DIPLOMSKA SEMINARSKA NALOGA

Transcription

1 UNIVERZA V MARIBORU FILOZOFSKA FAKULTETA Oddelek za anglistiko in amerikanistiko DIPLOMSKA SEMINARSKA NALOGA Boris Hranjec Maribor, 2010

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3 UNIVERZA V MARIBORU FILOZOFSKA FAKULTETA Oddelek za anglistiko in amerikanistiko SOCIOPOLITICAL ISSUES IN ROCK MUSIC WITH AN EMPHASIS ON U2 SONGS Mentor: red. prof. dr. Victor Kennedy Kandidat: Boris Hranjec Maribor, 2010

4 ZAHVALA V začetku bi se rad zahvalil svojemu mentorju, red.prof.dr. Victorju Kennedyju za strokovno pomoč pri izdelavi diplomske seminarske naloge. Na drugi strani bi se rad zahvalil svojim najbližjim, ki so mi kakorkoli pomagali, še posebej pa je ta zahvala namenjena mami, ki ji hkrati posvečam to diplomsko nalogo. Mama, to je za tebe!

5 IZJAVA Podpisani Boris Hranjec, rojen , študent Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Mariboru, smer angleški jezik s književnostjo in geografija, izjavljam, da je diplomska seminarska naloga z naslovom Sociopolitical issues in rock music with an emphasis on U2 songs pri mentorju red.prof.dr. Victorju Kennedyju, avtorsko delo. V diplomski seminarski nalogi so uporabljeni viri in literatura korektno navedeni; teksti niso prepisani brez navedbe avtorjev. Maribor,

6 ABSTRACT Since the late 1960s, when rock music started to develop, a variety of sociopolitically oriented songs have been created in which famous rock musicians have been dealing with diverse sociopolitical issues. Moreover, a pure meaning of their lyrics is not the only significant component that makes their songs so special because music itself can sometimes express specific situations that mere words are unable to. For instance, music, in rock music usually a sound of guitars and drums, can metaphorically represent specific situations, objects, and even a movement of these objects (a plane flying). The Irish band U2 definitely fits into this group of sociopolitically oriented rock musicians. In their 30-year long career, U2 have created numerous songs that deal with various sociopolitical issues. Interpreted songs in this diploma seminar are proof that rock songs of this type are not just some meaningless and useless lyrics and music, but songs whose message educates us about some significant sociopolitical issues. Key words: rock music, sociopolitical issues, metaphors in music, U2, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Bullet The Blue Sky, Silver & Gold, Miss Sarajevo POVZETEK Od druge polovice 60-tih let naprej, s pričetkom razvoja rock glasbe, so bile v rock glasbi ustvarjene številne socialnopolitično obarvane pesmi, v katerih so se znameniti rock izvajalci ukvarjali z najrazličnejšimi socialnopolitičnimi temami. Še več, v njihovih pesmih niso pomembna samo socialnopolitično naravnana besedila, ampak tudi glasba sama, ki ima včasih zmožnost izraziti določene situacije, ki jih same besede v tekstu ne morejo. Na primer, glasba, v rock glasbi je to največkrat zvok kitar in bobnov, lahko metaforično predstavi določene situacije, predmete, in celo gibanje teh predmetov (letalo ki leti). Irska skupina U2 vsekakor spada v skupino rock glasbenikov, katerih glasba je socialnopolitično naravnana. V njihovi 30-let dolgi karieri so U2 ustvarili številne, socialnopolitično orientirane pesmi. Interpretirane pesmi v tej diplomski seminarski nalogi so dokaz, da takšne rock pesmi niso zgolj nekakšna nepomembna besedila in glasba, ampak pesmi katerih sporočilo nas uči o nekaterih pomembnih socialnopolitičnih problemih. Ključne besede: rock glasba, socialnopolitične teme, metafore v glasbi, U2, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Bullet The Blue Sky, Silver & Gold, Miss Sarajevo

7 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION OF ROCK MUSIC DEFINITION OF ROCK MUSIC HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ROCK MUSIC SOCIOPOLITICAL ISSUES AND ROCK MUSIC MUSIC AND METAPHORS EXPERIENCING EMOTIONS IN MUSIC MUSIC AS A METAPHOR U INTRODUCTION OF THE BAND SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY BULLET THE BLUE SKY SILVER & GOLD MISS SARAJEVO CONCLUSION WORKS CITED AND CONSULTED APPENDICES... 55

8 INDEX OF FIGURES Figure 1: The Beatles... 6 Figure 2: Led Zeppelin... 7 Figure 3: The Clash... 8 Figure 4: early U Figure 5: U2 on the cover of Time Magazine Figure 6: ZOO TV stage Figure 7: U2 today Figure 8: The memory of Bloody Sunday Figure 9: Sign COEXIST Figure 10: Beauty pageant Miss of Besieged Sarajevo

9 1 INTRODUCTION In my diploma seminar I want to present sociopolitical issues that appear in rock music with a special focus on U2 songs. I chose sociopolitical issues because they deal with numerous educational situations. In today s world where globalization and capitalism are the symbol of our life and where boundaries between us (people) are getting pencil-thin, social component of our lives somehow loses its significance. On the other hand, various sociopolitical issues deliver messages and bring out questions that we should talk and care about. In my diploma seminar I could probably focus only on one specific component, social or political, but I think they are too closely connected to be treated separately. Rock music is definitely a musical genre in which different sociopolitical issues play important role. Numerous significant rock artists have created famous songs dealing with various sociopolitical themes; for example, rock musicians express their discontentment with the countries specific political decisions, warn us about inequality between people, make us think about purposes of wars, teach us about justice and fairness etc. The Irish band U2 surely fits into this group of rock musicians whose music is sociopolitically oriented to a great extent. As far as U2 is concerned, I do not even know where to begin, they have always had a special place in my life as far as the music is concerned. I have been intensively listening to their music for several years now, so I could say that I am pretty familiar with their musical opus. What impresses me the most about their music is the number of various educational themes that can be found in their songs. In a musical career that have lasted for more than thirty years now, the band U2 has created a variety of thematic songs where numerous socially and politically oriented songs play important role. And what is the most important, these thematically diverse songs could easily be transferred into our lives, they can educate us about specific life situations; they carry a message. In addition, I am really glad that I have a chance to interpret some of their songs in my diploma seminar. 1

10 My work consists of three major parts. First, it starts with rock music, its definition and connection to sociopolitical issues in general. This part is followed by the connection of music and metaphors. Music has ability to metaphorically represent specific situation, object or even a movement of this object; for example, musical instruments like guitars and drums can mimic a flying plain or soldiers marching. Last part of my diploma seminar is about U2. I interpreted four U2 songs that deal with specific sociopolitical issues. I thoroughly investigated sociopolitical issues of Sunday Bloody Sunday, Bullet The Blue Sky, Silver & Gold and Miss Sarajevo. 2

11 2 INTRODUCTION OF ROCK MUSIC 2.1 DEFINITION OF ROCK MUSIC Rock music is a musical style that arose in the United States in the mid-1950s and became the dominant form of popular music in the world, but to make a definition of this musical style is quite difficult. There is a basic agreement that rock is a form of music with strong beat, but it is difficult to be more explicit ( What is rock? ). Let us see how some prominent English dictionaries define word rock : a style of popular music derived from rock and roll that is usually played on electronically amplified instruments and characterized by a persistent, heavily accented beat (The new Penguin English dictionary, 2000). form of popular music with a strong beat, usually played on electrical instruments (Essential English Dictionary, 1998). a type of popular music with a strong loud beat which is usually played with electric guitars and drums (Cambridge International Dictionary of English, 1995). rock is a kind of music with simple tunes and a very strong beat that is played and sung, usually loudly, by a small group of people with electric guitars and drums (Collins COBUILD English Dictionary, 1995). However, it seems that definitions found in the dictionaries are away from being perfect or complete. Rock was developed as a term to distinguish certain musicmaking and listening practices from those associated with pop; what was at issue was less a sound than an attitude. As opposed to some legislators who, for regularity purposes, established some questionable rock definitions, the music industry emphasizes clear, sociological difference between pop (instant singlebased music aimed at teenagers) and rock (album-based music for adults) ( What is rock? ). Or, like Bono once said: pop music often tells you everything is ok, 3

12 while rock music tells you that it s not ok, but you can change it (The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, p 74). According to the article What is rock?, rock music has been essentially a hybrid form since this genre arouse as the mixture of county and blues. Although African American music was at the center of this mix, rock resulted from what white musicians, with their own folk histories and pop conventions, did with African American music, and with issues of race and race relations. Although rock and roll had rural origins (from the United States, Atlantic Ocean, and throughout Europe), the rock audience was from the start urban, an anonymous crowd seeking an idealized sense of community and sociability in dance halls and clubs, on radio stations, and in headphones. Rock s central appeal has been its ability to provide globally an intense experience of belonging, whether to a local scene or a subculture. Therefore, rock history can be organized around the sound of the cities (Philadelphia, San Francisco, New York, Liverpool, and Manchester) and the spread of youth cults like rock and roll, heavy metal, punk, grunge etc. Rock music is better understood in terms of general use of technology rather than by its use of one specific instrument, like guitar for example. Early rock and roll stars success (Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly) did not depend only on the basis of their vocal skills, but also on the sound tricks in the studio made by their sound engineers. Similarly, guitar did not become central rock instrument because of its acoustic qualities, but mostly because of the use of its amplifier. Multitrack tape recording at the beginning, and then digital recording, made possible a manipulation of various sounds that shifted the boundaries between music and noise. Due to the breaking of technical limits of sound amplification, new electronic instruments such as drum machine would eventually occur. This constant pursuit of new sounds and new sound devices distinguished rock music from other popular music forms. Although rock music is produced, promoted, and sold by extremely successful and sophisticated multinational corporations, it still somehow remains noncommercial type of music. This non-commercialism is not shown in its processes of production but in the motivation of its makers and listeners, in terms 4

13 of what, in rock, makes a piece of music or musician valuable. The defining term in rock ideology is authenticity. As opposed to pop music, rock contains expression of performer s or composer s feelings and the authentic representation of social situation. The effect of rock s musical promiscuity, its use of technology, and its emphasis on the individual voice is a unique sonic presence. Rock music has a remarkable power to dominate the soundscape and to tempt the listener into the performers emotional lives. 2.2 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ROCK MUSIC Because of the America s military action in Vietnam during the mid-1960s, which was escalating out of control, students from all over the world became more politically involved; youth movements such as civil rights and feminism became hot social issues, which were frequently accompanied by drug consumption. Accordingly, certain strains of popular music melded attitude, experimentation and social conscience, which resulted in the newly defined rock genre. Opposed to the pop style, which had a reputation of tame musical style meant for oldies and prepubescent teenagers, rock genre provided heavy dose of realism, serving as an introspective outlet for a growing number of artists while expressing the concerns of those who were no longer prepared to look at the world through rose-tinted spectacles; Lennon style granny glasses, perhaps, but one who focused on hardhitting controversial topics rather than the innocent themes of boy-loves-girl, boyloses-girl (The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, p 74). John Lennon and The Beatles led the way among the handful of artists who made a successful transition from pop to rock. These included The Rolling Stones, The Yardbrids, The Who, Bob Dylan, The Byrds, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Grateful Dead. As the result of the musical revolution that had exploded on both sides of Atlantic a decade earlier, it was clear that rock was a new voice of youth (p 74). 5

14 Figure 1: The Beatles (Source: 17 September 2009) Breaking with the pop tradition of producing catchy, jukebox-friendly threeminute songs, vocally emotional acts like Janis Joplin and Joe Cocker, as well as blues-based hard rock bands like Cream and the Jimmy Hendrix Experience started to indulge themselves and their followers with far lengthier songs that were often distinguished by extended instrumental solos. These acts paved the way for subsequent decades acts of metal, progressive, jam, and arena rock bands. Even though this kind of music was meant for mind rather for the body, it was not long before the record companies tried to match the popularity of socalled supergroups like Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin (p 76). In a world of Alice Cooper and David Bowie s extravagant glam rock performances, people were pushing for bigger sounds onstage and in the studios, and concerts were getting more majestic and impressive. It was as if excess was equated with success. It was evident that only twenty years after the revolutionary rock n roll music of Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis, whose music had inspired teenagers, outraged parents, and revolutionized Western culture, contemporary music somehow lost touch with original message of rock music; promoted instrumental virtuosity was completely opposite to easy-to-play, 6

15 do-it-yourself appeal of early rock n roll. Punk rock, which came along, harshly shook up current, sterile musical atmosphere (p 77). Figure 2: Led Zeppelin (Source: 18 September 2009) Between 1976 and 1978, the British punks in particular pumped up the aggressive and rough attitude that was characteristic for their 1950s rock predecessors. Punks quite literally spat in the face of authority, middle-class values and, just for the hell of it, one another (The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, 2003, p 77). The most famous acts of punk rock were Sex Pistols and The Clash, whose songs expressed the frustration and disenchantment of disaffected youth. Almost as soon as punk movement became an international phenomenon, it started to disintegrate; it was getting hijacked by kids from comfortable backgrounds who did not have a clue about life on streets, and it was even undermined by artists themselves, who rather embraced commercialism over independence when signing with major record labels. Despite the effort that record companies made in maintaining and broadening punk s appeal, and associating numerous more mainstream acts with this genre from which hybrid new wave style occurred, punk rock somehow 7

16 started to lose its well-known and powerful message; punk music started to fade away, while MTV pop music generation was getting more and more popular (p 77). Once easy to categorize, rock music continued to fragment into different subgenres. At the same time, with a music style most similar to vintage rock n roll which consequently had the most far-reaching impact on the subsequent rock scene, the alternative-indie style served as a catch-all for various musical styles. Grunge genre emerged from dissonant, early 1970s heavy metal guitars with hostile attitude, alienated lyrics and aggressive music of punk; Nirvana and Pearl Jam, whose music appeared in the first half of the 1990s, were the leading acts of this rock genre (p 77). Figure 3: The Clash (Source: 19 September 2009) At the beginning of the 21 st century rock music keeps subdividing and reinventing itself, continually absorbing new influences from other musical spheres. Because of this mutation process it also lacks freshness and vitality; due to the cultural influence of some other music genres such as rap and hip hop, rock music no longer shapes opinions to the extent that it once did (p 77). 8

17 2.3 SOCIOPOLITICAL ISSUES AND ROCK MUSIC There is a long history of connection between music and politics, particularly political expression in music. This political expression portrays specific political messages that are found in numerous protest songs such as anti-war songs, patriotic songs, national anthems and political campaigns ( Music and politics ). Throughout the musical history, numerous political songs have been created. Musicians have found inspiration for writing about political issues in specific historical events they have witnessed. In addition, to completely understand a song s political message, listener has to be familiar with sociopolitical background of the time in which specific song was created. Period from the mid 1960s to the early 1970s represented for the first time in the history of popular music tight connection with political issues. Andy Bennet (pp 24-25) suggests that the counter-culture movement of the years 1965 to 1970, together with politicized rock music that shaped many of its central ideas, represented a significant period in the post war youth cultural history. Certainly, this was not the first time that music commented on sociopolitical issues. Prior to that time, folk music of the early 1960s (Bob Dylan) had dealt with various political issues. But prior to the mid 1960s, popular music had been considered by many to be too firmly located in the arms of capitalism, and thus being too commercial for some deeper connection with sociopolitical ideas. During the mid 1960s, however, it became clear that such a view of popular music was oversimplistic; that there was scope for artistic control of musical and lyrical content and for the dissemination of values which, in some cases, were antihegemonic from the point of view of capitalist ideology. The shakedown which would end this kind a of treatment of music began around 1965 when young people s experimentation with hallucinogenic drugs, notably LSD, and alternative lifestyles drew them to the experimental music of psychedelic rock groups, like Pink Floyd and The Grateful Dead, in the locations of London and San Francisco. Equally important was the intellectualization of lyrics where the triviality of pop lyrics was replaced by rock-poetry lyrics that expressed more serious feelings of the new age. 9

18 Basis for the strong connection between music and politics from mid to late 1960s was the counter-culture movement. The dominant sociological interpretation of the counter-culture suggests that it consisted of white middle-class youth who were disillusioned with the way their parent culture controlled society and they did not want to become a part of this kind of social orientation themselves. That was the case mostly in Great Britain and the USA. Disillusioned youth attacked mainly institutions which reproduce the dominant cultural and ideological relations family, education, media, marriage etc. Parents largely contributed to their children s condemnation of existing society. Not by their words, but by their actions, attitudes, and manner of living. Youth frequently witnessed the lifeless life of their successful parents whose marriages often broke up because there was nothing to hold them. In their homes, youth often felt despair and estrangement. Parents somehow created the culture of technocracy, a social form in which industrial society reaches the peak of its organizational integration, as some sociologists like to define this term. In perception of society, the world of technocracy was equated with idealism. From the point of view of the counterculture, this bourgeois world of parent culture was completely unacceptable for human feelings and creativity. Therefore, the only solution for young people, the disaffected middle-class youth, was to reject this kind of society and create a new way of life (pp 26-27). However, it is difficult to completely define the term counter-culture. It would be falsely to think that counter-culture included only white middle-class and that the sociopolitical discontent was a result of several cross-classes, usually working and white middle-class, actions only. Not only were people from a variety of social and cultural groups involved in the counter-culture movement, but also the term counter-culture itself was, in reality, simply a hypernym for shapeless range of activities and ideologies which, for a brief period during the 1960s, found a common voice. The counter-culture enabled wide range of groups to express their discontent with society. These groups included: The civil-rights movement, the young (especially college students and disaffected intellectuals), the peace and anti-war movements, the poor, women, the human-potential movement, prisoners, gays and lesbians, environmentalists, the old, the physically different (the disabled, the very fat, the very tall, the very short) etc. In addition, the counter- 10

19 culture seemed to be a common point to a number of social groups and in each case popular music functioned as a galvanizing force. Perhaps one of the most notable document of connection between music and counter-culture ideology is the film Easy Rider where two hippies use money acquired through drug trafficking to buy chopperized motorcycles and finance a road trip to Florida. The soundtrack for the film includes bands like Steppenwolf, The Jimmy Hendrix Experience, The Byrds, The Band and The Electric Prunes, whose music is carefully used as a musical commentary that illustrates close relationship between the songs lyrics and the knowledge, views and aspirations of those seeking out alternative ideologies and lifestyles across the USA during the late 1960s (p 29). During the mid to late 1960s music became a centrally significant medium for the dissemination of a range of sociopolitical issues. Counter-culture embraced several forms of organized protest movements against the dominant political hegemony in the west. One of the most significant protest movements emerging from the counter-culture was the anti-vietnam war campaign. Demonstrators from the USA and Western Europe worried about senseless nature of the Vietnam War where already an enormous number of the dead was constantly increasing, and accused the US government of interfering in the war and sending soldiers to Vietnam who, in most cases, did not return back (p 33). Many notable musicians of that time responded to the Vietnam War and replied with anti-war songs. During the 1969 Woodstock festival, the psychedelic rock band Country Joe and the Fish performed I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag, a powerful anti-vietnam war song that contributed much in popularizing the anti- Vietnam war campaign (p 33). The song highly condemns the US government, which was sending thousands of healthy young man to their deaths in the war which only had an economic purpose ( Country Joe and the Fish ). This message is clearly evident in the following lyrics: And it s one, two, three, what are we fighting for? Don t ask I don t give a damn, the next stop is Vietnam You can be first ones on the block to have your boy come home in a box 11

20 Other notable songs that criticize the US government interfering in the Vietnam War are definitely The Unknown Soldier by The Doors and later, Bruce Springsteen s Born in the U.S.A. which has often been misinterpreted as the American patriotic song. However, the anti-vietnam war campaign was largely ineffective in its efforts to end the war and eventual withdrawal of the US military from Vietnam was not a result of the campaign, nor the satirical attacks of the musicians. Victory of the Vietcong in the 1968 Tet offensive and the escalating costs of the US involvement in the war were much more significant in starting peace process than a dozen marches on Washington, or a thousand protest songs. Nevertheless, the efforts of the anti-vietnam war campaign resulted in some success (Bennet, p 34) Later, during the 1970s, several movements that concerned sociopolitical issues occurred. Famous movement of this type was definitely Rock Against Racism. The article Rock Against Racism says that this movement was set up in the United Kingdom in 1976 as a response to a racial conflict and the growth of white nationalists groups such as the National Front, a British conservative, whites-only political party whose major political activities were intense during the 1970s and 1980s. The campaign included rock and some reggae and pop musicians performing concerts with an anti-racist theme in order to discourage young people from embracing racist views. The campaign was also founded as a response to statements and activities by some well-known rock musicians that were widely regarded as racists. Rock Against Racism organized several music festivals to act against the growing wave of racist attacks. In spring 1978, London was a place of the major Rock Against Racism festival. It has been reported that 80,000 people marched six miles from Trafalgar Square to East End of London (a National Front hotspot) for an open air concert. The concert featured several rock and punk rock bands among which The Clash were most famous. Later, in the same year in July, another notable Rock Against Racism concert was organized in Manchester, where 25,000 people joined the Northern Carnival concert ( Rock Against Racism ). 12

21 Most honorable acts performing at the concert were punk rock band Buzzcocks and reggae band Steel Pulse (The Northern Rock Against Racism Festival ). Rock music was connected in the 1980s and 1990s through a number of charitable concerts such as Live Aid in Live Aid was a multi-venue rock music concert held on July the 13 th The event was organized to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia. The concert was held simultaneously in Wembley Stadium, London (attendant by 82,000 people) and JFK Stadium, Philadelphia (attendant by nearly 100,000 people). It was one of the largest television broadcast concerts of all time; an estimated 400 million viewers across 60 countries watched live broadcast. Numerous world-wide famous rock artists performed at Live Aid. A list of these musicians is pretty long so I will name only some of them: Queen, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, U2, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, The Who, Dire Straits and many others ( Live Aid ). The sequel of Live Aid, Live 8 concert, was organized twenty years later in In addition, Brian Lonhghurst (p 118) thinks that such huge events might raise the consciousness of the public about various sociopolitical issues and political figures like Nelson Mandela. Furthermore, they could deepen artist involvement in politics and contribute to political change. In the recent musical history, many rock artists dealing with various sociopolitical issues emerged. Specific sociopolitical situations that were experienced by musicians, forced them to write songs containing different sociopolitical themes. The Irish band U2, whose songs will be interpreted in detail in chapter 4, is definitely one of the most famous bands whose career has been deeply touched by various sociopolitical issues. 13

22 3 MUSIC AND METAPHORS 3.1 EXPERIENCING EMOTIONS IN MUSIC There would be difficult to find general agreement of how emotions are expressed in music. Some theorists and linguists claim that emotion description should be understood literally. They believe that music is somehow related to real emotions, or to be more precise, their claim supports and idea that the main function of all or most music is to express emotions, to arouse emotions, or to represent emotions. However, Nick Zangwill (p 391) cannot possibly accept this allegation. He, on the other hand, is convinced that emotion descriptions are metaphorical descriptions of aesthetic properties. According to this view, music itself has nothing essential to do with emotion. Since this chapter is about metaphors, it would be appropriate in the beginning to define the word metaphor. Metaphor is: a figure of speech in which one image, capable of comparison with another, is substituted directly or by implication for that other image. It is an implied comparison of unlike objects. The metaphorical relation has been described as comparison, contrast, analogy, similarity, juxtaposition, identity, etc. (Jurak, p 224), (e.g.: crying river, Juliet is the sun, howling wind, all the world s stage). Zangwill believes that emotions are essentially mental states that person has, which have content, qualitative character, and distinctive rationalizations. Emotions like anger, pride or fear could easily be applied to people because we feel something in a certain way. When emotions (anger, pride, and fear are, of course, only some of many other ones) are applied to a person, the meaning is likely to be literal, but when they are attached to the word sky for example ( angry sky ), the meaning is likely to be metaphorical (p 393). The function of the music is to generate aesthetic properties that depend of sounds. Crucially, the host of such aesthetic properties like beauty, elegance, and 14

23 daintiness for instance, are described by us metaphorically. As far as emotion description is concerned, many people embrace the phenomenological theory which says that music moves us when we listen to it, and generates emotions in us, which we project onto the music when we describe it in emotion terms. It is true that music affects us and makes us feel a certain way, but what we feel are not the emotions that correspond to emotion description of music. Aesthetic theory of music claims that ordinary emotions are neither part of either immediate creation nor the immediate reception of music; what we feel when experiencing music are not ordinary emotions that we often falsely ascribe to music, such as pride or anger (pp ). Nevertheless, in some live performances (for example a live performance of Sunday bloody Sunday by U2, as we will see in the following chapter), real emotions, such as anger for instance, could easily be applied to music. For more thorough understanding of this theory, I shall provide an example of it. Suppose we are listening to the music that we describe in terms of negative emotions, such as grief, melancholy, or despair. It would be insane if we wanted to experience music with these characteristics because we certainly do not want to make ourselves miserable. It is not that we would like to feel grief, melancholy, or despair, and we want to experience more such feelings; that would indeed be crazy. Instead, we experience characteristics of the music that we describe metaphorically as sad, melancholy, and desperate, and this way of experiencing such characteristics yields pleasure of the certain sort; these metaphorically described aesthetic features of the music is what we enjoy. Or in case we listen to the music we describe as angry. If we are really angry, we should believe or at least entertain the thought that someone has wronged us, and if we imagine anger, we should imagine state with such normative characteristics. But nothing like this is true in experiencing angry music. It is more natural to describe such experience as the experience of anger in music, which is a metaphorical description of the content of our own musical experience (pp 397, 398). This way of experiencing music allows that listening to the music causes feelings of pleasure and displeasure (sometimes intense and ecstatic pleasures and displeasures), and metaphors can describe what causes such pleasures. Such pleasures and displeasures, which have the music as their intentional objects, are the grounds of 15

24 judgment of taste (or aesthetic value) about music. However, such pleasures and displeasures are quite different from emotions such as pride or anger, which emotion descriptions would describe if taken literally. If I conclude, according to Zangwill s theory (the aesthetic metaphor thesis), we use emotion descriptions (anger, pride, melancholy, happiness, boredom etc.) to describe the substantive aesthetic features of music that make it aesthetically good or bad. In this kind of experiencing music, there is no room for ordinary emotions; not in creation nor in reception of music (pp 394, 396, 398, 399). 3.2 MUSIC AS A METAPHOR When we search a specific meaning or a message in a particular song, we usually focus on a song s lyrics. But interpreting specific song is not only investigating its lyrical, but also its instrumental or musical part. If we focused only on lyrics, we would deal with poetry. In addition, interpreting songs is the mixture of both, lyrical and musical part, where the latter is at least as important as the lyrics themselves. Music has ability to deliver specific messages instead of words. It can play a role of a metaphor by itself and bring out messages that mere words are unable to. With words or action, music can establish a context which has a function much like that of a linguistic metaphor. What is interesting about musical metaphor is not only that it can refer to the specific thing in music (for instance a flying plane), but it also has an ability to express the function of that specific thing (the movement of the flying plane). If a listener wants to understand the function of an object in the music, a clear context in which the movement of the object is exhibited must be provided; distinctive context might contain listener s clear understanding of background information of the specific musical piece, a distinctive major chord that contrasts the other chords etc. (Krantz, pp 352, 354). For instance, in rock music we might find such examples in Aerosmith s song Spaced where synthesizers and guitars mimic the sounds of alien spaceship, or in Ronnie Montrose s Bad Motorscooter where Montrose s highly distorted, 16

25 feedbacking slide guitar imitates the sound of a motor accelerating and even changing gears (Kennedy). I will present similar examples of such musical metaphors in subsequent chapter where I am going to interpret specific U2 songs in which instruments mimicking of the specific events is clearly evident. In their Something in the Way She Moves -Metaphors of Musical Motion, Johnson and Larson (pp 65-66) claim that when we talk about music as a metaphor, we have in mind a specific musical motion. Musical motion is a kind of a metaphorical motion that takes place within the metaphorical space. Within this motion we experience objects moving towards and passing us, and we experience ourselves moving from one point to another along some path, and so we develop our sense of moving from one place to another. In music, segments of a musical path are called passages. Musical motion is a concept that we unreflectively use to describe our own musical experience. Nevertheless, we have to bear in mind that musical motion is anything but clear, literal, and unproblematic. Something that is coming in a piece of music we are listening to, exists in a musical space in front of the hearer and moves towards the hearer. When it reaches the hearer it is experienced (heard), because it now exists in a present moment. Once the musical event passes the hearer, it exists only in the memory in the past, that is, in the metaphorical space behind the hearer. Phrases like here comes the recapitulation, the strings slow down here, and the music goes faster here describe the metaphorical motion of a musical event as moving towards and then passing us. This journey of a piece of music is called the moving music metaphor (p 69). Piece of music also move at some speed, and in musical motion we call this speed a tempo; we describe music as fast or slow and the way music moves might be marked by words like creep, crawl, stumble, fly, slow down etc. We could compare the experiencing of the musical motion described in the moving music metaphor to the everyday physical motion of objects that move through the real physical space. These physical objects are equivalent to the musical events that occur in the metaphorical musical motion (pp 69-71). 17

26 When we experience a bit of music, we also metaphorically travel through the musical passage of the musical motion. We (listeners) take a journey over the path that defines the particular piece of music being heard. The point where the musical traveler (someone who is listening to the music) is at the moment during his journey through the musical passage, is what musical traveler (listener) hears at the moment. What has already been heard, is conceptualized as points in the musical passage that are behind the traveler-listener, whereas parts of music not yet heard, are the points in the passage that traveler-listener will encounter later. This explains our expressions like once you reach the refrain, the dissonant part is behind you, we are approaching the refrain, the melody rises up ahead etc., when experiencing a specific musical work. Such metaphorical movement of ours through the musical passage is called the landscape metaphor (pp 71-72). Music has strong ability to affect us or to move us. By the metaphorical movement of the musical events through the musical passages and our own metaphorical movement through this passage, music arouses in us specific inner states, sensations, and thoughts that we interpret to ourselves metaphorically. Music is not the notes on the scores nor merely the vibrations that we hear as sounds. On the contrary, it is our whole vast reach experience of sounds synthesized by us into the meaningful patterns that extend over time. The experience of musical motion is the product of our imagination. Importantly, the way we experience a piece of music depends much on how we understand it. But there is no rule of how we should understand a particular piece of music (pp 77, 78). One can interpret one distinct musical work in terms of whatever one likes. Some of the interpretations may be more promising, but there is no general statement which one is correct (Krantz, p 356). Music exists on the intersection of organized sounds with our sensory-motor apparatus, our bodies, our brains, our cultural values and practices, our music-historical conventions, our prior experiences, and a host of other social and cultural factors. Consequently, musical motion is really experienced by us, albeit via our imaginative structuring of sounds (Larson and Johnson, p 78) 18

27 4 U2 4.1 INTRODUCTION OF THE BAND We re one, but we re not the same. We get to carry each other, carry each other One ( One by U2) The band U2 was formed in 1978 when the drummer, Larry Mullen Jr., pinned the advert musicians wanted on the board at the Mount Temple School in Dublin. After having read the advert, four teenagers gathered in Larry Mullen Jr. s kitchen. Their names were: Paul Hewson (known as Bono, the singer), David Evans (known as The Edge, the guitarist), Larry Mullen Jr. (the drummer), and Adam Clayton (the bass player). Four teenagers started to rehearse in Larry s kitchen which was approximately as large as the drum kit Larry uses today. In the beginning, the members of the band were not skillful musicians. Bono humorously likes to say nowadays that U2 had become a band before they could play. Despite the lack of their talent and skills, initial U2 performances were garnished with honesty, passion and energy; Bono s charisma and connection with audience was already evident in the beginning of his career. About the beginning of their career, The Edge once said: Realizing that actually not knowing how to play was not a problem music was more about energy and trying to say something and not necessarily about great musicianship ( The Essentials ). The breaking point in U2 s career was March the 17 th when U2 won the talent contest in Limerick, Ireland. They received a reward of 500 pounds and a chance to audition for CBS records. From the talent contest on, the band s name has been U2; earlier the band would have called themselves as Feedback or The Hype. Soon, U2 with their manager, Paul McGuiness, would sign a contract with Island Records ( Early Days Irish Shows ). 19

28 Figure 4: early U2 (from left to right: Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen Jr., Bono, The Edge) (Source: 22 October 2009) U2 recorded their first album Boy in Despite the promising start of their career, the band had not achieved broader international recognition until the release of the album War in The most famous two songs on the album are Sunday Bloody Sunday and New Year s Day. U2 s definite leap into the worldwide recognition was famous Live Aid concert in 1985 which made U2 more relevant act in the world of rock music. Many rock fans and critics claim that beside the outstanding performance of the band Queen, U2 s performance of Sunday Bloody Sunday and Bad was the climax of the Live Aid concert. U2 s career was getting more and more successful. The album The Joshua Tree, released in 1987, propelled U2 into the stardom of Rock n roll music. In the UK the album went platinum in 48 hours, making it by then the fastest selling record ever recorded. Subsequently, the album topped the charts in 22 countries. Until today, the album has been sold in more than 20 million copies worldwide. It also won the Grammy awards for the Album of the year and Best rock performance, and gave hits like Where The Streets Have No Name, I Still Haven t Found What I m Looking For and With Or Without You ( VH1 20

29 Legends DVD). The band was even put on the cover of Time magazine with the headline Rock s hottest ticket. It was only the fourth time a band made it to the cover following The Beatles, The Band, and The Who. Without a question, U2 became the biggest band in the world. Extremely successful 1980s ended for U2 in 1989 with a series of four late December shows at The Point Depot in Dublin when Bono announced that this is the end of something for U2 we have to go away and and dream it all up again ( The Essentials ). It was the announcement that some new era in the music of U2 is about to arrive on the horizon. Figure 5: U2 on the cover of Time Magazine (Source: leryid/14, 22 October 2009) In the beginning of the 1990s, U2 made a huge change in their musical style. Their songs contained dance rhythms, darker mood, and some electronic melodies. The product of this kind of musical style was the album Achtung Baby, released in At first, the album aroused shock and astonishment in U2 fans, but soon it would become one of their most acclaimed albums ever. Many fans consider this album even better then The Joshua Tree. Although album did not give major no. 1-chart hits, it contains many excellent songs like the beautiful One, Mysterious Ways, The Fly, Until The End Of The World, etc. The album was the basis for the most unusual and extravagant tour seen so far, the ZOO TV tour. The stage contained a 130-foot video wall juxtaposing 24-hour hard news, shopping channel ephemera and postmodern slogans to ramp up the irony levels like a phrase EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG. ZOO 21

30 TV tour was the answer to the enormous impact of the media on people at that period of time; more sophisticated media technology started to develop and people were surrounded by all kinds of different, often unnecessary news. It was the time of the trivial pop culture and U2 were cynically making fun of that ( The Essentials ). For example, during a concert, Bono interrupted a set list and made satellite calls to the President Bush in the White House, ordered pizzas, or parodied pop stars narcissism. ZOO TV tour lasted almost two years ( VH1 Legends DVD). Figure 6: ZOO TV stage (Source: 22 October 2009) In the beginning of the 21 st century, U2 somehow returned to their roots as far as a musical style is concerned. Their songs were once again shaped by the pure sound of guitars, drums and vocals. The result of this kind of musical approach was the album All That You Can t Leave Behind, another great U2 album released in fall Album was followed by the subsequent Elevation tour, which was total opposition to the ZOO TV tour or later POPMART tour. The stage had a shape of the heart, and the whole setting was very minimalist. It was like playing a club gig where the connection with the crowd is more genuine. Some of the greatest U2 concerts happened on the Elevation tour, like those in Boston and 22

31 Slane Castle, Ireland. The last U2 album recorded so far has been No Line On The Horizon, released in early Figure 7: U2 today (from left to right: Adam Clayton, Bono, The Edge, and Larry Mullen Jr.) (Source: 22 October 2009) U2 has been present in the rock scene up until today and being regarded as one of the most important and influential rock bands in the history of rock n roll. They have sold more than 150 million albums worldwide and won 22 Grammy awards. In March 2005 they were inducted in the rock n roll Hall of fame ( The Essentials ). U2 has never been a pure rock band famous rock label sex, drugs and rock n roll never fit into their musical style. I would say they have been far more than that; instead of flamboyant rock n roll lifestyle they rather try to set piece in the relationships between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, spread love between people, fight for 23

32 human rights and equality, write songs dedicated to the people of Sarajevo, to Martin Luther King Jr. or Billie Holiday and so on. Bruce Springsteen, the legendary rock musician described U2 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony as the keepers of some of the most beautiful sonic architecture in the rock-and-roll world ( The Essentials ). 4.2 SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY Sean and Julia, Gareth, Ann and Breeda Their lives are bigger, than any big idea ( Peace On Earth by U2) Sunday Bloody Sunday was released in 1983 on the album War. The song s name refers to two tragic terrorist attacks in the history of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, widely known as Bloody Sunday. Despite the clear reference of the song s name to these two events, Sunday Bloody Sunday is, according to band s comments on this song, not specifically about Bloody Sunday. It is about horrible acts of terrorism and wars in general. According to the article Bloody Sunday 1920, the first Bloody Sunday occurred on the 21 st of November 1920 during the Irish War of Independence when thirtyone people were killed (fourteen British, fourteen Irish, and three republican prisoners). First, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) killed fourteen people (twelve of them were British) to which British forcers replied and struck back. They started to shoot on the crowd at the Gaelic football match in Croke Park, Dublin, and killed fourteen Irish civilians. The more familiar (unfortunately) Bloody Sunday happened on Sunday, January the 30 th In the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland, twenty-seven innocent civilians, who were protesting during the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march, were shot by the members of the British Army. Fourteen people, of whom seven were teenagers, died. Many witnesses claim that all those shot people were unarmed. The families of the shot people were campaigning for some thorough inquiries about the event, but the exact reports about the incident 24

33 have not been presented yet, although they should have been long time ago ( Bloody Sunday 1972 ). Although many terrifying terrorist attacks have happened in Northern Ireland since 1972, this Bloody Sunday remains one of the most significant tragic events in the longtime ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles. The terrorist attacks that occured in Northern Ireland have roots in political and religious arrangement of this country. The majority of the population in Northern Ireland are Loyalist or Unionist who are overwhelmingly Protestants, while on the other side, Nationalists or Republicans, who are predominantly Catholics, play minor role in terms of population. The loyalists want Northern Ireland to remain as a part of the United Kingdom, while the Nationalists wish Northern Ireland to join the Republic of Ireland and be independent from the United Kingdom. Loyalists have often discriminated against Republicans, which forced the latter to campaign for civil rights movements and establish organizations like the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Organization (organization that fought for civil rights for Roman Catholic minority in Northern Ireland during the late 1960s and early 1970s). Discriminations of Loyalists against Republican have been the major reason for the longtime ethno-political conflicts between these two political sides known as the Troubles in Northern Ireland. This political unstable situation has often led to some terrible incidents in which, unfortunately, many innocent people lost their lives. The City of Derry (Londonderry), which is located near the Irish and Northern Irish border and where Catholics represent the majority of population, has often been the main target for various terrorist attacks ( Northern Ireland ). Peace has been tried to set many times, like the agreement signed in Belfast. The Belfast agreement was signed by the British and Irish governments on April the 10 th 1998 in Belfast and was a major political development in the Northern Ireland peace process ( Belfast agreement). Despite this agreement, terrorist attacks in Northern Ireland have not ceased until today. For example, only few months after the Belfast agreement, IRA executed a car bomb attack in Omagh, Northern Ireland. The result of the attack was devastating: 29 people dead, more than 200 injured ( Omagh bombing ). 25

34 Figure 8: The memory of Bloody Sunday 1972 banner and crosses carried by the families of the victims on the annual commemoration march (Source: 31 October 2009) This song is not a rebel song, this song is Sunday Bloody Sunday said Bono at the beginning of the song at the Red Rocks concert in 1983 indicating that Sunday Bloody Sunday is not a protest or a rebellious song, but an anti-war song that calls for a peace not only in Northern Ireland, but also everywhere else in the world. The song s lyrics are straight-forward and quite easy to understand, but they carry a strong message that begs for peace. Despite the religious, cultural and political differences present in the world, we could, and we should live in a peaceful environment. The last two lines in the first stanza deliver this message: Cos tonight We can be as one, tonight Different acts of terrorism result in terrible consequences when innocent people die, but it seems that the executors of terrorism and wars do not care about people whose lives are more valuable than any other thing in the world, and whose families and friends are left with nothing but painful sorrow and grief (the line The trenches dug within our hearts ). Some other interests that normal human 26

35 being can not understand are more important to the people that are responsible for such terrible acts. The fourth stanza describes such situation: And the battle s just begun There is many lost, but tell me who has won? The trenches dug within our hearts And mothers, children, brothers, sisters Torn apart. It is important to mention that many U2 songs contain different religious connotations and Sunday Bloody Sunday is no exception. Bono, like The Edge and Larry Mullen Jr., is a Catholic and a very religious person who often finds motivation for his lyrics in the Bible. Lines And mothers, children, brothers, sisters torn apart paraphrase the text from the gospel of Matthew 10:35 ( Sunday Bloody Sunday ). As far as this song is concerned, Bono mentioned that in the song he tried to compare the historic Bloody Sunday events to Easter Sunday which is the most important event in the religions of Catholics and Protestants (McCormick, p 135). In my opinion, this is why the song is entitled Sunday Bloody Sunday, where the first word Sunday is emphasized. In Catholicism, Easter is about the resurrection of Jesus, which is described in the Gospel of John 20:1-9 (Stockman, p 49). The song s last two stanzas are about Easter Sunday: The real battle just begun To claim the victory Jesus won On Sunday, bloody Sunday Sunday, bloody Sunday Although the song was written a long time ago, it could easily fit into the present moment, since the lyrics are about terrorism and wars, and these are getting more frequent every single day. Although U2 could perform this song at every single concert for the rest of their lives, Bono once said that they wish there will come a time when they would not have to play this song again. As far as the song being contemporary, I would like to emphasize the 8 th stanza: 27

36 And it s true we are immune When fact is fiction and TV reality. And today the millions cry We eat and drink while tomorrow they die. The leaders of the most significant countries in the world, their governments, and people in general do not care what is really going on in reality as far as terrorism and wars are concerned. We are interested instead in trivial, shallow and unimportant things that we usually watch on television; all kinds of the-samescenario soap operas, reality shows, or 30-second long educational headlines are our reality. Why would we bother with insignificant issues like terrorism if such terrible acts are present in the countries of the Middle East, for example, far away from our homes? It is like we do not understand the simple sentence that occurs in the first stanza I can t close my eyes and make it go away. The line We eat and drink while tomorrow they die is taken from the Bible, from the First Epistle to the Corinthians 15:32 ( Sunday Bloody Sunday ). Sunday Bloody Sunday s instrumental is at least as important as its lyrical part. Larry s militaristic drumbeat, The Edge s guitar that becomes louder and harsher as we move to the end of the song, the electric violin part, and Adam Clayton s bass result in the song s protest mood and atmosphere. Bono garnishes militaristic mood of the song with his aggressive singing. Guitars are in many U2 songs the most important instrument, whereas in Sunday Bloody Sunday drums take a central role. The article Sunday Bloody Sunday suggests that trough his drumming, Larry Mullen Jr. metaphorically represents a military band and soldiers walking, which gives the song a military mood and indicates that a battle field is ready for a fight. Sunday Bloody Sunday is among U2 s best songs with some memorable and amazing live performances. In 1983 at the Red Rocks concert in the War tour, Bono came on stage marching like a soldier and carrying a white flag during Larry Mullen Jr. s drum solo in the middle of the song. The song s message and its military mood were perfectly presented in this scene ( Under a Blood Red Sky DVD). 28

37 On the 8 th of November 1987, the IRA placed a bomb in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland. The bomb exploded during the Remembrance Sunday commemoration ceremony. Remembrance Sunday is the second Sunday in November and the closest one to November the 11 th, which is Remembrance Day, the day when the Commonwealth of Nations commemorate the people who died during the First World War ( Remembrance Day bombing; Remembrance Sunday ). Eleven people died that day in Enniskillen and many more were injured. It was one of the most brutal terrorist attacks in Northern Ireland. The same day, U2 had a concert in Denver. Bono was devastated after having heard the news. His singing of Sunday Bloody Sunday was harsh and aggressive, expressing his rage. In the middle of the song, he condemned the Enniskillen bombing and terrorist attacks in general while saying: And let me tell you somethin'. I've had enough of Irish Americans who haven't been back to their country in twenty or thirty years come up to me and talk about the resistance, the revolution back home...and the glory of the revolution...and the glory of dying for the revolution. Fuck the revolution! They don't talk about the glory of killing for the revolution. What's the glory in taking a man from his bed and gunning him down in front of his wife and his children? Where's the glory in that? Where's the glory in bombing a Remembrance Day parade of old age pensioners, their medals taken out and polished up for the day. Where's the glory in that? To leave them dying or crippled for life or dead under the rubble of the revolution, that the majority of the people in my country don't want. No more! ( Rattle and Hum DVD). I would like to conclude this chapter with U2 s live performances in 2005 during their Vertigo tour. During Sunday Bloody Sunday, Bono wore a ribbon tied around his forehead. On that ribbon the COEXIST word was written. The letter C was written in the shape of a crescent presenting the Islamic religion, the letter X in the shape of the Star of David, presenting Jewish religion, and the letter T depicting the Christian cross which is the symbol of Christianity. Bono pointed to these religious signs and said: Jesus, Jew, Mohamed, it s true. All sons of Abraham ( Live from Chicago DVD). This is a very beautiful message that 29

38 calls for coexistence between various religions around the world, but despite the beauty and depth of this message, I am afraid that living in coexistence today is utopia since extremists in religious ideologies nowadays usually generate terrible terrorist attacks and wars. Every normal person wants to live in a peaceful environment but I am afraid that this is, unfortunately, in today s society impossible. Sunday bloody Sunday contains the lines: How long must we sing this song? How long, how long? I am afraid we will have to sing this song for quite a long time, or maybe even forever. Figure 9: Sign COEXIST depicted on the screen during the U2 s Vertigo tour (Source: 2 November 2009) 30

39 4.3 BULLET THE BLUE SKY America, when will we end the human war? (from America by Allen Ginsberg) Bullet The Blue Sky is U2 s one of the most significant political songs which harshly condemns the USA foreign policy under the presidency of Ronald Regan. The song was released on the album The Joshua Tree in U2 autobiography U2 by U2, edited by McCormick (p 177) says that in terms of writing the album The Joshua Tree, U2 was traveling around the USA seeking the themes for the upcoming album. Before their journey the band had not know much about America, its tradition, literature, landscape etc. But while traveling around the country, the band members somehow fell in love with the country, especially with its distinctive landscape of the south-western desert area and the rich tradition of the literature and its writers. However, in that time, in the middle of the 1980s, the reality of the USA was something completely different. It was the time of the Wall Street phenomenon where money, winning, and greed were more important than any other thing in the society of the USA. It was no time for losers in that materialistically developing country, which was relentlessly bombing its citizens and people from other countries around the world with its capitalistic mentality and popular, spending oriented culture. This kind of mentality also reflected on the US policy which did not feel unease when meddling in someone else s affairs. U2 experienced these two different faces of the USA. They were enchanted by America, but not the real one from the television, but America s dream, its spiritual richness, and the one that Martin Luther King, Jr. believed in. Through their songs, U2 expressed these two different as night and day sides of the USA; after all, like Bono said, album The Joshua Tree should have been initially entitled as The two Americas. Bono wrote the lyrics for Bullet The Blue Sky after he himself had witnessed a horrifying killing and kidnapping of peasants in Central America and destroying their houses. Bono was interested in what was going on in Nicaragua and El Salvador in the middle of the 80s, which was the big political issue in that time. In El Salvador Bono joined Sanctuary, the group that supported and helped farmers 31

40 who were caught in a crossfire during the Civil War in El Salvador. Guerillas and the government troops were terrorizing farmers and they were, what is the most significant, backed up by the US forces which feared the Nicaraguan socialist revolution would spread (p 177). In the 1980s, Nicaragua was the place where the revolution of Sandinism started to develop. The article Sandinism suggests that Sandinistas were spokesmen of various social improvements: social justice influenced by Marxism, Christian liberation theology, nationalization of property and natural resources, improved rural and urban conditions, control of living costs, improvement of public services and education, freedom of speech, equality of women, abolition of torture, political assassination and the death penalty, international non-alignment etc. Opponents, fully supported by the US government, believed that the Sandinista revolution would turn into Communism like in Cuba. In addition, the Sandinista revolution had to be squashed because it had the potential of spreading, and the USA would feel unsafe. Bono went to a small village up in the mountains in El Salvador where he experienced a horrible terrorizing of small villages. The government troops would inform a rebel-sympathetic village that they were going to destroy it and everybody had to leave, but people would not leave their homes, so there were many casualties. There would be fire-bombing and mortaring. Bono, who almost got himself into serious troubles during the bombing, was watching this horror happening on another hillside, next door to where he was, but close enough to feel this terror. Peasants, in Central America called campesinos, were not even blaming their own government. It is like they were asking themselves: Why do we feel like this, who is destroying our lives, who is shaking the walls of our houses? And the answer would be: Americanos. This terrible experience forced Bono to write lyrics for Bullet The Blue Sky, where he wanted to describe this hell on earth being present in Central America (McCormick, 177, 179). The lyrics of the songs that appear on the album The Joshua Tree are in general more fundamental and poetic than the lyrics that occur on the albums prior to The Joshua Tree, and Bullet The Blue Sky is no exception; the song s lyrics are full of metaphors and different allusions. Bono admitted that the lyrics on the first four 32

41 albums are not really lyrics at all, they are sketches. He was not really a writer; he was more like a painter, an emoter or a shouter, somehow being afraid of the failure in case of writing bad lyrics. So when creating The Joshua Tree album, Bono spent more time on writing lyrics. He was also substantially encouraged by the American writers and poets whose works he was reading during the U2 s journey in the USA. Bono admired the Native American writing, the works of black writers like James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison, and poets and playwrights like Tennessee Williams, Langston Hughes, Allen Ginsberg, Charles Bukowski and Sam Shepard (177, 179). Terrorism of the El Salvadoran countryside and its inhabitants is vividly described in the stanzas 1, 2, and 4. The sound of the planes coming is metaphorically described in the stanza 4 where the first two lines say: In the locust wind Comes a rattle and hum, and a crossfire probably being translated as From the firefly A red orange glow. By using metaphors, Bono definitely wants to depict the horrifying situation in El Salvador as vividly as possible. Like many other U2 songs, Bullet The Blue Sky also contains some Biblical references. In the first stanza the lines that say See it drivin nails Into the souls on the tree of pain are obviously the reference to Jesus being nailed on the cross. By this allusion, Bono emphasizes the suffering of people living in the El Salvadoran countryside. Lines Jacob wrestled the angel And the angel was overcome refer to the story from the Bible when Jacob was wrestling with a man who supposed to be an angel (Genesis 32:23-33). The story from the Bible describes the Jacob s deception of his twin brother Esau and his father Isaac in order to receive a blessing. His fraudulent behavior represents evil winning over good, or overcoming an angel who is the symbol of good and honesty. In Bullet The Blue Sky Jacob might be the metaphor of the El Salvadoran government and the US foreign policy terrorizing peasants, while an angel being the metaphor for the farmers living in the countryside of El Salvador. Graham and van Oosten de Boer (p 32) believe that Bullet The Blue Sky also dramatizes the USA s own angels and demons. The Ku Klux Klan sect, which is known for its conservative beliefs, discrimination of blacks, torture and killing, is 33

42 described in the line We see them burnin crosses which occurs in the fifth stanza: You plant a demon seed You raise a flower of fire. We see them burnin crosses See the flames higher and higher. Bono contrasts this demon with the liberating spirit of John Coltrane and his A Love Supreme. John Coltrane is mentioned in the eighth stanza in the line As a man breathes into his saxophone. The comparison of the Ku Klux Klan to John Coltrane, a demon versus an angel, is an excellent metaphoric description of the USA as a double-faced country; the USA s richness of its tradition, culture, and landscape on side, and its birth of materialism, capitalism, and the foreign policy being relevant in this song, on the other, much darker side. The similar contradiction is achieved in the stanza 8 where the John Coltrane line As a man breathes into his saxophone is immediately fallowed by the line And through the walls you hear the city grown, exemplifying the pain that civilians of El Salvador were going through. The US foreign policy was especially active in Central America under the presidency of Ronald Reagan, who was the president of the USA in years Bono remembered a man whose face was red like a rose on a thorn bush. It was the face of Ronald Reagan who is described in the seventh stanza: Suit and tie comes up to me His face red like a rose on a thorn bush Like all the colours of a royal flush And he s peelin off those dollar bills (Slappin em down) One hundred, two hundred. The song continues with the couplet And I can see those fighter planes, which brings out the effect of cacophony, and together with the previous stanza 34

43 emphasizes the US foreign policy supplying the El Salvadoran government with necessary military facilities and money. On May the 9 th 1987, president Reagan said: San Salvador is closer to Houston, Texas, than Houston is to Washington, D.C. Central America is America; it's at our doorstep, and it has become a stage for a bold attempt, by the Soviet Union, Cuba, and Nicaragua, to install Communism by force throughout the hemisphere ( Salvadoran Civil War ). The US government sent overall 7 billion dollars of aid to the El Salvadoran government in ten years (last three lines in the 7 th stanza: And he s peelin off those dollar bills ). Under the Reagan s presidency the number of the US military advisors largely increased in El Salvador, and the US army was even training Salvadoran military at the School of the Americas, in Georgia. The US government justified their deeds as preventing the revolutionary left-winged political parties from terrorizing and killing civilians, which would be a serious threat to the Salvadoran government, but that was just a lame excuse for oppressing the Communism at all costs ( Salvadoran Civil War ). It was unbelievable that the USA, the same people who represented liberty to the reset of the world, were firebombing villages in El Salvador and trying to crush liberation theology wherever it showed its righteous way. Of course, dictatorial political and social arrangements like Communism must harshly be squashed, but Sandinistas in Central America just wanted more rights and classless society. The song s end again metaphorically describes the suffering of peasants, of women and children living in the El Salvadoran countryside (the line See the rain comin through the gapin wound ), whose destiny was in the hands of their own government which was infamously supported by the Ronald Reagan s foreign policy. 35

44 See across the field See the sky ripped open See the rain comin through the gapin wound Howlin the women and children Who run into the arms Of America. Bullet The Blue Sky contains The Edge s one of the most distinctive guitar solos. Bono asked The Edge whether he could put El Salvador, this hell on earth through his amplifier to convey a sheer horror he had went through in El Salvador (McCormick, 179). Especially during his long guitar solo right before the song s last stanza, after Bono repeats the word America for three times, The Edge metaphorically represents the fighter planes flying in the sky of El Salvador and dropping bombs that explode on the ground ( U2 lists: top 10 political U2 songs ). Also at the beginning of the song, before the first stanza, The Edge s guitar mimics fighter planes flying and bombs exploding, which creates a dark, gloomy atmosphere. Bono s singing is aggressive, especially in the first part of the song and during the chorus, where he expresses his rage and frustration about killing and terrorizing innocent people, and accuses the US government for being responsible for such terrible acts. His tone changes in the last part of the song where he, in the last stanza, practically recites the words, expressing his sadness while describing suffering of the El Salvadoran people. The Salvadoran Civil War lasted for twelve years ( ). During these years approximately 75,000 people lost their lives. The El Salvadoran Government, substantially supported by the US foreign policy, was killing and terrorizing mostly peasants, but it did not feel unease to kill anybody who seemed to be an obstacle on its way, or who showed a sympathy with the revolutionary leftwinged parties; these included clergy (man and women), church workers, political activists, journalist, medical workers, liberal students and teachers, human-rights monitors etc. However, revolutionary left-winged parties also violated human rights of many Salvadorans and other individuals who showed the government s support. Revolutionists were executing terrorist bombings and were also torturing, 36

45 kidnapping, raping, and killing politicians, intellectuals, public officers, judges etc. ( Salvadoran Civil War ). It seems that El Salvador was just one of the several countries around the world in whose political and social difficulties the USA interfered. The US foreign policy s trace could be found in some countries in Latin America, Vietnam, the Middle East, Afghanistan 4.4 SILVER & GOLD I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. (Martin Luther King, Jr.) Silver and Gold was originally released in 1985 on the album Sun City, which was a result of a collaboration of numerous famous musical artists who worked on the album and recorded the song Sun City as the group called Artists United Against Apartheid. The group, whose development and function is presented in the article Artist United Against Apartheid, was founded by Steven Van Zandt, nicknamed as Little Steven, who had been the member of The E Street Band and had worked with Bruce Springsteen, but later decided to start a solo career. During his visit to South Africa, Van Zandt was devastated by what he experienced in a place called Sun City, a luxurious interracial gambling resort located in the heart of a bantustan, nominally an independent homeland of black Africans during apartheid, placed in the middle of the impoverished rural land. Sun City resort was a symbol of the white South African society, which was strongly oppressing human rights of black people during apartheid, and who had the right to entertain itself in any way it wanted to. Therefore, many prominent musical artists gathered and recorded the song Sun City, which condemns the South African government s treatment of blacks in the late 1980s during apartheid. Artists who worked on the song and the album vowed that they would never perform in the resort Sun City. 37

46 Version of Silver and Gold that appears on the album Sun City was recorded by Bono with Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood from The Rolling Stones, but was later re-recorded by U2 and appeared as a B-side on the single Where The Street Have No Name. Although the song is about apartheid, some of the song s lyrics are not easy to interpret; for better understanding of the lyrics, a reader must be more familiar with the political background of South Africa, while some of the allusions in the song could be interpreted in different ways. Bono briefly described the meaning of the song at the U2 concert in Denver in At the end of the song, right before The Edge s solo, Bono said: Yep, silver and gold... This song was written in a hotel room in New York city 'round about the time a friend or ours, Little Steven, was putting together a record of Artists Against Apartheid. This is a song written about a man in a shanty town outside of Johannesburg. A man who's sick of looking down the barrel of white South Africa. A man who is at the point where he is ready to take up arms against his oppressor. A man who has lost faith in the peacemakers of the west while they argue and while they fail to support a man like bishop Tutu and his request for economic sanctions against South Africa. Am I buggin' you? I don't mean to bug ya... Okay Edge, play the blues... ( Rattle and Hum DVD). During apartheid black people were racially segregated and forcefully moved to one of the ten black African homelands called bantustan, which were mostly located in the eastern and northeastern impoverished rural land of South Africa. But many blacks also lived in peripheral parts of the larger cities in South Africa, like the township Soweto (abbreviation for South Western Townships), located in the southwestern peripheral area of Johannesburg. Blacks lived here in extremely poor conditions, in falling apart barracks, where they were often terrorized and arrested by the police. The first stanza in Silver and Gold describes these poor living conditions in shanty towns. Bono describes these townships as tin can town, shithouse, and by the metaphor that spreads through the first stanza s last four lines No stars in the black night chained to the ground. In the 1980s and especially in the last years of this decade, the political situation in townships was extremely unstable and intense. Anti-apartheid protests movements by blacks 38

47 and various organizations escalated, to which the South African government severely responded. The government undertook extraordinary measures in order to squash protest movements in unrest areas and gave the police and military every right to treat blacks as they wished. The result of these radical measures was a rapidly-increasing number of arrests of blacks who were put in detention without a trial. Many blacks were tortured in prison. By 1988, approximately people had been detained ( South Africa under apartheid ). The third stanza vividly depicts this torturing of black people, who were hanged and killed in many cases. Helplessness of blacks is described by the lines I scream at the silence It s crawling, crawls under the door. Stanza is concluded by the lines Jesus, say something! I am someone, I am someone, which patently emphasizes the human rights of blacks and them supposedly being equal with white people. South Africa was primarily colonized by British and Dutch, with British being the beginners of a racial segregation in the 19 th century, which later, in 1948, culminated in the segregation called apartheid. British invasion to South Africa began in the beginning of the 20 th century, around 1900, after the discovery of enormous amounts of diamonds and gold, especially in the area around Johannesburg, in province Gauteng. After all, the old nickname for Johannesburg and its surrounding areas is Place of gold ( Gauteng ). As the colonialists and the first settlers of South Africa, British are described in the fourth stanza: Captains and Kings in the ship s hold They came to collect Silver and gold, silver and gold. Graham and van Oosten de Boer (p 40) suggest that Bono stole lyrics Captains and Kings from an Irish writer Brendan Behan. Captains and Kings lyrics can be found in the Behan s poem I Remember In September, which is a part of his collection of poems called The Hostage. In his poem, Behan despises British government, its leaders, and their military actions ( I Remember In September ). In Silver and Gold these Behan s British political leaders are mentioned in the fifth stanza where they, together with the US leaders, represent the Western countries that put veto on economic sanctions against South Africa during 39

48 apartheid in the 1980s. According to the article South Africa under apartheid, which thoroughly presents apartheid in South Africa, the USA and the UK that were in the 1980s led by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, followed a constructive engagement policy with the South African apartheid government, believing in free trade and a vision of South Africa as a defender against presumably Marxist forces originating from black people. However, by the late 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, the USA and the UK s support towards the South African government started to melt, while their impatience with apartheid system began to grow. Bono condemns the US and the UK foreign policy in terms of apartheid in the fifth stanza, with the UK and the US leaders and officers denoting as Seen their navy blue uniforms. Navy blue color got its name from the dark blue worn by the officers of the British Royal Navy since 1748, and was subsequently adopted by other navies around the world ( Navy blue ). In addition, the line Seen their navy blue uniforms might refer to the British colonists (Captains and Kings), as well as to the UK and the US leaders of the navy or the military in general, since they usually wear navy blue uniforms. Their rank and importance are depicted in the last line by the words bright and shiny things : I seen the coming and the going Seen the captains and the Kings Seen their navy blue uniforms Seen them bright and shiny things, bright shiny things. The sixth stanza represents the climax of the song s theme, a time when black people decide to stand up against the brutal apartheid regime. Unfortunately, blacks often paid the price for their uprisings. Their decision to revolt against the South African government is presented in the lines The temperature is rising The fever white hot, while the lines Mister I ain t got nothing But it s more than you ve got correspond to the line I am someone, where the significance of blacks in terms of human rights, their freedom, and spirituality prevailing over materialism are emphasized. Undervalued status of black people under the apartheid regime is metaphorically described by the lines These chains no longer bind me Nor the shackles at my feet where blacks are presented as 40

49 the prisoners. On the other hand, these two lines could also have literal meaning, since many blacks were imprisoned, especially in the second half of the 1980s. These two mentioned lines manifest the resistance of blacks against apartheid regime and their struggle for freedom. Bono creates a persona in the song; he puts himself in a role of a black person who, in the first person singular, describes his status under apartheid regime. Bono s voice is calm and quiet at the beginning of the song, but later, especially in the third and the sixth stanza in which terrorizing of black people and their struggle for freedom are described, volume of his voice rapidly increases, he literally screams expressing his simmering rage. It is also important to mention that by repetition of the specific lines ( I am someone, I am someone ), Bono emphasizes the song s key message: equality of black and white people. Although not literally, blacks and whites are mentioned in the song as adjectives in the phrases black night and white hot. The deep sound of the bass guitar creates in the first verse, together with Bono s quiet singing, a dreary, pessimistic atmosphere, which reflects the living conditions in which black people live. The lead guitar does not enter until the third verse when The Edge s guitar accompanies the brutal treatment of a black person. The same guitar playing by The Edge could also be noticed in the sixth stanza, in which black people s struggle for freedom is described. Although it is difficult to suggest the real meaning of The Edge s guitar, in my opinion, in the third and sixth verses, The Edge metaphorically tries to represent the brutal, inhuman treatment of black people, and their resistance and fight for freedom. Officially, the apartheid regime in South Africa ended in 1994 when Nelson Mandela won the presidential elections, but despite the fact that human rights of black and white people should be equal, it is not difficult nowadays to find situations where blacks are still undervalued and considered inferior to white people. 41

50 4.5 MISS SARAJEVO If there's an order in all of this disorder Is it like a tape recorder? Can we rewind it just once more? ( Wake Up Dead Man by U2) Miss Sarajevo arose on the basis of the documentary Miss Sarajevo produced by Bill Carter. According to the brief summary of his life and work in the article Bill Carter, Carter is an American writer and director, who became involved in the Balkan conflict when he was traveling around the world in the beginning of the 1990s. After traveling to Split, Croatia, he joined The Serious Road Trip, a humanitarian aid organization distributing food and medicine to the places the United Nations and the Red Cross would not go. In 1993, Carter traveled to Sarajevo to offer humanitarian aid to Sarajevans, but soon he would find himself in the heart of atrocities in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War, where he lived for six months in a burnt-out office building with scarce amounts of food and water. Despite these extreme conditions, Carter decided to stay in Bosnia, being inspired by the way Sarajevans tried to maintain the life they had had before the war. Later, Carter managed to get an interview with Bono and so he established contacts with U2. The Irish band was in the middle of their famous ZOO TV tour, which was widely know for using improved technology, like cameras, huge video walls and a satellite dish to fulfill specific concert purposes. According to the article Miss Sarajevo, Carter thought that by means of the ZOO TV satellite dish transmissions, Sarajevans, who were cut off from any kind of communication with the rest of the world, could present by themselves to the people from all over the world the horror they were going through. In addition, brief and unedited speeches of Sarejavans, mostly teenagers, were broadcast live in the middle of the U2 concerts in which young Sarajevans talked about their lives they had had before the siege. Before the Bosnian War started, teenagers in Bosnia and Herzegovina had lived a normal life like any other teenager; they were hanging around with their friends, went to school, listening to the music etc. Soon, they 42

51 would have fighter planes above their heads, mortar bombing in front of their houses, and no friends to hang out with. Although U2 concerts in a way suffered from these live connections with Sarajevo, U2 fans and also people from the rest of the world had a chance to see what was really going on in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bono, who was deeply touched by the stories of the young Sarajevans, promised Bosnian people to play U2 concert in Sarajevo. His promise was fulfilled in The documentary Miss Sarajevo is based on one of the most bizarre events of the war in former Yugoslavia. In the middle of the besieged Sarajevo where bombing was common thing in everyday life of Sarajevans, several Sarajevan artists organized an elaborate beauty pageant under mortar fire ( MISS SARAJEVO: A documentary by Bill Carter ). The title of this beauty pageant was Miss of Besieged Sarajevo 93. At one point during the pageant, all contestants were holding up a banner with the words DON T LET THEM KILL US. The winner, the Miss Sarajevo, was a 17-year-old blonde Inela Nogić, who later appeared on the cover of the Miss Sarajevo single. This beauty pageant was the symbol of Sarajevans desire to continue with a normal life, the one they had had before the war started. Beauty pageant was a Sarajevans respond and defense against the enemy. They did not want to be demoralized, they still wanted to laugh, to love, and to embrace the normality of human life, the one that most of the other people around the world have. About the documentary, Bill Carter said: The idea was simple, instead of doing what the news does, which is entertain you, I wanted to do something that the news rarely does, make a person care about the issue...i wanted young people in Europe to see the people in the war, I didn't want them to see politicians or religious leaders or military spokesmen The war is just a backdrop, it could be any war, the point is the vitality of the human spirit to survive, to laugh, to love, and to move on, that is something we will be addressing always. ( Miss Sarajevo ) On Bill Carter s webpage, a short description of the documentary Miss Sarajevo say that Carter s involvement in the Bosnian War was not about following the 43

52 scenes of carnage that the main media so often squeezes into thirty second dramatic headline. Instead, his camera follows the alternative scene of artists and young people, and captures the striking images of tunnels and cellars of Sarajevo, giving an unique insight into life during a modern war where civilians are the targets, but who want to continue with the normal life under these difficult and dangerous conditions. The documentary, whose executive producer is Bono, won several awards; it was the winner of the International Monitor Award, Golden Hugo Award, and the Maverick Director Award. In 2009, Bill Carter becomes honorary citizen of Sarajevo. Miss Sarajevo was produced as a soundtrack for the documentary and was also released as a single in The song arose from a collaboration between U2, U2 s long time collaborator and producer Brian Eno, and opera maestro Luciano Pavarotti. The result of this collaboration was a beautiful piece of music, called Miss Sarajevo. The song was performed for the first time in 1995 at the Pavarotti and Friends concert in Modena, Italy. Bono many times denoted Miss Sarajevo as his favorite U2 song. The song opens up with a stanza that accuses the United Nations, the western world and its media for neglecting and being indifferent towards the human aspect of the Bosnian war. People from Bosnia and Herzegovina were practically cut off from any kind of connection with the rest of the world and had to find their own ways to survive. The United Nations did not undertake any radical measurements; organization was mostly standing by proposing some negotiations and economic sanctions, but not executing some serious actions in terms of human aspect of the Bosnian war. Is there a time for keeping your distance A time to turn your eyes away Is there a time for keeping your head down For getting on with your day Almost every line of the song begins with the words Is there a time, making a question whether there is already an appropriate time for different occasions, 44

53 customs, but mostly an appropriate time for normal, everyday life of Sarajevans and people of Bosnia and Herzegovina in general. These questions also try to warn a reader that people in Bosnia and Herzegovina are not able to preserve a normal life. Instead of love and laughter, for example, for them it is time for shelters and sadness. It seems like the song somehow contains rebellious spirit. The second stanza, for example, asks the question if there is a time for women to make themselves up, to buy a nice dress, and look beautiful. The second stanza is the introduction for the chorus that occurs in the third and sixth stanzas. Chorus depicts the beauty pageant called Miss of Besieged Sarajevo 93 and its winner, at that time 17-year-old Inela Nogić. Chorus emphasizes the winner s beauty and in some sense also the beauty of the other contestants, since the beauty pageant was a symbolic and surreal way of rebellion against the oppressor (the lines Here she comes To take her crown Surreal in her crown ). In U2 s autobiography U2 by U2, Bono said that Miss Sarajevo was a response to the surreal acts of defiance that had taken place during the siege of Sarajevo. For example, one woman refused to go to the shelter during the bombing and played a piano instead, another one said: We will fight them with lipstick and heels. It was a pure Dadaism (McCormick, p 262). The fourth and fifth stanzas continue to provide questions of the suitability of normal living in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and specifically mention the inhabitants of this country. Ethnic diversity in Bosnia and Herzegovina capturing Bosnians (Muslims), Serbs and Croats, was one of the major reasons for one of the bloodiest wars in modern history. This ethnic diversity is in the song mentioned by the line Is there a time for different colours. The line Different names you find it hard to spell tells about the specific names of these people, usually ending with letters ić which are difficult for the people living outside the area of former Yugoslavia to spell and pronounce. Bosnians, who are Muslims or Islamic in terms of religion, are mentioned in the line Is there a time to turn to Mecca, since Mecca is the holiest city of Islam and the pilgrimage site for Muslims. While praying during a mass, Muslims are always turned to Mecca. Bosnian teenagers are depicted by the line A time for East 17. Young Bosnians probably suffered the most; many of them lost their friends, or even worse, their siblings and parents. During the war teenagers were unable to enjoy listening to their 45

54 favorite music; idolizing their favorite artists, listening to their music, and gluing their posters on the walls was replaced by the dreadful sound of bombs and grenades. East 17 is an English pop boy band, who was one of the most popular boy bands in the early 1990s and idols to many teenagers around the world. Bono s whisper-like singing (reciting) of the lyrics and the song s quiet melody that creates melancholic atmosphere depicting resigned, wartime atmosphere in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is in the seventh stanza disrupted by Luciano Pavarotti s powerful, passionate opera solo. Translation of his Italian words would sound like: It's said that a river Finds the way to the sea And like the river You shall come to me Beyond the borders And the thirsty lands You say that as a river Like a river... Love shall come Love... And I'm not able to pray anymore And I cannot hope in love anymore And I cannot wait for love anymore The arrival of love to people of Bosnia and Herzegovina is compared with the metaphor of a river coming to its final destination, the sea, which happens sooner or later. Listening to Pavarotti s singing and reading his translated lyrics, we can feel the frustration and resignation of Bosnians (the last three lines), but at the same time their desire, their yearn for love, for Pavarotti s screaming type of love (the way he sings word l amore ) they had been waiting so long, too long. Officially, the arrival of love and humane life came back to Bosnia and Herzegovina in early

55 The song ends with a stanza that is once again sung quietly, gently, with a melody creating a resigned mood. Lyrically, the stanza is about Christmas which is for many the most important family holiday. Unfortunately, families in Bosnia and Herzegovina had not been able to wrap presents, decorate their Christmas trees or gather for Christmas dinner for almost four years. The first live performance of Miss Sarajevo happened at the Pavarotti and Friends concert in Modena, Italy, on September the 12 th Right after the song s end Bono recited the words of the famous Croatian poet Ivan Gundulić, saying: O lijepa, o draga, o slatka slobodo which means O beautiful, o beloved, o sweet freedom. It was a beautiful announcement of freedom that emotionally touched everyone who witnessed the concert and especially the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1997, four years after it had been arranged, U2 concert in Sarajevo was finally performed. It was an extremely emotional concert, not only for Sarajevans, but also for the band. Although Bono practically lost his voice during the concert, Sarajvo s gig remains one of the most notable U2 performances ever. Songs like Pride (In the name of love), Stand By Me, I Still Haven t found What I m Looking For, Bono s thanks to Sarajevans, saying Svirati u Sarajevu je vaš poklon nama ( to perform in Sarajevo is your gift to us ), and finally a performance of Miss Sarajevo, at least for a moment brought tears on the fan s eyes ( Sarajevo bootleg DVD ). Sarajevo s concert was a symbol for things getting back to normal in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 47

56 Figure 10: Beauty pageant Miss of Besieged Sarajevo 93 and the banner DON T LET THEM KILL US (Source: U2 BEST OF DVD, 6 December 2009) 48