steve Taylor, whom I still look forward to meeting at the U2 Conference whenever it happens (kind of hoping we'll be in the same session since we're both giving papers focusing on U2's live work), offers some thoughts on the "Magnificent" video. While I agree that the connection of the visuals with the text is somewhat tenuous, we read the video a bit differently, as I think we do the song and the "the sound" concept, and maybe the album... but that's what makes it all fun.

Ah! bright wings

Some quick comments on the "Magnificent" video:
1. ...Another performance video?
2. Bono is just shameless, isn't he?
3. I'm immediately taken with the way everyone on camera seems endlessly to be trying to invite our gaze in the same direction I commented about in this post on the stagecraft in the Letterman performance of the song: up! UP!
4. The ecstatic desert dancers are a nice touch, out there dancing with/to the sun. I'm not sure members of the traditional Sufi orders wear red hoodies much, but I get the point.

And 5! Those white sheets; one thinks of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, but of course their wrapping encloses scenes in a more static mode, and this is all about dynamism. Struck by the way different aspects of the sheets communicate over the length of the video: we move from "there is more here than you know, and it's alive," to all different modes of revelation as the sheets come away (some of the moments are dramatic, eye-catching, others so shy and retiring they're missed by people right next to them, and in a couple the white fabric actually seems to be whisked away, playing hard-to-get as soon as we've glimpsed it), to the realization that the sheets themselves are as fascinating as the material stuff they were covering. As the video progresses, it's hard for me not to think of John 3:8 -- the sheets turn into a way to help us discern the movement of the wind, which is going on all the time, in constant interaction with the world we maybe initially thought they were obscuring but which, in fact, they are enlivening.

I'm especially moved by the scene where a crowd of people outside the Fez medina are absorbed in their own activities and remain completely uninterested as this gorgeous, living, visualized wind passes right over them. Twas ever thus.

And: how nice that we get to see the red-hoodied desert dancer arrive in town to meet all that blinding white dynamism in the air face to face.

Finally 6. It so makes me think of Gerard Manley Hopkins:
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil...
...Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

stolen from Fresno Dave

[EDIT: Don't miss Mark Meynell's remix of the idea here.]

"voice that gave my life a rhyme, a meaning"

A bit off topic, but unique enough that I would like to share it anyway; here's a transcription of a poem handwritten by Bono that is on display at the Billy Graham Library but that I don't believe has been available online before:

"The journey from father to friend
is all paternal love's end.
it was sung in my teenage ears
in the voice of a preacher
loudly soft on my tears [years/fears?]
I would never forget this melody line
or its lyric voice that gave my life a rhyme,
a meaning, that wasn't there before
a child, born in dung and straw
with The Fathers love and desire to explain
how we might get on with each other again...."

for The Rev. Billy Graham (that preacher)
Ruth and all the Graham Family
from Bono (March 11 2002)
with much love and respect....

Spirituality, lament, and social justice

Greg Stevenson at Caritas ventures a nomination for U2's Most Theologically Interesting Song. Do you agree?

For New York City area readers....

If you're in the NYC area, we're asked to announce that Mockingbird Ministries (http://mockingbirdnyc.com/) invites you to attend BONO AT THE END OF THE WORLD: A Theological Journey Through the Lives and Music of U2 on this coming Wednesday, April 29 from 8-9:30pm at The Cave at St George's - 209 E 16th St.(down the stairs on 16th St. between 3rd Ave and the square, at St. George's Episcopal Church). The Rev. Nathan Hart, whom some of you will know from this blog's comments section, is teaching the class.

More from Stocki

Another quick nod to contributor Steve Stockman, who evidently decided one article was not enough and is now doing song-by-song posts on NLOTH. For a taste, check out the one on "Moment of Surrender" here. It pulls three key threads out of the song for comment, and also makes the interesting categorization of it as "a hybrid of 'One' and 'Your Blue Room.'"

It’s 2009. Do You Know Where Your Soul Is? - NYTimes.com

And, now, ladies and gentlemen, a sermon on the liturgical year. By Bono.

In defence of sad songs

A post at Instamatic Theology discusses some links to writing on lament, and suggests that part of what makes U2 so effective at communicating joy is that they get there by way of pain. A fruitful line of inquiry for those who've just moved from Lent and Good Friday into Easter season.

every day I die again, and again I’m reborn

only love could leave such a mark

When Reading Bible, Do Not Hit “Shuffle”

A clever post using U2 album order decisions to make a point about reading Bible passages in context.

"U2 announces second secret show"

As a Boston resident, I have to say my favorite of today's run of U2 April Fools jokes may be this article announcing a putative repeat engagement in Somerville, from the Herald's The Edge section (ha ha). ("Only members of the International Monetary Fund will be admitted after showing proof of having forgiven the debt of at least one Third World country.")

U2’s Class Act

A Fordham student writes for Roman Catholic site "Busted Halo" about the experience of U2's performance on her campus.

Catch up

Someone sent me this link some time ago and it was swamped in the NLOTH flood. I've linked this blog before, and in this post a UCC pastor reflects on U2's reinventions of themselves, and his favorite "Dirty Day," as paradigmatic for congregational leadership.

Shut Up and Let Me Love You

Thanks again for the help fixing the Fez link in the last post. It is fixed.

Stealing directly from Mark Meynell here, who has pulled out of the conclusion of Bono In Conversation this passage, which was already arresting enough, and suggests we hold it up against "Unknown Caller." I suppose when it comes down to it you can't actually sing "shut up," but you can sing "shush now":

Assayas: You said about your father: “He would disappear into silence and wit.” I think that in your case, you do disappear into volubility and wit. [Bono bursts out laughing] What do you make of that?
Bono: Guilty, your honour.
No further comment?
‘Be silent and know that I am God.’ That’s a favourite line from the Scriptures. ‘Shut up and Let Me Love You’ would be the pop song. [laughs] It’s really what it means. If ever I needed to hear a comment, it might be that.
Ultimate question, then you’re rid of me. What leaves you speechless?
[sighs… 20 second pause, continuous sound of cicadas] Does singing count?
I’m afraid not. Songs have words.
But not when I start. Usually, it’s just a melody and nonsense words. Hmm… Songs are about as succinct as I get. I’m just sparing you. [laughs then ponders for a moment] ‘Forgiveness’ is my answer.
You mean ‘being forgiven’?
Yeah.

Down tools

Thinking back to our talk about Dkhir and the Sound, I was interested to watch, in this video of a recent interview in Fez, how the band react to the muezzin's call to prayer interrupting the filming twice (perhaps especially compared to the way the interviewer reacts.) We even get an appreciative critique of which of that day's calls to prayer had the best chanting.
[Update: thanks to Rihannsu for pointing out that I didn't originally remember to post the link!]

Another preacher shares his praxis

AngloBaptist posts one of his regular videos reflecting on what he plans to preach. This one is called "a feast of grace a la U2". Includes a mini-tour of the church nave.

"The sermon I keep preaching and why"

Blogger Steve Lindsley posts about why he keeps preaching on exile, with a couple U2 stops along the way.

Soul Surmise

Contributor to Get Up Off Your Knees and U2 expert in his own right Steve Stockman has posted an article on NLOTH (billed as a review, but more of a reflection piece.) Excerpt:
Every U2 phase gets a name check... the worship of the youthfully exuberant October is back on Magnificent which finally kicks in to a Unforgettable Fire soundscape... while Fez - Being Born has a Passengers mood... Stand Up Comedy is the girder crunch chords of Achtung Baby... the lyric of Unknown Caller would sit well on Zooropa... Cedars Of Lebanon is like one of those great Joshua Tree soft spoken word poem out-takes that finally got their recognition on that album’s Twentieth Anniversary Edition. I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight would have sat nicely on the last two albums but as highlighted in the unsettling sound of the lead-off single Get On Your Boots it is all wrapped up in fresh experimental recycling. Having suggested familiarity there are many tracks and sections of tracks that if played without vocal would not reveal the band’s identity at all.

An Unapproved Road/ Holy Skin and Bone

An Unapproved Road is blogging through NLOTH, full of connections and personal impact. Here's one post in the series, called MAGNIFICAT and focusing on "Magnificent."

Holy Skin and Bone responds to some ideas floated here with a useful challenge: isn't "life in the sound... intrinsically unsettled"?

Getting Ready to Leave the Ground

Stepping away from NLOTH for a moment or two, the @U2 blog last week ran a fine feature on how to prepare for the allegedly-coming-soon U2 pilgrimage album Songs of Ascent by digging into some background on the topic. After a funny "Breathe" joke, Scott Calhoun suggests the following: Listening to Coltrane, "going Sufi," and considering the Biblical songs of ascent (including, perhaps, a commentary on them by Eugene Peterson which turns out to have some interesting connections).

Bouquet of links

More catchup: Quaerentia continues its trip through the album.
Author Christian Scharen announces a study guide to his 2006 book.
Project rednoW muses on how "White As Snow" chooses "description over commentary."
Laurie Britt-Smith writes a Christian themed review on U2 fansite Interference.
Fresno Dave postulates some "meta-motifs" of the album.
Well-known writer Don Miller gives a comical sense of how tough it is for U2 to be U2, followed by interesting discussion by various other Christian voices in the comboxes.

Return. The call. To home.

Josh Hurst at The Hurst Review, where I was part of a U2 retrospective just before NLOTH came out, invited me to engage in an email conversation on the new album and publish the results. Our extended dialogue is up today if you'd like to see what we came up with.
(You also might enjoy reading some earlier comments from Josh on "I'll Go Crazy If...."

theology kungfu: The Comedy of U2's 'No Line on the Horizon'

Catching up with some linking I skipped the past week. Jeff Keuss usually offers interesting and provocative theological takes on U2, and this trip through NLOTH is no exception. It begins by asking whether U2's entire body of work is more like a tragedy or a comedy in dramatic terms, then continues with thoughts on faith versus certainty, the call of beauty, and the nature of "a love you can't defeat." Long but worth it. Excerpt:
As Bono goes on in "Stand Up Comedy", we "can stand up for hope, faith and love" as the grand Christian virtues, but perhaps there is more to it than this. As Bono continues that verse, he decries choosing knowledge and will power over faith when he sings "while I´m getting over certainty/ Stop helping God across the road like a little old lady." This double challenge - (1) dropping the search for certainty in favor of faith, and (2) allowing God to... well... *be* God becomes the liberating truths for the protagonist.
Another acknowledgment of the 'comedy' that we are called to is found in the focus on beauty. There is the acknowledgement in "Get on your boots" that humanity needs to realize our beauty... In true beauty, we are lead to the truth of things and in many respects, we are led to the Divine. As ones made 'beautiful' ("you don't know how beautiful you are") we are also called back to true/truth nature as made in the Imago Dei - the 'dictator of the heart.'

Like a crown

I've enjoyed throwing out ideas on NLOTH this week, and I want to wind up this series of posts with thoughts about some of the songs that are not as obviously "character" pieces. I've talked a few times about this vibe of "settledness"; part of that was on the very large scale of the Sound ("God is, period"), but these songs tend to show us settledness in a more domestic, pragmatic, incarnate setting.

The propulsive sunburst of "Magnificent" is retrospective in tone, as the narrator looks back over his life and names it as having been claimed by God from "my first cry," while also commiting to continue a life of service and adoration "till we die." (The "living sacrifice" line "I give you back my voice" is quite poignant, even more so if it happens to conjure for you another close-to-the-bone promise from 28 years ago: "If I had anything, anything at all, I'd give it to you.")

The middle of the album features a three-song pop/domestic set, which comes off to me as picturing a couple at ease with each other in a long relationship. In "Crazy," they're mature enough to have accepted that the sudden victories we dream of in youth nearly always "come slow" and are still far from complete, but they're reminding each other that their quest to get "all the way to the light" is assured of success, and vow to keep generating "sparks" as they go. They look back down the "mountain" from partway up to offer reassurance to those daunted by early stages of the climb, and encouragement to the rest of us to value those "boys and girls" too. (Here's another way to say what I mean about "settledness" here: If this song had been written by U2 in the 80s, it probably would have treated the quest and the climb as demanding uncompromising urgency: tonight! tomorrow's too late! -- yet now the actual topic of record is taking a fun break from it with your lover.)

"Boots" is that break, the "fun fair" at which the reliability of "love and community" proves its ability to "cast out all fear" and overcome the nervous environment; what's actually eternal is not "a bomb scare" but the "laughter" of "[real] joy," which to quote a recent Bono interview is "the spilling over of a life well-lived" (back to "Crazy" and forward to "Comedy" and "Breathe" to see what a well-lived life looks like.)

I've said elsewhere that I spoke on "spiritual health for social justice workers" the day before first hearing "Stand Up Comedy," and one of my initial thoughts was that I could have just played it for the audience, and said "If you sound like this after 33 years, you're doing fine." Bringing that filter to it, you could say that all the standard spiritual pitfalls for people passionate about justice are handily disposed of in this song. The call to take action is undiminished from earlier U2 work motivated by outrage, but now it is pictured as empowered by an unassailable joy (again) that, not being dependent on seeing achieved outcomes, is far more sustainable than anger. Action is also set in the context of non-anxious perspective on one's own flaws, hapless "small child"/"high heels" ego, and hypocrisies. Another part of sustainability is "getting over certainty" (in favor of a more spacious assurance that the Divine is not so feeble and fragile that everything depends on how hard we "help God" get us what we think is right.)

And then there's "Breathe." While the verses are an onslaught of distractions and chaos, everything else radiates spacious ease. It's hard not to just quote the whole thing: "got a love you can't defeat," "there's nothing you have that I need," "I found grace, it's all I found, and I can breathe." Not to mention that culminating "wear them like a crown" line you could cite about a hundred Bible verses for. But all this is not just easy triumphalism; it's rooted in the "every day" task of getting up and doing what needs to be done in a world that is as crazy as those verses. It all adds up to a song -- and an album -- which almost makes me want to say, "If U2 were to quit after this, it would be all right."

Counting down to.....?

Pulled out of that last post to avoid getting too off topic: I mentioned that there's a frequently-remarked error in the official lyrics to "Moment of Surrender" and that I think it may be explained by the fact that "MoS" and "Unknown Caller" began as a story that flows from one song to another. The official lyric sheet ends "counting down to the Pentecost," but Bono very clearly sings "counting down till the pain would stop."

If we think in terms of a cross-song narrative, "counting down to the Pentecost" would fit as a description of the character who ends "MoS" having surrendered to God, but is still waiting for the direct revelation (i.e., his own Pentecost) that happens in "Unknown Caller." I wonder if that concept may be where the line came from. But U2 didn't really stick as strongly with the 3rd person character premise for the album as they had originally thought they might -- and if you're not using it deliberately to send a character into the next song's story, the line about Pentecost makes less sense. So my guess is they replaced it with "pain would stop," which is far more appropriate to the vibe of "MoS" by itself. But that news didn't get to the official lyric people -- just the kind of thing that often seems to happen with the many errors in U2's printed song texts.

[Update: commenter Rhiannsu below adds the helpful information that if you bought the deluxe box set, you actually have the correct lyric, as opposed to what's on U2.com]

Moments and characters

I talked in the last post about how NLOTH seems to have both a settled confidence in God's availability (as distinct from "certainty" about religious ideas) and a sense of being at mature peace with life. It interests me that while we've heard Bono speak from that kind of place in interviews over the past 7-8 years, U2's music has not reflected it as much. (I suppose it's sort of there on HTDAAB: you might name "A Man and A Woman," which was handicapped by sounding like a 60s toothpaste commercial, and we hear moments of it in other songs.) But I wonder if, in part, the use of 3rd party characters on NLOTH helps the outlook we've heard in interviews come into view: when Bono stops singing so directly about himself, we paradoxically get a clearer view of how he thinks the world works. What I mean is that we witness deliberate choices to set up situations that turn out to be (sorry to keep beating up on this reviewer's phrase) the kind many people "wouldn't bother to consider."

So let's look at a couple of those. "Moment of Surrender" and "Unknown Caller" are both songs in which the narrator began life as a 3rd party character -- the same character, in fact. (Incidentally I think this may explain a frequently-remarked error in the official lyrics, but I'll put that in a separate little post.) The situation examined in "Moment of Surrender" is exactly what its title says -- that precise moment at which someone reaches the point of giving up to God, in this case from the dregs of a life gone bad. And "Unknown Caller," which for my money is perhaps the most sublime spiritual document U2 have ever produced, pictures the Divine response to the previous song's surrender, although brilliantly choosing to focus just before the character has made meaning out of the liminal experience of his phone starting to talk to him. (A few minutes later in the story, and the title would have had to be "God Calling.") But U2 don't want to show us the certainties we humans make of religious experience after the fact; they want to show us actual religious experience in all its imperious, weird, transformative power. (PASSWORD: YOU.) The mere decision to identify and enshrine that moment makes the hair on my arms stand on end, as does Edge's attempt to play the ineffable after the Caller goes to work following his Psalm 46-esque last word: DON'T MOVE OR SAY A THING

"White As Snow" is another 3rd party song which situates us in a moment -- in this case the deathbed, with the narrator's life having come down to wondering if he can still recapture his early experience of "forgiveness" from and knowledge of "a love divine" through "the lamb as white as snow."

So three choices, three narrative situations: the moment someone surrenders to God, the moment God responds, and the moment of accounting before God's face at death. It's probably no wonder all that stuff would bore people like our straw-man "bother to consider" friend whom I keep quoting. But for me these choices reveal a distillation of life's true questions; they highlight which are the moments that really matter in the end.

Next full post: a few comments on the songs which seem to be less 3rd-party.

Dhikr

So, we continue on with this series of posts. (BTW, readers, thanks for having the courtesy to hat-tip when you borrow material from here.) My theory about why a less apophatic and more immersive sacred "sound" comes to the fore on NLOTH is that in part, it may have to do with the album's initial birthing during the World Festival of Sacred Music in Fez. Comments about that history from critics have focused on how the songs don't sound North African, but I think they're missing the point. What if the real influence was not particular musical gestures, but something much closer to the mission of the Festival?

A little background: Along with formal concerts from sacred musicians of many religions, this article talks about how the "real draw" in Fez is the opportunity to experience nightly Sufi dhikr ("remembrance of God"), ecstatic musical worship in various styles. (Here's a clip of one of those sessions from Fez 2007 when U2 were in town; more can be found by clicking around.) This Muslim mystical tradition has a developed understanding of sound itself as a medium of direct contact with God (as well as, incidentally, a long history of something U2 also have a long history of: using romantic metaphors for the experience of that contact).

Musicians from the Sufi brotherhoods were invited into the studio with U2 along with Gnawa players (by the way, I do think the bass on "Moment of Surrender" has a fairly Gnawa sound.) More recently both Bono and Larry Mullen have invoked "Sufi singing" in interviews (and you could argue that the Sufi use of unison chorus, which you can hear above, turns up all over the place on NLOTH, as do Sufi-esque melismas.) So I wonder if NLOTH doesn't actually bear many traces of Fez, in the form of fruit from a broader, cross-cultural experience of shared sound as a vehicle for the Divine in the midst of a songwriting residency.

That's some of what I think is behind this sacred "sound" you don't just hear, but can immersively go "inside." So in view of that, I'm turning over the notion that NLOTH may be the beginning of a subtle shift away from U2's dazzled wordless foretaste mode, the wellspring of which I've always assumed lay in the band's early charismatic formation (let the reader understand). I'm not saying wordless vowels are absent; in fact, there are probably more "oh"s on NLOTH than usual! What I mean is more like this: U2 often used to give us quite a lot of lament alternating with dazzled foretastes, or the two married into a kind of ache. But there is not much aching on NLOTH. The album is more settled and assured on both ends; its quest is to dwell in reality, not drum up drama, and yet it seems more confident than ever that there is a realm of very palpable connection with God available now as well. This embodied confidence is quite distinct from intellectual, abstract "certainty," which we are instead supposed to be "getting over."

NLOTH's evocations of God's vibrant presence (and that's where we're going in the next post, I think) seem to me not to be framed so much as the awe of one who is suddenly undone by a gift of inbreaking grace even "under the trash" or "when there's all kinds of chaos." They're still every bit as celebratory and broadly inviting, but now they rest on an unsurprised, grateful security, in a spaciousness that allows us to "breathe": This is how it is.

Then she put her tongue in my ear

A quick followup to the apophatic/immersive discussion. It hits me that of course you could immediately invoke the title cut of "No line" as partaking of the standard U2 apophatic spirit: "Time is irrelevant/it's not linear"; the farthest we can imagine, "infinity," is nothing but a "place to start." However, I find it interesting (and very U2ey; let's not over-spiritualize this one! But still...) that we're told the bearer of this message immediately becomes physically intimate with the narrator.

Born of sound

Having thrown out some general context in the past couple posts, I want to move on now to making more specific comments on No Line On The Horizon.

As has been pointed out already, it seems clear to me that "the sound" is one central metaphor. We have three "let me in the sound" requests, as well as "I found grace inside a/the sound" and "people born of sound," all of which have an essentialist, palpable ring (especially if you want to argue for a vague John 3 echo in the last one.) Along with these, there are more evocations of sound per se as granting some kind of mysterious access to the ultimate: "hear the universe," "roar on the other side of silence," and "the rhythm of my soul... that yearns to be released from control." And don't forget this album's ineffable soundscapes themselves, such as the one that begins "Unknown Caller." Because of all that, I am more inclined to understand "sound" in NLOTH as pointing to mystical communion with God now, rather than as looking forward to songs sung by others in heaven.

While we also get several specific mentions of people themselves vocalizing ("Sing your heart out," "I was born to sing for you," "listen for me, I'll be shouting") it's the sense of sound as sacred essence that intrigues me here, as if Pop's "looking for a sound that's gonna drown out the world" quest has been fulfilled in a sound-baptism by immersion on NLOTH.

So I think I'd like to at least play with a distinction. I'm certainly not positing a major disconnect, but I'm wondering if we could say that the "sound" metaphor represents something of a shift? Previously, have U2's evocations of eschatological fullness not tended more towards the apophatic? Their work has often reached, yearning, to that ecstatic limit, and then there are no words for what is coming. "I try to sing this... but." "You know I believe it, but I still haven't found..." with "what I'm looking for" left unspoken. "Mysterious Ways" (at least live): You can hear it, and see the celebration, but the lyrics are over by then. In fact, at a lot of these foretaste moments in U2 there is only inarticulate vocalization. And for the quintessential example, as glorious a moment of fulfillment as it is, the song is called "Where the Streets Have No Name," and they traditionally blind us at all its high points. (Any fans of Pseudo-Dionysius and his dazzling darkness out there?)

As a side comment: If you buy the idea, it would be interesting to discuss whether this instinct for apophaticism at the spiritual apex is part of what has made U2 so accessible to secular listeners.

In my next post, I'll share some thoughts about why this more immersive and less apophatic "sound" metaphor might have come to the fore, and either then or later I'll get to how I see it tying in with the settled Sitz-im-leben I mentioned earlier.

In my last post I talked about the perception that NLOTH deals with "subjects [many people] wouldn't bother to consider," and I commented that I am very interested both in these subjects that U2 are considering and in the way they are considering them. But let me clarify (in case the focus of this blog might contribute to any confusion on this point) that by this I do NOT mean I've been hoping to hear U2 sing about God more, or that I like NLOTH because it has many Christian references. That doesn't seem like a very reliable criterion for assessing art to me. As far as I can see, the band have brought the same basic worldview to all their work over the past three decades, whether or not recognizably Christian language was being used or identifiably "religious" topics were being addressed.

Now, naturally I am touched to hear any fellow believer giving wholehearted love to Someone I also love -- but I personally don't feel any special excitement purely upon discovering that U2 have chosen to record a song with that focus. ("Magnificent," for example, did little for me on my first several hearings, and I still don't really enjoy "Yahweh.") I don't much care how many times the texts directly quote the Bible along the way, either (although being able to recognize such allusions when they come is guaranteed to increase your appreciation of U2 songs). But what I do care about, and what so far seems to me to be near the heart of NLOTH, is seeing them (to paraphrase a former homiletics professor of mine) take the issue/moment/situation they want to present and integrate it with everything they have so far learned as Christians about the universe.

It seems to me that what U2 have to give at this point is not "We can be cooler than the Killers" or "We consider Fordham students our contemporaries" (which made me cringe on Friday). What they have to give in their chosen genre is a much larger than usual pool of resources for that integration.

A rock band shouldn't....

While I see the main task of this blog as tracking theologically-informed discussion of U2's work, I think I am ready to take a break from being a guide to others' Christian or Biblical reflections on No Line on the Horizon and make a few posts myself this week. Not a review, but some things that have struck me personally.

First, a more general comment on the black and white reactions to the album. One of the many very negative reviews complained that throughout it, "Bono usually sounds like he's speaking for us on subjects we wouldn't bother to consider." This comment has come to mind several times as I've gotten to know an album which definitely speaks for me, and on subjects that I consider constantly -- subjects which in my worldview are so central that I can't think of many I'd rank higher.

Now in one sense that disconnect is nothing new. It's no secret that some of the preoccupations traditionally seen as appropriate to pop culture have never been of much artistic interest to U2, whereas some of the preoccupations seen as gauche or taboo draw them in -- nor is it a secret that many people can't stand that fact. If you are one of those people, my guess is that you will especially hate NLOTH. As I have said to some friends, this is U2 distilled, 120-proof U2, synthesizing their previous work and considering very U2ey subjects in a very U2ey way. (As opposed to in a "classic U2 sound" way or a "the 90s redux" way or a "gotta get on the radio" way. See, I also think people who prefer to interpret the band through only one of the diverse titles under which they get pegged down -- U2 of the Joshua Tree, U2 of ZooTV, U2 of the Stadiums -- are less likely to enjoy this album. You gotta accept it all this time.)

But the particular NLOTH red flag to the bull, I'm beginning to think, is not just its distillation of the essence of U2 (bad enough!), but also its, if you'll forgive a technical Biblical studies term, Sitz-im-leben. This album speaks quite clearly from where the band actually stand: men nearing 50, mostly with long-term families, long-term experience in discipleship, long-term experience in staying in community, and enough perspective to have not just sorted through priorities but also reflected on different modes of addressing them. Statistically, this Sitz-im-leben is pretty rare in the West these days, and vanishingly tiny among the rock 'n' roll world. How many people today create or consume pop culture from the context of even one 33-year relationship, let along a whole gang of them? How many people today create or consume pop culture from the context of a complex spiritual worldview that's been slowly ripening in subtlety and breadth of application for even one decade, let alone three? If you already really like U2, you'll follow them there anyway and see what's on offer, but if you don't....

So no wonder listeners to whom that Sitz-im-leben is foreign, who don't resonate with its insights or imagine it having a valid place in rock 'n' roll, would find connecting with No Line on the Horizon very difficult, and see its whose essence as uninteresting and remote from anything anyone normal would "bother to consider."

This doesn't explain all the negative press, but I think it explains some, and really, it isn't that big a surprise. One of the reactions to U2 has always been "a rock band shouldn't do this." But in the end, haven't their violations of the list of things "a rock band shouldn't do" been the source of their power? From my vantage point, what's going on now is one more example.

Roundup continues

A couple more links where there's theological discussion going on:

De Regnis Duobus makes some comments about "the sound" and the Reformed love for hearing over other means by which God gets access to us. Bit odd to claim "vision over visibility" as a reunciation of seeing, but along the way there's a nice connection to "Amazing Grace."

The folks at Ephphata Poetry wrote to tell me about their reflections (there are 2 parts).

Holy Skin and Bone gives a Simone Weil-sounding nod in an analysis of the cover (what do you expect from a philosophy professor?) and follows it up with lots of thoughts on every track, informed by the book that accompanies the deluxe edition. Excerpt: Is this U2's most explicitly Christian album? I'm not sure I even understand the question. Some of the lyrics will no doubt send chills up the spines of those of us who fit our own stories into The (Christian) Story. And Bono may no doubt have penned them from within The Story. But the lyrics and the album as a whole have broader appeal. You don't have to be a Christian to resonate with the realities about which Bono sings.

A NLOTH lyric devotional: "How, then, has God left himself open to interpretation?"

If you've wondered about the presence of any kind of story arc in NLOTH, have a look at this extraordinary meditation, made up completely of lyrics in the order they appear on the album, by Brian Draper of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. Includes reflection questions with very apt thematic Biblical connections at the end. Seriously, folks, print this one out and put it to use.

The Dude Abides on NLOTH

A lovely piece by Cathleen Falsani talking through her reactions to, and some of the background of, U2's new album. Excerpt:
"There is plenty of rock-n-roll levity and grandeur on No Line on the Horizon, but it is eclipsed by the heart and soul of this album — perhaps the most dynamic gospel music I've ever heard."

Songs of Ascent

I guess many readers have seen the reports that a companion album to No Line titled Songs of Ascent is scheduled for release within a year, featuring more meditative, reflective, "Sufi-singing" style music, and an overall theme of pilgrimage. It's nice to see U2 claiming their Psalmist mantles with this title, which refers, of course, to Psalms 120-134 which were sung as pilgrims "went up to" Jerusalem, climbing as they walked. Especially when you remember that the albums were worked on simultaneously and could have been a joint release (in fact, you can glimpse some planning for this on the whiteboard in the magazine that comes with one of the editions of NLOTH), Bob from Bob's bloggery makes a great connection of this news to a lyric from "Crazy Tonight."

Another take on the album worth checking out

Mark Meynell at Quaerentia offers several thoughts on some of NLOTH's tracks (with more to come) as he prepares for a speaking engagement on the band. Also, just do not miss his Wordle of the album lyrics here: quite revealing!

Excerpt on "Moment of Surrender":
"Then comes the magical lyrical turning point: It’s not if I believe in love But if love believes in me, Oh believe in me. Fabulous. This is the invasion of grace - or rather the yearning for it. There is a sense of wonder in a great human relationship that love has come - but surely it is even more applicable to Christ’s call (and he’s just cried Oh God in the previous line). There is a shrinking back, a doubt that love might not come cf. George Herbert’s LOVE BADE ME WELCOME.

"But the key change comes at the moment of surrender, I folded to my knees. This is echoed earlier in the song by another role reversal - playing with the fire till the fire played with me. But that’s what happens when we start getting involved with God - he is so much bigger, so much greater. We put him in the dock only to find ourselves in the dock; we think we’re doing him a favour by loving him, but find that his is the greater favour. Such surrender could sound like a subjugation, a resignation. But the music lifts it up to a moment of joy - with the Edge’s backing vocal giving it a sense of shared joy.

"And that is done without any concern about passers-by. Who cares what they think?"

[Update: The @U2 blog has picked up the Wordle.)

Make Straight the Path: Learning to Get Ready

Fordham theologian Tom Beaudoin blogs about his campus's upcoming U2 concert at Rock and Theology.

[Update: more news from Beaudoin here]

"Be ever hearing and never understanding"

I expect this video may be gone quickly, but I wanted to make a stagecraft comment on U2's "Magnificent" from Letterman last night. Those who have been following reviews and discussion will have noted that a lot of hearers seem to be taking "I was born to sing for you...to lift you up" as an insufferably arrogant phrase directed at U2's audience; it has come in for a lot of criticism. In light of that, it is almost funny to see, as this moment arrives in the song, the visual Bono chooses (starting at about 2:45). He begins with a standard wide-armed orans position, but immediately shifts that into an awkward-looking, aggressively vertical orans with both arms parallel all the way over his head, and just holds it. (The text is directed up, folks. Not horizontally. Up. Is this clear enough for you?)

Somebody has checked their album release schedule

Crossroads Community Church in Enterprise, Alabama USA has just launched a month-long series drawing on U2 songs. This week, "Beautiful Day" in a snowstorm (some comments on the pastor's blog); next week, "Mysterious Ways." I have not had time to do anything more than glance at this, so no idea of the quality. If you're interested in checking it out, streaming audio will be here.

If you don't have it or haven't paid for it.....

FYI, Amazon.com is selling downloads of No Line On The Horizon for only $3.99 today.

more NLOTH writing with a spiritual slant

A few more links for readers looking to see what's being said about NLOTH from people interested in U2's spirituality, this time around on a more popular level than the last post. (As always, a link here does not necessarily mean I agree, just that readers may find the writing thought-provoking.) Here's an anonymous post called I Found Grace Inside the Sound, which sees NLOTH as seeking to "paint a fuller picture of that 'other place,' the Kingdom (not yet) come, on the other side of the horizon line, [describing] heaven as full of sound." Bob at the Bobosphere is posting a series of pieces pointing out Biblical and other connections that he personally is touched by in some of the songs. And finally, fan forum The Goal is Soul at Interference is talking up "Unknown Caller" in particular, as well as a few other songs.