One of my favorite Bono collaborations ever comes in the form of a song that he and Edge wrote for Roy Orbison to sing back in the late 80s, “She’s a Mystery to Me.” surprisingly enough, Bono actually produced Roy’s recording of the song, and U2’s frontman even played guitar on the track! Bono has […]
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I don’t usually write about solo tracks from members of U2 or tracks that don’t include contributions by the whole band, but this week, I couldn’t help my self. The long-awaited Bono collaboration with Swizz Beatz and Kanye West, a song titled “Skyscrapers,” finally saw the light of day when it leaked to YouTube late […]
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I remember reading in BIll Flanagan’s superb book U2 at the End of the World that, when they are in the studio, U2 has a tendency to revisit the moods or feelings of everything they have ever recorded. Sometimes, it is easy to pick out where this has happened, kind of like how “One Step […]
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There’s a thin but definite delineation between recordings by U2 and solo work by a member of that band. Some times, that line gets a little blurry, such as with the topic of this week’s article, Bono’s cover of “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” This song began its journey into U2’s discography when Bono recorded […]
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I know that you have all read in the past about my mixed feelings regarding The Unforgettable Fire album. Well, this song, “Elvis Presley and America” probably encapsulates those feelings more than any other. To start with, the music is just a slowed-down version of the backing track from another song on the same album, […]
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Even for someone like me who doesn’t believe a lot of the Bible or most of what one might hear in a church, there are still plenty of positive life lessons to be learned from Christianity. Things like “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and “thou shall not commit murder” are good pieces of advice, no […]
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Listening to a new U2 album for the first time is always a heady experience, but I can’t think of a single album that left me as dumbstruck after the first listen as the Passengers album, and that holds doubly true for the first track, “United Colours.” This track really defies easy description. On one […]
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I know that many people who read my article every week might not think much of the Passengers album. It is weird, experimental, and strangely inaccessible. There is a debate on whether or not it should even be included in U2’s catalog. For the record, I believe that it should be included–all four members of […]
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I’m going to start out this week’s article by retelling a story that many of you probably already know. I feel, however, that I would be remiss in discussing this song without relaying the information that I have, so forgive me if you’ve heard this one. Back in 2001 or 2002, just after Bono’s father, […]
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I often think about how different No Line On the Horizon could have been had U2 stuck to their original plans. Apparently, the album, before it was released, was quite different– remember, producer Daniel Lanois said at one point that the album was as much of a departure from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb […]
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