Telling Stories
U Discover is promoting their most recent essentials by reviewing all 13 U2 albums and telling the stories behind each. Paul Sexton is the man behind the stories and promises to be an interesting journey.
“Is That All?’ That was the question posed by U2 back where they had left off, on the last track of their sophomore set ‘October,’ in the autumn of 1981. No, that most certainly was not all.
The next time we heard from them on an album, they had developed into something more outspoken, more political and even more muscular. The message went out, just like the title says, with a single released on New Year’s Day, 1983. Fearlessly addressing the Polish Solidarność movement that dominated the headlines of the period, it proved that political motivation and rock credibility can be bedfellows after all.
Bono’s impassioned vocals and The Edge’s evocative piano narrative took the lead on a song that swiftly became an anthem everywhere, from American rock radio to MTV to the upper chart echelons of Europe and beyond. By early February, ‘New Year’s Day’ was the band’s first British top ten single, and the scene was set for a much-anticipated third album.”
You can read the first 8 stories here with the final five being available over the next couple of weeks.
