In honor of one of my favorite Irishman's birthday today, I'm going to talk about one of my favorite bands tonight. Sometimes I think that it's a little cliché to say that U2 is your favorite band. I have been given flack before for saying that The Edge is one of my favorite guitarists, but it's true. He's awesome. But I don't really care. I like the music I like, and that's that.
I can't remember when I first became a U2 fan. It goes back to at least late 2000 when All That You Can't Leave Behind came out. Like many bands before, and after, I bought just one album and it was all downhill from there. With each following album purchase, I got more and more into the music. Rattle & Hum, The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, How to Dismantle and Atomic Bomb and their two greatest hits albums are a constant staple on the ipod to this day (their newest release No Line on the Horizon doesn't get as much airtime as the others, but still some. Why? Not sure, really)
The Joshua Tree is by far my favorite of them all. It's always in my car's CD player (well, except for right now, this album has taken it's place, until I remember to switch it out)
It's there for two reasons, 1: it's an awesome album (it's one of my Desert Island records) and 2: Every time I drive over Manastash Ridge from Ellensburg to Yakima I listen to Where the Streets Have No Name. Every time. For the last 10 years. Both ways (but it's better going west to east) If you press play right as you pass the lookout point on I-82 East, just up the hill from Ellensburg, the song will peak right as you're passing into the vast nothingness that is Manastash Ridge. The words of the song fit the drive perfectly, seriously, if you do this the drive will never be the same:
I want to feel sunlight on my face / I see the dust cloud disappear without a trace / I want to take shelter from the poison rain where the streets have no name / Where the streets have no name, where the streets have no name / We're still building then burning down love, burning down love / And when I go there,
I go there with you it's all I can do / The city's aflood / And our love turns to rust / We're beaten and blown by the wind, trampled in dust / I'll show you a place, high on a desert plain / Where the streets have no name.
Sometimes it's hard to express what exactly it is about a band that makes you love them; that pulls you in. With me one thing that always gets me is the songwriting, the lyrics. There are several U2 songs that I could listen to over and over and every time re-fall in love with the words. Some of my most played songs are Stay (Far Away, So Close!), Running to Stand Still, Bad, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Window in the Skies, and Love Rescue Me. There are songs that have gotten me though some tough times in my life. Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, a song written for Bono's father after he passed away, helped me out when my Grandpa died, and then again when my Grandma died:
Tough, you think you've got the stuff / You're telling me and anyone / You're hard enough / You don't have to put up a fight / You don't have to always be right / Let me take some of the punches / For you tonight / Listen to me now / I need to let you know / You don’t have to go it alone / And it's you when I look in the mirror / And it's you when I don't pick up the phone / Sometimes you can't make it on your own / We fight all the time / You and I / That’s alright, we’re the same soul / I don’t need, I don’t need to hear you say / That if we weren't so alike / You’d like me a whole lot more / Listen to me now / I need to let you know / You don't have to go it alone / And it's you when I look in the mirror / And it's you when I don't pick up the phone / Sometimes you can't make it on your own / I know that we don’t talk / I’m sick of it all / Can you hear me when I sing? / You're the reason I sing / You're the reason why the opera is in me / Where are we now? / Still gotta let you know / A house still does not make a home / Don’t leave me here alone
On April 12, 2001, Linda, Sarah (this crazy girl I knew in high school), and I saw U2 in concert for the first time, but most certainly not the last. I've often said that music is my religion, and concert halls are my church. This can't be more true about seeing U2 live. I compare seeing them live to seeing the Pope give a live sermon, or whatever it is he does. The music, the lights, the fans, Bono running around the stage in his little leather pants. For me anyway, it's quite amazing. U2 is one of the handful of bands what I have thrice seen live (Elton John, Billy Joel, Bryan Adams and Counting Crows are the others, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers hold the record at four.) Just over four years later we saw them again, on April 25, 2005, and most recently on June 4, 2011. Each time has been as spectacular as the last. I love them live. I love them on CD. I love that they're Irish.
Happy birthday, Paul David Hewson.
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