October 26

U2 : The Unforgettable Fire, REMASTERED

Completely and fully remastered. The Unforgettable Fire is U2's 1984 album; the first album to see collaboration with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. It is the most experimental of U2's albums, leaving pictures, abstractions, poetry, colors, and images in the mind of the listener. No waving of white flags here. Just, simple, beauty. The album also boasts the climbing number, "Bad," my favorite of U2's songs.

Oh October 26, come quickly.

"In Cold Blood"

Today the new U2 album is released. And for those of you who no longer purchase digital discs, there are more than a few alternatives available. I will say no more.

Now to business.

In celebration of the day, I've decided to post something I stumbled across a couple of months ago.

Following the success of U2's seventh studio album, Achtung Baby, while still on their (now famous) Zoo TV Tour, Bono sits in the studio for a one-on-one interview discussing the thoughts and delves of the band as they put the finishing touches on their follow-up album, Zooropa. It is August 1, 1993.
During the heart to heart, Bono discusses the nature of the new songs: the band's fascination with the overstimulated, media-driven world of technology. He then relinquishes this gem to the interviewer:

I read a book once, called In Cold Blood.
Pages of fact did me no good.
I read it like a blind man, in cold blood.

So the story of a three-year-old child.
Raped of soldiers, though she'd already died,
Made the mother watch as they fucked her in the mud.
I'm reading the story now, in cold blood.

More now coming off the wire
City surrounded, funeral pyre
Life is cheaper than talking about it
People choke on their politicians' vomit.

On cable television I saw a woman weep
Live, by satellite, from a flood-ridden street
Boy mistaken for a wastepaper bin
Body that a child used to live in.

I saw plastic explosives and an alarm clock
And the wrong men sitting in the dock
Karma is a word I never understood
How God could take a four-year-old in cold blood.

I live by a beach, but it feels like New York
I hear about 10 murders before I get to work.
What's it going to be, Lord, fire or flood?
An act of mercy or in cold blood?

He then tells Mr. Jackson of his interest in reciting the poem over the backdrop of U2's then unreleased song, "Numb" while the audiovisual loop of an 11-year-old Nazi plays the drum, at the 1936 Olympic Games. Very eerie stuff.

March 3

U2 : No Line On the Horizon