Hosive

historiography is the the study of history. hosive-u2ograpy is the history of my life as it parallels u2’s history.

what’s the big deal? that’s what people want to know. why this band? they just seem like any other(old)band. why are you so attached to these guys? why the devotion?

aside from great songs and soul searing performances, let me try to explain it this way….recently, the new kids on the block performed in rockerfeller center and people(girls)lined up the day before! to see their childhood and teen idols. no one expected new songs. just nostalgia from times past. just the soundtrack to their lives for a short period. that’s what u2 is like for me except they’ve produced music for every significant period of my life since high school: my teenage years, my college years, my early twenties, my mid and late twenties, my early and mid thirties…and soon, when the new album is released in november, my late thirties. and when i see them in concert, its not a greatest hits from back in the day sing along…they are still producing new music.

every significant moment in my life has a u2 song, a u2 moment. in short, i can tell the history of my life to the tune of u2. i don’t know many people who have a band like that:one you’ve followed or followed you your whole (adult) life…and still making music! i don’t know many bands that fit that description. i don’t know how many bands are even around long enough to apply for the job…..the stones? pearl jam? dave matthews band? the spice girls? hanson?

as we approach the magical fall, i remember another late summertime…..

1993/22 years young: when i got home from rome after a summer of study in israel, egypt, greece and italy, the new album had just been released. i actually saw them in rome a few times..we had a chance to go to their concert in town but not all my friends had dough because it was toward the end of our study trip so we just listened to the music from outside the stadium. the next day, there was a mob outside a hotel and as we were passing by, the band came out. the pictures i took look like they were waving to me.

zooropa was recorded on the road while the band was touring for three years…and its their most underated album. the band had so many ideas….everything was fertile and alive..it is a wildly divergent album with techno, slow songs, trademark epic u2 and even johnny cash. my favorites are stay, lemon, the first time. stay is a moody, haunting yet hopeful song of longing. lemon is their prince dance song. there are not many u2 songs that you can dance to(bono would say there are none)but you might be able to get away with this one. being a prince hater, theresa finds it annoying. the first time is about god and specifically, the trinity and i quote it all the time at weddings. i love quoting the new updated lyrics that bono was using during the last tour that included his return to embrace grace.

with the summer fading and the magical fall approaching, this would be my soundtrack. uncertainty was in the air as i looked for work to supplement my church job income. how much longer would i stay in chicago? where was i going to get money to buy a car? what car would i buy? would i continue in ministry? a strangely nebulous and exciting time….a common experience for recent grads. i got a job working at a group home with borderline criminal youth and abandoned kids. it was one of the toughest work experiences. when i look back, it is zooropa that is playing.

zooropa was also my first car soundtrack….growing up in nyc, i learned to drive late and i got my first car that fall so zooropa was my first album that i played over and over as i drove. my car did not have a cd player so i had a tape that was played so much that it snapped and i had to buy a second copy!i remember driving around wheaton and naperville at night just to drive around and this was my companion.

a year later, i was headed back to the east coast, nyc and eventually maryland…we drove east in the summer. i’m sure the album was part of the rotation….. these were the zooropa days.