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Tuesday, May 17, 2011

drop down box: writing God's love on the water?

It seems you can often tell when Bono is going to move into a prophetic/spontaneous prayer mode.  On the one hand, it's no surprise: several songs have an obvious "drop down box"  (delightful phrase, by Martin Smith of Delirious) section where the whole band knows it's likely Bono will improvise/vamp/snippet.
(see "Rabbi Chazat Bono is hungry, so he pulls a nigun")
But sometimes (often even in these obvious sections), Bono knows/feels something is about to happen, he gets a look in his eye..or a worship mode in his hands (4:42ff), as in this example below...

"Sunday Bloody Sunday" in Pasadena.

As is often the case ("Bono prays over Sacramento 2001..but what's he saying?")
 with Bongolese in any language...it's hard to tell what he's saying

My question is about the lyrics in the drop down of this song.
Atu2  hears:
Yeah, shoot your heart
You’re moving in the song
And the brutal hand
In the telltail line
And it’s slipping in the side
Your heartbreak days beside me
Your soft snake right behind me
You write your love on a cedar
Gonna write your love on a runner
(atu2)
I (like to) hear:
You write Your love on the sea now
Gonna write Your love on the water

How about you?

Feel free to respond here, or on atu2 Forum, Facebook Networked Blogs mirror, etc.

1 comment:

  1. Probably the most prophetic song in mainstream music culture ever. The question still is not answered. "How long...how long must we sing this song?" Brilliant lyric that still speaks and begs for an answer. Even with Bongolese at 4:42. I wonder when the question will be answered? Perhaps when that happens we will hear a new song break out of Bono.

    AntiochSman

    ReplyDelete

Hey, thanks for engaging the conversation!