Saints march in for the end of the world

Published 12:19 pm Monday, October 2, 2006

By Staff
Can Armageddon really be nigh when the Superdome is filled with hopeful New Orleans Saints fans?
When it comes to predicting whether the world is approaching biblical "last days," I'm squarely in the camp of Stephen J. Stein, Indiana University professor emeritus, who points out the obvious – that to date apocalyptic predictions have all been wrong.
Stein, author of "The Continuum History of Apocalypticism," says, "There have been evangelical preachers in America talking about the end times for more than 2 1/2 centuries."
At the other end of the spectrum is John Hagee, a San Antonio pastor, convinced that armed conflict in the Middle East, from the summer skirmishes involving Hezbollah and Israel to Iraq and Iran, signals the imminent war to end all wars.
Hagee ought to know. He's written six books on the subject, whereas R.E.M. only recorded one song about the end of the world.
The Saints reopened the Superdome Sept. 25 on Monday Night Football in a Super Bowl atmosphere with U2 and President George H.W. Bush in the house.
The Saints went a couple of decades before posting their first winning season in 1987 – a feat managed only six times since.
"The Aints" were so embarrassing even their fans concealed their identities inside paper sack hoods.
It was so good to see the Louisiana Superdome filled with life again a year after Hurricane Katrina swamped it with misery on Aug. 29, 2005.
All those happy fans in gold and black cheering a real "home" game after wandering like nomads through exile in Baton Rouge, San Antonio and New York.
Though New Orleans' population is about half of what it was, and many of those residents are still trying to put lives together out of piles of puzzle pieces, their team sold out the entire regular season schedule – all season tickets; no single-game tickets.
Unfortunately, I missed the collaboration of U2 and Green Day on "The Saints Are Coming," the 1978 song by the Skids, a Scottish punk band. They recorded the cover over three days during the second week of September in Studio Two of London's Abbey Road studio, the Beatles' preferred space, so there may be a bit of magic, too.
It will likely be released as a single to benefit the ongoing rebuilding of the Big Easy.
"It was almost a punk-rock recording in a lot of ways," Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong said. "We just pretty much banged it out … because it was Abbey Road, (we played) some Beatles songs, too. Some of it sounded god-awful, and some of it pretty good."
More proof the world is ending: Bob Dylan, 65, borrowed a page from the U2 playbook and appeared in an iTunes commercial wearing a black cowboy hat.
Add to that a video starring Scarlett Johansson and directed by Bennett "Capote" Miller and a MySpace page and Dylan had his first No. 1 album in 30 years (since "Desire" in 1976) – the oldest living artist to reach the top of the charts.
Of course, to a lot of new fans he's not the voice of their generation, but an author and a radio personality on XM.