On Your Knees - Biblical references, Religion and Faith In the songs by U2 E-Book

barbara marinello

• Herausgeber: Youcanprint
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

The songs by U2 can carry many different messages and among them there is a message of Faith and deep religiosity. Looking for a guiding thread from the origins of the band up to now I want to follow up through the songs all the biblical references and, through them, with a personal religious interpretation of the lyrics, I aim to analyse the spirituality of the band and I want to underline how strong and deep is the message that Bono wants to convey us with his lyrics and his music.

Leseprobe

Barbara Marinello

ON YOUR KNEES Biblical references, Religion and Faith

Titolo I On Your Knees - Biblical references, Religion and Faith In

the songs by U2

Autore I Barbara Marinello

ISBN | 9788891157997

Prima edizione digitale: 2014

© Tutti i diritti riservati all'Autore

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Questo eBook non potrà formare oggetto di scambio, commercio, prestito e rivendita e non potrà essere in alcun modo diffuso senza il previo consenso scritto dell'autore.

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To all those who have been able to understand and encourage me. To all those who have been, are or will be part of my life. To Paul David Hewson, my light through the darkness.

INDEX

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I

The band

CHAPTER II

Boy

I will follow

Twilight

Into the heart

Out of control

Another time another place

CHAPTER III

October

Gloria

I threw a brick through a window

Rejoice

Fire

Tomorrow

October

With a shout

Scarlet

Stranger in a strange land

CHAPTER IV

War

Sunday bloody Sunday

Seconds

New Year's Day

Like a song

Drowning Man

Two hearts beat as one

Red light

Surrender

40

CHAPTER V

The unforgettable fire

A sort of homecoming

Pride

Wire

The unforgettable fire

Promenade

Indian summer sky

Elvis Presley and America

CHAPTER VI

The Joshua tree

Where the streets have no name

I still haven't found what I'm looking for

With or without you

Bullet the blue sky

Running to stand still

Red hill mining town

In God's country

Trip through your wires

One tree hill

Exit

CHAPTER VII

Rattle and hum

Helter skelter

Desire

Hawkmoon 269

All along the watchtower

I still haven't found what I'm looking for

Silver and gold

Love rescue me

When love comes to town

God part II

All I want is you

CHAPTER VIII

Achtung baby

Zoostation

Even better than the real thing

One

Until the end of the world

Who's gonna ride your wild horses

So cruel

The fly

Mysterious ways

Tryin' to throw your arms around the world

Ultraviolet (light my way)

Acrobat

Love is blindness

CHAPTER IX

Zooropa

Lemon

Stay (faraway so close)

Daddy's gonna pay for your crashed car

Some days are better than others

The first time

The wanderer

The character of Macphisto: meaning and symbology

CHAPTER X

Pop

Discoheque

Do you feel loved

Mofo

If God will send His Angels

Staring at the sun

Last night on earth

The playboy mansion

If you wear that velvet dress

Please

Wake up dead man

CHAPTER XI

All that you can't leave behind

Beautiful day

Stuck in a moment you can't get out of

Elevation

Walk on

Kite

In a little while

Wild honey

Peace on earth

When I look at the world

New York

Grace

The ground beneath her feet

CHAPTER XII

How to dismantle an atomic bomb

Vertigo

Miracle drug

Sometimes you can't make it on your own

Love and peace or else

City of blinding lights

All because of you

A man and a woman

Crumbs from your table

One step closer

Original of the species

Yahweh

Fast cars

CHAPTER XIII

18 singles

The saints are coming

Windows in the sky

CHAPTER XIV

No line on the horizon

No line on the horizon

Magnificent

Moment of surrender

Unknown caller

I'll go crazy if I don't go crazy tonight

Get on your boots

Stand up comedy

White as snow

Breathe

Cedars of Lebanon

CHAPTER XV

Bsides and miscellaneous tracks

A celebration

Alex descends into Hell for a bottle of Milk/ Korova 1

Salomé

Falling at your feet

Always

Levitate

Mercy

Waves of sorrow (Birdland)

Hold me, thrill me, kiss me, kill me

Electrical storm

CHAPTER XVI

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

INTRODUCTION

It's easy to talk about U2 considering their long career, their commitment in the world and all that has already been said and written about them.

The great variety of songs and the great variety of themes found in them means that there can not be an unambiguous interpretation of the message U2 want to convey with their music, but every single text can be perceived and analysed according to many guidelines, which vary according to what each one wants to read in every song, based on the historical moment in which we live, according to the society and culture from which we come, according to our inner being. So from politics to social issues, love, eroticism, the emotional and the spiritual merge and everything can be found in the same song. It just depends on what we want to read in it. But in the end is not this the sense of music? At least the real music that is played with the heart rather than with the instruments and the voice, now becomes only a means to convey emotions. If even just one of the messages that they want to be taken from a song touches us, it means that the goal has been reached.

In this book I want to take into consideration the religiosity of U2, from the group and the individual members of the group to an analysis song by song, from the origins up to today, of the biblical references that can be traced and a strictly religious interpretation of their lyrics. Of course this is a topic already covered by others, but this is such an important subject for the group and for those who have always followed it that there is always something more to say or add.

How important is religion to the training of the band is evidenced by the words of Bono himself: he says that the scriptures attract him because in him there is a dark side, and the Bible holds him up. He feels like a person who needs an anchor and firm reference points and the Bible, not seen as an historical book, provides him them and speaks to him leaving him a message that changes him from within.

There is a force of love and logic in the world, a force that guides the universe. This concept will be a common thread throughout the artistic and human history of U2. Faith leads on high, but it is spirituality rather than religion: religion often appears as an enemy of God, it is like a shell that encloses and often distorts its contents, which is the spirit that raises and conveys his message of love.

Heaven and Hell, the choice between good and evil, are always offered us and both are in us. Every U2 song contains this dichotomy and can be interpreted as earthly or spiritual, where earthly and spiritual merge into a single melody that conveys its message. Bono himself says: "the music that tells me something or leads to God or against God. In both cases, we recognize that God is the centre of the universe".

One of the recurring themes in the lyrics of U2 is religion and in particular the relationship with God. They used to say that the rock was the music of the devil, but Bono writes about religion, particularly taking inspiration from the Psalms. To define their music "rock of God" as opposed to the common idea of rock is perhaps exaggerated, but in November 1999, while rewarding U2 at the MTV Europe Awards in Dublin, Mick Jagger said: "This is the devil that rewards God".

The intent of this book is to try to analyse on the one hand the religious references that were clearly inserted by the band and their meaning, on the other hand the interpretation and meaning that fans can give depending on what they read or want to read.

Chapter 1

THE BAND

It was in Mount Temple Comprehensive High School in Dublin that the components of future U2 met. It was 1976 when Larry Mullen Junior put the announcement on the bulletin board looking for people to form a band. Answers came by Paul David Hewson (which actually was intended as a guitarist and was then taken as a singer), Adam Clayton, and Dave Evans who showed up with his brother Dick. Thus was born a group of guys with the name 'Feedback', just to give the idea that their intention was to do covers of other singers.