The Ultimate U2 Snippet for Dublin

The band is in Dublin, and there are two shows left. What rare song should they play? Obviously, A Sort of Homecoming! As our friends at U2 Gigs recorded, U2 appropriately played this fan favorite at Slane Castle on August 25, 2001, and again on November 16, 2001 in Oakland, CA (that time, because the fan onstage began playing it on guitar). Both times, Bono had some trouble with the lyrics – so clearly, it’s time to resurrect this song and give it another try.

If Bono is afraid he might flub it, he can use that time-tested performance device we U2 fans love: the snippet. Oh yes, we love our U2 snippets and Bono knows it. That’s why this tour has an actual snippet-within-a-snippet in the setlist: The “Johnny Comes Marching Home” (a Civil War-era song) snippet during Sunday Bloody Sunday has a snippet inside of it, and it is indeed a snippet from a U2 song* (sort of): Helter Skelter. Don’t believe me? Listen for him to say, “When you get to the bottom you go back to the top”…Yes, Rattle and Hum lives on! This snippet is a serious Easter egg, because you really have to be listening to pick it up. So fun!

So, my proposal is that U2 bring back A Sort of Homecoming this weekend in the form of the snippet. We’ll even take the “O com-away, o com-away, o-com, o com-away, I say I” part by itself. We’ll take it and be grateful for it – after all, it’s Thanksgiving! (Well, in America.) But I’m sure fans around the world will be grateful regardless! What do you say, guys?

*Yes, I know Helter Skelter was originally a Beatles song. As Bono famously said, U2 stole it back from Charles Manson.