#u2 war

[ihateandie]

powder / jinx x u2 ⁉️⁉️🙀🙀🙀

[ arcane album series part 1 of ?? — maybe ]

[ontheedgeofgloria]

Day 5 - U2 Prompt Challange

Prompt: "Favourite U2 song from War"

My favourite song from 'War' as of current would definitely have to be 'The Refugee'.

This was another one that I heard while visiting Ireland. While on a fairly long road trip, I decided to shuffle U2s Spotify profile, and this was one of the songs that came up. Admittedly, when I listen to songs, I don't tend to pay attention to the lyrics in the first instance, so what struck me about this song firstly was how danceable it was despite having a title like 'The Refugee' where you sort of get the idea that there is an underlying serious message. Everything about the melody from the guitar to the bass to the sort of drum solo, made me at least want to get up and move a little, somewhat like those old War songs where you dance because you need a break from life and you dont really realise what the song is actually talking about.

However, I have listened to the song many times since then, and I've learned the words a fair bit by now. Having read Bono's book now, I learned that around the 80s, himself and Ali went to Ethiopia and volunteered in a refugee orphanage type camp, where they witnessed first hands the conditions the people were living. But particularly the needs and wants of the many people, how some wished to go home, how some wished for an education towards a better future, and I understood then with the lyrics about leaving for and living in America, the parents seem to want the best for their children, first and formost and are willing to do whatever it takes to get that for them, as much as they possibly can.

It's an interesting song with two very different perspectives to experience it from. Now I do both, dance and think.

'The Refugee.'

[bishopsbox]

source: bishopsbox

U2: The best of, 1980-1990 (cover art)

via: albumartexchange.com

[richie-cummingham]

War will always be my favorite U2 album. I haven’t even listened to every single album of theirs but I just know that War will always be my favorite. Not just because it’s a fantastic album, but because I hold a very emotional connection with it. I was in 8th grade when I was first listening to it. At the same time I was reading All Quiet on the Western Front for English class (for those of you unfamiliar with AQWF, it’s a very famous novel written by a WWI vet in protest of war, it’s absolutely incredible, I definitely recommend reading it). We had to write this giant-ass paper for it, and during those two excruciating weeks of writing, I was listening to War. It was painful, yet this is one of my fondest memories. And now they are forever intertwined in my mind. Everytime I listen to that album, I get so lost in the words, yet I don’t recognize them. The only thing I think about is Paul Bäumer, and his best friend Stanislaus Katczinsky. I think about the anger and frustration of Albert Kropp. The terrible death of Gérard Duval. I recall the brutality, the destruction, and pain of WWI. And I think it’s absolutely brilliant that this album can bring me back to that. However ugly the reality of the book might be, it opened my eyes to a whole new set of horizons, which made me the person I am today. I know that sounds cheesy as fuck, but it’s true. So cheers to U2, and one hell of an emotionally charged album.

[ultra-francesca-mercury]

February 28th, 1983

U2 release their third album, War, with "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "New Year's Day." It's their first album to sell a million copies in America.

[thirtytwoelvismovies]

Saturday listenings.

[gojiro]

The Vinyl of the Day is ‘War’ by U2, 1983. The third album by U2, War was a marked shift in tone for the band - their previous records dealt with much ‘softer’ material and themes, while War was overtly political and angry; with songs like ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’, ‘New Year’s Day’, and the title track - setting their image into a band that demanded to be taken seriously, and who really had something to say, and making them an important voice about freedom, equality, and human rights world-wide. It was a brave step for U2, especially due to their Irish background, releasing songs which dealt directly with ‘the troubles’, and it brought a harsh backlash from much of the UK. But clearly it was the right decision, and turned them into one of the most popular and admired bands of all time. 

From Wikipedia;

War is the third studio album by Irish rock band U2. It was produced by Steve Lillywhite, and was released on 28 February 1983 on Island Records. The album has come to be regarded as U2's first overtly political album, in part because of songs like "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "New Year's Day", as well as the title, which stems from the band's perception of the world at the time; Bono stated that "war seemed to be the motif for 1982." While the central themes of their earlier albums Boy and October focused on adolescence and spirituality, respectively, War focused on both the physical aspects of warfare, and the emotional after-effects.Musically, it is also harsher than the band's previous releases. The album has been described as the record where the band "turned pacifism itself into a crusade."

War was a commercial success for the band, knocking Michael Jackson's Thriller from the top of the charts to become the band's first number-one album in the UK. It reached number 12 in the US and became their first gold-certified album there. While poorly received by British critics at the time of release, War has since gained critical acclaim. In 2012, the album was ranked number 223 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

The sound of War is arguably harsher than that of the band's other albums. A major reason for this is that the Edge uses far less delay and echo than in previous and subsequent works.

War opens with the protest song "Sunday Bloody Sunday". The song describes the horror felt by an observer of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, specifically Bloody Sunday (1972). Already a departure from the themes of innocence and spirituality displayed on the group's first two albums, "Sunday Bloody Sunday" introduces the album with a startling, military-esque drum beat by Larry Mullen, Jr., a fuming solo by the Edge that segues into staccato bursts reminiscent of machine gun fire, and pointed lyrical couplets such as: "And today the millions cry / We eat and drink while tomorrow they die." The album as a whole is more direct than the ambient October. 

Bono said in 1983,

“A lot of the songs on our last album were quite abstract, but War is intentionally more direct, more specific. But you can still take the title on a lot of different levels. We're not only interested in the physical aspects of war. The emotional effects are just as important, 'the trenches dug within our hearts'. People have become numb to violence. Watching the television, it's hard to tell the difference between fact and fiction. One minute you see something being shot on The Professionals, and the next you see someone falling through a window after being shot on the news. One is fiction and one is real life, but we're becoming so used to the fiction that we become numb to the real thing. War could be the story of a broken home, a family at war.”

"Sunday Bloody Sunday" is considered to be among the greatest political protest songs, and has remained a staple of U2's live concerts for 25 years.

[whereisyourmp3now]

I can't believe the news today Oh, I can't close my eyes And make it go away