{"id":7917,"date":"2011-08-10T13:30:05","date_gmt":"2011-08-10T17:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=7917"},"modified":"2011-08-10T14:39:54","modified_gmt":"2011-08-10T18:39:54","slug":"an-open-letter-to-bono","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/an-open-letter-to-bono\/","title":{"rendered":"An Open Letter to Bono"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Winner!<\/p><\/div>\n

I may have mentioned this once before, but my mom first hit the nail on the head regarding Bono<\/strong> and U2<\/strong> a few years ago, when the band played the halftime show at the Super Bowl. She called me the day after.<\/p>\n

“Jimmy,” as she still calls me, “what do you know about this band U2? Do you like them?”<\/p>\n

“They’re OK,” I said. “I like a few of their songs. They’ve been around since I was in high school.”<\/p>\n

“Mmm,” she said, noting correctly that she didn’t recall me ever talking about them when I was living at home. “That little singer,” she continued, in this most unexpected telephone chat, “really makes that band. There’s not much to their music, but he works overtime!”<\/p>\n

My first thought was, “Jeez, as if enough girls haven’t dug Bono, now my mom’s under his spell too!” As she\u00a0continued extolling the virtues of “that little singer,” however, the years of hating Bono in his mullet, then ponytail and salt-of-the-earth hat and vests without shirts and those godawful late-’80s efforts to weave his way into the fabric of every strain of American roots music under the sun started to wash away.<\/p>\n

After I got off the phone with Bono’s Newest Admirer, I remembered how much I liked the good bits of the band’s first two albums, before the grandstanding of War<\/em> and the rhythm section’s clear musical limitations began to drive me away; before those serious videos involving ponytails, bare shoulders,\u00a0and salt-of-the-earth hats put me way over the edge. I pulled out my copy of Achtung Baby<\/em>, the band’s first attempt at winning back my muted admiration, which I came around to liking during the year my wife and I lived in Hungary. That album gave off a cooler, more UK ’60s vibe that put the band’s sepia-toned Americana\u00a0wannabe vibe in the rearview mirror\u2014but not out of sight. I still spent more time than any adult should spend cutting up on Bono and his mates. I still found myself watching bits of Rattle and Hum<\/em>, whenever I came across the movie while flipping channels, just to sharpen my blade. Just thinking of that period of U2 again almost makes me want to take back what I’m about to say.<\/p>\n

Bono, I apologize for giving you so much shit for so many years.<\/em><\/p>\n

One day while driving last month, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” came on the radio, and it moved me. It really did. It moved me the way it probably moved millions of people around the world when it rocketed you guys to Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame status. I may have been 24 years late, but the song and\u2014face it\u2014your performance\u00a0gave me goosebumps. For once I was able to put aside sepia-toned images of you and The Edge<\/strong> in those severe hats\u2014or much worse: you shuckin’ and jivin’ with\u00a0some African American robed choir in an effort to highlight the song’s\u00a0spiritual content. For the first time ever I realized that’s a truly spiritual song, and like my\u00a0mom noted in your Super Bowl\u00a0performance, you worked your ass off to sell it!<\/p>\n

I’m not a big Jesus<\/em> guy, Bono. God<\/em>, as I conceive of the concept, sure.\u00a0I do believe there’s some cosmic, spiritual\u00a0thread weaving through this often meaningless and seemingly dammed world. However, my family’s “big holiday” brand of Catholicism wasn’t that strong an influence on me during my 12 years spent at a hippified<\/em>\u00a0Friends school. To make matters worse, our parish’s reaction to my mom and her divorce, which coincided with my final years of punching the clock on Catholic ceremonies (eg, First Holy Communion), completely turned me off to the religion. No offense to you, Bono, or anyone reading this open letter who’s a practicing Catholic, but I can’t get past some of the stuff priests told her during her great time of need.<\/p>\n

The Catholic thing was yet another turnoff regarding you guys, and the whole Bible thing continues to mystify me. Truth be told I never spent much time on my Bible studies and Biblical references go way over my head. However, you really work yourself into a lather during this verse in “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”:<\/p>\n

I believe in the Kingdom Come
\nThen all the colors will bleed into one
\nBleed into one
\nBut yes I’m still running<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don’t believe in or spend any time thinking about Kingdom Come, but boy do you sell that verse and the cosmic imagery! My mom was right. The whole band seems to get fired up whenever you shift into that higher gear, even Larry and Adam, aka The Luckiest Musicians on Earth, Even Luckier Than Ringo. I’m a big proponent of what we refer to around here in the Halls of Rock as Winner Rock<\/a><\/strong>. The term puts some Townspeople off, but there’s nothing to be ashamed of when it comes to the desire to communicate. Sometimes it leads us down regrettable paths, such as the bare-chested vest<\/a> Look, but the thrill of victory is a feeling worth chasing. You, my man, are a a fierce proponent of Winner Rock’s virtues. May your search never end!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I may have mentioned this once before, but my mom first hit the nail on the head regarding Bono and U2 a few years ago, when the band played the halftime show at the Super Bowl. She called me the day after. “Jimmy,” as she still calls me, “what do you know about this band […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[61,111],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7917"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7917\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}