Until the End of The World

The good people at @U2.com have a fun feature called Like a Song where their staff writers share what various U2 songs mean to them. This inspired me to write down my thoughts about Until the End of the World.

My two year old daughter surprised me recently by pointing to a poster hanging on my bedroom wall showing Bono and Edge reaching out to each other from the catwalk of the U2 360 stage. “Edge is reaching out to Bono,” she said. It seems my wife has been training her well. This is surprising because my wife would prefer we leave our teenage years behind and not cover our walls with rock and roll images. Perhaps she has come to accept that this reach image, from the Until the End of the World (UTEOTW) portion of the set, has a profoundly deep meaning for me.

It is very satisfying to gradually discover additional sonic and poetic layers of U2 music. I remember talking to a friend about Achtung Baby! not long after the album was released. “Did you know that UTEOTW is an imagined conversation between Jesus and Judas in the hereafter?” Yes, I had heard that. But it took me 18 years to grasp the message of the song: that Love, capital “L” Love, aka compassion, has the ability to reconcile and heal. At least that’s what I get out of it now.

I can trace my UTEOTW awakening to the U2 Conference in North Carolina in October 2009. As I entered the building, I walked by the table of books for sale and I promised myself I would not buy any. I had read enough books about U2, Thank you very much. I especially was NOT going to buy that book about Achtung Baby! by Stephen Cantanzarite. I wasn’t about to let someone else tell me how I should think about that album, thinking I had already figured it out.

By the end of the weekend, I had purchased no less than five U2 books. I even bought Stephen’s Achtung Baby! book. After speaking with him in the hallway for a few minutes, I realized what a bright guy he is. I sensed that he might actually be able to enhance my understanding about the album, and perhaps about other things.

So I bought the book and I read it in one sitting on a cross country flight from Philadelphia to Los Angeles a few weeks later. I listened to the album as I read. Song by song. Over and over. I dove deep into the connected narrative of songs I had previously experienced in siloed isolation. The story had me follow a couple through a decaying relationship, corroded by an unwillingness to truly communicate with each other. This was heavy stuff.

The chapter that really got me was the one focused on UTEOTW. The narrative augments the post mortal Jesus-Judas exchange told by the song, juxtaposing Judas’s glib tone with Jesus’s soft, persistant focus on Love. I found myself in tears as I pondered this concept of forgiveness. It isn’t at all rare for a U2 parable/song to bring me to an emotional state, but this was something else. A rock and roll-inspired religious experience at 30,000 feet.  

I have been a spiritual, religious person my whole life, devoted to the same belief system that I was raised on. But in the months leading up to October 2009, I was beginning to wonder if there wasn’t something more out there that could better inspire me. I wasn’t losing my religion, but I was bored with it.

The congregation I was attending at the time met in the Philadelphia suburbs and I found our worship services to be painfully repetitive. I remember sitting in church one Sunday reflecting on the fact that there we were, listening again from soft, padded pews to a sermon on living a Christ-centered life.

My mind wandered to my comfortable life. My comfortable car, my comfortable house, my comfortable job and my comfortable wife. My comfortable service to the youth of the church who lived in comfort with their comfortable parents and attended safe schools. Comfort is great. Everything I’d always worked for.

The mental wandering continued. Not five miles away, tens of thousands lived in poverty and not much comfort. Southwest Philadelphia feels otherworldly compared to the suburbs. Despite taking the train through that part of town nearly every day, I had never met or served anyone from that community. I never said hello or tried to get to know them. The disparity of my comfortable life relative to the third world conditions of Southwest Philadelphia seemed painfully hypocritical given my beliefs on brotherly love.

And then everything changed.

In November 2009 I was asked by my church leaders to attend services with a congregation in the city and be part of a team of three who look after the physical and spiritual needs of the congregation. This congregation is comprised largely of refugees from Liberia’s civil war. It was as if my bluff was being called. “You think compassionate thoughts,” the universe was saying. “Can you BE compassionate?” I knew right away that this was what I needed.

I initially fell into the common trap of thinking that this was a case of the needy being served by the more materially stable. I was quickly humbled. I came to know the reciprocal nature of service and love. I immediately had scores of new friends from Southwest Philadelphia and the more I tried to serve, the more I was served in return. The more I Loved, the more I was Loved in return.

This Love that I feel from fellow members of my congregation has caused me to reflect many times on the “Love Love Love” section of UTEOTW. This is the only part of the song where we hear Christ’s point of view. And what does Bono have him say? “Love Love Love...” To me this is an expression of unconditional love. An acceptance that transcends actions or external requirements. This resonates strongly with me because I need that kind of acceptance. I am a flawed human being. I am broken and I need to know that I can be fixed. And that’s why I find this song to be so beautiful. It stands as a reminder that we can be forgiven. That Love can conquer all. That, regardless our religious affiliation, or absence of affiliation, things can get better. Stay optimistic. Talk to each other. Love one another.

Behind the accusation “You, you said you would wait” is the implied response, “I did wait. I’m right here.” And so we can be right there for those we would Love and serve. As we learn in another song from Achtung Baby!, we get to carry each other. Not have to, we GET TO. For as we serve, as we wait on each other, as we Love one another, we are Loved in return. A risky proposition, to be sure and Pop religion though it may be, I have found it to be true.

Back to the poster in my room. There’s one thing I’m still trying to figure out. In the U2 360 performances of the song, at the very end, Bono and Edge, representing Judas and Jesus come ever so close to reconciliation as they reach out to each other from opposing catwalks. But just as they are about to make contact, the catwalks draw apart. Is U2 implying that in the case of Jesus and Judas, Love does not conquer all? Are they making a theological statement about whether or not what Judas did is beyond forgiveness? Or are they pointing out that too often we fail to come together in reconciliation. In my mental vision of the performance, they are able to bridge the gap. This brings hope to my ability to bridge gaps in relationships, both earthly and divine.

The poster hangs in my bedroom because my wife made me remove it from the living room where I hung it after bringing it home from the frame shop. While it might have deep spiritual meaning to me, to her it is nothing more than a rock poster. “How long will I have to wait until you see that this image has a place in our living room?” I recently asked. “Until the End of the World,” she replied.

Thank heaven for Love, Love, Love!

Beautiful Day!

Here I am standing on U2 Way in New York City earlier today. The show was awesome! We were somehow directed to front row seats, probably due to my wife being a visage of beauty. The emotional intensity during the two songs U2 played was off the charts. They played Beautiful Day for the show and then Vertigo after the taping concluded. It was great. We were standing right in front of The Edge. I wish we could have taken pictures in the theater because it was truly amazing how close we were.

The rest of the show was really fun as well. Jon Stewart was great fun, and that Letterman kid is no slouch. Paul Schaffer and the CBS Orchestra kept things going during the break and they're really tight, especially during the transition where they were bringing U2's gear onstage. Paul and his band played an extended version of Angel of Harlem that just rocked. Unrelenting energy.

The whole day was just great. Magnificent!

Oh, and we had lunch at the Hello Deli. Rupert even smiled for us, though not for the camera.

Get On Your Boots -- New U2 Single

Bono stated a few months ago that they were delaying the release of the new album (now due March 3rd) because the band had hit "a rich songwriting vein" and they wanted to continue to mine it for aural nuggets. (Ok, he didn't say "aural nuggets." That lame phrase is all mine.) Seemed like an excuse born in a PR session to me, but based on a few listens of the new single, perhaps he was right. Not bad boys. This one's going on a spin playlist. Now bring on the tour.

BTW, listen to it LOUD!

BTW II -- I love iTunes on shuffle mode. Once the aformentioned U2 song concluded, the next track randomly selected was a 10-second SNL clip of Phil Hartman saying "I just stepped in a big pile of sassy!" Forgot I had that. Puts a smile on my face.

Dream out loud

Andrew Wyeth. (American, born 1917). Christina's World. 1948. MoMA Collection.

I recently came across a noteworthy Bono quote from an anti-fascism event in Germany in early 1992.

"As much as we need to describe the kind of world we live in, we need to dream up the kind of world we want to live in. In the case of a rock & roll band that is to dream out loud, at high volume, to turn it up to eleven. Because we have fallen asleep in the comfort of our freedom.

Rock & roll is for some of us a kind of alarm clock. It wakes us up to dream! It has stopped me from becoming cynical in cynical times. Surely it is the inherited cynicism of our political and economic thinking that contributes so much to the despair of the 1990s."

I like the image of dreaming out loud. That sentiment found its way into the title track of the album U2 was recording at the time, Zooropa. And rock & roll can be an alarm clock, but can it be a cure for cynicism? I think in U2's music, it often is. There were some moments in U23D that my cynical side wasn't so sure about, but Bono is a sincere optimist -- something I admire. It takes great courage to not be a cynic. It takes a willingness to look like a rube or a simpleton in order to stick to one's principles or ideals. And for those of us who take great pleasure in the comedy of Jon Stewart and The Onion, entertaining the viewpoint of an optimist who is full of sincerity serves a refreshing balancing function. 

More from U2 in Utah

Good interview with Bono and Edge over at USA Today. One quote:

"When the band arrived in Mexico to start the film production on the South American leg of the tour, [Bono] says, "I'm embarrassed to say I wasn't looking the best. I don't think I'm the most vain of rock 'n' roll stars you'll meet, but I had a panic attack at the thought of a 3-D, 40-foot arse. But by the time we got to Buenos Aires, I was back on track. But some of the shots I can see, I can't help thinking, 'You fat bastard …' "

There was a trailer before U23D for an upcoming Rolling Stones IMAX show. Janean commented after the show that compared to the emaciated, heroin-chic Rolling Stones, U2 seemed massive. Maybe they were massive in their own right. No comparisons required.

Give me one more chance, and you'll be satisfied...

Here it is. By popular demand. My U23D post show analysis.

Janean and I went to see U23D on Wednesday night at the IMAX in King of Prussia and it was a lot of fun. I was struck by the differences between seeing them live and seeing them in 3D in a theater. There is no comparison to actually being there -- not even close. The sights, smells, anticipation and sense of community that come with a live U2 show cannot be rivaled by a passive theatrical experience. I don't think anyone ever expected it to be on par with attending an actual concert, but the press hype made it sound almost as good. I guess those journalists haven't been to an actual show. Watching the band up close in 3D made me long for the actual live experience.

Echoing one of the reviews I read, some of Bono's stagecraft seems out of touch with a theatrical experience (hugging the camera/audience or waving his arms like a bird) but I didn't notice anything that contrived in the live show. It just works live. In the theater it brought some snickers. Which is another thing -- when you've been waiting for hours for a good seat on the floor of a live show, surrounded by people who have done the same, everyone is fully invested in having a phenomenal experience and there is no snickering. Not so in the theater. That was a bit of a buzz-kill.

Am I being too harsh by comparing this movie to their concerts? Maybe. But as immersing as it was, the irony of this show is that by trying to draw me into the moment, it pushed me into a mental state where I was comparing it to other moments. Perhaps I'm quibbling. Oh, one more thing. I wanted to yell and clap and cheer, but I would have been the odd man out in the theater. I bet if I had, a few others would have joined in, but the convention of the theater kept the fans in their shells.

As I watched the film, I remember thinking that I wish the closeup shots of the stage were a bit longer. As a long time U2 fan who has read several books about the band, I'm very interested in the minutiae of what it takes to make these shows happen. The shots of Larry's drum kit were very intriguing. There's so much detail there, so much complexity in setting up the kit just right. He had a half bottle of orange drink sitting by him in a few shots. You could see where he puts his extra drum sticks. Seeing the stage close up was a real treat. In everything I've read, Larry is the anti-Bono. Where Bono is impulsive and loud, Larry is methodical and reserved. But we see so much of Bono and Larry usually waits in the shadows or behind his kit. It was refreshing to see more of him up close. Just one example.

The set list was great and the sound was impressive. This is a fun show and everyone should see it. Best. IMAX. Ever. Just not better than the real thing.

U23D - The Widget

Let's hope this works

When was the last time you went to a 3D movie? We saw one yesterday at Hershey Chocolate World and it was pretty corny. My three year old was impressed, but I thought it was a wasted effort.

So it is with some apprehension that I await the January 25th release of U23D. This Imax film purports to take the audience right into the concert experience. Having actually been in the concert experience many times, the bar will be high. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to see the show. U2 has mastered the craft of live rock and/or roll, but 3D? Do they really need this gimmick to make you feel a connection with the band?

The Rolling Stones did a 3D thing years ago and all my dad has to show for it is some paper glasses with a tongue on the side. Are Bono & The Edge bound to repeat the mistakes of Mick & Keith? Unlike The Stones, U2 is making music in their late forties that builds on their catalog and continues to be relevant to their fans. Why stoop to gimmicks to get people in the door?

The last U2 feature I saw in a theater was Rattle & Hum. It was around Halloween in 1988 or 89. There were maybe ten people in the entire theater. They'll put more marketing behind this one, but I'm skeptical that it will judged a success. What do I know though. They loved it in Cannes.

Enough of my yackin'. Let's boogie.

Bono on stage

I promise he's up there. I don't think he saw me. If he had seen me, I'm sure he would have come down to say hello. But then he would have invited me out for a pint and I don't drink so that would have been awkward - as usual. It is probably better that he didn't notice me.