"Oh, #*#!, it's really true!"
Many mornings in the weeks and months after my wife Sonya died, the sun shining through the window would wake me up, For the first few moments finding my consciousness, I was content: becoming oriented to the opportunities of a new day.
Then, inevitably, I remembered.
Oh, she's dead.
Wait, really? Was it just a dream?
"Oh, #*#!, it's really true!," I actually said aloud more than once.
They joke there are two types of people:
those who say "Good morning, Lord!" and those who say "Good Lord, it's morning!"
On most days I was both; finding a way for both to coexist in the same space, soul and morning/mourning.
But I am getting ahead of myself..
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Seven years later, I woke up I woke and oriented myself to the fact that it was day.
And Good Friday, at that. A day always laden and loaded with grief over the death of Jesus, and the joy of the resurrection not far off.
The "Oh, #!@$! , it's real" morning surprises were no longer a regular occurrence. I am not the same since she left; but I am happily remarried
I grabbed my phone, ostensibly to check the time or secure a morning devotion, but more likely to check Facebook...and found notification of a new U2 song.
"Song for Hal," it said. As I began playing it, the soundscapes escaped ; some classic and exciting new Edge "swirling epiphanies" emerged..
The vocals began. They were good, but something wasn't quite right; not quote Bono. Had I been fooled by AI?
No, it was the Edge on lead vocals..
Unlike most U2 releases of the past, I was not prepared for a new song by my favorite band. I had usually read the lyrics and maybe even reviews/forum comments..
But this time I had no idea what the song was bout, let alone who the hal Hal was. Let alone that it was about.
Full immersion
And as the morning light Stretches out across the floor
Can't believe it's another day And life goes on like it did before
What? Were Bono and Edge reading my memory?
My mail and my mind?
It wouldn't be the first time.
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To switch gears to the task at hand..
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To quote a book title that can be well-applied to personal journey/spiritual life: the "What to Expect While You are Expecting " principle is relevant here.
For one, we are all spiritually expecting, just ask Pastor Jack H (and my other favorite Pastor Jack H).
Two, I was not even expecting to expect two EPs ("Days of Ash" and "Easter Lilly"),
let alone one;
let alone two great ones;
from U2 this year before the full-blown album later this year.
Two albums (three releases) in their 50th year? And two (three?) that follow the liturgical calendar?
God is in the house. The lads are pregnant.
I consider the two surprise EPs as one whole; two sides of an album/coin/life posture. The band have spoken clearly about the first volume being more angry, political.. and lament-laden, and the sequel more personal and hope-filled .......as we are expectant of the "defiant joy" of the album to come,
To be expectant in U2 fandom is also to expect anxiety that the album this fall won't live up to these EPs. The worst fear is they partly lose the plot/baby. Me genoito, I hope Jacknife Lee is right!
I like these two EPs both very much ; especially the second, so I am writing about it today..
I won't write much, as I can't add much to...but can amen much to.... these great reviews that I recommend and will reference:
- Megan Click Easter Lily: A Journey with U2- Scars and All
- Angela Pancella U2's Easter Lily, And when blessings overflow.
- Sherry Lawrence Unapologetically U2: Taking Easter Lily To A Higher Level
- Peter Barrett : the new Eastertide-themed album recorded by U2
- Steve Stockman: A song by song look at U2's Easter EP... cross, resurrection and Psalms as a resistance to the world.
I am so sad that Steve Harmon's book had to go to press without a chapter on Easter Lilly!
I will only major on three songs here, as I have observations, connections and questions.
It seems unpardonable to not write about the other three songs, as they form an amazing grace sound ; the death and resurrection trilogy. Don't get me started on "Scars," which may well be in my top five U2 songs already (Not bad for a late career E.P.)
But I want to start by calling attention to two intriguing structural observations on the EP as a whole (as an artwork); and then give a few heteroclitic and maybe unobvious comments and questions on each song.
1) An inclusio of sunrise language; especially being surprised by the sunrise. Cheesy as it might be if another band adopted it , it is clear that in the U2 dictionary, "sun" is often code/standing in for Son (Jesus). Drawing the fish in the sand, Here the focus on sunrise/Sonrise : fitting for an EP with Easter in the title.
Here is that inclusio:
-First song "Song for Hal".
And as the morning light Stretches out across the floor
Can't believe it's another day And life goes on like it did before
-Last song: "COEXIST (I Will Bless The Lord At All Times?)
Every night we hope and pray for a new day to rise
Every morning when the sun shows up, it's still a surprise
And, as often with inclusios (and chiasms) , the term often shows up in the middle (more or less) of the narrative. Thus, in the song "Easter Parade,'
Every night we hope and pray for a new day to rise
Every morning when the sun shows up, it's still a surprise
2) An inclusio of the word/image "parade.'
First song "Song for Hal"
Then in "COEXIST (I Will Bless The Lord At All Times?) the ;last song:
Changes, these changes
Will rain on this parade
Wherever the strange is on paradeWherever the music is madeYou'll be there
=
in "Easter Parade,' of course, the whole song is the parade.
Changes, these changes
Will rain on this parade
Changes, these changes
I am not afraid
Then in "/COEXIST (I Will Bless The Lord At All Times?)
Changes, these changes
Will rain on this parade
I love how PJ PJ DeGenaro matter of factly felt this, nd took the liberty to make the inclusio explicit , amd import the word "Easter" when the parade shows up in "Coexist". Yes!
'The changes will rain on our (Easter) parade" (link)
And, as often with inclusios (and chiasms) , the term often shows up in the middle (more or less) of the narrative. Thus, in the song "Easter Parade,' of course, the whole song is the parade.
What is "Easter Lilly" about? The surprising and subversive sunrise and prophetic and poignant parade that springs forth from death.
Heck, maybe the original song "Easter :Parade" sung by Judy Garlad to Fred Astaire is a bit about that, too:
On the avenue, Fifth Avenue
The photographers will snap us
And you'll find that you're in the rotogravure
Oh, I could write a sonnet about your Easter bonnet
And of the guy I'm taking to the Easter parade
Inclusio and chiasm are, with or without the writer being fully aware of embedding these structures, reveal quite a lot about the overall meaning/message of a work. Don't get me started on Bible inclusio and chiasm. But I could get started up here or here, LOL,. As Mick Jagger sang...
Alos, I note that every song (or almost every song on "Easter Lilly" ends with an outro or coda/last section.. that changes gears. I am sure there is a term for this in musical composition/theory. Instead of fadeout or repetition/reprise of a chorus, or an improv/scat/glossolalia/Bongolese ending (As in "Still Haven't Found".. a whole new thematic world opens up.
My favorite example here is "In a Life" ...which nods to a Peter Gabriel lyric (see 40:08 in video here to learn that is (in part) about God)..
And how about the final note of "Coexist." There are different theories about what it means: a nod to the ending of the "Zooropa" album, an exclamation point on the album. a "more to come" teaser,. A requirement to say Edge played on the song...
Let's return to "Song for Hal," which now know is a response to death of the band's friend, Hal.
In a way it is my "Song for Sonya."
I often play on shuffle, but even more than other U2 releases, it would seem blasphemy to consider any other intended running order of the Easter Lilly tracks. As Bono mentioned (quoting Dalai Lama) in the book accompanying "Atomic Bomb,' "To meditate on life, start with death."
-Question for fans and followers (Edge, I know you are reading, lol): In the opening lyrics
Did you hear "Forever"?
Was it playing soft and low?
It's not a song you wanna hear
If you're not ready to go
Is the song "Forever" a specific actual song, or just an image? Here are some internet guessed.. Many suggest it is just a symbol of the afterlife; but I am still haunted by the way it is mentioned as if an actual song
Gregory Daujat in his free Kindle book on Easter Lilly says the point of “Song for Hal” is that “even the dead are not alone.”
Megan nails it:
The promise “You’re not alone” ,not in the “bright blue air,” not if your “voice is unheard,”sets the tone of accompaniment in grief and trouble, which runs throughout the EP. -link
Note also a possible connection binding the two EPS. The last song on the first EP declares "
"You are not alone."
Watch this..Now to he first song on the next EP (or if you consider the two as one album, the very next song!
The repetitive “I feel alone,” conflicts with the refrain “you’re not alone” in “Song For Hal.” The personal confession of aloneness is raw — can’t see the forest despite the trees sort of thing. Here is a personal song about friendship, but he feels alone. Is it an emotional disconnect that’s being alluded to? Could it be that he feels that God hasn’t been with him? Bono did find himself calling out to God during his brush with death and he didn’t hear Him -link
"IN A LIFE"
The second song, "In a :Life", per the Edge's comments in Propaganda, and per the clear content of the official music vireo, is about the friendship of the band over the year.
OK....but I don't hear that...at all.
I was already with Megan on this l even before I read her post
It is valuable to quote Megan's full comment on the song, as it radically resonated with me.
The song that follows feels like a cross between the underworld and purgatory. Strongly connected to Bono’s Stories of Surrender, it uses the London Underground as a kind of in between space. The repeated fare/coin imagery evokes Charon’s crossing or the purchase of indulgences. It begins with “I’ll meet you in the air… with the fare,” and the person is met “in the empty space that occupies your place.” The looping percussion and guitar during the Circle Line section accentuates the feeling of circling until one learns what they need for passage into the next life. These lessons are both relational and communal and include the futility of ignoring God’s instruction, ”You’re kicking the pricks,: an archaic form of goads, which references Acts 26, and the need to surrender. There is a driver on the train of this circle that notes how the “souls are in so much pain,” which possibly may be the wounded healer Christ presented in Scars. Only confession , both corporate (“when we make our bed out of war”) and personal (“I never achieved anything on my own”), breaks the loop. The song ends with grace: “A skipping stone I was thrown, the ocean floor is not my home.” and gratitude, “I only received from being shown.” and leads us to the encounter in the song that follows. link
Instead of Charon (a fantastic connection, and it reminds me not to miss potential lyrical connections to paintings, as in the Mephisto "Checkmate' painting (see this)
UNOBVIOUSLY..I thought of the Trainman in Matrix Reloaded , who lives in the subway/underground,
headquartered at "Mobil Station " (Mobil is an anagram for limbo? the writers did that on purpose) , and seems doomed to keep riding the trains in a purgatorial state . He wears multiple watches (hmm . note the song lyrics 'And when we stop the clocks stopping time ) The name of the train is Loop, symbolizing a loop in time or endless cycle of limbo
And when we stop the clocks stopping time ” and jumps to the other side of the platform He is in charge of Mobil Station (Mobil is an anagram for limbo:the writers did that on purpose). The name of the train is Loop, symbolizing a loop in time or endless cycle of limbo. See ("I am a strange christian loop")
now i wonder..
On to:
"COEXIST: I Will Bless the Lord at All Times.
First a quick question. In the flurry of fan comments when the song first appeared. there was discussion about who is the "Girl Of Guadaloop"
Of course, it is likely primarily the Virgin of Guadalupe.
But why her, and why does she how up here?
And Pat Washington evem wondered if Girl was thjs other girl here,... who Bono would obviously admire. LOL. But her name doesn't rhyme with "book"...though neither does "Guadaloop," for that matter
Also..
If you are reading this far, you will surely remember Bono saying as he introduces "Helter Skelter" in "Rattle and Hum "This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles? We're stealing it back"
This chilling song redeems or buys back some bad memories I have of the old TBN network.
Paul and Jan Crouch sometimes hosted some guests that I was interested in seeing..
But their campy creepiness often buggd me..let alone the scandals that ultimately came out.
Paul routinely opened their flagship show with an overly enthusiastic quoting /cheerleading of this same Scripture:
“I will bless the Lord at all times and His praise will continually be on my lips.”
And Bono's now bought/brought it back from me.
From now on this Scripture will be voiced by Bono and the U2 song, not the
TBN theme song
PTL!...to risk quoting another controversial televangelist show/
Finally:
One mystery : All U2 fans know what COEXIST means, and Bono's history with the motto and headband/blindfold. But what does that have to do with the song's story Why is this in the title and nowhere in the lyric?
Ken Penner has as a suggested answer:
The anchor of the song is a vow seized from King David in duress, a stubborn promise to bless the Lord at all times, quoting verbatim “I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth” (Psalm 34:1, KJV). This is praise spoken through gritted teeth, and the COEXIST title frames that struggle with what Bono called a “powerful symbol of tolerance,” an attempt to imagine common ground when human rights feel under siege in the aftermath of 9/11. -Ken Penner
But Brian Zahnd has an additional (final?) answer, and
he may well be right! I haven't seen anyone suggest this. but I love the "obvious unobvious" .
Someone ask Bono!
See 16:05 to 20:05 in Zahnd's sermon above.The take home?:
"Can the commitment to bless the Lord at all times COEXIST with the reality of a worldwhere children are killed by down strikes?"
Or to come full circle, where wives die?
Or dead men don't wake up?
Isn't the ruthless and refreshing honesty of dozens of U2 songs that faith and doubt /grief an joy and coexist ? (see "Bono audio: God at the 9" Nails Gig")
"Bono sings laments and yearnings as willingly as he sings resolve, peace and joy.'
-Scott Calhoun, p.5, U2 and the Religious Impulse
Or as Walter Brueggemann, whom Bono quotes and references, has said,. the gospel and a prophet, and :prophetic imagination" is all about the coexistent paradox of grief and amazement?
Amazing Grief, how sweet the sound of this graced E.P.
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"Oh #@! It's real!" ..but God is good..
all the time..
and at all times.
I am learning to creatively coexist in the midst, milieux and mess of that.
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