How the Bible in the rock of U2
The thing that makes it compelling writing Bono is the sincerity with which to field a faith of God of questions addressed to a neighbor, a friend you can also fight.
"How long must we sing this song? '. For how long must we sing this song? How many of the boys who in 1985 sang this verse hundreds of times at Live Aid in 40 knew that the song which was sudden, U2 had the whole Psalm to music for consideration? A sacred text in a piece of the Irish band is not an isolated case and even.
This is demonstrated Andrea Morandi in his U2. In the name of love (Arcana), a volume that passes through a sieve for the first time the song for song lyrics by Bono, bringing to light sources and biographical references. And often with surprising results: "The presence of the Bible in the first disc was a common expression. But it continued permanently until the last cd was a real discovery. "
"That Bono is writing a very sophisticated and often misunderstood" Morandi said. "Bono gets to work on the individual word as Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. But the character is so overflowing from crushing the authorial dimension. Yet only he and Dylan manage to condense the Bible in 3 minutes a song. " Many of the lines analyzed are imbued with the sacred text, the language and vocabulary from the substrate up to a constant images and themes. The Bible is fully explored, from Genesis to Revelation, through the Gospels and the letters of Paul, not to mention the prophets Isaiah and Habakkuk. But the favorites are the Psalms. "For David is the first pop star Bono and the psalms, the first blues" Morandi said.
"The same Bono seems to identify with him. David has an uneasy relationship with God, his are songs of praise and lament, as well as many of the psalms rockers U2. " And to finish it out of double bottoms in the songs : "Who would have thought When love comes to town tells the robe of Jesus played with dice, or Until the end of the world speaks of the betrayal of Judas? ". U2. In the name of love shows a circular path that goes from strong religiosity of the early records, through the night Zooropa (where The first time is a reflection on the loss of faith from the parable of the prodigal son) and Pop, until the return in the light of the last discs. "Among others in the No Line On The Horizon Magnificent there are, since the song title refers to the Magnificat, to Unknown Caller, Unknown Caller, where the title is the God who saves." The hardest part is Grace, the song that closes All That You Can not Leave Behind.
The theme is none other than Grace. It is perhaps the first time that a theme so theologically challenging is the center of a pop song. "Bono, the reflections of CS Lewis, an author whom he greatly loved: The Screwtape Letters are for example the base MacPhisto, the corrosive character of ZooTV Tour." Another Christian writer who inspired Bono's Flannery O'Connor: "As she charms the way of representing the relationship between ordinary people and God." "The thing that makes it compelling writing Bono" concludes Morandi "is the sincerity with which to field a faith of God of questions addressed to a neighbor, a friend you can also fight."
"In the music of U2 - Bono once said - there are cathedrals and streets. The roads leading to the cathedral and as you walk you feel nervous, as if someone were to follow. If you turn around there is none. Then finally enters the cathedral and only then you realize that there really was someone following you, God. "
Alessandro Beltrami (Notebooks Cannibals)
