Beethoven and U2

Everyone knows I'm a huge U2 fan, but not everyone knows I'm also a closet classical music fan. My dad introduced me to rock 'n' roll and made sure I understood all the references in "American Pie," but he also helped me love classical music. He would turn on his records, sit on the sofa, and pretend to conduct the symphony. Then he'd have me sit next to him and tell me to close my eyes and "feel the music." All great music makes you feel something, and the best music makes you feel something much bigger than yourself. I went to the symphony last night, and they played Beethoven's 9th, one of my all-time favorites. You can't not be moved by it. It's the same feeling I get when I go to a live U2 show. A while ago I heard about a study that tried to scientifically link modern pop stars and rock bands to older ones (probably another fantastic use of somebody's tax dollars). They had some mathematical formula that explained how some bands are scientifically like the Beatles or Elvis or whoever. They couldn't find anyone that U2 matched up to until they went back to Beethoven. Apparently U2 and Beethoven are a scientific match. There's no way I think that you can make music a mathematical formula, but the comparison makes sense to me. What I love about both is that they acknowledge the darkness in the world but refuse to give into it for too long. There's always a better world out there, and if we can't find the light in our everyday lives, at least we can find it in music. So whether it's the fourth movement of Beethoven's 9th or the opening to "Streets" live, the important thing is getting to that "place where you glimpse God," as Bono once described it.

And now I think this post has become entirely too philosophical, so here's another wacky comparison: doesn't Bono's hair from the early 1980s look remarkably like Beethoven's?