Famous U2 Songs

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The idea of the famous U2 band formation was conceived by Larry Mullen, Jr. a teenager student of Mount Temple Comprehensive School on September 25, 1976. He invited musicians for a new band through the school’s notice board and was contacted by six people. The starting members were: Larry Mullen, Paul Hewson, David Evans, Dik Evans, and Adam Clayton. The band was initially named as The Larry Mullen Band, but soon after it was changed to Feedback. This name also did not last long, and they switched over to Hype, and ultimately settled with the name U2 because of its ambiguity being open ended, and because they disliked it the least of the six names suggested by Steve Averill. By 1980, U2 gained international fame. The band made a breakthrough after the release of their 1987 album The Joshua Tree. The famous magazine Rolling Stone remarked about The Joshua Tree that it raised the image of  the band ‘from heroes to superstars.’

1. ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’

'Sunday Bloody Sunday'
‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’

The British Army’s soldiers shot unarmed bystanders and protesters during a Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march on January 30, 1972 in the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland, killing 13 persons instantly and leaving many seriously injured. The song performed in remembrance of the incident proved the capability of U2 to perform on political issues fearlessly. It has become an iconic protest song with its heart-touching lyric reflective of the feelings of those who witnessed the incident:

‘Broken bottles under children’s feet
Bodies strewn across a dead-end street
But I won’t heed the battle call
It puts my back up
Puts my back up against the wall

Sunday, bloody Sunday
Sunday, bloody Sunday

And the battle’s just begun
There’s many lost, but tell me who has won
Trenches dug within our hearts
And mothers, children, brothers, sisters torn apart.’

2. ‘Where the Streets Have No Name’

'Where the Streets Have No Name'
‘Where the Streets Have No Name’

The lead vocalist of U2 wrote the Lyrics of the song ‘Where the Streets Have No Name’ written as:

‘I want to run, I want to hide
I want to tear down the walls that hold me inside
I want to reach out and touch the flame
Where the streets have no name
I want to take shelter from the poison rain
Where the streets have no name.’
It was in the back of his mind that persons could be identified by their religious association or social status reflected in the streets of Belfast. The song debuted in 1987 on the Joshua Tree Tour and won Grammy Awards for Best Performance Music Video.

3. ‘Three’

 'Three'
‘Three’

This song, also known as ‘U2 3’ is the first release of the U2 rock band. It has been reissued six times and is still not easily available. In 2008 it was released on a CD as a promotional disc with the reissue of ‘Boy.’ In the early years of its formation, the band performed it regularly. Its lyrics begin as:

‘Spirit of the rising sun lift me up
Hold me there and never let me fall
Love me till I die, my heart won’t wait
Soon I will be loved
In this love song, love.’

4. ‘The Fly’

'The Fly'
‘The Fly’

‘The Fly’ was written by the rock band U2 produced by Daniel Lanois and released on October 12, 1991. The song belongs to alternative rock and is a part of the album Achtung Baby. The song introduced hip hop and industrial beats. Bono remarked about its sound as ‘the sound of four men chopping down the Joshua Tree.’

‘Oh, baby child…
It’s no secret that the stars are falling from the sky
It’s no secret that our world is in darkness tonight
They say the sun is sometimes eclipsed by a moon
You know I don’t see you when she walks in the room.’

5. ‘Beautiful Day’: All That You Can’t Leave Behind

'Beautiful Day'
‘Beautiful Day’

‘Beautiful Day’ is a beautiful lead song from the U2 Album All That You Can’t Leave Behind. It was released by Island Records in the U.K. on October 30, 2000. It was a great commercial success and helped the album achieve the multi-platinum status. It is the tenth album of the band U2. The song was reversal to the more conventional form from which they had deviated before. More than 12 million copies of All That You Can’t Leave Behind were sold, and it won 7 Grammy Awards for U2:

‘You thought you’d found a friend
To take you out of this place
Someone you could lend a hand
In return for Grace

It’s a beautiful day
Sky falls, you feel like
It’s a beautiful day
Don’t let it get away.’

6. ‘Pride’

'Pride'
‘Pride’

‘Pride (in the Name of Love)’ is a song performed by U2 to pay homage to the work and life of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. It was a hit song and entered the U.S. top 40. Bono told Rolling Stone in 2005 ‘There was a lot of emotion there, but to be honest with you’¦I even get the times of Dr. King’s assassination wrong. I said ‘Early morning April 4’ it was early evening.’

‘Early morning, April 4
A shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride
In the name of love
What more in the name of love.’

7. ‘Bad’

'Bad'
“The Unforgettable Fire” (album)

Describing the background of ‘Bad,’ Bono mentioned about some friend who fell victim to the ill effects of heroin. Dublin was a center of heroin consumers in the late 1970s and early 1980s on account of its being easily available at cheaper rates. Many adolescents fell victim to it, and this prompted U2 to perform this song:

‘I’m wide awake
I’m not sleeping
Oh, no, no

If you should ask, then may be
They’d tell you what I would say
True colors fly in blue and black
Blue silken sky and burning flag
Colors crash, colloid in bloodshot eyes
If I could, you know I would
If I could, I would let it go
This desperation
Dislocation
Separation
Condemnation
Revelation
In temptation
Isolation, desolation.’

8. ‘With or Without You’

'With or Without You'
‘With or Without You’

The song ‘With or Without You’ is reflective of the universal torment of lovers, of the pain they suffer with or without one another. Love is not winning only; it is losing too, and this is what the song is all about:

‘On a bed of nails she makes me wait

And I wait without you

With or without you…


Through the storm we reach the shore

You give it all but I want more

And I am waiting for you

My hands are tied, my body bruised

She’s got me with nothing left to win

And nothing else to lose.’

9. ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I Am Looking For’

'I Still Haven't Found What I Am Looking For'
‘I Still Haven’t Found What I Am Looking For’

‘I Still Haven’t Found What I Am Looking For’ is a mystical experience of a common man entangled between the needs of body and soul. It is an expression of the tireless quest for truth:

‘I have climbed the highest mountain
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for

‘You broke the bonds and you
Loosed the chains
Carried the cross
And my shame
All my shame
You know I believe it
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.’

10. ‘I Will Follow’

 'I Will Follow'
‘I Will Follow’

U2 released ’11 O’Clock Tick Tock’ as its first international single, and it included ‘I Will Follow You’ relating to the dreams and frustrations of teenagers:

‘I was on the outside when you said
You said you needed me
I was looking at myself
I was blind, I could not see
A boy tries hard to be a man
His mother takes him by the hand
If he stops to think, he starts to cry
Oh Why,
If you walk away.’

Conclusion:

Many bands which started with great pomp and show faded into the haze of anonymity while a few like U2 had a meager start but attained great heights which initially might have been just unthinkable for them. A good start is important, but what matters the most is the end result. And U2 has been very lucky in achieving excellent results. The band sold more than 150 million records which exceeded the records sold by any other band. U2 won 22 Grammy Awards and excelled in this respect too. In 2005, U2 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. U2 ranked #22 in the ‘100 Greatest Artists of All Time’ list of Rolling Stone.

 

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