Lent Day 6 - U2SDAY

I love music. I always have. I have musical talent, but I’m not one of those amazing musicians who everyone clamors to hear. Nobody ever told me I should go on American Idol or America’s Got Talent or Blythewood Sort Of Has Talent. I played piano for six years, guitar for two, baritone for one. I was in chorus in senior year of high school. I can match pitch while singing. I also can mimic voices fairly well, so I can sing many popular songs in an annoying impressionistic way. Think you like Counting Crows’ “Mr. Jones”? Wait until you hear my version that is performed louder, more nasally, and more twangy than the version on the radio. My kids love it. They also love when I sing random songs in church choral style. Riding in the car with me is non-stop fun. I sing a lot. When I wake up, immediately there is a song in my head. I don’t know how my brain decides which song to start the day with, but every single morning it’s there. I hear phrases people say, and if they match a song lyric, I immediately have that song running through my head.  Like right now, when I said “running through my head,” my brain started playing Counting Crows’ “Round Here.” I would be really good at the Riff-Off in Pitch Perfect. My mom sang a lot too. We always had music playing in the house. Admittedly, it was frequently some terrible Christian music album - or some of her self-written songs (like the “Christmas Tress Aren’t Found in the Bible” epic that I mentioned the other day). My dad would sing from time to time. I loved hearing him sing - it wasn’t because he had an amazing voice. It meant he was happy. “Pardon me boys, is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo…” That meant we didn’t have to wince when he came into the room. 

As I’ve mentioned, I attended a Christian private school for elementary. I also was very sheltered from pop culture - no movies, TV shows, secular radio. My brother was a bit of a rebel, and he would listen to the radio. That allowed me to get snippets of songs here and there. At school, I would hear about different things going on in culture. I started hearing about U2 - band that was growing in popularity around that time. I started Kindergarten in 1979. (Shut it.) I can track my journey through school because my grade numbers correspond to the year that grade finished. So I was in 3rd grade in 1982-1983. Works for me. Similar to the benefit of getting married in 2000. No way to mess up how many years you’ve been married. Anywho. U2 was being talked about quite a bit. My brother had heard them on his clandestine headset. The kids at school would talk about them on the bus. They were supposedly a Christian rock band, but not JUST a Christian band. Then Bono cursed on stage at something and they lost their Christian status. But even my sheltered self heard some of the songs. “Pride (in the Name of Love)”  “40” Those were the two that were the most referenced, largely because they both had Christian references in them. 

I switched to public schools for good in seventh grade. 1987. Any U2 fan knows the importance of that year. The Joshua Tree was released. The breakthrough moment. “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”  “With or Without You”  I kept hearing about these songs. I might catch snippets of them here or there. Then 1988 brought Rattle and Hum - U2’s concerts film and album. (Still one of my favorite of all of U2’s albums.) My mom had started to let us listen to the radio more. And I watched VH1 and MTV as much as I could get away with. This was important because in 1991, the start of my senior year in high school, Achtung Baby was released. With it came the videos for “Mysterious Ways” and “One.” I was hooked. That was the album when I fell in love completely and irrevocably with U2. “One” is in my top five songs of all time. The videos (Yes, multiple videos) were weird. But I loved the music. It felt like when you have a friend who has this other friend who you’ve never met. But your friend knows you’ll both get along if you ever could just meet. “I wish you could meet Rigalito. You two are so similar.” Then finally you meet this person and become tight friends. That was me and U2. I kept circling around them, barely experiencing them. And when I finally was able to meet them for myself, we clicked. 

The really weird thing is that U2 then went all experimental and released my two least favorite albums of theirs: Zooropa and Pop. They still had some good songs during that era. “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” from Batman Foreveris one of my favorite songs of the band. But it seemed like they were moving away from what I loved about them. I love lyrics. There are songs that I enjoy. just for the beat or feeling. But a song that has great lyrics? That’s what I really want. U2 is one of the best - if not the best - lyricists in the business. Their songs are deep and meaningful. They have layers to unpack. They deal with real human experiences, spiritual wrestling, social justice. I think those two albums are some of the weakest lyrics. And it turns out that I actually understood what was happening without knowing the reality of things - just another indication of how we were meant to be connected. I was listening to a recent podcast with Bono where he talked about The Fly character that he took on during that era. He said it was him diving into the thrill of being a rock star. Like he was believing his own hype at that point and becoming a bit insufferable. Social action has always gone hand in hand with U2. Their earliest hits dealt with issues of racial inequality and poverty. It is impossible to think of U2 without thinking of their activism. But during that era, that side slipped. Bono acknowledged it. I’m sure this is covered in his book, which I have but haven’t read yet. But the band found their footing again.

Possibly U2’s strongest album ever came out in 2000. All You Can’t Leave Behind is wall-to-wall awesome. There isn’t a stinker on the album. And the lyrics are deeeeeep. There are some gut-wrenching songs in there. In addition, it generated back-to-back Grammy winning Record of the Year songs “Beautiful Day” and “Walk On.” That has only happened three times in the history of the Grammys - a band winning back to back for the biggest award of the night. (Roberta Flack and Billie Eilish are the other two to accomplish that.) The album, though, coincided with something that the band could never have imagined. The 9/11 terrorist attacks happened in 2001 - right in the midst of the highest peaks of the album. The lyrics became even more poignant. There was a song called “New York,” for Pete’s sake. U2 ended up performing the Super Bowl that year, complete with giant sheets falling down from the roof of the Superdome with a scrolling list of the victims of the 9/11 attacks and Bono pulling his jacket open to reveal and American flag stitched inside. It is one of the greatest Halftime shows ever - up there with Prince and the Hip Hop show from 2022. I feel deeper in love with the band from here on out. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb was the next album with more tremendous deep songs, along with the now-legendary partnership with Apple. In 2006, Bono co-founded Project (RED) to help address the scourge of AIDS in Africa. The group has donated over $600 million to date. No Line on the Horizon was uneven, but still good. The dual Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience are tremendous also, especially Experience. Some of my favorite songs come from those two albums.  The first was written thinking back to their early years, when they were still naive and somewhat innocent. The second was written looking back after having experienced so much life. Since their career almost exactly matches up with my life, that method was especially touching.

I finally got to see U2 live in concert in 2009 with the bonkers 360 Tour. I was up in a high deck at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa with my friend Greg. The set was enormous - the top of it was almost eye-level with us in the nosebleeds. Muse opened for them, which in and of itself is just insane. I didn’t appreciate that at the time, which is a real shame. But U2 always has nailed their opening acts: Arcade Fire, Black-eyed Peas, BB King, Interpol, Kanye West, No Doubt, Public Enemy, Snow Patrol, Lumineers, The Pixies. I still have never been able to get back. But we are already planning a trip to Vegas for the newly announced residency there - which should coincide with my 50th birthday. 
The band is bigger than life. Bono can come across as a little narcissistic at times. Edge wears a dumb beanie all the time. Adam is too cool to be a real person. Larry … it’s hard to say anything bad about Larry. But they are amazing musicians, performers, and songwriters. And they are good people. Bono has been married to his wife for 40 years. One of the biggest rock stars in history has been married to his childhood sweetheart for four decades of excess and iniquity. He’s not the only one. Larry has been together with his partner for over 40 years also. Edge has been with his wife for 30 years. Adam played the field a lot more, but even he has been married for 10 years. They have pushed for social causes for decades - getting themselves in trouble time and again. But they never backed down. Bono personally convinced Jesse Helms, the racist senator from North Carolina, that his stance on AIDS was wrong. They fight for the underserved and underrepresented time and again - the epitome of using a large platform to try to pull others up to a higher level. I remember hearing this story from some video years ago. During the 1980s, they were causing their usual trouble by preaching about racial inequality. It was when the whole stink was going on with the adoption of MLK Day as a holiday. U2 loves MLK - something that has been evident in their entire career. They are very vocal about race issues. As a result, they are getting regular death threats. Most celebrities get threats, but these were ones that the FBI was concerned about - ones that were considered legitimate threats. To where they suggested U2 might cancel shows. Being young rock stars, they adopted the whole “we ain’t bending for no one” mentality. So they are performing one of these shows and about to start “Pride (In the Name of Love)” - which had become a kind of anthem for racial equality issues and the MLK Day process. All of the sudden, Bono has a moment of clarity about the situation. He is standing on stage, having received death threats for this concert, about to start the song that would be the perfect time for someone to take a shot at him. It was a sobering thought, and he started to panic a little. He had been really into the music, his eyes closed as he sang. He snapped his eyes open to look at the crowd, wondering what he was going to see. What he saw was Adam Clayton, bassist, standing in front of him. While Bono had been singing, Adam had drifted around the stage and positioned himself in between Bono and the crowd. As Bono moved, Adam moved - blocking a sight line. Bono realized what Adam was doing and stared in shock. Adam just smirked in his typical way and kept playing. That story has always resonated with me. The level of trust and friendship there, the commitment to a cause. U2 may not be perfect. Some people really don’t like them. Some will never forgive them for forcing them to take a free album on iTunes. (Forgiveness, people. That’s what this is all about.) But they are an example of the kind of person I want to be. They try to use their fame, money, and influence to change as many lives as possible. That could be through their lyrics, their speeches, their performances, their donations. I know that they changed my life. If all they ever did was provide me with four decades of enjoyment from their music, that would be enough. But they also provided a guide for how to reach out. They provided a reminder that not everyone is as blessed as I am. They provided conviction when I became numb to the struggles and pain around me. On Tuesdays through this writing project, I am going to be writing U2SDAY posts. I’m going to write about my favorite songs, my favorite cover songs (something the band is REALLY good at doing), and maybe rank the albums. I also am going to try to finish the Bono book and talk about it. If you don’t like U2 (like my wife and children - HOW?!?), you won’t like Tuesdays. But, like the band, I’m not going away as long as I have something to say.