The Bank of America / MBNA version of U2's "One"

I saw this on E! Television's "The Soup" and had two reactions:

1) Total horror and revulsion that someone would butcher such a marvelous song for commercial purposes

and

2) Nostalgia.

Yes, nostalgia. I used to work at high levels in corporate America, may yet go back to that (my creditors and my ex wife would appreciate that). I recall at the MFS/WorldCom convention in San Francisco, one of our marketing reps (a lovely and talented young woman) had a side job as an aspiring country singer and had made a song out of the name of our CEO, Kirby Pickle (I am not making this up)). She performed the song, with full stagecraft, which was wonderfully sappy and designed to actually make us feel good about our positions as members of a cult of personality (CoP). Most businessmen believes themselves to be the CoP equivalents of rock stars and sports figures.

For those of you not familiar with standards in most large corporations, this sort of conduct is actually quite normal. During that convention we had ceiling-high tower speakers blaring out each executive's "theme song". Mr. Pickle's was "We Will Rock You". Freddy Mercury, I am sure, was spinning in his grave. The audience played along with the whole thing, as these were the guys who signed our checks and it would've been a long walk back to DC.

Yes, it is a bastardization of art, and art by a band that takes itself seriously (I wonder if the authors and performers of this version took the time and trouble to ask U2 for legal or at least moral permission for what I am sure they themselves would've considered an homage, not a parody). On the other hand, they do take themselves seriously and in a world full of pain, despair, hunger, war, genocide, interracial conflict, class warfare, religious wars, terrorism, abortion, political gridlock, the BCS ratings and receding harilines, it is nice to see someone willing to take the time to sing the praises of...credit cards.

I guess everyone has to believe in something.