U2’s Music Topical, With Message Of Hope

Amid the noisy tangle of heavy metal rock and beeping new wave dance music glutting FM radio, there is a haunting little rock ‘n’ roll freedom anthem which occasionally cuts through the din, bringing home a message of social importance and hope.

One could dance to it as easily as they could to Van Halen’s “The Cradle Will Rock” or A Flock of Seagull’s “Space Age Love Song.” It has a driving beat, a hypnotically rhythmic guitar-piano line and passionate vocal delivery.

But “New Year’s Day” by U2, which performs at 8 p.m. Friday at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, deals with matters weightier than teenage rebellion or spaced-out puppy love.

It’s about rebellion and love of a different kind, a fervent affirmation of Solidarity’s courageous struggle for freedom in Poland.

Such topicality abounds on U2’s latest album, War. There are anti-nuclear tracts (“Seconds”) and railings against the violent madness in Northern Ireland (“Sunday Bloody Sunday”), all delivered in a musical mix of strident slap-shot drums, economic yet colorful guitar and piano accompaniment and crafty, absorbing pop-rock melodies.

“We’re very much open to what’s happening and saying what we feel,” said U2 drummer Larry Mullen Jr. in a recent phone interview.

Mullen and his fellow Irishmen in the band have experienced a newfound “spiritual awareness” in the last couple of years—not the over-zealous, Bible-thumping kind, but a quietly devout Christianity that has affected their outlook, and their music.

“Sometimes people take that and try to use it as an angle when they’re writing about us,” said the Dublin native. “It’s not an angle. It’s a very private thing. It comes out in the music. Everything that has to be said comes in the music.”

In fact, the listener can trace the emotional and intellectual—not to mention musical growth of these four young Irishmen in their three albums.

Mullen, bassist Adam Clayton, singer Bono Vox and a guitarist who calls himself “The Edge,” first formed in Dublin in 1978.

After two years of gigging in Ireland and England, a modestly successful three-track EP and lots of critical raves, U2 landed a contract with Island Records in 1980 and recorded its first LP, Boy.

“With Boy it was a time of innocence, a time of growing up for us,” said Mullen. “And we wrote that.

“In October (the second album), we had become spiritually aware, so we wrote about that. In War, it was a different situation because…we had started to grow up. And things like Northern Ireland became very real to us.

“We began to think of things like nuclear war. We were honestly concerned, and that’s how we wrote them. There was never just an idea of ‘well, let’s write about this.’ They were honestly things that were affecting us.”

Whether it was lyrical content or U2’s way with accessible pop melody, their latest album finally brought them worldwide attention. And, Mullen feels, a lot of misunderstanding.

“People think that ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday,’ because of the title, is about taking sides in Northern Ireland. That was when 13 Catholics were shot by British troops.

“But it’s not that at all. There have been a number of bloody Sundays in Northern Ireland. And Catholics have killed Protestants.

“The lyrics in the song are very clear. It’s not a rebel song, taking sides. It’s just ‘How long, how long must we sing this song?’ How long do we have to go on killing each other, in the name of God or whatever?”

Mullen still recalls the first time U2 played the song in Belfast, at the heart of Northern Ireland’s unrest.

“It was a really scary experience, because Belfast, at the time we were there, was in a very serious state. There was a lot of trouble there. And we came onstage and Bono said, “Look, we’ve got this song and we’re going to play it and if you don’t like it, we’ll never play it in Belfast again.’”

“And we played it and the crowd roared and shouted and screamed and did everything people do who appreciate good music. And it was fantastic. They appreciated it, they understood what we were trying to say.

“It’s funny how in a place like Northern Ireland they understood it, and maybe some place in North America they misunderstood it. And there are bands from Northern Ireland who have said, ‘What right have you got to write about Northern Ireland when you’re not from there?’ But as Irishmen, we feel that we’ve got to stand up and say something.”

© The Daily Oklahoman, 1983.