As I recently mentioned, I’m a sucker for a community sing-along. For example, I go to Strawberry Fields on John Lennon’s birthday and the anniversary of his death every year — to sing his songs amongst hundreds of others (including musicians of all stripes).
When U2 was the biggest rock band in the world, I saw them live many times. They always closed their shows with a song called “40” (named for Psalm 40).
The song would end with the band leaving the stage one by one, and the crowd staying in their seats to continue singing the chorus for a while.
One particular time, I saw U2 at the Meadowlands Arena (formerly Brendan Byrne Arena) in NJ. The band played “40” and the crowd sang “How long to sing this song?” in unison even as we left the arena. To get to the parking lot, we had to walk through a long covered bridge.
The singing continued into that elevated tunnel, thousands of voices echoing and bouncing off the metal walls. I can still recall the chills I felt for those few minutes of collective joy.
In a culture like ours, you don’t take such moments for granted.
Here’s a video of U2 closing a show with “40” in Paris — all the more fun since the French audience is singing along in English:
P.S. I don’t need anyone to tell me that Bono is an asshole and that U2 devolved into self-parody and globalism a long time ago. That doesn’t deter my gratitude a single iota. You can appreciate art while feeling disdain for the artist. It just requires you to keep yer guard up…
there is a psalm in our {episcopal) hymn book that has this title too, and it is one of my favorites. Thanks for making me remember. We only sang it once in church and I have not been since the beginning of 2020, but there are some nice songs in that book and sometimes I sing them in the woods where only the trees and the birds can hear me. And the One.
I felt the same way seeing Bonnie Raitt last summer. I have loved her for so long, way before she started winning Grammys. To see her singing in front of a large Ukraine flag was heartbreaking, but I can’t stop being moved by her music.