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Home , A Conspiracy of Hope, Bill Carter, Bill Graham (author), Bullet the Blue Sky, Jack Healey, Miss Sarajevo

Politics and Religion in Selected Lyrics of :

From War (1983) to „Miss “ (1995)

Diplomarbeit

Zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades einer Magistra der Philosophie

An der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz

vorgelegt von Kathrin NEUHOLD

Am Institut für Anglistik Begutachter: Ao. Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr.phil. Hugo Keiper

Graz, 2013

Von ganzem Herzen danke ich meinen Eltern, dass sie mich durch all die Jahre meiner Studienzeit unterstützt haben. Es ist keineswegs selbstverständlich und ich möchte mich hiermit bei ihnen aufrichtig für diese einzigartige Möglichkeit bedanken.

Ich möchte mich auch für die motivierenden und bereichernden Gespräche mit meinem Lebensgefährten Mario bedanken, der mir in jedem Moment der Diplomarbeit hilfreich zur Seite gestanden ist und mich in allen Computerangelegenheiten beraten hat.

Ein besonderer Dank gilt auch meinem Diplomarbeitsbetreuer Prof. Dr. Hugo Keiper für dessen Hilfsbereitschaft, thematische Aufgeschlossenheit und seiner geduldigen Beantwortung jeder noch so klein scheinenden Frage. Er unterstützte mich weiters oft mit motivierenden Worten und verstand es, meine unangebrachten Sorgen während des Verfassens der Diplomarbeit zu lindern.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 Introduction ...... 1

2 U2 – The ...... 4

3 Short History of ...... 7

3.1 Northern Ireland ...... 9 3.2 ...... 10 3.3 Anti–Protestantism ...... 11

4 U2 and Religion ...... 12

4.1 The Religious Education of , , , and Larry Mullen Junior ...... 12 4.2 Religion in the Early Years of U2 ...... 15 4.3 October (1981) ...... 19

5 U2 and Politics ...... 21

5.1 War and The Unforgettable Fire (1983–1985) ...... 22 5.2 Band Aid, Life Aid and “” (1984–1986) ...... 25 5.3 and Rattle and Hum (1986–1989) ...... 30 5.4 Achtung Baby and ZooTV (1990–1992) ...... 35 5.5 Stop (June 1992) and Festival Against Racism (January 1993) ...... 43 5.6 Zooropa (1993) and “” (1995) ...... 45

6 Conclusions ...... 49

7 The Analysis ...... 51

7.1 Sunday, ...... 51 7.2 ...... 60 7.3 Mothers Of The Disappeared ...... 69 7.4 Miss Sarajevo ...... 74

8 Conclusion ...... 79

9 Bibliography ...... 81

1 Introduction

For over three decades U2 has been ranking among the biggest rock acts of our time. Having won 22 , released 12 studio , sold more than 150 million records worldwide and meanwhile occupying a place in the “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame”, the band has achieved fame beyond imagination. Soon in their career U2 decided to commit themselves to more than only being an ordinary rock ’n’ roll band, which was definitely connected to their Christian life. After coming to the conclusion that their religious life was inconsistent with their life as rock stars, they started to take advantage of their prominence and consequently interfered in political affairs around the globe. U2, and in particular Bono Vox, the charismatic U2 singer and front- man, devoted themselves to all kinds of humanitarian and political activism. Bono has become a crusader for the world’s poor and disadvantaged, which has gained him incredible respect not only from his fans, but also from politicians and statesmen all over the world. Furthermore the artistic and intellectual development of U2 resulted in profound lyrics, which are suffused with scriptural references and reveal U2’s commitment to social and political change. U2 continuously tries to raise awareness for the grievances in this world. In their concerts political appeals are mixed into the set and the songs alternate with calls to social action. U2 seems to be different from numerous superficial bands of recent times. This fascinates millions of supporters, who sometimes also feel the urge to for the better with their own small good deeds.

Being a U2 fan myself and having already visited four of their concerts, one of them in their native city , I decided to systematically investigate the role of religion and politics in U2’s

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lyrics in this thesis. I will first provide a short introduction to the . Furthermore I will discuss the religious background of U2’s native country Ireland, the secession of Northern Ireland, the Troubles in the 1960s, and the subsequent anti- Protestantism, as all of these influences certainly had a huge impact on the religious development of the band members.

In the subsequent part I present U2’s own approach to religion. This comprises the religious education of the various band members and the significance of religion in the early years of U2’s career. Furthermore I will briefly introduce their second and most overtly religious , October.

The final section of the general part of this thesis will be concerned with the political achievements of U2. I will place special emphasis on the commitment of lead singer and lyricist Bono Vox as he is the main initiator of U2’s political activities. I will then give a short overview of their albums and start with their most political album, War. Soon after U2 had achieved a certain reputation, they made the acquaintance of . Later on it was , and other aid agencies, which asked U2 for help to raise awareness for their concerns. After a while, U2 started to actively support different good causes by themselves. Apart from U2’s political commitment I will also give an overview of their music from War until their song “Miss Sarajevo”.

In the practical part of my thesis I will examine four lyrics of U2 with special emphasis on religious references and political backgrounds. I will start with their best-known song, “Sunday, Bloody Sunday”, which focuses on the desperate battle between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland. Next I will investigate “Bullet The Blue Sky”, a song that deals with the unjustified

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interference of the USA in the civil wars of Central America. The following song, “Mothers Of The Disappeared”, is a lament of the many disappeared sons and daughters who fell victim to the totalitarian regimes in Central and South America, and honours the mothers of these children. I will end the analytical part with the discussion of “Miss Sarajevo”, which focuses on the fearless inhabitants of war-torn Sarajevo in the beginning of the .

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2 U2 – The Band

The first chapter of the thesis will be concerned with a short introduction to U2. It provides an overview of the band members and an insight into how and when the band was founded. Furthermore, it will talk about the band’s initial progresses, their manager Paul McGuinness, and their long anticipated first record deal.

U2, the successful rock band from Ireland, achieved more in the last three decades than most bands ever accomplish. This not only concerns the world fame of U2, but also their particular style of lyric writing: veracious lyrics often combined with social and religious messages. The topics of the lyrics marked a return to the 1960s, when played a vital role as far as race relations, sex, drugs, religion, and most notably charitable and social causes were concerned. Besides the above-mentioned lyrical motifs in U2’s songs, they produced various anti-war songs, starting with their renowned anthem “”, which called for peace in Northern Ireland. U2’s participation in Band Aid and further set the course for the band’s continued successful career. U2 always tried to make a difference and were able to accomplish this goal.

It all started when Larry Mullen Jr.’s father convinced his 14- year-old son, a gifted young drummer, to put up a notice on the school board to find like-minded musicians in Mount Temple, to form a band. On Saturday, 25 September 1976, five diverse personalities, with various, different talents, showed up in the kitchen of the drummer (cf. McCormick 2006: 34-35). This afternoon marked the beginning of a new musical milestone. At the time the band called itself “Feedback”. It consisted of Adam Clayton on bass, Paul Hewson, who was later nicknamed "Bono 4

Vox", responsible for lead vocals, and Evans, later nicknamed "The Edge", on guitar. In the beginning The Edge’s brother, Dick, was also a member of the band. He played guitar but he soon left Feedback and joined another band in Dublin, named the . Feedback was rehearsing on weekends and evenings and soon changed their name to “The Hype”. Considering themselves a band in the beginning, they soon decided to perform at school and at various small infamous venues. After almost two years, the band, who meanwhile called themselves U2, decided to take part at a talent show in , Ireland on March 17, 1978. It was probably the break point of U2’s young career, as they won the talent show, and they were suddenly able to record their first demo, and moreover won £ 500 in cash (cf. McCormick 2006: 37 – 71). After their success in Limerick, U2 persuaded Paul McGuinness, a business man from Dublin, to become their manager. In the years to come U2 was able to get local supporters in and around Dublin and later also throughout Ireland. However, they did not manage the final breakthrough. In 1979, U2 were travelling through and performing in different clubs in and around , but failed again to arouse international attention. Back in Ireland, their career was nearly coming to an end, as the boys finally had to look after themselves and the parents no longer supported them. In the week after England, they started to sell themselves almost cheekily for the last time in their young career. U2 went for a one-week tour through Ireland, after returning from London, and they sold their visit abroad as successful and worked with the idea of “U2 breaking the UK”. Furthermore they impressed with being on the cover of Record Mirror in the United Kingdom and in Ireland. Their one-week tour ended in Dublin’s National Stadium, which had only been a venue for big, international, foreign bands up to that time. This was certainly

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the biggest performance U2 had ever had up to that point, although it was far from booked up. After the show Nick Stewart, from , went backstage and told U2 that he had unfortunately not been able to see and hear a show of the band in the UK. Stewart was delighted to offer U2 their first record deal, their dreams were thus finally coming true (cf. McCormick 2006: 73–117).

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3 Short History of Ireland

Since one part of the thesis deals with the religious content of U2’s lyrics, it is useful to discuss the religious background of their native country Ireland. Growing up in a pious country certainly influenced Bono Vox, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr. The next chapter will briefly talk about the history of the island in order to provide a better knowledge of its religious background. (Many of the following historical facts rely on A Short History of Ireland by Richard Killeen and will not be separately referenced.)

In the 5th century Christian missionaries, among them Ireland’s legendary St. Patrick, reached the island and displaced the heathen religions with Christianity. Soon the country was invaded by Normans and in the 12th century Ireland was under Norman-English control. In the early stages, relations between Ireland and England were peaceful. However, this came to an abrupt stop with the English Reformation in the 16th century, when England decided to break loose from the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. Irish chiefs, who did not bow to Henry VIII, were murdered at that time. Consequently Catholic Irish landowners were deprived of their estates, which were then given to Protestant immigrants from England and . In the following 150 years, Catholic Ireland was vanquished and religion became a point of fiercer contention, which would accompany subsequent generations over the next few centuries.

In the 18th century 85% of Ireland’s population, which consisted mainly of Roman Catholics, had to suffer under reinforced Penal Laws, which deprived nonconformists of full political and economic rights, resulting in an escalation of sectarian conflict. Furthermore the native Gaelic language was banned in schools.

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In 1801 the English put an end to the Irish parliament and in the Act of Union “The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland” was founded. Catholics were not allowed to hold official parliamentary positions until 1829. Moreover Ireland’s population had to struggle with widespread poverty in the 19th century. The situation was aggravated in 1845 with the potato blight. The English rulers did not feel obliged to help the Irish populace and as a consequence about a million people died of the famine and another million left Ireland to escape starvation and poverty.

At the end of the 19th century Ireland tried to gain home rule and thus to improve the situation of the Irish Catholic population. Movements for land reforms and a request to make Gaelic the official language in school again, rounded out the effort of the Irish. These demands were met with Protestant opposition and Ireland came close to civil war. Although the Irish Parliamentary Party finally won the Home Rule Act in September 1914, the enactment of the bill was delayed due to the beginning of World War I.

On Easter Monday 1916 the Easter Rising started and resulted in a one-week siege of public buildings in Dublin’s centre. The leader of the revolt was Patrick Pearse, who was supported by the small Irish citizen army and several volunteers. Pearse read out the proclamation of the at the General Post Office and set up the Irish flag. This uprising and display of defiance was brutally quelled by the British, who destroyed the city centre, executed sixteen leaders, and imprisoned the rest. The executed men became martyrs for the Irish and nationalism flourished anew. According to Killeen (2009: 63) “a nation requires poetry, heroes, and outstanding men and women in order to furnish itself with pride.” William Butler Yeats was one of Ireland’s greatest poets and in his poem “Easter 1916” he had

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already implied, with the phrase, “all changed, changed utterly”, what was going to come in the next few decades. In 1919 the Irish War of Independence started. In December 1921 the Anglo–Irish Treaty was signed by the Irish and the British government, resulting in the creation of the Irish Free State. It consisted of the 26 southern counties of the island. The Gaelic language was restored and became, together with English, the official national language. In 1937, the power of the crown came to an end and the governor-general was displaced by an elected president. Consequently, the new constitution replaced the title of the Irish Free State with Éire (Ireland). However, it was not until April 1949 that Ireland became the Republic of Ireland, and thus an independent country.

3.1 Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland has remained part of the United Kingdom. It is comprised of six of the nine Ulster counties in the north-east of the island. The unionist majority of four counties preferred to stay part of the United Kingdom, two counties had nationalist majorities, which were, however, outvoted. The first unionist Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, James Craig, was already considered to be in favour of a policy of discrimination against the Catholic minority. This meant that Northern Ireland, from the very beginning, was a sectarian state. It was dominated by the Protestant majority, who consequently ruled in their own interests. To show their contempt, Catholics almost completely left the political stage. This provided a bigger opportunity for the government to favour Protestants in the distribution of jobs, housing, education, and social services. Catholics often moved from the destitute countryside to hoping for a job. In the

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city they often had to endure sectarian harassment in the form of attacks, vandalism, and occasional riots. From this time onwards Northern Ireland’s history has shown intermittent sectarian conflicts between Catholic Nationalists, and mainly Protestant Unionists (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Northern_Ireland).

3.2 The Troubles

In the 1960s, violence in Northern Ireland increased and the British government often dispersed unarmed demonstrators by forcible means. A deadly dynamic developed because on the one hand there were demands for reform by Catholics and on the other hand Protestants did not want any changes. As a result British forces entered Northern Ireland, apparently to keep peace, in the early 1970s. On January 30th, 1972, British troops killed 13 Catholic civil rights protesters and a 14th victim died several months afterwards. This tragedy was soon to be known as “Bloody Sunday”. This event will be returned to later in the thesis.

Soon after the paramilitary IRA (Irish Republican Army) re- emerged to protect the Catholics from official and unofficial attacks. Additionally they wanted to unite Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. Meanwhile, Protestant unionists formed their own paramilitary brigades. The resultant sectarian violence came to be known as the “Troubles”. 1972 became the bloodiest year, as 467 people, including 321 civilians, were killed. About 275 people were murdered each year from 1971 to 1976. In the the violence decreased, but still continued with 50 to 100 political assassinations yearly. It was supposedly ended with the Belfast in 1998, when U2 and Ash played a concert in favour of the agreement. However, violence can 10

occasionally still be found in the cities of Northern Ireland and unfortunately an end is not yet in sight.

3.3 Anti–Protestantism

In the meantime, a form of anti-Protestantism emerged in the Republic of Ireland. During the 18th and 19th centuries sectarian conflict between Catholics and Protestants arose because of land and trading rights. This changed in the course of the 20th century. Ne Temere is a convincing example of religious anti- Protestantism in Ireland. It stated that children in mixed Catholic-Protestant marriages had to be brought up and educated as Roman Catholics and that the Protestant spouse had to implicitly accept it. Meanwhile anti-Protestantism has a nationalist rather than religious significance in Ireland. For this reason the real ending of the conflict is not yet predictable (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Ireland).

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4 U2 and Religion

4.1 The Religious Education of Bono Vox, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Junior

This chapter will talk about the religious education of Bono Vox, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr. in their respective families, with special emphasis on the vocalist. Furthermore I will briefly talk about which faith the four adolescents themselves tried to pursue later on.

Bono Vox basically grew up in a mixed marriage. His mother, Iris Hewson, was a Protestant and his father, Robert Hewson, a Roman Catholic. Bono remarks in McCormick (2006: 9) that at the beginning of his parent’s love affair, Ireland was on of a civil war between Catholic and Protestant inhabitants. The Republic of Ireland was mainly Catholic, and Protestantism was the enemy’s religion, in other words, that of Great Britain. Yet his parents were willing to get married and accepted all the external criticism. It was of course very courageous of Bono’s parents to carry through this marriage at that time of Irish history, as the preceding chapter of my thesis has demonstrated.

Bono should have been brought up as a Catholic by law, but his mother chose to raise him a Protestant. His father agreed to this decision and on Sundays took Bono and his brother to the Anglican Church of Ireland, before going to a Catholic service himself (cf. McCormick 2006: 15). Bono certainly acknowledged his father’s open-minded attitude to religion and his respect for his mother’s Protestantism. In Conversations with Michka Assayas the singer acknowledges that his parents had shown him that “religion often gets in the way of God” (Assayas 2005: 31).

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In U2 by U2 (2006: 15) Bono argues “I didn’t feel anything about God and church, it just didn’t reach me.” After a while his friend Derek Rowen took Bono to a Catholic Mass. The devout Catholic wanted to show his best friend that there was actually a convincing church, hoping this would strengthen Bono’s belief in God. Bono realized that the Catholic Church offered powerful sermons and that believers of that church formed a community, whereas in the Church of Ireland people seemed to worship God without knowing who or what God should be (cf. McCormick 2006: 15). In this way Bono Vox got to know the Protestant and the Catholic Church in almost equal shares. In fact the Catholic services were more convincing for the singer, but he still had not yet found a proper way to worship God.

In the end it was his mother’s death that manifested Bono’s religious faith. She died from cerebral bleeding when Bono was 14. He remembered that he read the Bible and prayed to God, in order that his mother would recover again from the bleeding, but she died soon after. This was a profound and life-changing experience for the artist. Bono’s prayers went unanswered and he recalled being brought to the hospital with his father and his brother to say goodbye, before they disconnected her life- sustaining measures (cf. McCormick 2006: 17). This certainly was a great misfortune for the boy, his brother, and his father but it, paradoxically, strengthened his belief in God. He continued to go to church at this stage of life but he only saw people singing psalms of glory and could not recognize glory in church itself. Religious services were not enough for his faith in God. God existed for Bono in the outside world, but not necessarily in services. Bono continued to pray to God (for himself) and he even experienced a kind of answer from Him. According to the artist (McCormick 2006: 20) from 1976 onwards, many people in Ireland were going through a religious

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experience. This is nowadays known as the “Charismatic movement” where free-thinking Catholics and Protestants in Ireland started to worship God together. In Mount Temple, where Bono and the other members of U2 went to school, for example, pupils came together and read the Bible. These revivals caused deep religious experiences in many free thinkers of the time. In those days Bono started to realign his spiritual life, which became also the basis for his future lyrics writing, where he processed his faith in the lyrics of U2’s songs. As The Edge was born in England to Welsh parents, he was brought up a Protestant. He reports that he became religiously aware at the age of fifteen (cf. McCormick 2006: 89). His religion teacher was the first person he met who was a “born-again Christian”. The teacher’s conviction reminded The Edge of the similarly deep Christian faith his maternal grandmother had.

Adam Clayton was, according to The Edge (McCormick 2006: 9), not fascinated by any religious affiliation. In fact, Clayton rejected all religious movements and was rather inconclusive in his understanding of God. Larry Mullen Junior was the only band member who was raised entirely Catholic. He mentions (McCormick 2006: 101) that he even was an altar boy when he was a child.

Except for Adam Clayton, all members of U2 were nurtured more or less religiously. In a country like Ireland, religion and faith had a huge influence on people’s way of life. On that account the band mates also had to struggle with this matter. The next chapter takes a closer look at this aspect.

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4.2 Religion in the Early Years of U2

The following chapter will be concerned with U2’s participation in the “Shalom Fellowship” and the impact it had on Bono Vox, The Edge, Larry Mullen Jr., and subsequently on Adam Clayton. It will also describe religious life on tour with U2’s first album Boy. At the end of this chapter it will be revealed why the “Shalom Fellowship” almost caused the break-up of the young rock group.

In the early days of U2, Bono was open-minded and partly naïve as far as religion was concerned. He was keen on exploring different forms of worshipping God. It basically started with the ‘Monday Night Group’. Bono convinced The Edge to join the first meeting, in which six or seven people participated. They talked about the meaning of being a Christian, read the Bible, and prayed to God in order to get divine inspiration. Bono revealed his strong belief to Larry Mullen Jr. and talked about his experiences to the drummer after the death of Mullen’s mother. Mullen began to join the meetings as well. According to The Edge (McCormick 2006: 101) there existed at first neither a hierarchy nor rules. Everybody was allowed to attend the meetings, which actually had no principles. It was a gathering of young people, but as soon as the group grew bigger, adults from “Shalom Fellowship” started to come to the meetings.

The “Shalom Fellowship” was basically considered to be a Christian Association. However, the question arose what distinguished the “Shalom Fellowship” from the meetings of the ‘Monday Night Group’? Bono admits (McCormick 2006: 101) that he liked becoming acquainted with new people who were in pursuit of something that always lay dormant in himself. The fellowship was a community with supporters who behaved like first-century Christians. Miracles were everyday occurrences for them, and they understood how to live a life of faith. Bono was 15

mesmerised by them. The principle Bono doubted about the Fellowship was that there was “a Pentecostal madness about them” (McCormick 2006: 101). For this reason he never completely trusted them. However, he, The Edge, and Mullen gave it a try. Bono was most impressed by the leader of the group Chris Rowe, who came from a mission in China. This man was a powerful preacher and he supposedly had an academic understanding of the scriptures. The Edge praised Shalom for exploring the belief system more deeply than the Catholic and the Protestant church and was for the first time able to understand different elements in Christianity. He appreciated the meetings as they provided great support at the beginning of U2’s career. Furthermore a deep and intimate friendship developed between the guitarist, Bono, and Larry Mullen Jr. during their religious exploration (cf. McCormick 2006: 101). Clayton was sceptical about the Fellowship from the very beginning (cf. McCormick 2006: 89). U2’s manager Paul McGuinness remembers the difficult period at the beginning of the summer of 1980. The three band members certainly hid the extent of their Christian faith from McGuinness, as they were aware that the manager would not have agreed with the “Shalom Fellowship”. McGuinness admitted afterwards that in fact he would have been very troubled (cf. McCormick 2006: 88).

In U2 by U2 the band members talk about their religious life during their first tour with the album Boy in 1980. Bono, The Edge, and Larry Mullen Jr. not only had Bibles in their luggage but repeatedly came together for praying and to discuss religious matters. The Edge remembers (McCormick 2006: 143) that Adam Clayton was not able to understand their religious devotion and soon became an outsider. Clayton was convinced of the fact that a rock’ n’ roll band in the 1980s should dedicate itself to other occupations than religion, such as alcohol and partying.

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The bass player was slightly disappointed although the band confirmed that this never created too much tension. However, in retrospect, the drummer considered his religious occupation during the tour to have been extreme. He came to the conclusion that as a result of it he misjudged far too many situations. According to Larry Mullen Jr. there were numerous things that the band did not dare to do because of rules which were partly based on piousness and partly self-imposed.

At the time of the production of the second album, October, the Christian meetings became a serious problem. According to Mullen (McCormick 2006: 149-150) the meetings with the “Shalom Fellowship” began to get dubious. Some members of the Fellowship demanded that Bono, The Edge and Larry Mullen Jr. looked for a more spiritual occupation than being rock stars. The prayer meetings became more frequent and it was almost a duty to be present. As soon as U2 absented themselves, they needed a valid excuse. Furthermore it was beginning to become a sort of Christian community where members would live and work under stringent Christian rules. The three band members were young and susceptible and for this reason the claims of the Fellowship sounded convincing at first. However, the more they did for the “Shalom Fellowship” the more was claimed, and as a reward it was said that they were closer to God. Meanwhile, it was starting to sound to U2 more like a sect than anything else. The weirdest thing was that the reproaches were not made by church members anymore, but by their own .

The Edge was the one who was most influenced. He abandoned the band without letting anybody know, except for Bono. He wanted to pursue something more meaningful in life than being a rock star. His aims in life were to improve spiritually, and to be led by God. Suddenly he did not believe that he could accomplish

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both, to serve God and to serve man. For this reason The Edge left the band and soon after, Bono did the same (cf. McCormick 2006: 150). Once The Edge had left the band, Larry ceased going to the meetings. Bono and Edge confronted Clayton to tell him that they had troubles reconciling being rock stars with their belief system. The instantly had a meeting with Paul McGuiness, who decided to fix the issue. At first, after discussion with their manager, The Edge and Bono cancelled the upcoming tour and the completion of their next album October. After taking time to consider, McGuinness told the two band members that he had already booked everything for the next tour, including a large crew, and that the band had to fulfil their obligations. “If God had something to say about this tour he should have raised his hand a little earlier […] So that was kind of the end of it. They accepted that, and it never happened again.” (McCormick 2006: 151) In retrospect, The Edge realised (McCormick 2006: 152) that the “Shalom Fellowship” was very corrupt. He admits that being a rock star and developing spiritually was not a contradiction as such, but that group dynamics often make false ideas sound believable. It was a necessary lesson he had to learn in order to find himself and to be able to trust his own values. Bono confessed that leaving the band was certainly one of the hardest steps he had ever taken. He remembers (McCormick 2006: 151) that they were on the verge of losing the band. However, in the end they were regaining it more completely.

After all these incidents, peace gradually returned to U2. The decision to go on as a band was certainly linked to the knowledge that they would be able to have a bigger influence on the world as rock stars than as ordinary people. It will be shown in “Politics of U2” that this idea proved to be right.

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4.3 October (1981)

As a result of their religious and inner conflicts, the second U2 album, October, which was released in 1981, tried to make peace through approaching God in the lyrics of some songs. The album, and in particular the opening track “Gloria”, is presented here briefly to finish the discussion of this topic for the time being. As I will not discuss October in detail in this thesis, I will just talk briefly about the content of “Gloria” and the achievement of the whole album.

Bono was convinced that the only way to produce creativity and spirituality was to be truthful to oneself. “Gloria” sprang from this conviction. It is first of all about the awkwardness of having nothing to say and the predicament that U2 had to struggle with during the production of October (cf. McCormick 2006: 148). The chorus is in Latin, from the liturgical “Gloria in Excelsis Deo.” The translation of “Gloria in te domine / Gloria exultate” would be “Glory, in you Lord / Glory exalt [him]” and it refers to Psalm 30:2 (in te Domine, speravi). There are further references to the Bible present in the remaining song as for instance “Only in You I'm complete”, which refers to Colossians 2:9-10. “The door is open / You're standing there” is a reference to James 5:7-9 (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_(U2_song)). “Gloria” became one of U2’s lowest-charting singles. Its peak position was #55 in the UK singles chart in 1981. Bono rated the song 25 years later with the words, “Wild thing for a twenty-two-year-old. Gregorian chant mixed with this psalm. It was a stained-glass kind of a song.” (McCormick 2006: 148) Other songs on the album that emphasised religion were “Without A Shout (Jerusalem)” and “Tomorrow”. The title song “October” is a piano piece by The Edge and it became the only song of the album that got on the

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The Best of 1980 – 1990 compilation, where it was a hidden track (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_(album)#cite_note- ukcert-16). The album became the least popular studio album in U2’s history, although it reached #11 in the United Kingdom shortly after its release in October 1981. In the USA, its peak position was no better than #104. For this reason U2 needed to improve, otherwise they would have disappeared from the scene. In the end it was Island Records, their then record company, who wisely decided not to drop U2 as they recognized that the band was capable of more (cf. McCormick 2006: 155).

After their experience with the “Shalom Fellowship” the band members decided to be religiously unaffiliated and to believe in God in their own ways. They were still positive about the Scriptures but, as Bono recognized as a child in the first place, God was to be found in every day circumstances. U2’s songs and lyrics, for instance, abound in biblical stories and in references to God. In the practical part of this thesis I will look at these occurrences in greater detail.

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5 U2 and Politics

U2 is probably the most influential rock band of the last 30 years. They apparently decided to commit themselves to being more than just ordinary rock ’n’ roll stars, which was almost certainly connected to their faith. After coming to the conclusion that their religious life was inconsistent with their life as rock stars, they started to take advantage of being celebrities. In the present chapter I would like to analyse U2’s, and in particular Bono’s political activism.

U2 established their political commitment early in their career. It all started in the summer of 1978, when the young rock band protested against Ireland’s anti-contraception laws. Later Bono Vox met the then Prime Minister of the Republic of Ireland, Garret Fitzgerald, and Bono briefly became a member of the government committee to investigate the problems of unemployment. However, in this thesis I want to investigate U2’s political development from when they started to incorporate their points of view and their attitudes into their lyrics, which started with the production of their album War.

In the following section I would like to discuss the historical political commitments, efforts, and achievements of U2. As these often went hand in hand with their lyric writing and, in succession, by their albums, I would also like to give a short overview of their musical development. This not only includes the respective albums but also the accompanying tours, as these were used even more so for political statements.

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5.1 War and The Unforgettable Fire (1983–1985)

In U2’s album, War, their political interest manifested itself for the first time in their songs and their lyrics. Bono remembers (McCormick 2006: 161–162) that during the several occurrences considerably influenced the band. First of all, Bobby Sands died on hunger strike. He was a volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army and was punished for the possession of firearms. He was jailed in ‘Her Majesty's Prison Maze’ in Northern Ireland. The aim of his subsequent hunger strike was to attract international attention, as he and others were treated as criminals rather than political prisoners. Sands died after 66 days of fasting and his death gave rise to new turmoil in Northern Ireland (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Sands#cite_ref-0).

After Sand’s death, people were persistently chanting “Bobby Sands” during U2 concerts. Bono speaks about the occurrence of a “Provo-mania” at the time. On the one hand he was touched by the courage of Bobby Sands. Moreover he was able to comprehend that Catholics in Northern Ireland were struggling for their rights. On the other hand, he started to be worried about the numerous destructive incidents and the violence at the time. He concluded that the Republican movement was becoming dangerous in order to beat the enemy. Bono remembers that it was a worrying and hazardous period in Ireland and that Nationalism became terrifying. Consequently U2 started to deliberate over the question of what it meant to be Irish. Furthermore, the band considered how far they believed in non- violence and at what point in time they would fight back. In other words, U2 became seriously politicised (cf. McCormick 2006: 161–162).

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In February 1983 U2 released the album War. Bono remarked in an interview with NME: “War seemed to be the motif for 1982. Everywhere you looked, from the Falklands to the Middle East and South Africa, there was war. By calling the album War we're giving people a slap in the face and at the same time getting away from the cosy image a lot of people have of U2.” (http://u2_interviews.tripod.com/id19.html)

The opening song of the album was “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, which often led to misinterpretations, especially by Catholic fans in Ireland. Initially Bono had to introduce the song at concerts with the sentence, “This is not a rebel song.” (Stokes 2009: 35) With “Sunday Bloody Sunday” U2 tried to express that it had reached its climax and nobody wanted to look at the violence anymore. Bono recalls (Stokes 2009: 36) being asked for autographs and several chats after a concert in the . He tried to accommodate the fan’s requests and accidentally almost signed a petition to promote an IRA member in Ireland. At this point he got scared and said, “As much as I’m a Republican, I’m not a territorial person.” (Stokes 2009: 36) When the Irish flag was thrown onto the stage, Bono started to disassemble it. He got rid of the green and the orange parts, until only the white piece of the middle was left. In this way it became a white flag, which was a strong statement (cf. McCormick 2006: 161 – 162). The song is not examined in greater detail here because in the practical part of my thesis, “Sunday Bloody Sunday” will be discussed more extensively.

“New Year’s Day” was another politically motivated song on War. It originated from a love song that Bono wrote to his newly wed wife Alison. Later the song was altered and the lyrics got additional inspiration from the Polish Solidarity movement. For the first time since the erection of the iron curtain, that

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movement fundamentally questioned communism. Due to martial law, its leaders were imprisoned in December 1981. The comprehensive theme for Bono was that Lech Walesa, one of the strike leaders, was arrested and his spouse was not permitted to see him. After U2 had recorded the song in the summer of 1982, Poland miraculously suspended martial law on the following New Year’s Day. The line “Nothing changes on New Year’s Day” suddenly took on a different meaning (cf. Stokes 2009: 39).

“Seconds” was a song about the menace of nuclear catastrophe. Stokes argues (2009: 38) that the political situation was worsening at the beginning of the 1980s. American Pershing cruise missiles had been set up under Margaret Thatcher. The USA’s president was . He was a conservative and fundamentalist man who was considered to be incapable of making the right decisions for his country. Reagan supposedly gave the impression that he could cause an atomic catastrophe at any second by pushing a button, even if this was not necessarily intended (cf. Stokes 2009: 38).

War became U2’s first #1 album in the United Kingdom. The band would prove that they were capable of more. From this time onwards, U2 started to become one of the world’s leading rock bands.

U2’s next album, The Unforgettable Fire, was released in October, 1984. The title refers to a travelling art exhibition the band had visited in during their previous tour. It featured paintings and drawings of surviving victims of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II (cf. Stokes 2009: 52). U2 paid homage to Martin Luther , Jr. with “Pride (In the Name of Love)”. Bono wrote it after he had read Let The Trumpet Sound: A Life of Martin Luther King, Jr. by

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Stephen B. Oates and a biography of Malcolm X. The two books contained different viewpoints of the civil rights debate: one was violent whereas the other was peaceful. “MLK” was the last song of the album and was again written in remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The song, almost a lullaby, had a calming effect on the listener and was intended to convey hope (cf. Stokes 2009: 59). The subsequent tour of the album projected lithographs of the art exhibition of the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, various Japanese writings, and a huge image of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. October again reached #1 in the UK album charts. It was the first time that U2 also reached #1 in the album charts on the other side of the world, in Australia and in New Zealand (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unforgettable_Fire_Tour#cite_ note-P55-2).

War and The Unforgettable Fire showed that U2 had established a political and a social awareness, which already manifested itself in their lyrics and in particular in their album titles. In the next part of my thesis I will show how Bono Vox became acquainted with the political activist Bob Geldof and how this influenced the lyricist in the years to come.

5.2 Band Aid, Life Aid and “A Conspiracy of Hope” (1984–1986)

In autumn 1984, Bono Vox got a phone call from Bob Geldof, who wanted to talk to him about the famine in Ethiopia and his upcoming project (cf. McCormick 2006: 198). This was a crucial incident, especially for Bono, but also for U2, and this acquaintance was going to influence not only the life of the

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singer, but also the career of U2, as the subsequent chapter will demonstrate.

Geldof and had written “Do They Know It’s Christmas” in 1984, to raise money for the people affected by mass starvation in Ethiopia, 1983-1985. Geldof was recruiting musicians for “Band Aid” to sing on the record and wanted U2 to join. Bono was delighted and agreed, although the rest of the band was not part of the decision. Eventually only Bono Vox and Adam Clayton were free to take part. Further musicians from Great Britain and Ireland, among them , Paul McCartney, and Bowie, participated in the song (cf. McCormick 2006: 198). It was an extraordinary event, although everybody knew that a conservative British government was not interested in the distress of an African country. Music seems to have powerful means of expression and the total sales in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the USA of “Do They Know It’s Christmas” went on to prove that. The total was 6,175,000 sold copies and the proceeds were donated to Ethiopia (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_They_Know_It's_Christmas%3F #Sales_and_certifications). It was the first time U2, in this case Bono Vox and Adam Clayton, to be exact, raised money for the innocent inhabitants of Ethiopia in these dark times of hunger. Various more fund raisings were to come in the near future.

The first “Live Aid” took place in July of the following year, in 1985. It was again organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise money to fight hunger in Ethiopia. There was a huge concert in in London, UK, and simultaneously other concerts took place in the United States, for instance in the John F. Kennedy Stadium in . Various famous bands performed for this good cause. U2 was again invited to this great charity event in London, which later proved to be a huge success

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for the band. The members of U2 were excited to be on stage for 15 minutes in front of 72,000 people and to talk to celebrities such as from , Freddie Mercury from Queen, and many others. U2 were still beginners compared to the other bands and they were planning to perform three songs: “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, “Bad”, and “Pride”. However, Bono suddenly disappeared during the performance of their second song, “Bad”. The Edge remembers (McCormick 2006: 205) that after some time on stage without Bono, he thought the singer had ended the performance early and had gone back to the dressing room. Mullen and Clayton did not know how to react either and suddenly panic was seen on their faces. The next time The Edge was able to see Bono, the vocalist was climbing over the last barriers to get to the audience. As this took up a lot of time, the band was not able to play their last song “Pride”. Because of this, the band and the manager, Paul McGuinness, had a huge dispute with Bono after the performance. However, the following day the English newspapers were all talking about the great performance of Bono Vox at “Live Aid”. McGuinness said, “It seemed to have been popularly decreed that Bono and Freddie Mercury had stolen the show.” (McCormick 2006: 207) As a result, U2’s albums re-entered the charts and their popularity consequently increased (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_aid).

In the end it turned out that “Live Aid” was not only another great contribution to the fight against hunger in Ethiopia, but it also proved to be a big success for U2. Bono’s charming behaviour towards the audience and his fans had not been so well known up to that point, and this live appearance gave U2 a huge boost. The effects of “Band Aid” and “Live Aid” on the vocalist and lyricist Bono Vox are discussed in the next part.

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“Band Aid” and “Live Aid” had an enormous influence on U2’s further achievements and it had a lasting effect on Bono Vox. One day in 1986, Bono got a phone call from Merrill Weale from World Vision, and was offered a voluntary job in Ethiopia. He and his wife Alison did not hesitate and agreed to go there for a few weeks. The couple took on the responsibility for an orphanage in Ajibar, North Ethiopia. Bono soon realized that the people in the orphanage did nothing but wait around. So he developed an educational programme, helping people learn by using the performance of one-act plays and various simple songs about health and hygiene, which Bono himself composed. For instance, the children were eating seeds that were needed for next year’s harvest. As Bono had learned some of their language, he composed a song with the following text: “We can’t eat the seeds because they’re for next year / If we plant them right there will be no more tears.” Bono was aware that this was not exactly poetry, but it fulfilled its purpose. The singer still remembers the awful sight of starvation, especially of children. One Ethiopian father even asked Bono to take his son with him to Ireland, so that he would have a chance of survival. Bono’s stay in Ethiopia resulted in the awareness that it was not only civil war and natural catastrophes that had caused the famine, but that it also was a consequence of corruption. Not only their own corruption, but also the corrupt relationship between Africa and the First World, with the old debts African countries had to pay to the rich First World countries and the trade relations they had with the developed world (cf. McCormick 2006: 209-210). This epiphany had a powerful impact on Bono Vox. From this time onwards he processed his experiences in his upcoming lyrics and his further political actions, as will be seen in the following sections.

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Bono’s next mission concerned ’s anti- apartheid single “Sun City”. As the rest of U2 needed some recreational time, Bono Vox went to New York on his own to join “Artists United Against Apartheid” in order to raise public awareness for that cause. By participating in the project, the artists agreed to decline any offers to perform in the resort Sun City in South Africa. In contrast to the other members of U2, Bono declared, “This was my life for me, this was how I could justify being in a band, in a certain sense. The life it was giving me brought responsibilities with it was my rather pious, if true, mindset.” (McCormick 2006: 210)

The next collective undertaking by U2 was the Amnesty International tour, which was called “A Conspiracy of Hope”. In 1984 , who was director of the American division of Amnesty International, asked U2 to do a tour for Amnesty. Healey was an American human rights activist and previously a Franciscan monk and Catholic Priest. After U2’s pledge, Paul McGuinness organised as promoter, who looked for more artists to join the tour. However, as many artists declined, Bono Vox had to look for musicians by himself. Eventually, the artists who participated included U2, , (both with and without ), , and The Neville Brothers. The Edge was especially delighted to be performing together with a whole group of artists on a small tour through the USA. He remembers how Aaaron Neville always sang “Amazing Graze” a cappella before press conferences started, and that Healey’s art of rhetoric could silence any cynical journalist. He talked about the predicament of prisoners of and he was able to get his messages across, which, according to The Edge (McCormick 2006: 217), only a skilful priest could do. On the whole the “Conspiracy of Hope” concerts were staged six times in June 1986. The tour did not raise

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money for a collective cause, but it was responsible for raising the consciousness for human rights and for Amnesty International, which was celebrating its 25th anniversary. According to Wikipedia (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_of_Hope_Tour), the goal of the “Conspiracy of Hope” tour was met, as one month after the tour the membership of Amnesty International rose by 45,000 in the United States alone. Furthermore, appeals for freedom were written by numerous concert attendees, which accomplished the release of two prisoners of conscience a few months after the tour. One of them was the Nigerian band-leader , who was in jail based on a bogus charge of tax fraud. Nigerian authorities tried to silence the musician by imprisoning him. Many more were set free after Fela Kuti, and the goal was achieved (cf. McCormick 2006: 218).

Later Bono Vox recognized that U2 supporters were more motivated than many other fans. In his view (McCormick 2006: 212) they appreciated the idea of the constructive protest, which Bono was also particularly good at conveying in his performances, regardless of whether it was Live Aid, the anti- apartheid movement or the Amnesty International tour. A new state of mind was emerging amongst music fans to achieve change in the world and Bono was glad to acknowledge that U2’s fans were in the foreground of that development. Music suddenly had the power to be regarded as a unifying force.

5.3 The Joshua Tree and Rattle and Hum (1986–1989)

This section is about the Hewsons’ stay in Central America and will discuss how two new songs, which appeared on The Joshua Tree, were the result of this trip. Furthermore it will closely

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examine the new album. Finally, a short look at Rattle and Hum will be taken.

In July 1986, Bono Vox and his wife Alison Hewson went to and to work with Central American Mission Partners (CAMP). CAMP was an organisation for human rights and economic development (cf. Luersen 2010: 183-184). In the Nicaraguan Revolution, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) violently overthrew the country’s dictatorship in 1979. Afterwards they ruled the country until 1990. In the 1980s they wanted to transform Nicaragua’s society and economy based on socialist principles. The ensuing civil war was fought by the FSLN and the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, also called the contras, and other rebel groups. Soon after, the insurgents obtained financial and military support from the United States of America. Another socialist government was not going to benefit the USA and its allies, especially not during the Cold War (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandinista_Revolution). Bono Vox states in U2 by U2 (McCormick 2006: 219) that he actually became attached to Nicaragua, which offered a lot as far as music and culture was concerned. He even acknowledged in a way the ideas of the Nicaraguan Revolution, as it centred on several of his interests: Christianity, social equity, and artists in power. After a certain time the Hewsons went to El Salvador. There they met with representatives from “Sanctuary”. This was a collective which gave aid to small farmers trapped by civil war. Bono had already financially supported the group from afar, and suddenly the time had come to visit the peasant farmers with “Sanctuary” himself. Bono and his wife were accompanying collective members of “Sanctuary” when they were suddenly caught in crossfire. A hail of bullets was shot over their heads as they entered a rebel-backed area, as an attempt to warn them.

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David Badstone, who is now Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oakland, advised the Hewsons to keep on walking as if nothing had happened. Further up the hill, government troops were instructing the inhabitants of a rebel-sympathetic settlement to leave their homes, as the village was going to be destroyed. However, instead of leaving, the people stayed in their houses and many civilians innocently died. At the end of the day “Sanctuary”, Bono and his wife reached the farming communities, and the farmers were truly grateful for their help. Bono digested this experience in the lyrics of the song “Bullet The Blue Sky”, which I will treat in more detail later in this thesis (cf. McCormick 2006: 219).

Furthermore, the couple met several members of the Comité de Madres Monsignor Romero (COMADRES: Committee of the Mothers Monsignor Romero). It was an organisation of women whose sons had vanished without any trace after they disapproved of the military regime that was in power (cf. Luersen 2010: 185–193). The mothers protested silently, as their children were presumed to have been victims of torture, abduction, and murder. Bono reveals (McCormick 2006: 231) that in El Salvador, members of the opposition often found an SUV with blackened windows parked in front of their houses. This was a warning that the government was keeping an eye on the objector. If they did not change their attitude, someone would come in, take the suspect and murder him without a judicial hearing. It was the USA who encouraged and supported this sort of terror. Chile is example of a country where this had already occurred before.

Two songs on the new album, The Joshua Tree, emerged from the trip to Central America. The lyrics of “Bullet The Blue Sky” implicitly describe the damage the USA caused in Central

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America. Bono Vox admitted that the new album also had songs that “described the bleakness and greed of America under Ronald Reagan.” (McCormick 2006: 218) However, U2 and Bono did not announce publicly at the time that “Bullet The Blue Sky” accused Ronald Reagan and his foreign policy, as they were not willing to be prosecuted in the USA, as once was. It was only after many years that Bono Vox did talk about the real background of the song. “Mothers Of The Disappeared” was the second song that was developed after Bono’s journey to Central America. In the song, the Spanish guitar is used as a distinctive feature and its lyrics bemoan the missing children in El Salvador and Chile. It empathised with the many mothers of disappeared sons and daughters (cf. McCormick 2006: 231).

The theme of The Joshua Tree was America. America, however, did not only mean the USA, but also Central and South America. But, for all that, the main focus was on the United States of America. Lyrical motifs such as deserts, rivers, wind, and rain described the diversity of the New World. On the one hand, some lyrics criticised the United States’ foreign policy, but on the other hand it could be perceived as a tribute to a nation that offered so many different opportunities. The Joshua tree on the was a visualisation of this theme and the desert was the landscape that several lyrics brought to mind. Alongside the love/hate relationship towards the USA, Larry Mullen Jr. concedes in U2 by U2 (McCormick 2006: 235) that they used the Joshua tree on their album cover in appreciation of the effect American culture had on the band. The United States ultimately was the biggest album sales market and it probably had more effect on U2 than the band could ever have on the States. The Joshua Tree was released on 9 March 1987. According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Joshua_Tree#Release), the

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album went to number one in 22 different countries; among them were the UK Album Charts and the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart in the USA. The Joshua Tree was U2’s biggest success up to that point. Suddenly the members of U2 were superstars, and had finally realised their childhood dream.

The next success for U2 was that they were featured on the cover of Time magazine on 27 April 1987, which claimed that the band was “Rock’s Hottest Ticket” (cf. http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19870427,00.html). U2 was only the fourth rock band, after , The Band, and The Who, to appear on the cover of Time magazine.

Rattle and Hum was a documentary about U2’s journey through American music with film stock from , and a double album of the same name. U2 hoped to get a similar response to what they had received for their last album. However, it turned out to be different than they had hoped.

The film and the album were released in October 1988 (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U2#The_Joshua_Tree_and_Rattle_a nd_Hum_.281986.E2.80.9389.29). Both of them received harsh reviews, especially from American journalists. Although twelve million copies of the record were sold, it is still considered to be one of U2’s failures (cf. McCormick 2006: 261). The Rattle and Hum tour was only performed in Australia, Japan, and . At the end of the tour, on 31 December 1989, in Dublin, Bono made a confession on stage. He and all members of U2 were exhausted. He announced that U2 had reached the end of something and that “it was either over” or they needed to “go back to square one and dream it all up again.” (McCormick 2006: 265) I will not go into further detail at this point, as I have

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decided not to discuss any of the songs of Rattle and Hum in this thesis.

5.4 Achtung Baby and ZooTV (1990–1992)

The longest break from public performance in U2’s history ensued. The band did not perform for over two years. The following chapter is about the album Achtung Baby! and the respective tour, ZooTV. It will show that U2 succeeded in changing their music, their appearances and their live shows in order to escape more effectively from media criticism.

While pursuing the aim of reshaping musically, U2 decided to fly with the last plane to East on the evening of German re- unification, on October 3, 1990. They hoped to find inspiration in Berlin, but instead U2 soon felt indisposed, as well as depressed. New songs were supposed to be recorded in the Hansa Studios in West Berlin, where in the late 70s, their producer had made an album with . However, numerous songs did not work out and U2 had two varying viewpoints concerning their prospective songs. On the one hand there was Bono and The Edge, who embraced a new style, where rock ’n’ roll was mixed with club music, and on the other hand, Clayton and Mullen were convinced that those ideas were poor. They wanted to stick to the style of their previous records. The bassist and the drummer were obviously afraid of losing their importance for the band. Bono and The Edge were writing songs, isolated from Clayton and Mullen, which marked a great contrast to their previous songwriting habits. Eventually these contentious points again almost caused the band to break up. It was not until the composition of “One” that all members of the band regained their self-confidence. The melancholic song provided strength and lyrically it spoke about the difference of their personalities.

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Ultimately “One” was the perfect song for the tough situation U2 was experiencing (cf. McCormick 2006: 272 – 274). In the end the rock group went back to Dublin and finished Achtung Baby there.

An electrifying and vigorous style characterised the music on Achtung Baby. It transmitted the fun of being in , of boom boxes, rock concerts, and raves (cf. Flanagan 1996: 19). The lyrics, however, conveyed something completely different and spoke about the beginnings and endings of relationships, love, sexuality, and betrayals. It also reflected, in an ironic way, the absurdity of the world at the beginning of the 90s. “Zoo Station” is the opening song on Achtung Baby. It starts off with electronic elements and distortion and Bono’s first few words are “I’m ready, ready for what’s next.” (Flanagan 1996: 19) This was a confession the vocalist made to prepare the listeners for something new, a new style of rock ’n’ roll, in other words, the advancement of U2. It described exactly what this new album represented, a step into a new direction. According to Flanagan (1996: 20) a new cohesiveness and narrative coherence could be found on Achtung Baby. This was due to Bono’s bad habit of finishing writing his lyrics only at the very last moment. In this way he got an overview of the upcoming songs. “One” is a song about the struggle in relationships, and it describes the difficulties the band went through in . In “” Bono makes a statement about The Edge’s and his wife Aislinn O'Sullivan’s divorce, which was happening at the time of the album’s recording sessions. It “deals with possessiveness, jealousy and obsession.” (Stokes 2009: 98) In “The Fly” Bono admits his capability for hypocrisy with the line “Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief”. Furthermore he confronts people with their own human flaws, instead of addressing a whole society (cf.

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http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/achtung- baby-19920109). The last three songs on Achtung Baby, “Ultraviolet (Light my Way)”, “Acrobat”, and “Love is Blindness”, deal with the issue of how couples handle disputes and how they deal with the suffering they both bring on each other (cf. Flanagan 1996: 20). The final song “Love is Blindness” describes the end of a love affair and mirrors, according to Stokes (2009: 105), “the emotional climate in which the entire album had been made.” The tone of Achtung Baby was darker than the tone of their previous albums and it broached new themes. It was more personal and it tackled topics of a rock band who were obviously transitioning into adulthood.

Achtung Baby was finally released in November 1991. In contrast to Rattle and Hum, reviews from critics were generous and appreciated U2’s progression. It became one of U2’s best- selling albums and sold 18 million copies worldwide. It topped the charts in many different countries and it was often quoted by writers in surveys as one of the greatest rock ’n’ roll albums. Furthermore, five commercial singles were successfully released, including “One”, “Mysterious Ways”, “The Fly”, “Even Better than the Real Thing”, and “Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses” (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achtung_Baby).

U2 had accomplished their goal and reshaped musically. Although rock music was suddenly mixed with new technological sounds, they convinced audiences with their new style. It may be that U2 lost some die-hard rockers, who did not accept the new sound, but they certainly found enough fans who liked the new face of U2.

After the release of Achtung Baby, U2 went on tour, which was referred to as ZooTV. As well as the music, the touring also

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changed. In accordance with the new musical style, new visuals and features were used in the set design. U2 started using role playing and used different disguises to confront their audience in a way that they had not explored up to that point. These and further occurrences will be talked about in the following chapter.

U2 approached ZooTV along the lines of “the best way to serve the age is to betray it”, adapted from Brendan Kennelly’s Book of Judas. In this way, over the next few years, they did everything they were not expected to do and reinvented themselves (cf. McCormick 2006: 279). The name of the tour derived from “Morning Zoo”, an American radio program, with naughty jokes, rude telephone calls, and embarrassing tapes of celebrities (cf. Flanagan 1996: 32). Furthermore the name reflected the opening song of Achtung Baby, “Zoo Station”. The stage design was elaborate and especially Bono wanted to represent the new reality of the 1990s, with numerous video screens, reality TV, and phone calls to the office of then American President, George H. W. Bush. In the 1990s, television had become distasteful and ubiquitous. CNN broadcast the war in Iraq live on TV. In this way, war came to have the same level of entertainment as sports programs or movies. Suddenly reality and amusement seemed to merge in a worrying way. Furthermore a new political era in Europe began. Communism came to an end and Eastern and Western Europe started to become reunited. ZooTV also considered these political developments. TV screens, text, and imagery tried to create an atmosphere that summed up the progression of the last decade of the millennium. The decoration of the stage was called “Motorway Madness”. The stage was covered with billboards picturing different logos, familiar from motorways (cf. Flanagan 1996: 32). Trabants filled with headlights hung from the ceiling, video clips from pop culture, and glaring text phrases confronted the audience with the

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sensory overload of the time. The Trabants were used because U2 recognized that people from East Germany were discriminated against by people from West Germany. They were seen as stupid and inert (cf. McCormick 2006: 291). The Trabants in the stage design indicated that no matter where people came from, they were all equal. It showed that U2 championed political correctness with the stage design of ZooTV. It was clearly recognizable that U2 consciously used non-verbal sign systems in their stage set, as could otherwise only be found in the theatre. The various visual signs were shown in the props, the lighting, and the placards (cf. Nünning 2007: 83–84).

U2 did not appear to be human beings of the 80s anymore, instead they represented the rock stars they had become and applied Oscar Wilde’s quote “The mask reveals the man.” Bono’s mask became his sunglasses. He first used them in the video for “The Fly”, where he tried to appear as such. His black leather suit and the dyed black hair completed his look of the human fly. Larry and Adam on tour looked like cops or soldiers. The Edge completed the picture as salient guitarist, with oversized knuckledusters, pants with flashy patterns, and a wool cap. He suddenly appeared like a guitarist from the Hendrix era. A thin moustache and the goatee completed the guitarist’s conversion to a psychedelic gangster (cf. Flanagan 1996: 31–32). Suddenly the members of U2 performed with totally altered faces and started to embrace their life as rock stars. Larry Mullen Junior remarked, “Really, we had abandoned our own insecurities. This was maybe the most political thing we’d ever done.” (McCormick 2006: 291) Moreover, Bono represented different characters on stage, depending on the location of ZooTV. On the first leg through America he embodied the Mirror Ball Man. This could be described as the “Showman America”. He was confident enough to admire himself in a mirror and to give his reflection a

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kiss. Besides he loved cash and believed that success and much money was God’s blessing. Being rich, he thought he did not have any flaws. The Mirror Ball Man was always preaching the “gospel of prosperity” and he ended it with the proclamations: “I have a vision! I have a vision! Television.” (McCormick 2006: 294)

Later on, during ZooTV in Europe (U2 called this phase of the tour Zooropa for several reasons which I will refer to later), Bono personified Mr. MacPhisto. This persona emerged after asked Bono what character the Mirror Ball Man was supposed to represent. Bono’s staggered answer to this question was that he represented the devil. During the invention of a new persona for Europe, Bono was made up with white colour in his face, red lipstick, platform shoes, horns, and he adopted an aged British voice. He suddenly perceived in his looks the new character, whom he called Mr. MacPhisto. It was the devil, appearing as a rock star. Bono tried to collect different influences from various characters he saw on stage and that he had read about. One of them was a character in Cabaret, Joel Grey, who represented the decadence of the upcoming fascism in Europe. MacPhisto was certainly also based on Goethe’s Mephistopheles in Faust, Europe’s most famous symbol of temptation. Mr. MacPhisto mostly appeared in the encores of the Zooropa tour. When he appeared in the first concert in Europe in , MacPhisto’s introductory words were “Look what you’ve done to me! You’ve made me very famous.” (Flanagan 1996: 229) The audience loved the satanic Bono and the singer could be satisfied with the creation of a new diabolic persona (cf. Flanagan 1996: 228-229).

The Edge took pride in the fact that the tour worked with theatre, role playing, irony, skit and burlesque (cf. McCormick

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2006: 292). U2 also changed their set design and their own appearance constantly according to the location of the show. The guitarist remembers that “Zoo TV wasn’t a set piece, it was a state of mind. It was constantly evolving and changing and taking on new ideas as it went.” (McCormick 2006: 295) That meant that the ZooTV show in February 1992 in America was not recognizable as the same show as the end of the tour in December 1993, in Tokyo. “We changed it consciously for each new area of the world.” (McCormick 2006: 295)

The first leg of the tour was performed in America. The show opened with a reorganized State of the Union speech by President George Bush Senior, which was reworked to sound like Queen’s “”,

Some may ask, why rock out now? The answer is clear: these are that rock man’s soul. I instructed our military commanders to totally rock Baghdad. And I repeat this here tonight… We will, we will rock you! (McCormick 2006: 296)

This beginning already served as implicit criticism of President Bush’s war in Iraq. Moreover, Bono phoned The White House in order to publicly speak to President Bush Senior during every show on the American leg. Of course, he was only able to speak to the operator, who did not put him through to the President. At the end of ZooTV in America, George Bush Senior had lost the presidential elections to William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton. At Bono’s last opportunity to speak to the operator of George Bush Senior, he left a message to the ex-president and said that he would not disturb him anymore, but that from now on he would bother Bill Clinton instead (cf. McCormick 2006: 301). Bill Clinton was a self-declared U2 fan and phoned a radio station when U2 was giving an interview. He also wanted to meet the band when he and U2 were randomly staying at the same hotel (cf. McCormick

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2006: 297). Furthermore U2 was invited to Clinton’s inauguration on January 20, 1993. Larry Mullen Jr., Adam Clayton, Paul McGuinness and his wife went to the festivity. Mullen and Clayton surprisingly performed, together with Michel Stipe and Mike Mills from REM, at the subsequent MTV party (cf. McCormick 2006: 301). It proved to be an advantage for U2 to be acquainted with the President of the United States of America, especially for Bono Vox. He managed to secure huge debt relief for African countries after many years with his project. This would not have been possible without connections to the US President, who was one of the most powerful people in the world.

Another interesting feature of Zoo TV was the creation of so- called Video Confessionals during the arrival of the audience. Each night some members of the audience went into a leopardskin telephone box and revealed a personal secret. Before the encores, these secrets were displayed on the screens. This was a reference to The Jerry Springer Show and was supposed to have a psychological benefit for the confessor. Numerous people availed themselves of the telephone box, which provided another attractive element of ZooTV (cf. McCormick 2006: 292).

On the whole, U2 and all their partners invested a lot of thought and many different ideas into the Achtung Baby tour. U2 had obviously achieved their goal. They were able to say that they had reinvented themselves successfully. Furthermore the band was still taking a stand on different occurrences of everyday life and passing comment on grievances of the last decade of the 20th century in ZooTV. However, they did not transmit their messages only vocally, but also wrapped them up in visuals. Moreover, they disguised themselves with masks and makeup to

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avoid direct public attack. U2 obviously had learnt from their mistakes and although many people thought they were no longer active in political and human rights concerns, they were actually more political than ever before.

5.5 Stop Sellafield (June 1992) and Festival Against Racism (January 1993)

In between the ZooTV tour, U2 also engaged politically in a few other concerns. The following chapter examines the protest against a new nuclear reactor in Sellafield in June 1992 and the Festival Against Racism in in January 1993.

In June 1992, the rock band decided to support the Stop Sellafield protest, and so they became involved in activism. They played the Stop Sellafield show in Manchester together with , Public Enemy, and II. It was a concert in protest against the construction of a second nuclear reactor at the nuclear reprocessing site in Cumbria, England, of all places. In fact, Sellafield reprocessed nuclear waste to produce plutonium for atomic weapons, which was particularly shocking. U2 tried again to raise the awareness of their fans. On the following day, the rock band took part in a demonstration, organized by Greenpeace. People donned protective clothing and stormed the beach of Sellafield, displaying placards for the media that were present. U2 tried to make clear that the local inhabitants were living in serious danger. As a matter of fact, there were also reports of increased illness in people living on the East Coast of Ireland, across from Sellafield. It was believed that the Irish Sea was at that time the most radioactive sea in the world. However, in spite of the protests, the second reactor in Sellafield was opened (cf. McCormick 2006: 295–296).

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In January 1993, The Edge and Bono took part in the Festival Against Racism at the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg, where a concert, a press conference, a theatrical performance, and a debate about anti-racism took place. In the early 1990s, nationalism seemed to be becoming popular again. In addition to hate crimes and right-wing violence, the elections of political right-wing parties across Europe illustrated this development (cf. Hagtvet 1994: 241). U2 decided to get involved in this matter. At the time Germany was experiencing numerous right-wing activities, and a possible reason for that was the negative economic effect after the . Moreover, skinhead gangs harassed Turks and fascism seemed to be spreading all over Europe. In , the paintings of swastikas on synagogues were reported and the right-wing Front National party leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, enjoyed abundant support (cf. McCormick 2006: 303). Their participation in the Festival Against Racism showed that U2 did not agree with the newest political developments in Europe and the various fascist subgroups that were rapidly developing at the time. Throughout the corresponding tour through Europe, Zooropa, Mr. MacPhisto, again made mock calls to various people in power. For instance, he called Alessandra Mussolini, the granddaughter of ’s ex- dictator Benito Mussolini. He also called Jean-Marie LePen, as well as the Archbishop of Canterbury to tell him what a great person he was and that Mr. MacPhisto appreciated that the church obviously did not have any values (cf. McCormick 2006: 304).

The participation in the protest in Sellafield, England and later in Hamburg, Germany showed that U2 was politically very active at the time, although many people thought that they were no longer so involved. Fascism in Europe was a politically charged topic in the 1990s. U2 commented on the situation and Bono was

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not embarrassed to call several politicians and other influential people during the tour through Europe, to spread his opinions on the unpleasant political situation of the time.

5.6 Zooropa (1993) and “Miss Sarajevo” (1995)

Halfway through their Zoo TV tour, U2 decided to produce their eighth studio album, which was called Zooropa. U2 had become used to rock ’n’ roll mixed with electronic elements. They decided to produce another album which was similar to Achtung Baby!. The following section will talk about Zooropa, the corresponding tour, and also about U2’s commitment in Sarajevo with the subsequent song “Miss Sarajevo”.

The opening song of the album was also called “Zooropa” and it comprised the lines, “I have no compass, I have no maps, and I have no reason to go back.” This was U2’s new manifesto. In Bono’s view it was “the audio equivalent of Blade Runner’s visuals. If you closed your eyes you could see the neon, the giant LED screens advertising all manner of ephemera.” (McCormick 2006: 307) The album was even more experimental than Achtung Baby. U2 worked once again with a considerable number of technologies and seemed to finally feel fully comfortable working with them. “Numb” was the first song whose lyrics were fully credited to The Edge. The song was about the feeling people now had with the sheer overload of media. They were no longer able to feel anything for the pictures they saw. “Lemon” was a song about a videotape of Bono’s mother, where she wore a lemon dress. It ultimately became a song about the act of observing other people in films. "Stay (Faraway, so Close!)" was actually a song for . After asked U2 for a track for his new movie Faraway, So Close, another recording of “Stay” was used for the film. The last

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song of the album, “The Wanderer” should be mentioned as well. sang the lead vocals of the song and the album ends ultimately peacefully with a song about “intellectual wanderlust” and the message “It is good to love what you do”, which provided an antidote to Zooropa’s manifesto of uncertainty (cf. McCormick: 306 – 308). According to Flanagan (1996: 230) the album was characteristic for “disjointed, experimental pop. […] Sonically, ironically, the finished album is much closer to the work Eno and Bowie did at Hansa in Berlin in the late seventies than Achtung Baby turned out to be.”

Zooropa was released on 5 July 1993. It did not contain any U2 anthems; however, it obtained mostly positive reviews. The album topped the charts in the US, the UK, Germany, and Australia, to name just the most important countries (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zooropa).

The fourth leg of ZooTV began in May 1993 and from now on the tour was called Zooropa. In the week of the release of Zooropa, U2 was contacted in Verona, Italy by a young writer and filmmaker called . He wanted to draw U2’s attention to the precarious situation in Sarajevo and recorded an interview with the band members for Sarajevo Television. Sarajevo had once been a symbol for tolerance. Christians and Muslims (in other words Croats, Serbs, and Bosnians) lived peacefully alongside each other. However, in the meantime the city of Sarajevo had become involved in an obstinate conflict, where the tolerance of different ethnic groups was tested in the terrible siege of the city by Serbian military forces. The only goal of the siege was to trigger ethnic tensions. Horrible terror in Sarajevo ensued. Women were shot on their way to the market, children became a target on their way to school and many further

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attempts on innocent victims occurred (cf. McCormick 2006: 309).

Europe mostly reacted by ignoring the war in . As far as the political response was concerned, the English could not agree with the French on what they should do, and although the were present in the war zones, they were only observing the situation. The situation got steadily worse and Central Europe seemed to be ignoring it. Bill Carter told U2 that people in the bomb shelters were listening to their music, as well as rock and dance music in general, to drown out the noise of shells. In Carter’s view, U2 should go to Sarajevo and play a concert in the besieged city. Although U2 was on the verge of doing so, it posed such a risk, not only for the band, but also for the crew and the audience, that they had to decide against performing in the city. Instead they signed a contract with the European Broadcasting Unit, who supplied a satellite link out of Sarajevo, which allowed people from Sarajevo to speak to U2’s audiences in Europe every time U2 performed. U2 had no idea what was going to happen during these live broadcasts, who was going to speak to them next, and what the people were going to say. They only knew it was going to be “a really strong dose of reality” (The Edge in McCormick 2006: 310). Maybe it was not always welcomed by the audience to watch 5-10 minutes of real human suffering. However, in Bono’s view it was the only way to raise the audience’s awareness of the terrible war. Paul McGuinness remembers that the worst night took place in Wembley Stadium, where three women on the screen said, “We don’t know what we are doing here. This guy dragged us in. You’re all having a good time. We’re not having a good time. What are you going to do for us?” As Bono started to answer they interrupted him and said, “We know you are not going to do anything for us. You are going to go back to a rock

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show. You’re going to forget that we even exist. And we are all going to die.” (McCormick 2006: 311) Neither U2 nor their audience recovered from this speech in the course of the concert. However, U2 already supported the “ Project” and soon after the incident at Wembley Stadium, their producers and the whole crew also started to donate money (cf. McCormick 2006: 309-311).

Two years later U2 released a song about the surreal acts of defiance of women during the terrible happenings, calling it “Miss Sarajevo”. It contained a libretto for , who had desperately been asking Bono Vox for a song. On 12 September 1995, the song was first performed at the yearly Pavarotti and Friends concert in Modena, Italy (cf. McCormick 2006: 326). In 1997, “Miss Sarajevo” was finally played at the PopMart Tour in Sarajevo. U2 was the first band who had the honour of performing a concert in Sarajevo after the end of the war and they were delighted to do so (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Sarajevo).

With Zooropa, U2 had again released an album that received positive reviews from critics. It did not sell as well as Achtung Baby!, although it topped the charts in several countries. However, U2 produced a fairly good album in record time and many music fans were delighted to get Zooropa, even though U2 was still on tour. The satellite link out of Sarajevo was certainly highly controversial, but it proved to be a way to get the public interested in the serious issue. “Miss Sarajevo” was a great song which honoured the courageous women of the city.

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6 Conclusions

The preceding chapter demonstrated the political involvements of U2, and of front man Bono Vox. In retrospect, the success of the band started with the production of the album War, with the politically charged songs “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” and “New Year’s Day”. The numerous performances, be it LiveAid or “A Conspiracy of Hope”, were crucial points in the history of the rock band and certainly contributed to their success. The Joshua Tree was one of U2’s biggest achievements. U2 suddenly reached the Olympus of the music stars. However, with their newly achieved self-assurance they suddenly experienced the effects of the proverb, “The higher you climb, the farther you fall”. Rattle and Hum was torn up by media, and to continue as a rock band, U2 needed to take a break and reinvent themselves. After a two-year break, U2 produced Achtung Baby!, which surprised listeners with a new musical style, as rock music was suddenly mixed with elements of dance music. The subsequent tour, ZooTV, offered everything that only big successful rock groups like and had been able to provide up to that point. As well as the ingenious set design, with numerous visual and optical symbols, the members of U2 also appeared with altered faces compared to their performances in the 1980s. The phone calls to people in power, the different political allusions during the live shows, and the various Bono represented became the main political engagement of a now obviously grown-up music group. Zooropa was an album which was produced in the middle of ZooTV. The album dealt with feelings of relationships and issues that were falling apart, and had a grimmer atmosphere. U2 was able to convince Johnny Cash to sing the lead vocals in the last song of the album. This certainly marked a great honour for the Irish rock band. During the corresponding tour, which was also called Zooropa, U2

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turned their attention to war-torn Sarajevo. With the live broadcast in the evenings of their shows and later with “Miss Sarajevo”, the band contributed to a huge extent to the public awareness of the terrible sufferings of the war and was the first live band to perform in Sarajevo after the war.

U2 had reached many goals in their career. These were not only of a musical nature, but they had also reached their goal to make life on earth better, and above all more equal. The following years saw many more achievements of U2 and Bono Vox but this would go beyond the scope of this thesis.

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7 The Analysis

7.1 Sunday, Bloody Sunday

Verse 1 I can't believe the news today I can't close my eyes and make it go away. How long, how long must we sing this song? How long, how long? 'Cos tonight We can be as one, tonight.

Verse 2 Broken bottles under children's feet Bodies strewn across the dead-end street. But I won't heed the battle call It puts my back up, puts my back up against the wall.

Chorus Sunday, bloody Sunday. Sunday, bloody Sunday. Sunday, bloody Sunday. Sunday, bloody Sunday. Oh, let's go.

Verse 3 And the battle's just begun There's many lost, but tell me who has won? The trenches dug our hearts And mothers, children, brothers, sisters Torn apart.

Sunday, bloody Sunday. Sunday, bloody Sunday.

How long, how long must we sing this song? How long, how long? 'Cos tonight We can be as one, tonight. Sunday, bloody Sunday. Sunday, bloody Sunday.

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Bridge Wipe the tears from your eyes Wipe your tears away. I'll wipe your tears away. I'll wipe your tears away. I'll wipe your bloodshot eyes.

Chorus Sunday, bloody Sunday. Sunday, bloody Sunday.

Verse 4 And it's true we are immune When fact is fiction and TV reality. And today the millions cry We eat and drink while tomorrow they die.

The real battle just begun To claim the victory Jesus won On...

Chorus Sunday, bloody Sunday Sunday, bloody Sunday…

(http://www.u2.com/discography/lyrics/lyric/song/127)

In “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” U2 took a controversial topic of Ireland and disapproved strongly of violent measures to demonstrate a persuasion. Instead they call for an end of violence and murder in their home country. The song is based on the two “Bloody Sundays” and Larry Mullen Jr. stated in an interview that the second “Bloody Sunday” was “the most famous incident in Northern Ireland and it’s the strongest way of saying how long? How long do we have to put up with this? I don’t care who’s who – Catholics, Protestants, whatever. You know people are dying every single day through bitterness and hate, and we’re saying why? What’s the point?” (http://u2_interviews.tripod.com/id18.html) U2 never took a stand for either Catholics or Protestants and the song is in my

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view an expression of their conviction that they have enough of the violent outbreaks. Two massacres in Irish history form the backdrop to “Sunday, Bloody Sunday”, one of U2’s most political songs. The first one happened on 21st November 1920, during the Irish War of Independence. In the morning of the above-mentioned day, the original Irish Republican Army (IRA) killed 14 British undercover agents in Dublin who were responsible for the systematic murder of Sinn Fein members in the preceding months (cf. Stokes 2009: 35). On the same day, the Royal Irish Constabulary and the ‘Black and Tans’, an auxiliary police force from Great Britain, exacted vengeance on the IRA by shooting 12 civilians and wounding sixty others at a Gaelic Football match in Croke Park, Dublin. The second “Bloody Sunday” occurred in Derry, Northern Ireland on Sunday, 30th January 1972. During an unarmed civil rights demonstration, soldiers of the British Army shot in total 26 Irish civilians, among them peaceful protesters and bystanders. Stokes (2009: 35) reports,

The images of that day remain unforgettable. In particular, footage of would become Catholic Bishop of Derry, Edward Daly, holding his handkerchief aloft as an improvised white flag, as he crawls on his hands and knees towards the lifeless silhouette of one of the victims of the slaughter, serves as an emblem of the innocence of those who had been slaughtered.

These two horrible events in the Irish history were revisited by U2 with their song. Bono Vox had the idea to contrast these two events with Easter Sunday, the most important feast day for Christians, thus for both Protestants and Catholics (cf. McCormick 2006: 164). In the Christian tradition, death was in control of Jesus Christ on Good Friday. However, on Easter Sunday Jesus Christ could finally vanquish death and was resurrected.

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The general verse form of “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” is hard to determine just from listening to the song. For this reason I decided to stick to the form of the songbook The Best Of U2: 1980-1990. In the book the song is divided into five verses, a chorus, which is repeated five times, and a between the third and the fourth repetition of the chorus. The rhyme scheme of the song is mainly comprised of rhyming couplets.

The theme of the song is the ongoing violence in Northern Ireland, but also war and murder in general. This results in a marked isotopy of those issues. Bono Vox uses specific imagery and allows the listener to feel what the speaker is going through and what war or a battle feels like. This is enhanced by Larry Mullen Jr.’s militaristic drumbeat. What is moreover interesting is the fact that the perspectives are constantly changed throughout the song. The song starts with a first-person singular point of view. This is however already changed in the third line of the first verse, where the listener is included in the first-person plural “we”. In the first two lines of the second verse the singer and the listener experience what other people are going through and the third person is employed. Afterwards, in line 3 and 4, the point of view changes again to the first person. The remaining point of views will be inspected in the exact analysis of the respective verses, the chorus and . However, the different perspectives, which are interchangeably used in “Sunday, Bloody Sunday”, change the focus within the song. On the one hand, the voice describes personal feelings and thoughts, while on the other hand the listener is directly included in the song, whereas the third person is used to convey different images of the victims.

The first two lines, “I can’t believe the news today / I can’t close my eyes and make it go away”, allow a direct access to the

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oppressive emotions of the voice. The anaphora keeps the listener all the more involved in this mental state. According to Stokes (2009: 35) the first line was “an introductory line which crystallised the prevailing response to the series of outrages that devastated Northern Ireland throughout the ‘70s and early ‘80s.”

The next line, “How long, how long must we sing this song?”, is the hook of “Sunday, Bloody Sunday”. It sums up the idea of why this song has been written. The rhetorical question is supposed to have a stirring effect on the listener, as is a against violence. The phrase “How long” is repeated four times in the third and fourth verse lines. The anaphora and the general repetition give special emphasis to this question. In the fourth line “how long” is used as an ellipsis. The question underlines the fact that, obviously, hardly anybody of the perpetrators of violence wonders when the battle is going to end. “’Cos tonight / We can be as one, tonight” could propose a solution to the afore-mentioned question.

Furthermore, these verse lines resemble the following lines in the Book of Habakkuk in the Scriptures, “How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not save?” (Habakkuk 1:2). They are also similar to Ps 6:3, “My soul is in anguish. How long, O LORD, how long?” (cf. http://www.atu2.com/lyrics/biblerefs.html) (Many of the following Bible references rely on the afore- mentioned homepage and will not be separately referenced.)

The second stanza lists the horrors of the violence. It might be a description of the conditions during the “Bloody Sundays” or any other war. The word “children” is a synecdoche to describe all kinds of human beings, but the image becomes graphic through this word. In the four verse lines an extensive use of the /b/-

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alliterations can be found. The alliteration in “broken bottles” puts a special emphasis on the image of destruction. All in all the /b/-alliteration can be found seven times in the stanza, together with an extensive use of consonance. Another interesting expression is the English word “dead-end street”. On the one hand it describes a street with an obvious ending and without escape, and on the other hand it contains the word ”dead”, which perfectly goes together with “strewn bodies” in the beginning of the verse line.

“But I won't heed the battle call” is a statement of resistance against participation in the violence. For the voice there exists no need to avenge the dead and to take up any arms to become a rebel. The voice does not take sides. “It puts my back up, puts my back up against the wall.” is an expression pointing to the confusion of the current happenings between Protestants and Catholics. “To put somebody up against the wall” is a colloquial expression for executing somebody. For this reason the repetition of the phrase combined with the colloquial expression could show that it is not always welcome, and even dangerous, in Ireland not to take sides.

In the chorus the line “Sunday, bloody Sunday” is repeated four times and constitutes another hook. “Sunday” is used twice in each line. In this way the weekday gets special emphasis. The assonance of the words add to the emphasis. The last line of the chorus “Oh, let's go” might be an invitation to join in singing the song or even to take a stand against violence.

In the third stanza appears another /b/-alliteration in “and the battle’s just begun”, which ties the words “battle” and “begun” together. This might make a statement about the constancy of the battle between Protestants and Catholics in Ireland. The line

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might also be a reference to the circumstance that the battle in Northern Ireland had only just begun compared to the longstanding feud between Catholics and Protestants in the history of Ireland. The next line “There's many lost, but tell me who has won?” comprises again a rhetorical question. The line is a statement about the futility of this battle, as many Irish people had to die, without any party emerging victorious. “The trenches dug within our hearts” constitutes a metaphor, which implies that trenches, which are normally dug in the soil, have meanwhile been dug in the hearts of the Irish population and leave scars. The following line “And mothers, children, brothers, sisters torn apart.” is an asyndeton. A torn-apart family is a dramatic statement, which again adds to the dark tone of the song.

Next the chorus is repeated for the second time. Between the second and the third repetition of the chorus, the hook “How long, how long must we sing this song? / How long, How long? / ‘Cos tonight / We can be as one, tonight.” intervenes.

In the following bridge the voice encourages a victim to wipe her or his tears away and addresses her or him in the second person. In the third line “I'll wipe your tears away” the voice employs the first person singular and seems to empathise. In the last line of the bridge “bloodshot eyes” could be a sign of the lasting crying and the word directly adds to the isotopies of the song. “He will wipe every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 21:4) is again a quote from the Bible, which is supposed to convey comfort (cf. http://www.atu2.com/lyrics/biblerefs.html).

The next stanza starts with the line “And it's true we are immune”, which reveals that the Irish are no longer affected by the battle between Catholics and Protestants. After being

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confronted and troubled by it for several centuries, they do not and cannot worry about the constant terror anymore. The paradoxical statement “When fact is fiction and TV reality” suggests that in the meantime facts in the news sound more like fiction as the Irish got used to the constant terror in Northern Ireland, which is only shown in the news on television. The /f/- alliteration of “fact” and “fiction” again intensifies the statement. “And today the millions cry” is a hyperbole and employs a third person plural having a distancing effect on the listener or reader. The voice does not seem to be affected anymore. In the next line “We eat and drink while tomorrow they die” “we” is used to describe the situation of the onlookers, which seems to be the voice and the listeners, who eat and drink their meal while other people, who are stricken with terror, have to die. The line is also an ironic reference to the New Testament, which states „If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” (1 Corinthians 15:32)

The first line of the last stanza “The real battle just begun” might indicate that the meaning of “battle” is shifting from the military battle to the battle of reason. In the case of Northern Ireland, this would demand a mutual understanding between Catholics and Protestants and that they pocket their pride. Furthermore, another /b/-alliteration occurs in the line. “To claim the victory Jesus won” is a resumption of the previous statement and could imply that Jesus acted in the name of love until his crucifixion, through which he beat death, which is commemorated on Easter Sunday. The verse line might be connected to the following quote from the Bible, “Death has been swallowed up in victory […] But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor 15: 54ff) The song’s last verse thus ends with a reference to the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the Scriptures, implying the final defeat of death.

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All things considered “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” is a song which combines the political interest of U2 and their strong faith in God and the Bible. The connection between Sunday, the most important day of the week for Christians, Easter Sunday, the most crucial Christian feast day, and “Bloody Sunday” is a convincing approach to the topic. It is also remarkable how many /b/-alliterations occur linking the title to the lyrics. Well-chosen poetic devices, comprehensible images, and shifting perspectives and focalization made it U2’s most successful song. It is the most overtly political song U2 had written up to that point and an appeal to lay down the weapons and to stop war, as no war can be won without violence and death.

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7.2 Bullet The Blue Sky

In the howlin' wind Comes a stingin' rain See it drivin' nails Into the souls on the tree of pain.

From the firefly A red orange glow See the face of fear Runnin' scared in the valley below.

Bullet the blue sky Bullet the blue sky Bullet the blue Bullet the blue.

In the locust wind Comes a rattle and hum. Jacob wrestled the angel And the angel was overcome.

You plant a demon seed You raise a flower of fire. We see them burnin' crosses See the flames, higher and higher.

Woh, woh, bullet the blue sky Bullet the blue sky Bullet the blue Bullet the blue.

Suit and tie comes up to me His face red like a rose on a thorn bush Like all the colours of a royal flush And he's peelin' off those dollar bills Slappin' 'em down One hundred, two hundred.

And I can see those fighter planes And I can see those fighter planes Across the tin huts as children sleep Through the alleys of a quiet city street. Up the staircase to the first floor We turn the key and slowly unlock the door As a man breathes into his saxophone And through you hear the city groan.

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Outside, is America Outside, is America. America. See across the field See the sky ripped open See the rain comin' through the gapin' wound Howlin' the women and children Who run into the arms Of America.

(http://www.u2.com/discography/lyrics/lyric/song/27)

The civil wars throughout Central America, the widespread poverty, as a consequence of the American economic blockade, and the US support of the war against communism induced U2 to write a song about this severe situation. The result was “Bullet The Blue Sky” with symbolical lyrics, which on one side describes the horrors of war and on the other side criticises the USA blisteringly. The Nicaraguan Civil War in the 1980s was a typical proxy war of the Cold War. It was conducted between the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) and the Contras, where the FSLN pursued the socialist reformation of Nicaragua’s society and economy. The Contras were rebel groups which received financial and military support from the USA. Socialism was of course not in the interest of the USA and fearing that it could advance to its own borders, they did everything to suppress it. The number of deaths is estimated to be 30.000 during the Contra war from 1981 to 1989. Similar events happened in El Salvador. In 1979 the Revolutionary Government Junta El Salvador nationalised companies and privately owned land. The government was, however, soon dissolved as it was not able to militarily repress people who fought for more liberty and social rights. The United States financed a second junta to stop the spreading of communist and leftist ideas within the population and to replace El Salvador’s political system. In 1979 the

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Salvadoran Civil War ensued between the military of El Salvador’s government, which was financially supported by the USA, and five left-wing guerrilla groups, collectively named Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front. The war persisted until 1992 and about 75.000 people were killed. As already mentioned before, Bono Vox and his wife Ali travelled to Nicaragua and El Salvador to see the misery with their own eyes. The harrowing sights and experiences prompted Bono to process them in a song. After coming back from Central America Bono decided to write a song sounding like “Hell On Earth” and said,

I described what I had been through, what I had seen, some of the stories of people I had met, and I said to Edge: “Could you put that through your amplifier?” I even got pictures and stuck them on the wall. I brought in film of the horrors and put it on a video and said: “Now, do it!”

(http://www.atu2.com/news/u2-lists-top-10-political-u2- songs.html)

This resulted in the composition of “Bullet The Blue Sky”, and Bono’s angry lyrics corroborate the indictment of the USA.

“Bullet The Blue Sky” is the fourth song of The Joshua Tree. Keeping in mind that the album was dedicated to the USA, it is astonishing that U2 did not back off from criticising the foreign politics of the country. Although the USA is never directly mentioned in the song, it was later admitted by U2 that “Bullet The Blue Sky” was an accusation of Ronald Reagan, his government and the ruthless fight against communism.

„Bullet The Blue Sky“ is made up of four sung verses, a chorus, which is repeated twice, and three half-spoken sections at the end of the song. The rhyme scheme of the first four verses is a simple 4-line (ABCB) and the chorus is comprised of two identical

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rhymes. The first half-spoken section has six lines and contains one rhyming couplet. The second half-spoken section features eleven lines. The first two and the last two lines are identical rhymes and the other three rhymes constitute rhyming couplets. The concluding six lines do not rhyme at all.

In the first two verses the voice of the song seems to speak directly to the reader or listener. The identity of “it” in the third line of the first verse is not yet known. “See” appears in every sung verse. This could be an imperative statement to look at the horrors of the war, which are well realised in the imagery of the song. The fourth verse addresses someone more directly with the personal pronoun “you”. It is still not discernible who the addressee is. The “we” in the third line of the fourth verse most probably includes the speaker and the reader, who is against war and notably against prejudices and racism. “We see” would also provide the personal pronoun of all “see[s]” in the previous verses. The remaining communicative situation will be discussed in the according sections of the lyrics.

The theme of the song is the terrible civil wars in Central America which were waged with the help of the United States to fight the rise of communism. According to @U2 (http://www.atu2.com/news/u2-lists-top-10-political-u2- songs.html), The Edge produced a song that “sounds like fighter planes, bombs dropping and exploding, and buildings being torn apart. With its punch and counter punch drum beat, and industrial sounding guitar, it doesn't take much to imagine a little of the horror.” Numerous images throughout the song symbolically show everyday life in the war zone. This starts in the first verse with “the howlin’ wind” which is used to recall the fighter planes in the air, “the stinging rain” describes the bullets, and “drivin’ nails / Into the souls” is a Christian imagery that is

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reminiscent of the crucified Jesus Christ. In the given context this might mean that innocent victims of the war are being shot to death. “From the firefly / A red orange glow” symbolises a fighter plane which is dropping a bomb. The words “face of fear” carry an /f/-alliteration and underline the fact that the war victims are overcome by anxiety.

The chorus consists of the repetition of “Bullet the blue sky” in the first and second lines and “Bullet the blue” in the third and fourth lines. The two identical rhymes accentuate the heavy /b/- alliteration. “Bullet” has a negative connotation and is primarily associated with murder and death. The positive connotation of the “blue sky” almost constitutes an antithesis to the word “bullet”. The sky is often used as an equivalent to heaven or to God’s residence. A blue sky, in contrast to a grey, a dark, or a cloudy sky, also has a positive connotation. The first two lines of the third verse, “In the locust wind / Comes a rattle and hum.” symbolise the fighter planes in the air, which make a terrible and daunting noise. Furthermore the “locust wind” is to be found in the Book of Exodus (Ex. 10:1–20). The plague of locusts is the eighth of the “Ten Plagues”, in which the wind brought a locust swarm to Egypt, after the Pharaoh’s refusal to obey God’s orders (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagues_of_Egypt#8._Plague_of_loc usts_.28.D7.90.D6.B7.D7.A8.D6.B0.D7.91.D6.B6.D6.BC.D7.94.2 9:_Ex._10:1.E2.80.9320). The next two lines, “Jacob wrestled the angel / And the angel was overcome.”, are also a reference to a biblical story in Genesis. Jacob, who was later called Israel, became, after wrestling with an angel who was not able to overpower him, the progenitor of the tribes of Israel.

The fourth verse is a literal accusation of the addressee, “You plant a demon seed / You raise a flower of fire”. This means that

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it is no wonder that the offspring of the addressee might be evil, as it is encouraged to act in this way. “We see them burnin’ crosses” is probably a direct reference to the Ku Klux Klan, as they use the burning of crosses as a symbol of intimidation. “We see the flames higher and higher” constitutes a double climax, which firstly reinforces the image of burning and secondly intensifies the visualisation of the gruesome symbol of the Ku Klux Klan. The afore-mentioned facts indicate that the addressee is most probably the USA.

The first half-spoken passage uses the possessive pronoun “his” and the personal pronoun “he” for the first time. This means that the addressed “you” in the previous verse might be a man. The prepositional pronoun “to me” in the first line of the half-spoken part is the first instance in which the speaker employs the first- person singular.

The first half-spoken part, using the image of “suit and tie”, describes a distinguished man who approaches the speaker. In “his face red like a rose on a thorn bush” the speaker employs a simile to describe his ruddy complexion. Furthermore the words “red” and “rose” carry an /r/-alliteration to emphasise the colour red. In the next line another simile is used in “like all the colours of a royal flush”. A royal flush is a poker hand, which describes the hand of Ace, King, Queen, Jack, and Ten. Although there is a widely held belief that a royal flush is only built of hearts, which would be a clear recurrence of the colour red, it is possible to have a royal flush in every suit. This means that hearts and diamonds are indeed red but that spades and clubs are black. This combines the two statements “a rose on a thorn bush” and “all the colours of a royal flush” since both similes contain the colour red, yet still they suggest something painful as a thorn bush and something dark and evil as the colour black. “And he’s

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peelin’ off those dollar bills” is the last trait in a negative characterisation of a key player amidst the poor and helpless victims of a war.

In the next half spoken passage the speaker does not employ symbols anymore. Instead, the fighter planes are used as such in the phrase “And I can see those fighter planes”. The phrase is repeated twice, in order to stress it. The following lines accentuate the gap between the planes in the air and the vulnerable victims on the ground. It shows a difference in class, prestige, and reveals the inferiority of the victims. In the second sentence of this part the focus shifts from outside to the inside of a house. The first-person plural “we” is employed and an accommodation is entered. However, it is not clear at that stage whether the “we” includes a second or more other persons, or if the speaker wants to include the reader. In the room a man is breathing into his saxophone, which shows that inside life is going on as always. According to Stokes (2009:66) the phrase is a reference to “the liberating sound of John Coltrane’s saxophone”. The next line, “And through the walls you hear the city groan.”, emphasises this disparity between inside and outside: while inside stands for the everyday life of the inhabitants of Central America, the outside stands for war and the intrusion of the enemy. The next lines reveal who the enemy is: “Outside, is America”. America describes the United States of America, as Bono later stated. At the time it was, however, not possible to use the exact name of the country to avoid legal prosecution. The line is accentuated through repetition and the identified enemy is even more stressed in the last line “America”. Suddenly the lyrics receive more coherence. This dénouement explains who is meant with “you”. Hence the man described in the first half-spoken part is Ronald Reagan, the then President of the United States of America.

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In the third and last half-spoken part, the insistent use of “see” in the preceding verses becomes clear. As the first three lines all begin with “see”, it most probably serves to express that all evil deeds of the USA are clearly visible to everybody even though nobody dares to stop them. In the second line the sky is ripped open as a result of the many bombs and bullets that have been shot through the sky. In a way the sky has suffered from the destructive warfare, hence the rain seems to be “comin’ through the gapin’ wound”. Certainly the two lines bear references to the Scriptures and the “gapin’ wound” could be again a reference to the wounds of the crucified Jesus Christ. The phrases “Howlin’ the women and children / Who run into the arms / Of America.” have two different meanings, as the word “arms” is a homonym. On the one hand, they run into the arms of the USA which pretend to support the good cause of the Civil Wars in Central America. On the other hand they run into the arms of the war which is waged between their own country and the USA, which fight a battle against communism. As “howlin’” is already used for the wind in the first verse line, it mournfully concludes the song in the last section.

Many sensory perceptions occur in the lyrics of “Bullet The Blue Sky”. The reader, and even more so the listener, is able to hear the war in Central America. Seeing is a vital part throughout the whole song and numerous images relate the feeling of surrounding happenings and emotions to the described scenes. The numerous ellipses in the lyrics show a certain brokenness, which enhances the atmosphere of the song and the disappointment in the USA. The text uses several isotopies in the literal sense. Firstly, isotopies occur with the semantic reference of weather and nature. In the third verse religious events are described and next the interlacing of men made evil and nature

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is mentioned. The first half-spoken section is a conglomeration of a human being, nature, man-made objects, and lastly of money. In the second half-spoken part science combines with the horrors of war, civilisation, and human beings. In the end of this section the lyrics are finally brought to a structural and emotional climax with “America”. The USA subsumes all preceding semantic fields. The concluding lines are a short recapitulation of the preceding lines.

In “Bullet The Blue Sky”, U2 accomplished to present a song which delineates the horrors of war and simultaneously criticises the United States of America, as they were not supposed to participate in the civil wars of Central America. By using religious imagery to depict the US warfare and their own grievances U2 hints at the hypocrisy of this country. “Bullet The Blue Sky” was played at almost every live performance in the last 25 years. It was however not released as a single. By now, the topic of the civil wars in Central America might be outdated but wars with hypocritical US involvement can still be found in present times and U2’s fans respond well to this topic.

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7.3 Mothers Of The Disappeared

Midnight, our sons and daughters Were cut down and taken from us. Hear their heartbeat We hear their heartbeat.

In the wind we hear their laughter In the rain we see their tears. Hear their heartbeat, we hear their heartbeat.

Night hangs like a prisoner Stretched over black and blue. Hear their heartbeats We hear their heartbeats.

In the trees our sons stand naked Through the walls our daughter cry See their tears in the rainfall.

(http://www.u2.com/discography/lyrics/lyric/song/89)

Bono’s journey to Central America happened one month after the Amnesty International tour, “A Conspiracy of Hope”, in which U2, among other bands, promoted the importance of human rights and Amnesty International itself. In El Salvador Bono encountered members of COMADRES (CoMadres) whose sons, daughters or relatives were missing. It is assumed that about 8.000 people disappeared during the . Enforced disappearance occurs “when a person is arrested, detained or abducted by the State or agents acting for the State, who then deny that the person is being held or conceal their whereabouts, placing them outside the protection of the law.” (http://www.amnesty.org/en/enforced-disappearances) This does not only imply doubtful chances for the abducted persons, but also for their family and friends, as most of the time they never learn what has happened to the disappeared persons.

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According to Amnesty International enforced disappearance also infringes several human rights, including  the right of security and dignity of person  the right not to be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment  the right to humane conditions of detention  the right to a legal personality  the right to a fair trial  the right to a family life  when the disappeared person is killed, the right to a life

(http://www.amnesty.org/en/enforced-disappearances)

Forced disappearances did not only happen in El Salvador, but had already occurred in Argentina and Chile before. On that account Bono Vox wrote “Mothers Of The Disappeared”. U2 empathised with the many mothers and relatives of the disappeared and wanted to pay tribute to COMADRES and other committees for relatives of disappeared men and women.

“Mothers Of The Disappeared” consists of four verses. The first and the third verse have four lines, the second and the fourth verse three lines each. The song does not have an ordinary chorus, with a hook which should convey the theme of the song. Instead, the humming of the dark back vowels [ou] by Bono supports the mood of grieving. The by The Edge further emphasises the lyrics and adds to the melancholy. The humming of “ooh” appears after the second and after the fourth verse of the song. Except for the identical rhyme in the structurally analogous place in the first and third verse and the identical internal rhyme in the second verse, there is no visible other rhyme scheme in “Mothers Of The Disappeared”.

The voice of the song mostly speaks in the first person plural and represents, as the title anticipates, the mothers of the disappeared men and women. An interesting circumstance is

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that the passive voice is used, as soon as a reference to the disappeared occurs. In this way, the song solely speaks about the victims and never about the perpetrators.

The first verse immediately introduces the missing sons and daughters. The word “midnight” provides an instant of time in which the gruesome happenings started. The metaphorically used moment traditionally describes the onset of the witching hour, a time of horror and grief. The second line “Were cut down and taken from us” compares the disappearance of the sons and daughters with the lopping of trees. It is a metaphor for the strong emotional attachment of mothers to their own children and describes that this attachment was cut down like branches of a tree. The following imperative phrase “Hear their heartbeat” is addressed to other understanding mothers or generally to the understanding public. The last line includes the personal pronoun of the first person plural “we”. Furthermore “Hear their heartbeat” does not only alliterate but also contains an internal eye rhyme. The “heartbeat” symbolises that the disappeared might still be alive. Furthermore it reveals the unconditional love of the mothers to their children. The second and the third verse conclude with the same two phrases.

In the second verse various symbols are employed to describe the perpetual, spiritual presence of the disappeared children. The effects of “wind” can be heard but still remain invisible. This also applies to the missing children. In this way the children’s laughter can still be heard in the blowing wind. “Rain” symbolises melancholy and weeping. The second line of the second verse depicts the soothing quality of the mothers of the disappeared, who are reminded of their crying children when it rains. This could, however, also mean that they can feel the tears of their tortured children.

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The following simile “Night hangs like a prisoner” is also a personification. It states that the darkness of the night is persisting for many hours in the most oppressive time for mourners. The next line enhances the simile with “Stretched over black and blue” where black has the negative connotation of suggesting death and evil. Those two lines can also be viewed as a description of the suffering of the abducted children. They could have died from being hanged and/or tormented until they were black and blue.

The last verse offers a possible location of the dead corpses and also of the alive victims. “In the trees our sons stand naked” expresses that the woods might be a place of the hidden corpses. “Through the walls our daughters cry” is a last hope that the daughters might still be alive behind a prison wall. The last line differs from the last lines of the previous verses. It reveals that the disappeared still linger among the minds of the forsaken mothers, as the mothers are able to see the tears of their children in the rainfall.

Bono again uses sense perceptions to convey the despair of the mothers and the suffering of the disappeared. The auditory sensation already appears in the beginning of the song with the sound of rain hitting a roof. From the very beginning it looks as if the rain continuously represents the tears of the disappeared and their mourning mothers. In the last line of the lyrics the reader and the listener is even encouraged to see the tears of the missing sons and daughters in the rainfall. The hearing of the heartbeat constitutes another auditory sensation. Another interesting occurrence is the usage of two points in time at night. The lyrics start out at midnight. As mentioned before it describes the onset of the gruesome happenings. The simile in the third verse “Night hangs like a prisoner” also expresses that night

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does not seem to end any time soon and it depicts the infinite waiting time everyone knows from sleepless nights. Night furthermore symbolises death, despair, sadness, and loss of faith which sets the oppressiveness of the song.

“Mothers Of The Disappeared” was not only performed in the “Joshua Tree Tour” in 1987 but also in four further concerts in South America in the “PopMart Tour” of 1998. In Argentina and Chile numerous mothers of the disappeared came on stage with photographs displaying their children. One of those concerts took place in Santiago de Chile. As U2 recognized that the ticket price was far too expensive for a lot of fans in South America, U2 decided to broadcast the concert live on television. When the mothers came on stage each of them held up the picture and proclaimed the name of the disappeared son or daughter. After that Bono addressed General Pinochet and said, “General Pinochet, God will be your judge, we will not. But at least tell these women where are the bones of their children?” (McCormick 2006: 348) As everyone was able to see this on television it certainly influenced many Chileans. Furthermore two months later numerous mothers went with the pictures into the Chilean Parliament and said that they wanted to know where the bones of their children were buried. This protest soon brought the opposition parties to power and the new Chilean Ambassador informed U2 that the broadcasting of their concert called the protest idea back into the mind of the people (cf. McCormick 2006: 348). U2 accomplished to influence the Chilean public in a positive and peaceful way. Many years after its composition “Mothers Of The Disappeared” eventually contributed, at least in Chile, to the implementation of one of U2’s aims.

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7.4 Miss Sarajevo

Is there a time for keeping your distance A time to turn your eyes away Is there a time for keeping your head down For getting on with the day

Is there a time for kohl and lipstick A time for cutting hair Is there a time for high street shopping To find the right dress to wear

Here she comes, heads turn around Here she comes, to take her crown

Is there a time to run for cover A time for kiss and tell Is there a time for different colours Different names you find it hard to spell

Is there a time for first communion A time for East 17 Is there a time to turn to Mecca Is there a time to be a beauty queen

Here she comes, beauty plays the clown Here she comes, surreal in her crown

Dici che il fiume trova la via al mare E come il fiume giungerai a me Oltre i confini e le terre assetate Dici che come fiume Come fiume l'amore giungera L'amore e non so piu pregare E nell'amore non so piu sperare E quell'amore non so piu aspettare

Is there a time for tying ribbons A time for Christmas trees Is there a time for laying tables And the night is set to freeze

(http://www.u2.com/discography/lyrics/lyric/song/86/)

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English translation of the Italian lyrics:

You say that as a river finds its way to the sea And as the river you'll find your way back to me Beyond the borders and the thirsty lands You say that as the river As the river, you say that love will find a way But love, I'm not a praying man And in love I can't believe anymore And for love I can't wait anymore

(http://www.atu2.com/lyrics/songinfo.src?SID=245)

As described above, in 1993 U2’s attention was drawn to the precarious situation in war-torn Sarajevo. Bill Carter, a filmmaker, photographer, and journalist from California, approached U2 during their Zooropa tour in Verona, Italy. U2 was at the time not able to perform in the besieged city. For this reason the band decided to have a satellite link out of Sarajevo, Bosnia, and they broadcasted Sarajevans live during their Zoo TV Tour to raise the awareness of their audience of the terrible war.

Bill Carter worked in the humanitarian aid organization “The Serious Roadtrip” and distributed food and medicine in different conflict areas. He decided to stay in Sarajevo for six months and lived with people who tried to continue their life despite the siege of their city. Carter started to work for the Sarajevan television and helped U2 to organise the satellite link out of Sarajevo. In 1995 Carter made the award-winning documentary film Miss Sarajevo out of his recorded video material. The camera in this documentary “follows the alternative scene of artists, young people and the people determined to live as normal a life as they could under the most difficult and dangerous conditions.” (http://www.billcarter.cc/#!__films)

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Bono was executive producer of the documentary and suggested calling the film Miss Sarajevo after the beauty pageant, which is featured in the documentary. The contest happened during the siege of the city and the competing Sarajevan women were carrying a banner with the words “DON’T LET THEM KILL US!”. The song “Miss Sarajevo” was not only written for the documentary but it was also a song in honour of the brave residents of the city, who tried to go on with their everyday life despite the ferocious war.

Besides six verses and a refrain, „Miss Sarajevo” moreover exists as an Italian libretto, written for the tenor Luciano Pavarotti. This libretto can be found in the end of the song between the second and the third refrain.

“Miss Sarajevo” is another song about people living in a war zone. Unlike “Bullet The Blue Sky”, it does not blame anybody for the war. In contrast, the song especially approaches the public of Europe to have a closer look at the atrocious war in Bosnia and praises the exceptional dealing of Sarajevans with the situation. The inhabitants were engulfed by violence but tried to go on with their lives in spite of the bombings and killings in their city. Throughout the song words that apply to what was happening in Sarajevo, such as war, death, and murder are avoided. This makes the language soft and empathetic.

The voice in the lyrics directly addresses the readers and listeners. The recurring rhetorical question throughout the song is “Is there a time [for / to…]?”. The insistent posing of the same leading question arouses attention and makes the reader or listener feel involved. The deeper implication of the rhetorical question is that in fact there is no appropriate time for doing something. The overall message should be that the addressed

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activities can be done, as long as people feel comfortable to stage a beauty contest, find time for praying or for other celebrations in our often cruel world.

In the first verse the voice directly speaks to the listener or reader. It wants to open their eyes and calls attention to the gruesome happenings in Sarajevo. It says that there actually is no time for disregarding or ignoring a war. The voice almost tries to make the reader or listener feel guilty about ignoring the war in Bosnia. The second verse already speaks about the preparation of the women for the beauty contest. It poses the question if there ever is a time for such pleasures. On that account it should not matter whether there is war or peace. The refrain gives the reader an affirmative answer and speaks about the beauty queen who is taking her crown. The crown is not only an acknowledgment of her beauty but also of her courage and her life-affirming attitude.

Two phrases with religious content can be found in the fourth verse. The first one is a reference to the Roman Catholic tradition of the first communion, where children receive for the first time the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. The second reference is to the Islamic tradition of facing Ka’bah in Mecca during prayers. Both references are again attached to the question “Is there a time […]? The obvious answer is again that there is a time for it as long as time is provided for it. The reference to both religions is also a sign for the erstwhile peaceful coexistence of Christians and Moslems in Sarajevo. In the second chorus it is said that the beauty contest is a distraction from the war outside the building and amuses the people by providing diversion. The beauty queen almost seems to be surreal in those circumstances. Furthermore shells can probably be heard outside, while the beauty pageant takes place.

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The Italian libretto completely differs from the English lyrics. It is a story within a story and seems to describe the feelings of a lover who was carried away by the war from his girlfriend. He obviously abandoned all hope that he will ever return from the battlefield. The horrors of war have destroyed his ability to pray, his belief in love, and his willingness to wait.

The last verse poses once more the question if there is time for amenities like Christmas with a tree and a big celebration. The song finishes with the phrase “And the night is set to freeze”, which seems to state that the bleakness of war has not yet come to an end.

In an interview Bill Carter said about his documentary, I believe it works because a spirit is captured in that film that is timeless. Again, the war is just a backdrop, it could be any war, the point is the vitality of the human spirit to survive, [to] laugh, to love, and to move on, that is something we will be addressing always.

(http://www.u2interference.com/forums/f262/interview-bill- carter-author-and-filmmaker-88958.html)

The vigour to survive and to carry on with their life is also captured in U2’s “Miss Sarajevo”. It has accomplished to draw attention to the siege of the city. Furthermore it is a life- affirming song, and it pays attention to the war-torn inhabitants of Sarajevo and Bosnia, in a way they have not seen before.

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8 Conclusion

The present thesis has shown various aspects of the Irish rock band U2. Apart from providing an outline of important political, religious, and cultural backgrounds to the band’s development from the beginnings up to the year 1995, special emphasis is placed on the detailed analysis of four representative songs, ”Sunday, Bloody Sunday”, “Bullet The Blue Sky”, “Mothers Of The Disappeared”, and “Miss Sarajevo”.

The skilfully constructed lyrics, which use rhetorical and other poetic devises to enhance and underline the effect of the various arguments quite often, have a powerful effect on the listener. Of course, since songs are intermedial texts, the words interact with the music to create the overall effect and to make it more effective in terms of the usually political message underlying and motivating U2’s work.

I have shown that, for instance “Sunday, Bloody Sunday”, U2’s most successful song, uses many comprehensible images, as well as shifting perspectives and focalization to captivate the listener. Furthermore, figures of repetition are frequently used in the analysed songs to underline their various concerns and to give special emphasis to them.

In performance another dimension of the songs is added. In Ireland, Bono tore apart the Irish flag, in order to be left with the white part, as a sign for peace. In Chile mothers of disappeared sons and daughters came on stage, holding up photographs of their children. In this way U2 is directly speaking to the audience and expressing that they care about the problems in this world. U2 perfectly know how to influence and involve the audience in their performances.

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Still further aspects of the work of U2 might be worth examining in future academic research, as for instance their engagement in the fight against extreme poverty and AIDS in Africa. However, this thesis has efficiently shown their engagement in politics over one and a half decades and has furthermore given an insight into the use of religious references in the lyrics of this time.

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