I watched Irish
band U2 be presented with the Kennedy
Center Honors last Wednesday on the annual CBS TV broadcast with
some mixed feelings. On one hand, the super group has a long history of churning out compelling
rock anthems for almost every unjust conflict, social justice and human rights crisis, and international
cause of the last 40 years, almost always on the right side if sometimes fuzzy about holding
some powerful interests personally responsible for the suffering they decry. On the other hand, the
smugness, preening, and self-congratulations of the band’s leaders and main writers Bono and The Edge is more than a little off-putting.
But it is natural to present their first big international hit New Year’s Day from their third album War in 1983. The album had an
extended anti-war and pacifist theme while the song was inspired the Solidarity
movement rising against Soviet
domination in Poland and local Polish Communist
leadership.
The band came together as students at Mount Temple Comprehensive School, a secondary public school operated by the Church of Ireland (Anglican) in Dublin when 14-year-old drummer Larry
Mullen Jr. posted a notice
looking for fellow musicians
to form a new band. Five students responded, none of them
very accomplished on their instruments.
Three of them—Paul Hewson (Bono) on lead vocals, David Evans (the Edge) on lead guitar and back-up vocals, and Adam Clayton on bass guitar—and Mullen have remained together as the band finally named U2 in 1978
ever since.
Originally inspired by English
post-punk, they have evolved
and re-invented themselves several times while honing their musical
abilities and songwriting skills with the assistance of producers like Steve Lillywhite, Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Nellee Hooper, Flood, Howie B, and others.
Over the course of their spectacular career U2 have
released 14 studio albums and are one of the world’s best-selling music
acts, selling an estimated 150–170 million records
worldwide. They have won 22 Grammy Awards, more than any
other band, and in 2005, they were inducted into the Rock & Roll
Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility. Rolling Stone ranked U2 at number 22 on its list of the 100
Greatest Artists of All Time. Throughout their career, as a band and as
individuals, they have campaigned for human rights and social justice causes, including Amnesty International, Jubilee 2000, the ONE/DATA campaigns, Product Red, War Child, and Music Rising.
Despite proudly proclaiming their Irish identity and supporting
the Catholic minority in Ulster—Sunday Bloody Sunday was another track on the War album—and supporting Irish
re-unification, they have stirred anger and resentment in Eire for sheltering their enormous income in a Dutch corporation. Threatened with prosecution in the Republic for tax evasion, Bono and the
Edge live together with their families in a Swiss castle and cannot safely return again to Dublin.
They have also been criticized for lucrative corporate deals with iTunes, Apple, Bank of America and
others, as well as to sucking up to some powerful global oligarchs and unsavory national leaders for support of the One campaign and other global charities.
But on the whole, their body
of work and real world positive
impact are beyond quibbling.
Happy New Year’s Day!
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