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"Forming U2 was a way out -- it was also a way in to expressing how I felt constructively, as opposed to banging my own or somebody else's head off a wall." -- Bono, 1980 |
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"Forming U2 was a way out -- it was also a way in to expressing how I felt constructively, as opposed to banging my own or somebody else's head off a wall." -- Bono, 1980 |
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U2 Lists: Top 6 U2 Christmas References
@U2,
December 22, 2009
[Ed. note: This is the 15th in a "U2 Lists" series, where @U2 staffers pick a topic and share their personal rankings on something U2-related.]
Well, we're approaching Christmas day again and I've made my holiday playlist on my iPod. I've always been a bit surprised at how little music U2 has made related to Christmas, considering what a heavily Christian band they are. Here are some tunes the band has performed that tie in with the season:
6) "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" Never released as an official track, this cover of the John Lennon classic was performed on the Irish Late Late Show. Bono definitely gets into it, shaking and pulling his most sincere voice out of its storage box (along with a few Lennon-sounding moments). Unfortunately, three guys in bad vests and dated hats (and Larry) doing an acoustic track that sounds it like was cooked up earlier that afternoon just doesn’t bring home the Christmas spirit. It's very much in line with U2's standard live covers, i.e. stripped down to the basics, but it doesn't inspire much holiday cheer.
Oy Vey Interlude 1) "Do They Know It’s Christmas?" Oy vey! Who knew the spirit of Christmas could be overrun by excessive mascara and WTF hairdos? At the time, I'm sure they thought they were doing something really generous in their own, rock-star way. As Bono has said since then, though, all those big charity concerts and single collaborations collected about as much money as Africa was paying in simple interest in a week. The U.K. is big on Christmas singles, and most of the performers for the single were British, so I can understand the willingness to do it. It did provide valuable services for African aid, although not on the same level Bono's later efforts have had. Regardless, it just doesn’t sound Christmassy when I hear it. I do think Bono gets the best lines in the song: And the Christmas bells that ring there are the clanging chimes of doom. Well, tonight thank God it’s them instead of you. Pretty damn weighty words in a room full of bleached mullets and shoulder pads.
5) "If God Will Send His Angels" And the love? What’s that you say to me? Does love light up your Christmas tree? This line hits home for me in a way the "Do They Know It’s Christmas?" line never could. It's small, it's personal, it's bitter. I know many people think of Pop as a technoglitter monster that nearly derailed U2's careers, but this song is as delicate and beautiful as anything they've ever done. The whole song has a cold, shimmering feel to it, like a Christmas night where the narrator is outside of the house in the snow, looking through the window at the warmth on the other side. The video, filmed in a Detroit diner, manages to fill itself with beautiful, Christmassy lights that still feel like they would shatter if looked at the wrong way. It's not a Christmas song directly, but that line helps drive home the feeling that it’s like a Christmas night in the dark. Everything should be happy, but it's all a moment away from shattering like a dropped ornament.
4) "Peace on Earth" Jesus, sing a song you wrote. The words are sticking in my throat. Peace on Earth. We hear it every Christmas time, but hope and history won’t rhyme so what’s it worth? This peace on earth. Like "If God Will Send His Angels," this is not a happy Christmas reference. Bono lists some of the people who died in the Omagh bombing, people who won't ever get to have a Christmas dinner again, and asks the simple question, "Why?" I consider this song the emotional sibling of "Wake Up Dead Man" because they both feature an utterly exasperated narrator asking "Why? Why do you let this happen?" Christmas is supposed to be a time for peace and understanding, and yet these things keep on happening. Referencing Christmas brings the concept home to one of the foundations of a practicing Christian's religion, asking a very angry question at a time set aside for celebration.
3) "Miss Sarajevo" “Miss Sarajevo” follows in a similar vein as the prior two songs. It's bitter, it's angry, it's condemning. Bono finishes up the song with the lines, Is there a time for tying ribbons, a time for Christmas trees? Is there a time for setting tables and the night is set to freeze? Christmas conjures up images of families in warm houses serving tables full of food as a beautiful tree twinkles in the background. Like the rest of the song, these lines question how we can take such normal activities for granted when the world around our fellow human beings can come crashing down so quickly and ferociously. I think of Christmas and I think of being bundled up warmly inside a comfortable house, drinking hot chocolate in front of the fireplace. The colored lights shine and reflect off the glassy, glittery decorations. Luciano Pavarotti's Christmas album with the London Boys Choir sings out from the speakers. Looking out the window, there is a thanks given for not being out there in the bitter cold. When your home has been bombed out and the night is set to freeze, classic images of Christmas don’t matter so much.
Oy Vey Interlude 2) "Do They Know It’s Christmas? 20" Oy vey! Sorry, but Dizzee Rascal just doesn't work on a Christmas song. I love Dill, but he's so out of place here. The opening, with the sincere Chris Martin piano and the more somber singers like Dido and a controlled Robbie Williams, sets a nice tone. Then they fall into the same trap as the original, trying to fit in musical and singing styles that just don’t feel Christmassy. Bono reprises his "Well, tonight thank God it's them instead of you" line. He may complain about it, saying he wished he could have had any other line, but that line sums up what the song is about more than any other, I think. It's one of the few that displays the anger the song should convey. It's not a happy song. Bono sings his line more quietly than in the original, and it comes off as what he was assigned to sing rather than something he personally chose, but he still makes it work.
2) "Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)" I gotta say that I'm not much of a modern Christmas music fan. I love Christmas, but if "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," "Blue Christmas," or any sort of Amy Grant/Josh Grobin/Faith Hill Christmas music comes on, I run for the hills. I love a classic choral rendition of "King Jesus Hath a Garden" or "The Holly and the Ivy." Having said that, I love both the original Darlene Love version of this song and U2's cover. Yeah, I'm biased in favor of U2, but it's still such a fun song, and it's short so it doesn't overstay its welcome. Plus, I love that the U2 version has Darlene Love on the backing vocals. Nice tip of the hat to the original.
1) "I Believe in Father Christmas" The cover of this Greg Lake song is, in my opinion, the best cover song U2 has ever done. Like pretty much all of their other Christmas references, this is not a happy song. It's about how our modern world has corrupted the simple beauty that a Christmas tree can offer. Edge's chiming guitars sound completely in their element as a delicate, Christmassy effect. Lake used part of the Prokofiev composition "Troika" in between the verses, and Edge's guitar version of it is utterly amazing. Adam and Larry chose to go with simple, sparse, deep rhythms that help drive home the gravity of the song. When I'm watching the video they made, with the cold-looking steam and the blinking, flickering lights all over the floor, and Bono shoots up an octave to cry out, "I wish you a hopeful Christmas. I wish you a brave new year. All anguish, pain, and sadness leave your heart. Let your road be clear," it gives me goose bumps. Hallelujah, noel, be it heaven or hell, the Christmas we get we deserve. That line right there seems to sum up a U2 Christmas. © @U2/Ryan, 2009.
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