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About This Author

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Well, hello. I’m still testing this.

Music Notes

A blog, generally about music, usually for projects hosted by Jeff

. I may also write about the 48-Hour Media Prompt Challenge if I don't feel like writing a story or poem inspired by the given song. Other bits of poetry or different topics of discussion might end up here as well.

Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

DLSpiritwriter☯️🦋🌳

about 16 hours ago
In response to "Beautiful Day, by U2"

Very intense and thanks for sharing your insights. It is a very good song and more so now...
Glad y'all made it out safely 🙂.

1 Like

Ms. TerrifyingTuber

Oct 15, 2024 at 12:09pm
In response to "500 Miles (I'm Gonna Be) (ID cover)"

That was an amazing performance. Dan certainly has a sense of showmanship..

1 Like

QPdoll

Oct 12, 2024 at 8:00am
In response to "I Heard It Through the Grapevine (CCR)"

I've only known the Marvin Gaye version. I have to say that CCR did it justice. The drums and that bass. So cool.

Excellent choice!

1 Like

♥HOOves♥

Oct 12, 2024 at 7:45am
In response to "I Heard It Through the Grapevine (CCR)"

Great song choice! There is also a version with Gladys Knight and the Pips that may or may not have been the first one. It was the first one that I heard.

1 Like

Dave Ryan

Oct 11, 2024 at 8:19am
In response to "If I Had a Hammer"

Puff the Magic Dragon is a great song for traumatising the kids. There's nothing like a happy ending, and that one is definitely nothing like a happy ending.

1 Like

QPdoll

Oct 10, 2024 at 7:57am
In response to "Fast Car (Jonas Blue cover)"

This is great! I love this song and have heard a couple of different versions, but I've never heard this one. Thank you for sharing.

1 Like

♥HOOves♥

Oct 9, 2024 at 9:07am
In response to "Fortunate Son"

Love Centerfield and Have You Ever Seen the Rain, also!

So many wonderful songs!

1 Like

♥HOOves♥

Oct 8, 2024 at 9:00am
In response to "I Won't Back Down"

Great song choice!

1 Like

QPdoll

Oct 8, 2024 at 6:15am
In response to "I Won't Back Down"

I like Tom Petty, too. My favorite song is Mary Jane's Last Dance. However, I like the message of I Won't Back Down. It's a fine choice.

1 Like

tracker

Oct 7, 2024 at 12:23pm
In response to "Creeque Alley"

This is when I like AI. The song is a story about when the group was formed. It was released when I had first started college. Where? In California! Good choice of song.

1 Like

February 15, 2025 at 7:32am

#1083888

Beautiful Day, by U2

My next choice is a classic U2 song, from their 2000 album All That You Can't Leave Behind.

Sound:
Beautiful Day has a pretty typical U2 sound, with multidimensional binaural elements and Bono's distinctive, somewhat thin voice.

I find that after a while many U2 songs, at least the ones I'm aware of, tend to blur into each other; something about their music seems to lack the unique melodic "fingerprint" type of sound on individual songs which I've grown accustomed to having with 1R and ID. I mean, for example, what's the difference between Beautiful Day and Where The Streets Have No Name?

I suppose one would call U2 bland. I find it relaxing, to a point.

Theme:
What makes U2 stand out from the crowd of older school pop-rock artists for me is the lyrics. Not so much that I find them all profound or even perhaps "interesting," but they're consistently decent and of a more philosophical, metaphorical, or thoughtful bent than the average.

Their words are such that I can put on a random song I haven't heard yet and hardly even care what it's saying. In this respect and also as it relates to sonic style, they remind me a lot of Coldplay. These two bands both have reliable, somewhat forgettable lyrics with musical work that can at times feel interchangeable. They make good background music.

Beautiful Day is about finding good in whatever you've been given, kind of like the saying "bloom where you are planted." No matter what stress you're going through, there's always another morning, another sunrise. My favorite lines are "see the bird with a leaf in her mouth/ after the flood all the colors came out" (a reference to Noah's ark) and "I know I'm not a hopeless case."

Significance:
I'd never noticed this song before last year, though I'm sure I must've encountered it. The way I found it is when we were evacuating from Hurricane Milton in October. We drove all day as the rain and wind picked up, and ended up sitting in our car all night at a truck stop just north of the worst of it, because there were no more hotel rooms and it was too intense to drive any further.

Sleep was impossible, of course. I was washing up in the restroom the next morning after it blew over, with annoying music blasting over my head. A song began with more quietness and care than the rest. I recognized U2 and discovered Beautiful Day. A more appropriate song would be hard to find for such a moment, where we were grateful to be alive and well.

Words: 458.

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