MTV Years of U2

New York:  On Saturday, August 1, 1981, at 12:01 a.m. EST, MTV steamrolled right into America's living room.  Footage of the first Space Shuttle launched, andcountdown of Columbia and the launch of Apollo 11 visuals on our television screenMusic would forever linked to videos. The first video on that early morning was "Video Killed The Radio Star."

U2's first video to get heavy airplay was New Year's Day considered at the time the most ambitious video at that point. Directed by Meiert Avis, who worked on "Gloria and "I Will Follow".

Meiert and the boys had planned to shoot the video in Sweden, however, that just did not work out. So they headed off to Norway, and those beautiful mountains and lots of snow gave way to one of the most beautiful videos produced.

What most people did not know was that the band members not experienced riders as well as being right in the middle of a tour gave an opportunity for some Swedish teenage girls disguised as the members of group riding on horseback with masks over their faces to shoot the horse riding scenes.

"New Years Day" is U2's fifth most frequently performed live concert song, what would you think the first song would be? 

Happy Birthday MTV

 

#MTV #u2

 

 

 

New Year's Day

"All is quiet on New Year's Day
A world in white gets underway
I want to be with you, be with you night and day
Nothing changes on New Year's Day
On New Year's Day" 

War Turns 30

U2 War Album Cover ​

U2 War Album Cover ​

War is the third studio album by Irish rock band U2, released on 28 February 1983. The album has come to be regarded as U2's first overtly political album, in part because of songs like "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "New Year's Day", as well as the title, which stems from the band's perception of the world at the time; Bono stated that "war seemed to be the motif for 1982." While the central themes of their earlier albums Boy and October focused on adolescence and spirituality, respectively, War focused on both the physical aspects of warfare, and the emotional after-effects.  Musically, it is also harsher than the band's previous releases. The album has been described as the record where the band "turned pacifism itself into a crusade." War was a commercial success for the band, knocking Michael Jackson's Thriller from the top of the charts to become the band's first #1 album in the UK. It reached #12 in the U.S. and became their first Gold-certified album there. War has received critical acclaim. In 2012, the album was ranked number 223 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

U2 began recording War on 17 May 1982. The band took a break soon afterwards, as newlyweds Bono and Ali honeymooned in Jamaica. It has been noted that it was not a typical honeymoon, as Bono reportedly worked on the lyrics for the upcoming album. The lyrics to "New Year's Day" had its origins in a love song Bono wrote for his wife,but the song was reshaped and inspired by the Polish Solidarity movement.

The album's opener, "Sunday Bloody Sunday", an ardent protest song, stems from a guitar riff and lyric written by The Edge in 1982. Following an argument with his girlfriend, and a period of doubt in his own song-writing abilities, The Edge — "feeling depressed... channeled [his] fear and frustration and self-loathing into a piece of music." Early versions of the song opened with the line,

"Don't talk to me about the rights of the IRA, UDA"

 After Bono had reworked the lyrics, the band recorded the song at Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin. The opening drum pattern soon developed into the song's hook. A local violinist, Steve Wickham, approached The Edge one morning at a bus stop and asked if U2 had any need for a violin on their next album. In the studio for only half a day, Wickham's electric violin became the final instrumental contribution to the song.

During the sessions for "Sunday Bloody Sunday", producer Steve Lillywhite encouraged drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. to use a click track, but Mullen was firmly against the idea. A chance meeting with Andy Newmark (of Sly & the Family Stone) — a drummer who used a click track religiously — changed Mullen's mind. Mullen used the click track to stay in time for other songs on the album.Mullen said of the album in a 1983 interview, "I think the drumming has always been pretty simple, I don't think it needs to be flashy. For War I use a click track, something I haven't used before, it's a way of keeping time in my headphones. When I listened to the music in time with the click track I knew I had to bring it down to the real basics. Hopefully for the next LP it will be more complicated, I'll move on. I think of it as a musical progression for myself because I learned a lot recording this album, just about my own style and that's what I wanted to do. I think there is a definite style on War where there isn't on the previous albums."

The studio version of "40" was recorded right at the end of the recording sessions for War. Bassist Adam Clayton had already left the studio, and the three remaining band members decided they didn't have a good song to end the album. Bono, The Edge, and Mullen Jr. quickly recorded the song with The Edge switching off to both the electric and bass guitar. Bono called the song "40" as he based the lyrics on Psalm 40. In live versions of the song, The Edge and Clayton switch roles, as Clayton plays guitar and Edge plays the bass.

Three of the tracks featured backing vocals by The Coconuts, of Kid Creole and the Coconuts. In the words of Steve Lillywhite, "they just happened to be in Dublin on tour, so we hung out with them and they came in and sang on "Surrender." So it was sort of random - this serious Irish rock band having the Coconuts on their album."

The album was titled War for several reasons; in 1982, Bono said that the album was called War because "War seemed to be the motif for 1982," adding that "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."The Edge said that "It's a heavy title. It's blunt. It's not something that's safe, so it could backfire. It's the sort of subject matter that people can really take a dislike to. But we wanted to take a more dangerous course, fly a bit closer to the wind, so I think the title is appropriate."

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U2's Best New Years Day Video

As we close out the year we thought about how we would like to end the year. Lots of choices came up. One suggestion was that we ask Nikki to be our guest writer again, of course we had request for our other guest writers Nikki was tops of the list. A suggestion came in for us to recap the tour, or even our thoughts of the next year. 

I thought I would end the year with something different. New Years Day the song was a major part of my life for such a long time. I thought I would ask you to vote on the best New Years Day video. The poll can be found on the front page of our site.

François KevorkianFrançois Kevorkian has Killer remix here from the 12” Single “Two Hearts Beat As One”
Remixed by François Kevorkian. Contains some extra lines not on the album version

The Promo was filmed in Sweden, on a very cold December day in ‘82 . So cold that some of the band got frostbite and for the horseback scenes the following day , they were replaced by four Swedish girls !!
Directed by Meiert Avis. Originally from the album ‘War’ produced by Steve Lillywhite and recorded at Windmill Lane, Dublin, Ireland

As they say in show business “Thats a wrap” We are finished for the year. This has been an interesting year for all of us. The tour was grand, the youtube rose bowl event epic and you the fan have been wonderful in your support of our work. Next year we will have lots of great new features. We look forward to sharing them with you. As always we welcome your feedback.

Cheers Dre

Support the Cause and watch your effect

Well folks ever now and then I get an idea to really turn this around and try to move the blog forward in the right direction. Sure I can beg you to clink on our sponsors or drop a couple of coins on Paypal. However thats's only as good if you know that I am doing my part. We all are in this together. Lets take a stand and raise up the awareness level to new levels. -Peace

i/denti/tee - music tees for music lovers

U2 set to release five different versions

U2 are set to release five different versions of new album 'No Line On The Horizon', with a host of extras including a new film by Anton Corbijn available to fans.

As well as a standard CD and vinyl issue, 'No Line On The Horizon' will be released in three limited editions, reports Billboard.

The digi-pack version offers the full album along with a 36-page booklet, a fold-out poster and a downloadable film by Corbijn, featuring the music of U2.

A magazine version of the album comes with a 60-page soft cover magazine-style book, along with the Corbijn film as a download.

The most excessive of the five releases is the box set, which features a 60-page hardback book, a second poster and a DVD version of Corbijn's film.

If your looking to pre-order, AMAZON is the best place with the fastest shipping

No Line On The Horizon [Box Set] [Limited Edition CD/Poster/Book/DVD