: Eoghan Lyng
: U2 Every album, every song
: Sonicbond Publishing
: 9781789524239
: 1
: CHF 8.30
:
: Musik
: English
: 144
: DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB

U2 were Formed at a Dublin Secondary School by Adam Clayton, Bono, The Edge and Larry Mullen Jr. Like most bands, they wanted to be among the best in the world. By 1991, with Achtung Baby in the pipeline and War, The Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree behind them, they were arguably deserving of that intention. Yet there was more to the band than the stadium records that made their fans deliriously happy and the music's creators artistically and lucratively fulfilled. Their second album, October, opened the four-piece into a spiritual journey that fed their later work. Their double album Rattle and Hum proved one of the greatest torchbearers of American music of its time. And then there were Zooropa and Pop - dance-oriented albums that showed the initially punk-oriented quartet exploring effects, sounds and territories that few of their contemporaries dared contemplate.


That they should exist forty years after their debut is testament to the will, fortitude and versatility U2 hold. Their most recent works Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience have proven their most reflective and perhaps their most autobiographical. What lies next for U2 only the band know, but this book delves into their past work, without leaving a passenger behind.


The author
Eoghan Lyng is a music writer and pop fanatic. Having spent a life listening to idiosyncratic pop, Lyng honed this fascination into something more tangible. His writing credits include New Sounds, We Are Cult, Culture Sonar, The Phacemag, DMovies, The Irish Post and The Digital Fix. He has interviewed Pete Best, Denny Laine, Jeff Wayne, Rat Scabies, Eric Stewart, Chris Thomas, Kristin Hersh, Arthur Matthews and Ian La Frenais. Lyng intends to continue his musical journey by exploring new and exciting artists, without losing interest in the bands that have led him here. He lives in Dublin, Ireland.
Chapter4

October


Personnel:

Bono: lead vocals

The Edge: guitars, piano, backing vocals

Adam Clayton: bass guitar

Larry Mullen Jr.: drums

Vinnie Kilduff: Uilleann pipes, bodhrán

Record Label: Island

Recorded: April–August 1981 at Compass Point Studios, Nassau and Windmill Lane, Dublin.

Produced by Steve Lillywhite.

UK released date: 12 October 1981.

US release date:13 October 1981.

Highest chart places: UK: 11, US: 104, IRE: 17

Running time: 41:05

The band’s second album is disliked in many corners. As an album, it is covered from head to toe in religious imagery; an odd move for a rock band at the beginning of the materialistic eighties. In one of the most sustained criticisms of the band’s legacy, the album’s ponderous, detailed texture continues to confound listeners. Yet it remains of the band’s boldest, brashest and bravest works. Exceptionally well written, it proves the album where U2 chose to distance themselves from any other makeshift post-punk band. And it also proves how quickly the band were willing to change their most recent work; off the back of a hit album and everything! As it stands,October is an intellectual exercise in humility, a humility sorely lacking in many of the band’s other records. But it was never for their learned abilities that listeners gravitated to U2, but for their abilities to write effortlessly commercial hits. The Shalom Fellowship helped influence the band’s writing at this time. Bono, The Edge and Larry Mullen Jr. were invested in their teachings and the group’s writing comes from the philosophies they had learned. Adam Clayton, the band’s oldest member, was the least convinced by the influence of the Shalom Fellowship. Mullen Jr., discussing the matter frankly with Neil McCormick, found them a more positive influence: ‘The idea was to create. a Christian community, where people would live and work under strict Christian standards. When you’re young and impressionable, it all sounds ideal. But there was something terribly wrong with the concept. It was a bit like the bigger the commitment you made, the closer you were to heaven. It was a really screwed-up view of the world and nothing to do with what I now understand a Christian faith to be’. But for now, three of the band members were wowed by the community’s standards. Such was their commitment to their faith that they risked abandoning rock music entirely. Lucky for us that they didn’t.

Album Cover

The boys are here! U2 have chosen to appear on the album cover, for the first time. They’re an unsettled looking bunch, in this colour photograph. Adam Clayton stands closest to the camera, with his eyes looking anywhere but at the photographer. Bono similarly is turned away from the camera lens, staring up at the stars he undoubtedly wishes he could join. Larry Mullen Jr. is squinting, his eyes peering