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The Saints Are Coming

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This article is about the song by The Skids. For The Skids' greatest hits album, see The Saints Are Coming: The Best of The Skids.
"The Saints Are Coming"
Song
A-side"Of One Skin"
B-side"Night and Day"
"Contusion"

"The Saints Are Coming" was the third single by the Scottish punk rock band, The Skids, featured on their 1978 debut album, Scared to Dance. The song was covered in 2006 by U2 and Green Day.

The Skids' original version

The Skids released the song as their second single from their debut album Scared to Dance, released in 1978. The single was released as part of a four-track EP, Wide Open, which also featured an A-side and two B-sides. The song featured Richard Jobson singing of a man facing inclement weather and personal fears, and reached number 48 on the UK Singles Chart. The song's lyrics were written by Richard Jobson with music by Stuart Adamson, who later went on to form Big Country. As with the band's following single, "Into the Valley," it is sung by fans of Dunfermline Athletic F.C. in the Scottish Premier League.

In an interview with the Sunday Post on November 12, 2006, Jobson said that he had written the lyrics about a friend of his who had recently joined the British Army, and been killed on tour of duty in Northern Ireland. He said that he had more or less written off much of his Skids material, but was sorry that Adamson had not lived to see it become such a success.

Wide Open track listing

Track listing for the 1978 EP single, Wide Open, which features "The Saints Are Coming."
A-side

  1. "The Saints Are Coming" – 2:37
  2. "Of One Skin" – 2:28

B-side

  1. "Night and Day" – 2:35
  2. "Contusion" – 2:42

Personnel

With:

U2 and Green Day cover

"The Saints Are Coming"
Song
B-side"The Saints Are Coming" (live from New Orleans)

The song's lyrics about storms and drowning came back to light after the events of Hurricane Katrina. In September 2006, it was announced that Green Day and U2 were to record a cover version of the song for charitable purposes.[1]

To coincide with the U2 and Green Day recording of the song, both bands performed it live during the Monday Night Football Pregame show of the New Orleans Saints versus Atlanta Falcons game on September 25, 2006. This was the first game in the Louisiana Superdome since it was heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. The live performance of the song was later sold online to benefit Music Rising, a charity created by U2's The Edge in order to bring instruments and music programs back to New Orleans.

In the four song set, U2 and Green Day performed "Wake Me Up When September Ends" followed by a medley of the American folk song "House of the Rising Sun", The Skids' "The Saints Are Coming" and U2's "Beautiful Day" as a seven-piece band, augmented by the Rebirth Brass Band, the New Birth Brass Band, Troy Andrews, and Big Sam Williams. The lyrics of all four songs were customized by singers Billie Joe Armstrong and Bono to commemorate the trials, tribulations, and successes that faced the city over the past year. Punctuating the 68,000 fans' first season-ticket sellout of the Louisiana Superdome in its 31-year history, the New Orleans Saints beat the Atlanta Falcons 23-3. Since then, the song has been played at Saints home games before they take the field.[citation needed] The live version of "The Saints Are Coming" was immediately made available for download purchase at Real Rhapsody.[2]

The studio version of the song was released for digital download on October 30, 2006 and released as a CD single on November 6, 2006. The song also appears on U2's hits album, U218 Singles, which was released on November 20, 2006. The song was played for the first time by U2 alone on the Pacific Leg of the Vertigo Tour in Brisbane, Australia, on November 7, 2006.[3]

A music video for "The Saints Are Coming," directed by Chris Milk, was released on video site YouTube on October 27, 2006. The music video shows the two bands playing at the Abbey Road Studio and at the Louisiana Superdome (though the footage from the live performance at the Superdome has been overdubbed with the studio version of the song), intermixed with news footage of the displacement of residents after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The second half of the video shows an alternate history in which George W. Bush redeployed troops and vehicles from Iraq to New Orleans to help victims of the hurricane, with the military personnel fulfilling the titular role of the "saints." According to Chris Milk, this was done to "make a commentary on the Katrina disaster ... from the standpoint of how things can and should be done in the future."[4] The video ends with military support vehicles fading out as the camera pans to a sign that reads 'Not as seen on TV', alluding to the criticized response to Katrina while also parodying media deception on rescue coverage. The video had more than two million views on YouTube five days after its initial upload. Various critics, including some YouTube viewers have commented on the logistical impossibility of the hypothetical movement of certain pieces of military hardware from Iraq on such short notice as well as the actual functional capabilities of the aircraft digitally edited into the video. The single has been given a Grammy nomination for "Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group". Billie Joe also performed the song with U2 in Hawaii at the end of the Vertigo Tour.[5]

Chart performance

Charts (2006) Peak
position
Canadian Singles Chart 1 (10)
Italy (FIMI Top 50) 1 (5)
Spain (AFYVE Top 20) 1 (4)
Denmark (IFPI Denmark Top 20) 1 (3)
Netherlands (Gfk Mega Charts Top 100) 1 (2)
Australia (ARIA Top 50) 1 (1)
Hungary (MAHASZ Top 10) 1 (1)
Ireland (IRMA Top 50) 1 (1)
Norway (VG/GGF Top 20) 1 (1)
Switzerland (Media Control Top 100) 1 (1)
Belgium–Flanders (Ultratop Top 50) 2
UK (The Official UK Charts Company Top 75) 2
Austria (Media Control Top 75) 3
New Zealand (RIANZ Top 40) 4
Sweden (GLF Top 60) 4
Greece (IFPI Greece Top 50) 5
Czech IFPI Chart 5
Germany (Media Control Top 100) 6
Finland (IFPI Finland Top 20) 8
Poland (Official Singles Chart) 11
Belgium–Wallonia (Ultratop Top 40) 12
Latvia (Airplay Top 50) 16
US Modern Rock Tracks 22
Japan (Oricon Top 30) 25
US Mainstream Rock Tracks 33
France (IFOP/SNEP Top 100) 44
U.S. (Billboard Hot 100) 51
Preceded by Australian ARIA Singles Chart number-one single
November 12, 2006 - November 19, 2006 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Canadian number-one single
November 16 2006 (10 non-consecutive weeks) 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Norwegian VG-lista number-one single
November 15 2006 - November 22 		Succeeded by

References

  1. ^ BBC News, U2 to join forces with Green Day
  2. ^ Rhapsody Online, Music Rising
  3. ^ U2-Vertigo-Tour.com, All times "The Saints Are Coming" played live by U2
  4. ^ MTV News, MTV News Exclusive: Catch A Sneak Peek Of U2/ Green Day 'Saints' Video
  5. ^ U2-Vertigo-Tour.com, Honolulu setlist and details
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