Get On Your Boots

Okay, gotta do a quick post on the new U2 song that was released today entitled "Get On Your Boots" from the soon-to-be released album No Line on the Horizon. Here are a few links:

Listen to the song on U2.com's site.

Listen to a better quality version on 103.7 "The Mountain" from Seattle. They're playing it every hour on the hour.

"Get On Your Boots" lyrics here at U2Wanderer.com.

If you missed the band's two songs at the We Are One Inaugural concert check out this YouTube video. "Not just an American Dream, also an Irish dream, a European dream, an African dream, an Israeli dream... and also, a Palestinian dream! Sing!!" "Blessings not just for the ones who kneel, luckily."

And then there's this cool candid video of the band practicing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Thanks to @U2 for posting this (Matt and team have been out of their minds giving us updates the last few days!). Here's the link (scroll down the page).

Finally, check out Beth Maynard's take on "Boots" along with a number of comments here. Below are some initial comments I threw out on her blog about the song.

"First impression: Bono's melody line in the verse draws me immediately back to the eighties with Escape Club's "Wild Wild West" (Forty-seven dead beats living in the back street/ North, east, west, south all in the same house...) Now I gotta work real hard at getting that outta my head.

Second impression: "Boots" sounds way better on 1037themountain.com (top of every hour today) than on U2.com's stream (VERY cluttered with a small stream and equally small speakers).

Third impression: juxtaposition throughout, in classic U2 form, but definitely feeding from a Pop-style "Vertigo". It feels like it takes off from the Jacknife Lee version, "and fear has taken over every thought". Also, reminds me of "Fast Cars."

Fourth impression: lot's of second person plural in this song. I'm hearing a plural "you" in the chorus. Kind of a "city on a hill" thing with glimpses of "Yahweh" and "City of Blinding Lights". Ancient Israel never understood the power of their beauty, presence and witness in the world- do we?

Fifth impression: I'm not focused on "the sound" as much as the cry to "let me in". I think people are hungry and desperate for a community of peace, and the very communities (i.e. church) that claim to have peace tend to negate it by their very presence. The theological point is this: if we were living in radical alternate communities of love as Christ's followers, people would be busting down the doors to experience it. And I can imagine 100,000 people in a stadium screaming "Let me in... Let me in...!" akin to the irony of joining voices for "I still haven't found what I'm looking for" or "I will sing, sing a new song".

But then again, I could be way off. Heck, it's art and that's what hit me initially. No doubt I'll see it differently in the future. Sorry for the long comment, I should've done a post."