U2 and Green Day have teamed up to release a cover of the Skids 1978 single ‘The Saints Are Coming’. Before immediately yawning and clicking onto something far more interesting, it is important that you know that it is actually (in case you hadn’t guessed) for charity. The charity in question is Music Rising, co-founded by The Edge to replace instruments lost by musicians in New Orleans and the surrounding area during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
It’s an entirely apt song for such a cause, with Richard Jobson’s original lyrics referring to weather conditions and including the line “a drowning sorrow floods the deepest grief”. It also shares the name of the New Orleans’ football team The Saints and just to hammer home the point this version starts with Billy Joe Armstrong crooning the opening lines from ‘House of The Rising Sun’, referring of course to New Orleans.
It is as predictably self-indulgent as most charity singles are – particularly when U2 are involved – and is essentially a middle of the road cover. Rick Rubin’s production is grandiose and the whole record sounds overblown, meaning all the immediacy of the original punk version is gone. It is basically everything you’d expect from a charity single without a few more guest musicians dragged out of the woodwork and a chorus of children joining in for an extended singalong (and yes there is the token fist-clenchingly emotional studio footage in the video). As a song it will probably only appeal to the (millions of) fans of either band but if it makes money for charity who is anyone to argue?
I’m always slightly unconvinced by rock stars who are about to release their third ‘Greatest Hits’ album, charge anywhere from Ł50 to several hundred pounds for fans to see them live and then bang on about 3rd world debt and poverty. But on this occasion (and to be fair the Bono founded [Red] project) there is no doubting that this record is for a good cause and even if it is a decidedly average cover of a rather good song you should probably still go and buy it.
