(this week's Lyric For The Day will be a series on U2's work with this Sunday night's "LET ME IN THE SOUND - AN EVENING IN THE SOUNDS OF U2" at Fitzroy Presbyterian Church.)
“every teenager with acne
every face that's spoiled by beauty
every adult tamed by duty
they're all falling at your feet
(all fall down) all the information
(all fall down) all the big ideas
(all fall down) all the radio waves
(all fall down) electronic seas
(all fall down) how to navigate
(all fall down) how to simply be
(all fall down) to know when to wait
(all fall down) this plain simplicity
(all fall down) in whom shall i trust
(all fall down) how might i be still
(all fall down) teach me to surrender
(all fall down) not my will, thy will.”
From Falling At Your Feet by Bono and Daniel Lanois
Bono and Daniel Lanois’ Falling At Your Feet is one of this list songs that no doubt has Dylan’s influence written all over it. Released on both the Million Dollar Hotel soundtrack album and Lanois’ album Shine it is full of clever couplets that critique the culture with humour and provocation.
The overriding theme of the piece is that everything is falling at the feet... but of whom? The last lines give the answer. The question of “whom shall I trust” in King James’ Biblical language concluded with Jesus words from the Garden of Gethsemane reveal the song to be a hymn. A closer look and there is sense that it is perhaps based on Philippians chapter 2, where Paul seems to be reciting an early Church hymn that states that everything and everyone will one day fall at the feet of the Jesus who gave up everything to be our servant and was then exalted to the highest place.
The secret answer to all the cultural critique is a surrendering to this Jesus and living by God’s will not ours.
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