this is my favorite song on U2's new release, how to dismantle an atomic bomb. it rocks and it is really a hymn, with a wonderful play on words if you have ears to hear it.
reviewer jeffrey overstreet got it just right here:
ALL BECAUSE OF YOU
One of the album's highest highlights, "All Because of You" may be the most confidently performed rock single of U2's career. It has the careening guitar motif of "Even Better Than The Real Thing," and messes it up a bit with some raw Rolling Stones energy. And here comes Bono's first song of adoration to God, one of several tracks that distinguish this as the band's most blatantly religious album since October.
This is the song in which the Prodigal Son seems to embrace his father at last. He gives credit for anything good in his life to the one who blessed him with life. And in my favorite lyrical trick on the album, (no, not the way Bono rhymes "voice" with "tortoise"), Bono refers to God by the name the Almighty gave himself ... "I AM." It's easy to miss that, but reading the lyrics, you'll see how each verse builds to this chorus:
"All because of you
All because of you
All because of you
I am."
In one sense, he's saying "Because of you, I (Bono) yam what I yam."
In another, he's saying, "Because of you, God (I AM.)"
I'll be off to get my U2 album soon :-) thanks for the links!
Posted by: Sivin | November 28, 2004 at 08:15 PM
u2 is sheer joy. and then there are these hymns of faith - patti smith "trampin'," bruce cockburn "you've never seen everything," and the new buddy miller
Posted by: mrg | November 28, 2004 at 11:56 PM