U2 - Until the End of the World (ZOO TV Live in Sydney )

What a great song! Without grace - we are all Judas. Favourite lyric - "You were talking about the end of the world."

Haven't seen you in quite a while
I was down the hold, just passing time.
Last time we met it was a low-lit room
We were as close together as a bride and groom.
We ate the food, we drank the wine
Everybody having a good time except you.
You were talking about the end of the world.

I took the money, I spiked your drink
You miss too much these days if you stop to think.
You led me on with those innocent eyes
And you know I love the element of surprise.
In the garden I was playing the tart
I kissed your lips and broke your heart.
You, you were acting like it was the end of the world.


In my dream, I was drowning my sorrows
But my sorrows they'd learned to swim
Surrounding me, going down on me
Spilling over the brim
Waves of regret and waves of joy.
I reached out for the one I tried to destroy.
You, you said you'd wait till the end of the world.

U2 - One - Anton Corbjin Version

This is one of those classic U2 songs I can listen to and hear new meanings each time. My favourite line: "Have you come here to play Jesus to the lepers in your head?" To me this is an angry song. A song about people who try to play God and fix you as a way of dealing with their own issues, people who manipulate you and use you to feel better, people who want you to be grateful, who ask you to enter and then they make you crawl. It's a great song.

Is it getting better, or do you feel the same?
Will it make it easier on you, now you got someone to blame?
You say one love, one life, when it's one need in the night.
One love, we get to share it
Leaves you baby if you don't care for it.

Did I disappoint you or leave a bad taste in your mouth?
You act like you never had love and you want me to go without.
Well, it's too late tonight to drag the past out into the light.
We're one, but we're not the same.
We get to carry each other, carry each other... one

Have you come here for forgiveness,
Have you come to raise the dead
Have you come here to play Jesus to the lepers in your head
Did I ask too much, more than a lot
You gave me nothing, now it's all I got.
We're one, but we're not the same.
Well, we hurt each other, then we do it again.

You say love is a temple, love a higher law
Love is a temple, love the higher law.
You ask me to enter, but then you make me crawl
And I can't be holding on to what you got, when all you got is hurt.

One love, one blood, one life, you got to do what you should.
One life with each other: sisters, brothers.
One life, but we're not the same.
We get to carry each other, carry each other.
One, one.

U2 - Even Better Than The Real Thing - official video

Favourite lyrics in this song: "Well my heart is where it's always been
My head is somewhere in between"


Give me one more chance, and you'll be satisfied.
Give me two more chances, you won't be denied.
Well my heart is where it's always been
My head is somewhere in between
Give me one more chance, let me be your lover tonight.

(Check it out)
You're the real thing
Yeah the real thing
You're the real thing
Even better than the real thing.

Give me one last chance, and I'm gonna make you sing
Give me half a chance to ride on the waves that you bring
You're honey child to a swarm of bees
Gonna blow right through ya like a breeze
Give me one last dance, we'll slide down the surface of things

You're the real thing
Yeah the real thing
You're the real thing
Even better than the real thing.

We're free to fly the crimson sky
The sun won't melt our wings tonight.
Oh now, oh yeah, here she comes
Take me higher, take me higher
You take me higher, you take me higher.

You're the real thing
Yeah, you're the real thing.
You're the real thing
Even better than the real thing.
Even better than the real thing.
Even better than the real thing.

Achtung Baby - 20 Years On

It's been an amazing autumn for music. At least for music I like!

In September R.E.M. announced they were breaking up. Sad news, but they have a compilation of their best songs coming out soon along with some new ones which looks great. I love every 1990s, post-modern, crazy, X Files lyric they have. Definitely Christ College music!

Also in September The Cranberries announced that after 10 years they are finally coming out with another album. While none of their new songs grabs me that much, it reminded me how many great songs they do have.

And then there's my favourite band - the one that has written the soundtrack to my life - U2. October was the 30th anniversary of their early album, October. And now, in November, we have the 20th anniversary of my third favourite U2 album Achtung Baby. When I hear this album I think of college days, late night arguments, freedom, and immense hope. We all were trying to throw our arms around the world. Achtung Baby is the album of my college days, and those were good days.

So, I'm going to post a song a day to have fun remembering this album. The first is Zoo Station - all the craziness of the album summed up in this song. "I'm ready, I'm ready for what's next...
I'm ready to say, I'm glad to be alive." That's how you feel - going off to university, the world is before you - that's how you feel - ready for aything.

I'm ready
Ready for the laughing gas
I'm ready
Ready for what's next
Ready to duck
Ready to dive
Ready to say
I'm glad to be alive
I'm ready
Ready for the push

In the cool of the night
In the warmth of the breeze
I'll be crawling around
On my hands and knees

She's just down the line ... Zoo Station
Got to make it on time ... Zoo Station

I'm ready
Ready for the gridlock
I'm ready
To take it to the street
Ready for the shuffle
Ready for the deal
Ready to let go
Of the steering wheel
I'm ready
Ready for the crush

Alright, alright, alright, alright, alright
It's alright ... it's alright ... it's alright ... it's alright
Hey baby ... hey baby ... hey baby ... hey baby ...
It's alright
It's alright

Time is a train
Makes the future the past
Leaves you standing in the station
Your face pressed up against the glass

I'm just down the line from your love ... Zoo Station
Under the sign of your love ... Zoo Station
I'm gonna be there ... Zoo Station
Tracing the line ... Zoo Station
I'm gonna make it on time ... make it on time ... Zoo Station
Just two stops down the line ... Zoo Station
Just a stop down the line ... Zoo Station

The Cranberries - Daffodil Lament '95

10 years ago today I landed in Dublin on my way to life in Scotland.

"I have decided to start things from here.
Thunder and lightning won't change what I'm feeling.
And the daffodils look lovely today."

Into the West

Lay down your sweet and weary head
Night is falling. You have come to journey's end.
Sleep now. Dream of the ones who came before.
They are calling from across a distant shore.
Why do you weep? What are these tears upon your face?
Soon you will see all of your fears will pass away.
Safe in my arms, you're only sleeping.

What can you see on the horizon?
Why do the white gulls call?
Across the sea, a pale moon rises.
The ships have come to carry you home.
And all will turn to silver glass.
A light on the water, all souls pass.

Hope fades into the world of night
Through shadows falling out of memory and time.
Don't say we have come now to the end.
White shores are calling. You and I will meet again.
And you'll be here in my arms, just sleeping.

What can you see on the horizon?
Why do the white gulls call?
Across the sea, a pale moon rises.
The ships have come to carry you home.
And all will turn to silver glass
A light on the water, grey ships pass
Into the West.
- Into the West - Howard Shore & Annie Lennox

"And the ship went out into the High Sea and passed on into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise."
- The Return of the King - by J.R.R. Tolkien

"But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope." 1 Thess 4:13

"Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth..." Rev. 21:1

The End Of The End Of The World

Comradeship and serious joy are not interludes in our travel, but our travels are interludes in comradeship and joy, which through God shall endure forever. The inn does not point to the road; the road points to the inn. And all roads point at last to an ultimate inn, where we shall meet; and when we drink again it shall be from the great flagons in the tavern at the end of the world.


Hope is the last gift given to man, and the only gift not given to youth. Youth is pre-eminently the period in which a man can be lyric, fanatical, poetic, but youth is the period in which a man can be hopeless. The end of every episode is the end of the world...But the power of hoping through everything, the knowledge that the soul survives its adventures; that great inspiration comes to the middle-aged; God has kept that good wine until now...They are in their second and clearer childhood, and there is a meaning in the merriment of their eyes. They have seen the end of the End of the World.

G.K. Chesterton

Happy New Year