"Jesus....love your early work"

I love several things about this video of U2 doing a spontaneous version of Dylan's "Knockin on Heaven's Door" with a guitar player brought up from the crowd..

>>not least is that they would even attempt this..
(audience particiption is risky..we who saw the band a month earlier in Sacramento found out(: )

>>not least including Bono's pastoral care for the fans ("Gentle..the man's paying our wages")...

>>not least the way the memories of his friend Michael Hutchence come flooding back, and show up in the passionate lyric ("My friend lost his way, but I was losing it, too/And I thank God this evening I am here with you...Though there was friction in the side of him/He could've made a kind of a pearl/Instead he went knockin' on heaven's door..")....

>>not least the way the lyric is now addressed/prayed to "Papa" (not "Mama" as in Dylan's original)...

>>and especially these  lines, which introduce and conclude the song, you'll need to watch for context:

• "Jesus....love your early work"
• "Now, Jesus...don't forget about your humility; that's what we always loved about you"

!!

Here it is, Miami, 12/2/11:

Oh, the other thing Bono loves about Jesus...it was the very next thing he said that night (from same concert, last night of the tour) as he introduced the next song.
"Please"..


It was the aftermath of 9/11, so I think Bono would context his comements about Bin Laden a bit differently now. But if you have naver seeen Bono's sermon which introduced "Please," in Miami in 2001, it reminds one how shockingly upfront and direct the God-content was on this tour (after the equally spiritual content, but more ironic and indirect vibe of the nineties), how 9/11 transformed the songs (I saw them in November 2001, and who can forget the Super Bowl performance as midrash on Psalm 51:15),

...and it's not a bad sermon; just to hear Bono say "ineffable." (:


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Bonus: here is the song from Hutchence's solo album that was a duet with Bono...Bono recorded his vocals after Hutchence's death):

The lyric is chilling in that it was Bono's attempt to save his friend:
I wanted to let it go
Just couldn't let it go
I wanted to let it go
Just couldn't let you go

I would catch you
(Just couldn't let you go)
I'd catch you as you fall
(Just couldn't let it go)
I would catch you
(Just couldn't let you go)
I'd catch you if I heard your call

But you tore a hole in space
Like a dark star, falls from grace
You burn across the sky
And I would find you wings to fly
And I would catch you
I would catch your fall

I just wanna slide away and come alive again
I just wanna slide away and come alive again
I will see that love again, and find a life again
I just wanna slide away and come alive again