Toronto Canada was greeting to a celebration with U2's 22 songs set list that included tributes to Leonard Cohen, 150th anniversary of Canada and Pride Toronto weekend. A change in lyrics with“Bullet The Blue Sky” ended with “They run into the arms of North America.” Instead, Bono celebrated Canada’s openness: “Oh Canada, when others build walls, you open doors! When others divide into tribes, you make a beautiful mosaic.”
Bono dedicated “One Tree Hill” to Leonard Cohen. Bono recollected being at Cohen’s 79th birthday party. He asked Cohen how he’d celebrate his 80th, and Cohen told Bono he’d like to have one cigarette. Earlier in the set, Bono sang Cohen’s “Suzanne” during “Bad,” ending with a flurry of “Hallelujah’s.”
Setlist:
Sunday Bloody Sunday
New Year's Day
Bad / Suzanne (snippet) / Hallelujah (snippet)
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
Where The Streets Have No Name
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
With Or Without You
Bullet The Blue Sky / Black Dog (snippet) / America (West Side Story) (snippet)
“Pride (In the Name of Love)” The second track on the band’s 1984 album, The Unforgettable Fire, it was released as the album’s lead single in September 1984. Written about Martin Luther King, Jr., the song received mixed critical reviews at the time, but it was a major commercial success for the band and has since become one of the band’s most popular songs. It was named the 378th greatest song by Rolling Stone on their list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”. “Pride” appeared on the compilation The Best of 1980-1990 as the opening track, and on the 2006 compilation U218 Singles.
The song had been intended to be about Ronald Reagan’s pride in America’s military power but after the lyricist Bono had been influenced by Stephen B. Oates’s book Let The Trumpet Sound: A Life of Martin Luther King, Jr. and a biography of Malcolm X. these caused him to ponder the different sides of the civil rights campaigns, the violent and the non-violent. In subsequent years, Bono has expressed his dissatisfaction with the lyrics, which he describes, along with another Unforgettable Fire song “Bad”, as being “left as simple sketches”. He says he was swayed by The Edge and producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, who played down the need to develop the lyrics as they thought their impressionistic nature would give added forcefulness to the song’s feeling, particularly when heard by non-English speakers.
“I looked at how glorious that song was and thought: ‘What the fuck is that all about?’ It’s just a load of vowel sounds ganging up on a great man. It is emotionally very articulate - if you didn’t speak English.”
—Bono , U2 by U2
The song contains the erroneous reference to King’s shooting as “Early morning, April 4”, when it was actually after 6 p.m. Bono acknowledges the error and in live performances he occasionally changes the lyric to “Early evening…”.
Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders sang backing vocals on the recording. She was married to Jim Kerr of Simple Minds at the time and she is credited as “Christine Kerr”
Three music videos were made. The first was shot in August by director Donald Cammell and features opening and closing shots of the Dublin Docklands area. Two versions of this video exist; black and white and colour (sepia). The band was not satisfied with Cammell’s video, and they agreed to their principal photographer, Anton Corbijn, shooting an alternative. A “one-take” video filmed in a basement near London’s Heathrow Airport, it features U2 standing sternly in front of a wall under poor lighting conditions.
The U2 camp was also unimpressed with this video and a third video is produced by compiling footage shot during The Unforgettable Fire recording sessions at Slane Castle. The original (black and white) Cammell video was primarily used in promotion
This months Slate magazine has a story U2 The Paradox, which takes a deeper look into the band and the history behind the band. One the interesting comments was the selection of the best 15 songs. Its seems to be a hit list with all of the songs making the charts. However we are sure that U2 has a deeper list to select from. The question, do you agree with the list or can you remove and add a few more songs that define U2 beyond a hit chart? Post your thoughts and comments on facebook or twitter.
This is a tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. An exhibit dedicated to the civil rights leader was on display at the Chicago Peace Museum in 1983 when the band visited.
The song had been intended to be about Ronald Reagan’s pride in America’s military power but writer Bono had been influenced by Stephen B. Oates’s book Let The Trumpet Sound: A Life of Martin Luther King, Jr. and a biography of Malcolm X.
These caused Bono to ponder the different sides of the civil rights campaigns, the violent and the non-violent. In subsequent years, Bono has expressed his dissatisfaction with the lyrics, which he describes, along with another Unforgettable Fire song “Bad”, as being “left as simple sketches”.
He says he was swayed by The Edge and producers Brian Eno and DanielLanois, who played down the need to develop the lyrics as they thought the impressionistic nature was more important to the songs’ feeling, particularly when heard by non-English speakers.
Released on The Unforgettable Fire album, this song about Jesus (“one man betrayed with a kiss”) and Martin Luther King, Jr., reached number two on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart. Bono gave his all recording “Pride,” shouting the lyrics from the depths of his soul.
But don’t rely on Bono for a history lesson; the lyric referring to Dr. King (“Early morning, April four/Shot rings out in the Memphis sky …”) is incorrect — King was actually killed around 6:00 p.m. Bono has since realized his mistake and now sings “Early evening, April four” in live shows.
The last song on The Unforgettable Fire is “MLK,” another tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. “MLK” is the tenth and final song from U2’s 1984 album. A lullaby to honor Martin Luther King, Jr., it is a short, pensive piece with simple lyrics. It was because of this song, along with “Pride (In the Name of Love)”, another tribute to King, that earned Bono the highest honor of the King Center, an organization founded by Coretta Scott King.
Pride
One man come in the name of love One man come and go One man come here to justify One man to overthrow In the name of love! One man in the name of love In the name of love! What more? In the name of love!
One man caught on a barbed wire fence One man he resists One man washed on an empty beach One man betrayed with a kiss
In the name of love! What more in the name of love? In the name of love! What more? In the name of love!
…nobody like you…there’s nobody like you…
Mmm…mmm…mmm… Early morning, April 4 Shot rings out in the Memphis sky Free at last, they took your life They could not take your pride
In the name of love! What more in the name of love? In the name of love! What more in the name of love? In the name of love! What more in the name of love…
Dr Martin Luther King
(January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968)
On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated…………….
This special edition marks 25 years since the album’s original release in October 1984. Recorded at Slane Castle, Ireland, The Unforgettable Fire was the first U2 album to be produced by Brian Eno and Danny Lanois, and spawned two top 10 UK singles - ‘Pride (In The Name Of Love)’ and ‘The Unforgettable Fire’.
Special formats of The Unforgettable Fire will also feature bonus audio material, including two previously unheard tracks from the Slane Castle sessions: ‘Yoshino Blossom’, and ‘Disappearing Act’ (a track which the band recently completed), and a DVD including music videos, a documentary and unreleased live footage from the Amnesty International Conspiracy of Hope Tour in 1986.
The Unforgettable Fire has been remastered from the original audio tapes, with direction from The Edge and the album will be available in four formats:
* Limited Edition Box Set: containing 2 CDs (remastered album and bonus audio CD), a DVD with live footage, documentary and videos, a 56 page hardback book with liner notes by The Edge, Brian Eno, Danny Lanois, Bert Van de Kamp and Niall Stokes, and 5 photographic prints
* Deluxe Edition: containing 2 CDs, the remastered album, and the bonus audio CD which features B-sides and previously unreleased material, a 36 page booklet with liner notes by The Edge, Brian Eno, Danny Lanois and Bert Van de Kamp
* CD format: featuring the remastered album
* 12” vinyl format: 16 page booklet with liner notes by Brian Eno, Danny Lanois and Bert Van de Kamp
The Unforgettable Fire track listing is as follows: A Sort of Homecoming, Pride (In The Name Of Love), Wire, The Unforgettable Fire, Promenade, 4th Of July, Bad, Indian Summer Sky, Elvis Presley and America, MLK.
This week we will travel back to 1984. I have select two songs from 1984. Pride and I Will Follow.
Pride (In the Name of Love)" is the second song on U2's 1984 album The Unforgettable Fire and was released as the album's first single. Written about Martin Luther King, Jr., "Pride" is one of the band's most recognized songs, and appeared as the opening track on the compilation The Best of 1980-1990, and on the 2006 compilation U218 Singles. The song was a mixed critical but major commercial success for the band and has since come to be regarded as one of the band's best songs. It was named the 378th greatest song by Rolling Stone on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
I thought today would be a great day to bring back a song that really sets the tone for yesterday, today and tomorrow only if we agree to act upon it and return to mankind the respect that each of them deserve. I was only 11 years old when I first had a chance to read the speech by Dr King to my class. It was powerful and moving at that age and today its inspiring.
As I was thinking about what to throw out today I was remembering the One video. This next administration seems to grab the concept of "we carry each other" Think about the way we are today and the future of what President Elect Obama has started to say. While the video is about taking a care of someone that is not the same as you, via color, race and does not think like you. President Elect has taken us back to a time when we did turn around to see where our brother stands. I think we are all heading in the right direction.
"One life But we're not the same We get to carry each other Carry each other"
