Why is U2 so cool?

About a week ago, someone asked me what I see in U2.  It wasn't some denial about the band's quality of music, or of their basic talent.  Instead, the questioner was prodding me to find out why I felt that this band deserved some additional honor aside from the occasional listen.  

It is funny how some questions get stuck in your head, you know?  I mean, of all the questions to get stuck on, why this?  So this weekend, I found myself on YouTube checking out their Concert videos.  I have long maintained that live performances are a truer judge of a band, and usually contain an organic quality which surpasses the studio tracks, so live stuff it was.  I was looking for something that could lend clarity to this nebulous "like."  

I confess that I can't quite nail it down.  It was an interesting search which spanned over 25 years of the band's existence.  I got to see "baby-faced Bono" and the "receding hair line" Bono.  I got to see the same songs performed over the course of these decades with varying points of emphasis and evolving presentations.  It was interesting, even uplifting.

And maybe that is what I would stick with.  By and large, U2 has always been about more than the music.  Their messages ring of more than lust, like, or the latest fad.  

One of their earliest songs "40" is still a staple in their concerts.  It is an adaptation of Psalm 40, and it is beautiful.  On one of their more recent albums, the song "Yahweh" calls on the Lord by His intimate name, and cries out for the redemption of the entire life.  "Sunday Bloody Sunday" recalls the terror of an Irish Massacre, and cries out "no more!"  

Bono confesses a longing that the pleasures of this life can not fill, that he anticipates will be quenched in the eternal hereafter in "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."  If you can watch the rendition wherein the choir sings a Gospel version with Bono and not be stirred... 

Of course, "Where the Streets Have No Name" never ceases to affect me deeply.  The long musical intro is enough to provoke great emotion.  It's about the Heavenly city, the place where we can finally touch the Flame.  Can you remember when U2 played this song at the Superbowl halftime while the names of the 9/11 victims scrolled on the enormous screen behind them?  Could any other band have even attempted that without coming off shallow or overdone?  I watched it live on the television and nearly wept.  Do you remember hearing Bono PRAY as the song began?  

Now, believe me that I am not saying that everything they have ever produced is somehow sanctified, or that I like all their songs.  Instead, they find ways to get a Christian message into the mainstream pop music world, and they have done this for a quarter century.  They use a distinct artful sound, and have outlived the shallow, one-album-wonder status of so many chart-toppers.  

Their lead singer proclaims his faith in Christ, swaps personal effects with the Pope, and meets with heads of state on behalf of the third world African nations...  asking the wealthy nations to forgive debt which can not be repaid, and instead reach out in the name of our Lord with even more help.  He does not consider himself a holy man, but preaches a social gospel nevertheless.  

So... is that my final answer?  I can't say.  There is something about them that resonates in me, and maybe that is enough.  I like to think that it isn't so subjective, but it may be so.  Instead, I would suggest that there is something about them that, qualitatively, sets them above.  

And I just like how they sound.