‘We knew there was something special there,’ recalled Larry. ‘We felt we’d finished the songs and done as much on the album as we could possibly do.’

Opening with Sunday Bloody Sunday and closing with “40″, it was, said Bono at the time, ‘A slap in the face against the snap, crackle and pop’.

‘War’, the band’s third studio album, was released in February 1983. It was U2 at their most rhythmic said Adrian Thrills in the NME. ‘Their sound is rooted in drummer Larry Mullen’s shuddering tub-thumping and bassist Adam Clayton’s bewildering percussive patterns. Guitarist the Edge is less dominant than before, the traditional solos of the axe hero superceded by intuitive excursions in tonality and harmonics that put an eerie veneer over the rock solid foundations.’

J D Considine in Rolling Stone concluded that the songs ‘stand up against anything on The Clash’s London Calling in terms of sheer impact, and the fact that U2 can sweep the listener up in the same sort of enthusiastic romanticism that fuels the band’s grand gestures is an impressive feat.’

Tracks like New Year’s Day and Sunday Bloody Sunday came to define the band’s sound for millions and remain live standards today… but can you remember the second single release, Two Hearts Beat As One, performed in this clip on a TV show deep in the heart of the 1980′s?

Copyright 2013 U2 France / http://www.u2france.com/actu

by David Gilmour

John Lennon’s debut solo album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970), includes the remarkable “God.” The former Beatles’ well known distrust of religion is on display in this album as he announces “There ain’t no Jesus gonna come / from the sky” (“I Found Out”), likens Jesus and Paul with junkies pushing cocaine (“I Found Out”), and with a nice conspiratorial touch, voices concern about a system that keeps people “doped with religion” (“Working Class Hero”). Believers think they are “so clever and classless and free,” but to Lennon they are “still fucking peasants / as far as I can see.” In “God” he adds, bluntly, “I don’t believe in Bible,” “I don’t believe in Jesus,” nor do I believe in I-Ching, tarot, Buddha, Mantra, Gita or Yoga.

Read on

Copyright 2013 U2 France / http://www.u2france.com/actu