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Thursday, July 07, 2011

Bono acting all evangelical at the Nashville Revival: "Where were you when they crucified my Lord?"

Bono and Michael W. Smith, story here
Maybe there's something about Nashville bing the Christian music capital that brings out the blatant evangelical in Bono..

By now, most U2 fans know about one of the highlights of the Nashville concert: Bono inviting the blind man on stage, letting him play "All I Want is You" dedicated to his wife...and then Bono gave the guy gis guitar (see video below, start at 8:30, or see this video with wonderful close-up of same scene, you can almost overhear the conversation as he becomes convinced Bono really is gifting the guitar). " Andrew William Smith says, "No, Bono didn’t go as far as laying-on-hands and restoring eyesight to our special guest. But at this point, I doubt any of us would have been surprised had that happened."
.  I wondered how he'd follow up Wojtek in Oakland ..

Bono at Charlie Peacock's home with other Christian musicians
But did you catch how he (first 44 seconds) thanked folks like Charlie Peacock, Amy Grant....and "Michael J. Smith"  (oops...I bet that was embarrassing when he realized what all CCM listeners know: it's "Michael W. Smith"!!  Once, at the Grammys, he was introduced by Jin Stewart as Michael K. Smith..)  (Beginning of first video),  This was a reference to a historical gathering of Christian musicians and Bono  at Peacock's house several years ago.

He even referenced "the miracle of the loaves of fishes"  for the first time during his usual nightly comments about "Moment of Surrender"  (00:46ff)

And did he really say "Thank you, Lord" at    1:15-1:45 (or is it 'thank you all")?

Andrew William Smith was there, and that's what he heard (see "Take Off Your Boots: Wonder and Wander at the U2Revival in Nashville")

But at 7:26ff  there's no doubt about what he's saying/asking: "Where were you when they crucified my Lord?"  Bono often inserts a prophetic rap in this section (see "Moment of....Prayer Rap"
   and  "Bono: 'Don't lose your faith in this holy clown'")...but who is he speaking to/as this time?  Is it the character in the song?  Is it Bono speaking as God to his host city (as often happens, see  "U2 can pastor the city).
   

I don't know, but it's chilling to watch it closeup on the second video here, from 5:29ff.


1 comment:

  1. Thanks for posting this Dave!

    - Colby Chambers - Modesto, CA

    ReplyDelete

Hey, thanks for engaging the conversation!