As you celebrate Christmas, consider who we are celebrating. Music legend Bono puts it best when talking about Jesus Christ. In conversation with Michka Assayas he says, “Jesus being God isn’t farfetched to me. Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: He was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets…but actually Christ doesn’t allow you that. He doesn’t let you off that hook. Christ says, ‘No. I’m not saying I’m a teacher, don’t call me teacher. I’m not saying I’m a prophet.’ I’m saying: ‘I’m the Messiah. I’m saying: ‘I am God incarnate…’
So what you’re left with is: either Christ was who He said He was or a complete nutcase…I’m not joking here. The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me, that’s farfetched…The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death. That’s the point. It should keep us humbled. It’s not our own good works that get us through the gates of heaven.”
Bono’s green guitar
Recently, Adam Bevell, who lost his sight more than two decades ago, attended his 20th U2 concert in Nashville. Throughout the show, he held up a sign that read “Blind Guitar Player: Bring Me Up!” And eventually Bono took him up on the offer by inviting him on stage to strum along to “All I Want is You” and then letting him leave with a parting gift. The green guitar…
The 9/11 YouTube Project
YouTube worked with The New York Times on a YouTube Channel featuring archived news broadcasts and personal stories and reflections from the public…
This Day in Music Spotlight: U2 Go ‘Out of Control’
Before The Joshua Tree, War or even Boy, there was Three – U2’s debut release that consisted of (as the title suggests) three songs. Although only sold in Ireland, the EP marked an important milestone. On September 1, 1979, as a precursor to stadium-rocking concerts, multi-platinum albums and world-saving crusades, U2 would
release their first songs to the public.
The story, however, begins about three years earlier, on September 25, 1976, when 14-year-old Larry Mullen Jr. posted a note on a school bulletin board saying that he was looking for people who were interested in starting a band. According to the drummer, it was to be called The Larry Mullen Band for about 10 minutes, until a boy named Paul Hewson showed up. With Bono in the band, there was little chance of little Larry being the leader.
Although guitarist Dave Evans (soon to become The Edge) and bassist Adam Clayton were in the group from the get-go, the band also included Dave’s older brother, Dik Evans, and Mullen’s friends, Ivan McCormick and Peter Martin. After a few weeks, McCormick and Martin had dropped out, and U2 were a quintet. Of course, they weren’t called U2 at the time. Initially, they took the name Feedback and then changed to The Hype in 1977.
I missed this on Sept. 1, but wanted to share it with my sister anyway. Follow the ‘via’ link if you’re interested in U2 history…
How your father’s music indicates what you listen to today
My dad raised me on a steady diet of Jazz. Unfortunately, it’s one of the few types of music — with the exception of Dave Brubeck’s ‘Take Five’ and a couple of others that actually hold some happy memories — that I don’t like. How about you? Do you listen to your father’s music?
U2: Save The Yuppies Free Concert
One of the greatest thrills of my musical life was to be present at the ‘Save the Yuppies’ concert in San Franciso in 1988. I was working in downtown San Francisco at the time and at 10:30 in the morning, a local radio station announced ‘This is not a prank or a hoax, U2 will be appearing in a free concert in Justin Herman Plaza at noon today. I ran through the office, alerting my fellow yuppies. We stopped at a local deli and grabbed some Heinekens and made our way to the concert. The free concert was priceless!!!
The image below includes the famous statue on which Bono spray painted the words “Rock and Roll stops the traffic” in recognition of the cars which had stopped on the highway on ramp behind the impromptu concert to get a glimpse of what was going on. Bono was later forced by then mayor Diane Feinstein to appear in court and face charges for defacing public property…

Here’s how the Wikipedia describes it
The performance of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” is from the band’s impromptu “Save the Yuppies” concert in Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco, California on 11 November 1987. The video intersperses the performance of the song with footage from the band’s performance of “Pride” from the same show, during which Bono spray-painted “Rock and Roll Stops the Traffic” on the Vaillancourt Fountain. This caused a bit of controversy, and ultimately, the band paid to repair the damage and publicly apologized for the incident. The phrase “Rock and Roll Stops the Traffic” reappeared 18 years later in the video “All Because of You” when an unnamed fan appeared with the sign at 1:55 in the video.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rattle_and_Hum
And I was there…
release their first songs to the public.

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