By John Cody
It’s been a couple of years since U2 released How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb – finally finishing that album’s tour last month – but in the last year they’ve managed to release a handful of DVDs, a career-spanning anthology, and a group autobiography.
Besides their own efforts, a number of books examining the group from a decidedly spiritual angle have been published over the same period.
CDS
U218 Singles (Interscope Records) s a single-disc collection of eighteen of the band’s biggest hits. For the most part concentrating on stadium-friendly songs, the selections stretch from present day back to 1983’s ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ and ‘New Year’s Day.’
What really comes across throughout is the band’s singular vision, which remains unbroken over the 23 years the disc spans.
Curiously, they’ve ignored their first two albums as well as two from the nineties.
They’ve already released a pair of double disc anthologies; however, this set includes five tracks not available on either of those – including a take on the Skid’s ‘The Saints Are Coming,’ with Green Day.
Rhythms Del Mundo (Hip-O) features members of Cuba’s Buena Vista Social Club performing alongside contemporary British and American acts, including U2, Arctic Monkeys, Jack Johnson and Radiohead.
It’s a fascinating concept, and an inspired mix of cultures. Unlike most duet and tribute albums, the Cuban musicians are playing together with the original studio vocal tracks, making for something that’s not quite mash-up, and far more organic than it might sound on paper. For the most part it really works.
Coldplay’s ‘Clocks’ opens the disc, and works perfectly in the new setting.
U2’s ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,’ is recast as an upbeat salsa number, with Coco Freeman dueting alongside Bono’s original track.
Vocalists Ibrahim Ferrer and Omara Portuondo are featured throughout. Ferrer died soon after these sessions, and the disc ends with the two dueting on the standard ‘As Time Goes By.’
DVDS
Released in conjunction with U218 Videos (Interscope), offers just that – plus a couple of short documentaries and seven alternate versions of songs already included.
Zoo TV Live From Sydney (Island) offers an Australian show from their Zooropa tour in 1993. This was the decade of reinvention, when they explored and exploded stereotypes and myths.
Onstage, popular culture was being embraced and ripped apart at the same time – especially television, or the ‘Glass Teat,’ as Harlan Ellison called it. The band pulled off one of the most remarkable feats in rock history, revamping and reinventing just when they were in danger of parodying themselves. Instead, by going over the top, they brought new life in the most unexpected ways.
As such, the show is an assault on the senses. Ironies abound, although it’s debatable just how much translates to the audience. A cacophony of events designed to confuse and baffle, before the band even appears on stage, the opening sequence on video screens reference the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Beethoven, Lenin, and much more.
When Bono first takes the stage, it’s with a reference to Peter Sellers’ title character in Dr. Strangelove. Throughout the show he dons a variety of guises, including the Fly, Mirror Ball Man, and Mister MacPhisto
– the latter inspired by C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters.
A second disc offers three documentaries, plus songs from 1992 shows in New York and Manchester.
To their credit, when they returned to their roots and dropped the trappings of excess the performances were just as intense.
This is borne out on the Live From Milan DVD that comes packaged with the limited-edition deluxe version of U218 Singles.
Firing on all cylinders, it’s an hour-long excerpt from two nights in Italy in July 2005.
They’ve already released Vertigo 2005/Live From Chicago which comes from the same tour; but half the songs here are not included on the former– or on Zoo TV, for that matter.
‘Miss Sarajevo’ is a highlight. Dedicated to the victims of the London subway blast that had occurred the week previous, Bono asks that they turn the song into a prayer “that we don’t become a monster in order to defeat a monster.”
The majority of the song is performed with just piano and voice, and is evidence of the transcendent power of U2 at its best – bringing thousands of audience members together.
Bono sings a very impressive rendition of the operatic part covered on the original studio duet with Luciano Pavarotti. The song ends with The Universal Declaration of Human Rights scrolled behind the band.
BOOKS
As the title implies, U2 by U2 (Harper Collins) is the group’s autobiography. Similar to the Beatles’ Anthology, it’s a revealing look at the inner workings of the band. Offering their own unique take on things – from the beginning to present day – it explains much that was simply speculation until now.
Bono recounts the time he and Edge left the band due to pressure from their home church. He compares the incident to the Biblical story of Abraham and Isaac, in that God asked them to give up what they valued most, and once they had, they were allowed to return. The band was far more powerful because of the experience.
Including over 1,500 photographs, the package is substantial and essential reading for fans.
Christian Scharen’s One Step Closer: Why U2 Matters To Those Seeking God(Brazos Press) examines the theological underpinnings of the band. As Scharen – Associate Director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture – rightly points out, the majority of their themes are borrowed from scripture, and he simply explores those same themes.
[Full-length interview with Scharen]
Robert Vagacs’ Religious Nuts, Political Fanatics: U2 in Theological Perspective (Cascade Books) is a shorter read, covering much of the same ground as Scharen. The book’s introduction is a touching account of the Toronto Vertigo tour date written by Brian Walsh, and illustrates how God is present – and for some, inescapable – at U2 shows.
Steve Stockham’s revised version of Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2 (Relevant Books) – the original was first published in 2001 – came out last year, and now incorporates How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. Stockham – a Presbyterian Chaplain based in Dublin – grew up in the same area as the band, and as a home town boy offers a unique perspective.
Stockham explores their career from a decidedly spiritual stance; their beginnings in Dublin’s Shalom Christian Fellowship, how their faith has played out over the years, and how easily things can get misinterpreted, including the seeming dichotomies of smoking, drinking, and following scripture with equal fervor.
Initially, the band was shunned by the American church, but the last few years have seen a change to the point where some churches have begun using U2’s music for the Eucharist celebration. I spoke to Stockham, and he’s not surprised; “If you look at ‘Gloria,’ U2 were stealing from the Eucharist before the Eucharist stole from U2!”
© John Cody 2007