I’m not much of a fan of American football. In fact, I can count on two fingers the number of times I’ve watched the sport in my adult life, and both of those times were due to the involvement of my favorite band. The first was back in 2002 when U2 played the Super Bowl […]
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U2101: California (There is No End to Love)
I remember my first listen-through of Songs of Innocence. After the amazing opening combo of “The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)” and “Every Breaking Wave”, I was already in love with the album. When I heard the opening refrain of “California (There is No End to Love)”, with its obvious Beach Boys reference, though, I didn’t […]
Read MoreU2101: Iris (Hold Me Close)
I think that one of the most tragic stories I’ve ever heard is the one about Bono’s mother, Iris, suffering an aneurysm at her own father’s funeral when Bono was fourteen, then dying a few days later. It’s so incredibly unlikely and filled with pathos that if I didn’t know it to be true, I’d […]
Read MoreU2101 – Raised By Wolves
Like a lot of great U2 songs, “Raised By Wolves” doesn’t explicitly spell out an exact meaning. Rather, it allows itself to be interpreted a variety of different ways, depending on the listener and what’s going on in their life at the time. According to the Songs of Innocence liner notes, the song was written […]
Read MoreU2 is Pretentious: So What?
Now that a movie with 90% of its title in parenthesis has been nominated for an Academy Award, this is the perfect time to discuss that unshakable idea about U2 that seems embedded in the public consciousness: that they are the consummate example of what it means to be pretentious. Here’s why that movie and […]
Read MoreWhy U2? # 44 – They Never Disappoint.
Leonard Cohen. Daniel Lanois. The Smashing Pumpkins. Bloodhound Gang. U2. Several artists whose output I normally enjoy a great deal have released new music in 2014, and all of them except for U2 disappointed me. Of course, an argument could be made that since my passion for U2 exceeds that which I feel for those […]
Read MoreWhy U2? #35 – It’s All About the Songs
I was thinking today about the ways in which Songs of Innocence did and didn’t meet my expectations – not so much with regard to how much or how little enjoyment I get from the record, but more in the ways U2 did or didn’t do what I thought they’d do. In the most important […]
Read MoreYour Voices Will Be Heard…So Be Nice!
“Your voices will be heard!” I’ve heard some of you sing, it may be best to leave the singing to Bono while you hum silently along. More often than not, the voice(s) that are heard are the ones that remain echoing inside, destroying people. An annual theme for October is National Bully Awareness Month and […]
Read MoreKnow Your Bonoisms, Part 16 – Apologizing Bono Style
“It’s gonna be hard to get Larry to say anything at all; it’s gonna be hard for Bono to stop talking. Adam, you’re going to get a lot about flower arranging and perfume.” Aw, Edge. It’s not often that we’re treated to your subtle brand of zen Presbyterian humor. But we were this week on […]
Read MoreU2101 – Cedarwood Road
When I first listened to Songs of Innocence, there were, of course, a few songs that really stood out to me as potential favorites. Today’s topic was not one of them – most of those early faves were from the first half of the album. Song for Someone, Every Breaking Wave, etc. I think that […]
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