I know they may be the band everyone likes (or likes to hate due to their mass appeal) but I've been a U2 fan since the first time I saw the "Sunday Bloody Sunday" video filmed at Red Rocks in 1983. The passion of Bono, the white flag, the Edge chiming away on guitar- it all got me.Nearly 25 years later, their music still speaks to me.
This morning on a walk my Ipod dialed up "Yahweh" from their "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb" project.
The lyrics form a prayer that speaks about our desire to change:
Take these shoesYou can listen to a 30 second sample or purchase the song HERE.
Click clacking down some dead end street
Take these shoes
And make them fit
Take this shirt
Polyester white trash made in nowhere
Take this shirt
And make it clean, clean
Take this soul
Stranded in some skin and bones
Take this soul
And make it sing
CHORUS:
Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, Yahweh
Still I'm waiting for the dawn
Take these hands
Teach them what to carry
Take these hands
Don't make a fist no
Take this mouth
So quick to criticize
Take this mouth
Give it a kiss
CHORUS
Still waiting for the dawn, the sun is coming up
The sun is coming up on the ocean
This love is like a drop in the ocean
This love is like a drop in the ocean
CHORUS
Take this city
A city should be shining on a hill
Take this city
If it be your will
What no man can own, no man can take
Take this heart
Take this heart
Take this heart
And let it break
Several things about these lyrics echo my own journey: a feeling like I don't quite fit into my soul, my deisre to let my life be used for God instead of selfishness and violence towards others, and a longing to completely surrender myself to Jesus.
How about you? Have you heard this song? Do any of the words feel true for you? Is there another U2 song that captures some part of your soul?
4 comments:
Haven't heard it, but it does ring true. I don't know about you, but I get a tone of frustration. That's something that REVERBerates with me. For me, it's one thing to know something in your head and entirely another to know it in your heart, eh? Is it like that for you all?
In the song "Gone" from Pop, there's a line that says, "What you leave behind you don't miss anyway." I have spent the past few months "leaving things behind" in my life - some have been my choice, some not. And this song is right... what you leave behind you don't miss anyway.
I'm hard pressed to find any U2 song that DOESN'T speak to me... they are one of my all time favorite bands! I've seen them in concert numerous times and have been moved every time.
I do have to say that the whole album "All that you can't leave behind" came into my life during the most disillusioned and hurtful time of my life. The album spoke hope and healing to me. In particular, the song "Walk On" speaks so much truth to me. If you'll allow me to post the lyrics...
"And love is not the easy thing
The only baggage you can bring
Is all that you can't leave behind
And if the darkness is to keep us apart
And if the daylight feels like it's a long way off
And if your glass heart should crack
and for a second you turn back
Oh no, be strong
Walk on, walk on
What you got they can't steal it
No they can't even feel it
Walk on, Walk on...
Stay safe tonight
You're packing a suitcase for a place none of us has been
A place that has to be believed to be seen
You could have flown away
A singing bird in an open cage
Who will only fly, only fly for freedom
Walk on, walk on
What you've got they can't deny it
Can't sell it, can't buy it
Walk on, walk on
Stay safe tonight
And I know it aches
And your heart it breaks
And you can only take so much
Walk on, walk on
And I know it aches
And your heart it breaks
And you can only take so much
Walk on, walk on...."
Actually, this song became "popular" right before 9/11 and I remember them singing this song with an African choir on the benefit show... It was amazing. I believe it speaks to the fact that you can't always explain the hurts we face, sometimes you just have to find a way to keep walking.
Thanks for letting me share... they're a subject close to my heart:)
You can listen and watch the video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STPVvd_II08
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