Forty Year Friday (1983) – U2 “WAR”
It’s Forty Year Friday again. For more information on this series, please read the opening paragraph of the first post, which featured Never Surrender by Triumph.
Posted on my Facebook page Jan. 31, 2013:
Today’s Thirty-Year Thursday album is U2 “WAR”. It was released in 1983 during my junior year of high school, and even though it was their third album, to me & most of my music-loving friends this was our first exposure to their music, and it became one of my most-played albums that year. It also marked a return to guitar-oriented rock music on FM radio after several years of keyboard- and synth-driven music, or at least that’s the way it seemed at the time. A couple of other UK-based groups were also part of this movement, and they’ll be featured in Thirty-Year Thursdays later this year. This album stands the test of time, with classics like “New Year’s Day,” “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and perennial concert-closer “40” as well as lesser known songs like “Seconds” (which was sung by The Edge) and “Surrender.” Here’s the video for “Two Hearts Beat As One,” which was probably the first song of theirs that caught my ear. It still sounds great…especially Larry Mullen Jr.’s underrated drumming (he was only 21). Happy 30th birthday to a landmark album.
An album that was a breath of fresh air in 1983 is just as potent 40 years later, with killer performances from Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton, and a powerful production courtesy of Steve Lillywhite. U2’s sound changed after War, and they released multiple seminal albums over the two subsequent decades, but to my ears they never matched the combination of youthful energy & passionate ambition found here.
KamerTunesBlog 
I love early U2 and their sound that’s rougher compared to their later albums. The first time I ever heard of them was “Pride” on the radio back in Germany. I remember I subsequently borrowed “The Unforgettable Fire” and taped it on music cassette. From there I went to listen to “Under a Blood Red Sky”, which has terrific live renditions of various tunes from “War”. A few years ago, I got that live album on vinyl, one of my favorite U2 records, together with “The Joshua Tree” and “Rattle and Hum”. At some point, I largely stopped keeping up with them. I just saw they have an upcoming compilation of “reimagined U2 classics” titled “Songs of Surrender”. It’s scheduled for March 17.
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Christian, do you prefer the early U2 sound, even though your initial exposure came via The Unforgettable Fire? I consider that album the beginning of phase two of their career, and I recall some of my friends not liking the change in their sound, but I was all for it. They were never going to top War if they continued sounding like that. I kept up with them through All That You Can’t Leave Behind, which is the last album of theirs I loved. The few that followed had moments but they no longer excited me. Not sure how I feel about the reimagined U2 classics. I’ll give it a listen but won’t be expecting much.
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I think you’re making a good point that “The Unforgettable Fire” with its more polished sound marks an evolution in U2’s music. What I meant by “early phase” really are their first six albums. If prompted to pick one, I’d go with “The Joshua Tree,” so I guess I’m more of a phase 2 guy! 🙂
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When U2 started working with Eno & Lanois, as of The Unforgettable Fire, the sound of their records changed so drastically that it always felt like a new phase of their career. Ironically, those guys also produced Achtung Baby, where their sound completely changed again. Not sure I could choose a favorite U2 album, but it’s hard to argue with the greatness of The Joshua Tree.
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I have a theory (that I’ve never tested scientifically) that “War” was the last album Bono sang sharp on. Maybe they recorded differently after that (more careful in studio) or maybe I’m just wrong! I don’t know. But I think he does sing sharp on this record, and it adds to that urgent, young, exuberant feel
And that drum beat intro to “Sunday Bloody Sunday” by Larry Mullens Jr. is still instantly recognizable – dare I say “iconic”
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Rob, let me know if you ever bring this to a scientist to get a definitive answer. I can usually hear if someone is singing flat but my skill set doesn’t include sharp singing. I just knew that Bono’s voice was clear & powerful back then, and I agree with your assessment of “urgent, young & exuberant.” I also agree about Mullen’s Sunday Bloody Sunday intro. I’ve played that in a few cover bands over the years and it’s a fun part to play.
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Boy is my favourite of the early U2 records, but this one’s packed with great songs. We even do ’40’ in Church occasionally.
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Those first three U2 albums are all gems, but War is my favorite, probably because that was my intro to their music as a teenager. It’s cool that “40” has infiltrated your church. It has a hymn-like quality so it makes sense.
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Yup, the lyrics are straight from Psalm 40.
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I knew they had Christian themes in their music but wasn’t aware that those lyrics were directly from a psalm. Thanks for the info.
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Gosh, meant to drop by before the new edition but better late than never an’ all that.
As for this album I got confused, but only because I had the album Under A Blood Red Sky which contains many of the songs on War (and as you know I’m better at identifying songs than albums). U2 were this really rousing band that seemed to come from nowhere with these powerful songs. It was obvious they were going to be big even at this stage and as the ’80s wore on we had many, many other Scottish and Irish bands playing this kind of anthemic rock. A definite thumbs up for this album.
Of course yet again, although I know you like to separate the music from the outside interests of the artist, it’s impossible to escape the fact that U2, and Bono especially, became involved in all sorts of causes and got very serious indeed. This should be a good thing but somehow when you’re a rock artist your original fan base probably sometimes wish you’d just stuck to the music. He knows the score though and even pokes fun at himself sometimes because of it but thinking back to his performance at Live Aid, we definitely should have known what was to come.
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Forgot to give my score – A very healthy 8/10.
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That’s a fair score, although for me it’s around 9.5/10.
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Hi Alyson. Thank you for dropping by. As always, it’s greatly appreciated. I believe that Under A Blood Red Sky album might show up here later in the year, as it was a seminal 1983 release. In fact, it confirmed my love of this “new” band (well, they were new to me & my friends, even if they now had three studio albums under their collective belts), and I was primed for their next album in 1984, which was the first time I saw them in concert. Bono is an interesting fella. I think he’s hidden behind various personae over the years, but he also loves to be the center of attention. He’s also a rare performer who can captivate every audience member at a giant stadium show. Maybe only second to a certain Mr. Mercury. As for the anthemic rock you mentioned, you will surely see at least two other such albums before this series concludes.
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U2 is still a new band to me, as is R.E.M. 🙂
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Phillip, should I assume that you mean those bands feel like “new” bands because they came on the scene later than some of your older favorite bands? Or did you just start listening to them recently?
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The former. We’re about the same age (I think), but I didn’t get into rock music until I was 15, in the summer of 1980, when I saw The Fabulous Mahoney Brothers, a Beatles tribute show, at an amusement park. My favourite musical decade is the 1970s, and I was vaguely aware of at least the more popular bands (Boston, Queen, Kansas, Journey, Foreigner, Styx, REO Speedwagon, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, etc.), but somehow nothing cut through to me. A fellow Boy Scout was a Beatles fan, and he also lent me a Tull tape. His brother was into Pink Floyd and Rush. Those are probably still my four favourite bands. Not because of nostalgia: it wasn’t part of my day-to-day life or anything I did with friends or whatever. Rather, I think that those bands got through to me because they were the best. The brothers also listened to other stuff: Judas Priest, Jefferson Starship, and so on. Around 1982 I remember reading about R.E.M. and U2, so I picked them up at the start of their careers, not long after getting into rock music in the first place. But that was new music, whereas the other bands all hit their peak around 1982 or so at the latest, so in those cases it was always earlier music: then a few years older, now 50 or so years older.
I still regret not seeing U2 at a local bowling alley and R.E.M. in a club with room for maybe 50 people.
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I think I might be a few years older than you, Phillip, but we’re in the same age range (I’m 56). It’s interesting for me to think about discovering rock music at 15, since it grabbed hold of me at around 10, courtesy of Kiss, and I couldn’t get enough after that. Seems like you did the same thing once rock & roll got its claws in you. There’s definitely a difference between the artists that already existed when we got into music, and then the ones that came along afterwards. My favorite band that started in the middle of my high school years is Big Country, and I consider them among my all-time top 4 or 5 artists, but it’s hard to lump them in with earlier bands that hit me, like Zeppelin, The Who, Pink Floyd, Yes, etc. In the end it doesn’t really matter, as music that hits me is all I care about, no matter when it was made or when I discovered it.
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20 years later, my daughter asked me if I listed to any new music. “Sure, I like R.E.M.”. 🙂
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That’s hilarious. Did she think you were out of touch at that time, or did she consider them a “new” band too?
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”That’s hilarious. Did she think you were out of touch at that time, or did she consider them a “new” band too?”
I think that they were so old that she didn’t know who they were.
Suppose I had mentioned Hall and Oates as well as R.E.M. Out of touch AND out of time. 😀
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Well played with the H&O/REM connection. The Stones also have a great song called “Out Of Time” (nicely performed by Chris Farlowe too), but I like that those H&O and REM songs were contemporaries.
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I’m 58. Maybe I should update my profile pics. 😐
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I hadn’t seen your profile pics in a while. Looks like they haven’t been updated since we’ve known each other. I still remember you being a couple of years younger than me, but clearly that’s not the case.
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