1.) Put on the best pair of headphones you own. Not little earbuds. Real, honest-to-goodness headphones.

2.) Cue up the live version of “Ultraviolet” from the Pasadena DVD/concert.

3.) Turn up the volume as high as your ears will let you.

4.) Turn off the lights. Put yourself in complete darkness.

5.) Hit PLAY.

6.) Close your eyes and soak it all in.

Awesome, isn’t it? I’ll bet you can feel the desperation in Bono’s voice. In the song itself.

7.) Repeat as necessary/desired.

(PS – I hope “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” has the same feeling on the current tour.)

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

Quick Tip, From One Fan to Another

To the best of my knowledge (and please correct me if I am wrong here), this is the first time since the Zooropa ‘93 tour where U2 began a concert to a song that wasn’t on their most recent album. “The Return of the Stingray” is the first unreleased opening song to be performed live on the stage in any formal tour since the pre-Boy days. Then to put “Beautiful Day” in as the second song made me question if they are touring to support the songs off their current album or if they’re looking to slowly retire No Line on the Horizon.

Looking back, the War Tour had “Gloria” or “Out of Control” as their opener. The Unforgettable Fire Tour opener was “11 O’Clock Tick Tock.” It wasn’t until The Joshua Tree tour where a song from the new album was the opening song. Technically speaking, The LoveTown Tour was after Rattle and Hum, so this could be debated as some nights opened with “Hawkmoon 269″ or “God Part II,” and others had “Bullet the Blue Sky” or “Where the Streets Have No Name.” Zoo TV was pretty consistent with “Zoo Station.” While the Zooropa ‘93 and Zoomerang ‘93 legs of Zoo TV are lumped together as being part of the Zoo TV experience, those tours saw the Zooropa album being the most recent release. They did perform some songs off of Zooropa as a part of set, but they didn’t open with a song from that release.

Popmart was consistent with “Mofo” and the Elevation tour had “Elevation,” with “Beautiful Day” thrown in as a surprise in South Bend, Indiana. The Vertigo Tour had rotated “Love and Peace or Else” and “City of Blinding Lights” in the opening slot. Up until yesterday, the opening song on the U2 360 Tour came from No Line on the Horizon (“Breathe” or “Magnificent”). They also came out as they did on the Elevation Tour with full house lights up for the first song.

What does it all mean? Heck if I know, but looking at the band’s history one would think that they either wanted to make a huge statement like “Honey, we’re home!” or that they’re looking in a forward direction. The tour was supposed to be called “Kiss the Future,” after all!

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

Opening Thoughts – *Spoilers*

It’s track #6 on Webb’s  Democracy Vol. 1 CD, which is a recording of covers chosen by votes from his fans and is available for $6 here. Webb has been releasing online a cover a month in 2010. I don’t know if the track order indicates the number of votes each song got, but it took until June for the U2 selection to appear (after the Beatles: understandable; Coldplay: forgivable; Bob Dylan: also understandable; Gnarls Barkley: intriguing; and Sufjan Stevens: obvious for Derek Webb fans).

Webb, formerly of Caedmon’s Call, is Nashville-based and has been on the path with his last few albums of being more and more outspoken on matters of faith and politics in America. He reminds me of the original artist who sang on “Streets,” not so much in voice by in conviction.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

“Streets” Cover by Derek Webb

In most years, the Idol winner’s first single is a new song written specifically for the occasion. But Lee’s first single will be a cover of U2’s “Beautiful Day.” Like I said, I like Lee … but this song just isn’t right for him. And sadly, as you listen to the single below, it sounds at the beginning like they gave him a karaoke track to sing over. Sheesh. Poor guy.

See, that’s just not right. “Hallelujah” was much more up his alley. Oh, well.

Postscript, May 29: In an interview with MTV, DeWyze explains why his first single is a U2 cover:

Q: This season, you also have a cover song as your first single. How did you feel about that, and how did you choose that particular song?

A: I like that song a lot. It’s a really good song. Is it something that’s necessarily in my genre? No. But again, there were songs on the table, and that was the one I thought would represent the moment the best, because this year they didn’t have an original song written for this specifically. Whatever the reasons for that are — there’s reasons. [Laughs.] I don’t know all the ups and downs of the behind-the-scenes stuff. It’s just been a big game of “play by the rules.” If it was up to me, there were certain things I would have done differently.

In other words, it sounds like the folks at Idol didn’t give him too many choices.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

Lee DeWyze’s First Single: ‘Beautiful Day’ (AUDIO)

Simon Cowell has said that he is personal friends with Bono, and that he had received special permission for the one-time use of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” and Cook’s version was not available for download on iTunes. The following year, Lambert’s version of “One” was available for download. The use of “Beautiful Day” this year is a new step in U2’s song usage as it will be officially released as a single.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

Idol Days Ahead For U2

Today was no exception: I had a clear mission that started with John Lennon and ended with Bruce Springsteen. Luckily, between the four stores I went to, I was able to score both of those coveted special releases AND also came home with some Peter Gabriel and Elvis Costello. All in all, it was a great experience and all of the stores were packed, so I have a renewed faith that the independents aren’t completely failing.

What was wrong with the day? I saw nearly every major recording artist (Rolling Stones, Muse, REM, Neil Young, plus all the artists I mentioned above) represented EXCEPT for one: U2.

Why on earth wouldn’t U2 participate in this event? We know they support vinyl (as evidenced by the recent Artificial Horizon release for the fan club). It’s the perfect opportunity to re-package something that already sold well years ago (as Lennon’s estate did) or press a vinyl from a live performance to create a one-off limited edition piece that collectors will fight to own.

Furthermore, not all of U2’s 360 shows are sold out. Reminding folks of how great the music is could sell a few more concert tickets.

I was very disappointed in this seemingly poor marketing decision. Next year, I hope they’ll reconsider.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

No U2 at Record Store Day

He goes on to remind readers that U2 aren’t new to remixes and that they are “unafraid to embrace experimentation,” crediting this philosophy for some of their success.

I’ll admit, I groaned when I learned there would be an album of remixes as this year’s membership gift, but for what it is, I’ll admit it’s well done.

To read Sims’ full rave, click here.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

Artificial Horizon Gets Huffington Praise

I consider “Moment of Surrender” one of U2’s finest songs and they proved it live. It is a powerful song about a person who has hit rock bottom. Hearing it is an emotionally draining experience every time for me. Adam’s bass on “Cedars of Lebanon” is remarkable. It sets the mood for the dark atmosphere in this song. “White As Snow” paints a beautiful image with its lyrics. Their most overtly religious album since October,  No Line on the Horizon shares a special bond with that early work. “Magnificent” is the older and enlightened sibling to the younger voice in “Gloria” that has faith but is still confused.

U2 made an album that was not safe. It was not made of a lot of songs that would jump on the charts, but it is an album that deals with a story of spiritual destruction and desire for rebirth. “Unknown Caller” is a perfect example of this theme. I believe the songs are placed in the order that they are for a reason. Each lyric and each note is sung and played exactly when it is supposed to be. Make no mistake, U2 want you to “work” for this album. They want you to invest your time into listening and thinking about it. If you put the effort in, you will reap the rewards.

A year later, I have so much more appreciation for it. As I examine its layers and realize how each contributed to the sonic canvas, I now see how these artists created their masterpiece.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

Reflections on the Horizon

It caught my eye for several reasons: it is a song-by-song look at all of the studio albums which, to my knowledge, is just the second book of this kind (Niall Stokes’ Into the Heart is the other); it is by a Milan-based journalist and writer and there aren’t many books about U2 coming from Italy; it seemed to take a special interest in the way Biblical texts have influenced Bono as a songwriter; the cover has a striking piece of art on it that looks like a heart is “abloom”; and, well, when I heard the Vatican’s newspaper reviewed the book – knowing that Bono and Pope John Paul II hit it off well – that piqued my interest even more.

Curiously, after L’ Osservatore Romano ran “Re Davide? Una pop star” (Is King David a Pop Star?), several English language blogs reacted.  Some only mentioned that now we have a book to show U2’s lyrics are influenced by the Bible (duh!). One blogger decried it as a “crusading” book which she took to champion Bono as a defender of the faith, while others suggested the Pope himself had endorsed Morandi’s book (!).

Regrettably I can’t read Italian well-enough to follow more than a paragraph. Fortunately Morandi does just fine with English and agreed to answer some questions to satisfy my curiosity. And guess what? From his explanations, it sounds like far from being a Sunday School exercise of connect-the-dots, the author has attempted to tell a story of Bono’s growth as a lyricist with a touch of the operatic, not to mention delve into more than just the Biblical influences on Bono’s lyrics.

In The Name of Love is not yet available in English (we’re working on that) but if you’re like me, you might enjoy reading the author talk about a book we’ll have to wait to read.

What inspired you to write U2: The Name of Love?

I wanted to dig into Bono’s history, his literary and autobiographic sources, like it had never been done before in order to understand from where and how each song, from “I Will Follow” to “Cedars of Lebanon” was born. While analyzing the 137 songs, song by song, from U2’s twelve albums, I created a kind of screenplay for the background of the book, opening in a cemetery in Dublin in 1974 and closing in a hotel room in Beirut in 2008. This way the reader can go through the entire life of Bono, from his being a child to becoming a father, from being unknown to becoming a myth.

Describe the approach your book takes.

In part my book is a methodical look contemplating the Bible and Bono’s lyrics. But not all of U2 songs are inspired by the Bible or about God, of course. So in the book, there are many others things, from historical questions to issues of literary influences. I have a song by song format but every song is written in a different way, some songs you find analysis, some songs are treated like short stories, some songs have dialogue like a screenplay. Reading all the 137 songs you can read also the journey of Bono, starting in September 1974 at the Blackwood Cemetery.

What resources did you use to help you write your book?

I started with the lyrics and went backwards. The Bible has been a key source because in the book I compared Bono’s words with those of Habakkuk, Isaiah and David, but there is much more. There is an influence of Karl Popper in “Zoo Station”; of Jean Baudrillard in “Even Better Than the Real Thing”; of Raymond Carver in “Acrobat”; and of Paul Celan, Patrick Kavanagh and Soren Kierkegaard in “The First Time.” There are also influence from essays on foreign politics, books on the history of blues, Sam Shepard and Flannery O’Connor, John Boyle O’Reilly and Norman Mailer, John Clare and Thomas Mann, and Günter Grass and Virginia Woolf. I discovered all these thing starting from reading old interviews with Bono, old quotes, suggestions and well-known things (John Boyle O’Reilly is the man in “Van Diemen’s Land”).

I’ve read many books about U2, of course, but the one that I followed like a polar star was U2 by U2. There are many revelations in that book and I try to investigate them more. I read Niall Stokes’ Into the Heart but I tried to dig deeper; Niall doesn’t go very deep into influences from the Bible or literature.

How long did it take you to research and write your book?

It took me two years for the research and one year to write it. I wanted to focus on words, because even though this book is divided into 137 chapters, it can be read like a novel where the reader can follow a kind of plot, which is the spiritual and human evolution of Bono.

What did you learn about Bono from studying his lyrics?

I learned that Bono is a much more complex writer than has been said or written by critics and that only Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen have been able to sum up the Bible in three minutes like Bono can. From The Unforgettable Fire on, his research on words is high-level and it gets to its climax on Achtung Baby and Zooropa, in which he blends high and trash culture together, the television with the Holy Bible, war with love, Norman Schwarzkopf with Delmore Schwartz, Leni Riefenstahl with Frank Sinatra.

As a matter of fact, I found out that the lyrics for Pop, U2’s most criticized album, are among the best Bono has ever written. Why? Because is that the moment in which Bono sees very clearly in his life and analyzes his mother’s death in “Mofo” and the status of a rock star in “Gone.” He’s very well-focused, like never before or after on that record.

Any discoveries that surprised you?

Well, there were many. For example, I realized “Mofo” is more an essay on psychoanalysis than a pop song because in that song Bono went through his grief for the loss of his mother for the first time in 23 years. But the most surprising discovery is the huge mass of literary quotations, from Celan to Carver, that fill U2’s songs. What’s more, I found out that in “One Tree Hill” Bono quotes his favorite Flannery O’Connor short story, “The Enduring Chill,” and that “The Fly” was shaped by C. S. Lewis’s way of writing [The Screwtape Letters]. Also in “Grace,” Bono quotes from What’s So Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancey.

What has been the reaction to your book so far?

In Italy, I’ve been on the national television news and on radio shows. Daily papers such as La Repubblica, Avvenire and L’Osservatore Romano, which is Vatican’s official paper, have reviewed the book and those reviews have received some international attention. I think some who are not U2 fans have enjoyed reading the book because it is written like a coming of age novel.

Given that you consulted the Bible so much for insight into Bono’s lyrics, did you also consult religious teachers for their views on the lyrics?

No, I deliberately wanted to follow the same path Bono went on during his youth: he found out the Bible is a great book in itself, not only a religious book. He found wonderful and astonishing stories in there. He was so impressed that he identified himself with David, who inspired him in writing songs such as “40” and “Wake Up Dead Man.” Bono speaks with God as he would speak to a friend, in a simple and sometimes funny way. That is his strength.

Do you think you could say what the general response to U2 is in Italy?

In Italy, there is a strong passion for the epic force of the music of U2, for their anthems, for their capability of gathering people. But as their lyrics are in English, many people can’t fully understand what Bono says and many don’t know the context for the songs. In this sense, the ultimate aim of The Name of Love is to show how complex U2’s lyrics and help with understanding them.

Any plans to have In The Name of Love available in English?

Soon my book will be translated into Polish and I’m looking for other translations, maybe in French or in Spanish, but I would love to reach English readers and most of all an American audience. I think my book could be really interesting for readers in the United States, because it shows how America has been essential to the evolution of the band. It has been so important for Bono that he said, “We didn’t realize we were Irish until we came to America.”

In my book there are different aspects of America: the West and Bodie State Historic Park; the South between New Orleans and Memphis; New York City, to which Bono has dedicated more than one song, and also all the American writers. Then there are the Irish immigrants who were “the hands who built America” and whose hope is sung about “In God’s Country.” The dark side of America — with Charles Manson and The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer — influenced U2’s songs too. In the United States, U2 looked for their musical roots: in Memphis they visited Graceland and they had the chance to meet and play with B. B. King when they visited Sun Studios. They visited Sinatra’s Las Vegas, where they filmed the video for “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” an anthem to the land of freedom which is epitomized by America; and further they went thought the desert like Jesus where they found their Joshua tree, a turning point for their career. To sum up, we could say that U2 wouldn’t be what they are today if they hadn’t visited America. It is the land where they came of age.

Are there more books you’d like to write about U2?

I’d like to write the one I partially started here: Bono’s novel, the story of his incredible life in the form of a novel; a biopic conceived like an opera divided into three acts. The first act would be about the difficult growth of the boy Paul Hewson; the second act would be about his achievement as an artist and his success, and a third, more introspective act, about Bono as a human being. I think that beyond what people think of Bono, his story is really powerful. I’d like to give it an epic strength with a kind of “Once upon a time in Dublin” feeling, inspired by Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time in America, but also by the many beautiful operas of Giuseppe Verdi.

* Learn more about Andrea Morandi and his book at his blog.

* Purchase In The Name of Love (in Italian) here.

* Learn more about Arcana Press and their series of books on popular music at their MySpace page.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

Interview: Andrea Morandi’s Lavoro D’Amore

Saturday’s edition of L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, published what it calls a “semiserious” list of “classics to pack for a desert island.” And making the Holy See’s list: U2’s Achtung Baby.

The paper says the song “One” would be enough by itself to justify the Achtung Baby’s inclusion, but gives the album praise as a “symbol of the ’90s.”

Other albums on the Vatican’s list:

• Michael Jackson’s Thriller
• Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon
• The Beatles’ Revolver
• Paul Simon’s Graceland
• Carlos Santana’s Supernatural
• David Crosby’s If I Could Only Remember My Name
• Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours
• Donald Fagen’s Nightfly
• Oasis’ (What’s The Story) Morning Glory

Related: Achtung Baby lyrics

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

Achtung Baby: Vatican Approved