ContentThough by the time U2 signed with Island, the label (home to Bob Marley) had already been bought up by A&M (which became part of Interscope, which became part of Universal, etc.), there really was a day back in the beginning when the band stood for something. Like their American counterparts R.E.M., U2’s songs were politically meaningful, and the first four albums (including Under a Blood Red Sky) were actually really good. On their best album, War, Bono wrote an anthem that, as he later explained, expressed the love between Lech and Danuto Walesa on the eve of martial law being lifted in Poland. No matter what you may feel about the band now, that was punk. In a good way.
Read on the view the lyrics to U2’s New Year’s Day…
U2, New Year’s Day
All is quiet on New Year’s Day
A world in white gets underway
And I want to be with you
Be with you night and day
Nothing changes on New Year’s Day
I will be with you again
I will be with you again
Under a blood-red sky
A crowd has gathered in black and white
Arms entwined, the chosen few,
The newspapers say, say, say it’s true
And we can break through,
Though torn in two, we can be one
I will begin again, I will begin again
Oh and maybe the time is right
Oh maybe tonight
I will be with you again
I will be with you again
And so we are told this is the golden age
And gold is the reason for the wars we wage
Though I want to be with you
Be with you night and day
Nothing changes on New Year’s day