U2 are arguably the world's biggest "Christian" rock band. Christian, not in the tediously parochial WOW worship style, but, to put it another way, U2 are one of the world's biggest bands that just happens to be Christian. That an Irish band would be interested in religious questions is by no means surprising. To be sure, many popular musicians have private religious sympathies which are sometimes expressed in a public way, even in their music, but the pervasively profound yet understated spirituality of U2 is of an entirely different order. In fact, it is totally unique.
What's surprising is that U2's religiosity is curiously unknown to many, even those familiar with their music. Yet anyone who's inquired into their back story will understand that the band members met at Mount Temple, a north Dublin Christian school. If fact, as chronicled the classic biography of the band, spirituality seems to have been the band's primary motive early on, as well as a source of great tension with bassist Adam Clayton, the only non-religious member of the group.
IN TE DOMINE
U2's religious optic is somewhat obscured on their first album Boy (1980), which deals primarily with themes of maturity and relationship, but is on full display in their 1981 follow-up October, notably in songs such as "Gloria":
I try to sing this song
I I try to stand up
But I can't find my feet
I try, I try to speak up
But only in you I'm complete
Gloria in te domine
Gloria exultate
Gloria Gloria
Oh Lord, loosen my lips
Similar sentiments are expressed even more explicitely in other songs such as "Rejoice" and "With a Shout":
Shout, shout
With a shout, shout it out
Shout...shout it out...
I want to go
To the foot of the messiah
To the foot of he who made me see
To the side of a hill
Where we were still
We were filled
With our love
We're gonna be there again
Jerusalem Jerusalem
At appeared at this point that the band was indeed headed down the path of producing "Christian rock" in a more conventional sense. Fortunately, they took a more ambitious direction.
On 1983's decidedly more political War, the lyrical piety is more tempered but still evident, as in "Sunday Bloody Sunday," a song which itself deals an infamous case of sectarian religious violence, and pointedly asking: "Has the real battle yet begun / to claim the victory Jesus won?" The album also contains "40" a song based on Psalm 40 and that the band used frequently as a set closer.
I waited patiently for the Lord
He inclined and heard my cry
He brought me up out of the pit
Out of the miry clay
I will sing, sing a new song
I will sing, sing a new song
Hymnic, biblical, and totally U2. The spiritual content of U2's early songs is sometimes a juxtaposition of frustration and elation; frustration with intolerance and religiously motivated violence, yet elation as the potentiality of divine encounter.
IN GOD'S COUNTRY
1984's Unforgettable Fire saw the band breaking new sonic territory, thanks to the production efforts of Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. As we might expect, even though Bono suffered from a severe case of writer's block through much of the recording sessions, spiritual themes came to run alongside images of nuclear annihilation and drug addiction. "Pride", for instance, evokes the legacy of Martin Luther King (as does the closing track "MLK") while simultaneously referencing "one man betrayed with a kiss". It was in this period that they gave a now historic performance at 1985's Live Aid concert for African famine relief. This was an era when musicians wore their social conscience on their sleeves.
After a string of progressively impressive albums, it was in 1987 that U2 gained full control of their writing and performing abilities, releasing their first masterpiece The Joshua Tree. Although the title references a park in California, the name also has obvious biblical implications. The album opens with the majestically soaring "Where the Streets Have No Names." In this song, Bono can be heard striving for a state of mystical ecstasy beyond the reference points of language and location.
I wanna run, I want to hide
I wanna tear down the walls
That hold me inside.
I wanna reach out
And touch the flame
Where the streets have no name
Even more spiritually poignant is track two, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," a song which chronicles a desperate, but hopeful, search for the sacred amid darkness and confusion.
I have spoke with the tongue of angels
I have held the hand of a devil
It was warm in the night
I was cold as a stone
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for
I believe in the Kingdom Come
Then all the colors will bleed into one
Bleed into one
But yes, I'm still running
You broke the bonds
And you loosed the chains
Carried the cross of my shame
Of my shame, you know I believe it
Other tracks from the album, such as "Bullet the Blue Sky" and "In God's Country" evoke more powerfully biblical imagery. The latter is a kind of Solomonic ode to sensuality in the holy aridity of the American wilderness.
After a period of extensive touring in support of the Joshua Tree, which was both a critical and commercial success, U2 released at live album and concert film called Rattle and Hum in 1988. Conceived by the band as a sort of love letter to Americana, some observers considered the project a misstep, although both the album and film remain beloved by many fans and contain a number of strong compositions. One in particular, "God Part 2", is in hindsight a clear foreshadowing of the band's radical re-invention in the early 90s. True to form, biblical references abound, especially in a collaboration with B.B. King.
FAR AWAY, SO CLOSE
Critical ambivalence about Rattle and Hum aside, there can be no denying that U2 released a second master-stroke with 1991's Achtung Baby. Arguably the band's crowning achievement, the album inaugurated a new era of musical experimentation and (as yet untapped) sexual energy. Although perhaps less overtly religious than previous releases, Achtung Baby nonetheless contains one of Bono's most darkly spiritual meditations--"Until the End of the World":
Haven't seen you in quite a while
I was down the hold just passing time
Last time we met was a low-lit room
We were as close together as a bride and groom
We ate the food, we drank the wine
Everybody having a good time
Except you, You were talking about the end of the world
I took the money
I spiked your drink
You miss too much these days if you stop to think
You lead me on with those innocent eyes
You know I love the element of surprise
In the garden I was playing the tart
I kissed your lips and broke your heart
You, You were acting like it was the end of the world
Love, love, love
In my dream I was drowning my sorrows
But my sorrows, they learned to swim
Surrounding me, going down on me
Spilling over the brim
Waves of regret and waves of joy
I reached out for the one I tried to destroy
You, you said you'd wait
'Til the end of the world
Recounting the betrayal of Jesus from the perspective of Judas, the song is both violent and sexy; qualities which aptly describe the epic multimedia extravaganza that became the subsequent ZooTV tour.
Achtung Baby's juxtaposition between spirit and flesh is also evident in the hugely popular video for "Mysterious Ways" filmed in Morocco. Again, the title has obvious spiritual implications.
Remarkably, as the Achtung Baby tour worn on, Bono's on-stage persona morphed into a character called "Macphisto", a demonic trickster fond of making prank phone calls. This, however, was not the only unexpected development. In 1993, while on tour, the band released Zooropa, in many ways a companion piece to Achtung Baby. The lead single, "Stay (Far Away, So Close)", rivals "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" in its longing spiritual pathos.
If I could stay, then the night would give you up.
Stay, and the day would keep its trust.
Stay with the demons you drowned.
Stay with the spirit I found.
Stay, and the night would be enough.
Three o'clock in the morning
It's quiet, there's no one around,
Just the bang and the clatter
As an angel runs to ground.
Just the bang and the clatter
As an angel hits the ground
Once again, a classic video accompanied the song, replete with angelic imagery filmed by "Wings of Desire" director Wim Wenders.
What's also notable about Zooropa is that it gives us the first inklings of spiritual desolation in U2's catalogue, as subtly expressed in "The First Time":
My father is a rich man
He wears a rich man's cloak
Gave me the keys to his kingdom coming
Gave me a cup of gold
He said I have many mansions
And there are many rooms to see
But I left by the back door
And I threw away the key
Similar sentiments are expressed in the stand-alone single from 1995 "Miss Sarajevo". As it happens, much of the ZooTV and Zooropa tours coincided with the Bosnian War. This track, produced in collaboration with late Italian opera singer Pavarotti, captures the confusion and despair of this brutally sectarian conflict.
Is there a time for first communion
A time for east 17
Is there a time to turn to Mecca
Is there a time to be a beauty queen
...
E non so pi pregare
E nell'amore non so pi sperare
E quell'amore non so pi aspettare
[And I cannot pray anymore
And I cannot hope in love anymore
And I cannot wait for love anymore]
After an extended hiatus, U2 returned in 1997 with Pop, once again considered a misstep by some, brilliant by others. It seemed to depend on whether one saw irony in the apparent commercialism surrounding the release. Nevertheless, Pop does contain two more highlights from U2's spiritual song book--"If God Will Send His Angels" and "Wake Up Dead Man," both of which continue the theme of spiritual desolation by powerfully evoking the apparent absence of God.
Jesus, Jesus help me
I'm alone in this world
And a fucked up world it is too
Tell me, tell me the story
The one about eternity
And the way it's all gonna be
Wake up, wake up dead man
Wake up, wake up dead man
Jesus, I'm waiting here boss
I know you're looking out for us
But maybe your hands aren't free
Your father, he made the world in seven
He's in charge of Heaven
Will you put a word in for me
Wake up, wake up dead man
Wake up, wake up dead man
These later songs display a lack of optimism and spiritual conviction that characterised early U2 efforts. On these tracks the band explores the depths of spiritual despair and alienation--to powerful effect.
WALK ON
2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind sees the band returned to form. As the title seems to imply, there's a searching for simplicity and essential value on this album--a sense of renunciation and loss. This is a sentiment we see in one of the standout tracks "Walk On", which in the live version ends with a powerful spiritual refrain.
All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you feel
All this you can leave behind
After another short break, U2 released How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, a sonic and lyrical extension of the previous release. Here, spiritual themes pervade songs such as "Miracle Drug" and "Yahweh", and continue to be expressed on subsequent albums.
***
As we can see, a deep spiritual sensibility can be discerned throughout much of U2's musical catalogue. Yet what is so remarkable about many such tracks is their often understated ambivalence. The listener is invited to take it or leave it. Those with no religious background might not even notice the spiritual imagery and themes, while those that do may enter into something deeper. It's entirely up to them. U2 does not overtly "evangelize" their audience, but allows them to pick up the themes as needed. Moreover, although ostensibly "Christian", the band's denominational orientation is left ambiguous. In fact, such sectarian divisions are set aside in favour universal themes of longing, alienation, love, and desire. They provide a positive, constructive, and accessible spiritual vision. One that isn't hung up on questions of doctrine or the politics of exclusion. In this way, it surely appeals to the "spiritual not religious" demographic. Those who search for meaning and encounter but do not necessarily fit into conventional religious categories. This, it seems, would at least partly explain the band's enormous and enduring appeal.
