U2’S THIRD ALBUM, WAR, is generally regarded as the band’s first truly great record. Although not officially a concept album per se — it doesn’t follow a dedicated storyline — the record has a prevailing theme centered around worldwide strife and the ravages of armed conflict, whether it was close to the band’s home base of Dublin or halfway across the globe. An impassioned and confrontational work, War was a critical and commercial triumph, and its rapid succession of smash singles — “New Year’s Day,” Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Two Hearts Beat as One” — pushed it to Gold and Platinum status on both side of the Atlantic.
But in the months before U2 — singer-guitarist Bono, guitarist The Edge, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. — began recording the album, there was little to indicate that they were on the verge of a breakthrough. There was doubt among them that they would make the record at all. “Going into the album, we’d gone through a bit of a crisis as a band because of our uncertainty about whether this was right for us,” The Edge says. “I mean, fundamentally, was it right for us to be in a band?” Those concerns faded once the new songs took shape and demonstrated to them that their music could be a platform to address larger and weightier matters. “We came out of that after we’d written some songs that were really reassuring and confirmed that we could be involved in music and make some sort of positive difference,” The Edge says. “It was on War where we cut our teeth on activism and social justice issues.”
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der June 2023-Ausgabe von Guitar Player.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der June 2023-Ausgabe von Guitar Player.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
How I Wrote..."Year of the Cat"
AI Stewart reflects on his beguiling hit, some 10 years in the making.
UAFX
Teletronix LA-2A Studio Compressor
LINE 6
POD Express
MAN OF STEEL
He brought the Dobro to centerstage with his dazzling talent. As he drops his first album in seven years, Jerry Douglas reflects on his gear, career and induction in the Bluegrass Hall of Fame.
HIGH TIME
The new MC5 album took more than 50 years to arrive. The band members have all passed on, but the celebration is just beginning.
58 YEARS OF GUITAR PLAYER
As Guitar Player moves full-time to its online home, we look back at some of its greatest stories in print.
DRAGON TALES
In a Guitar Player exclusive, Jimmy Page sheds light on the amplifiers behind his Led Zeppelin tone and how they live again in his line of Sundragon signature amps.
CLOSER TO HOME
Rehearsal space, studio, vessel and abode Diego Garcia's boat is the home base for his new album, as well as his musical life as the seafaring Spanish guitarist Twanguero.
Funk Noir
With The Black Album, Prince made his greatest-and most infamousmusical statement.
Medium Cool
Striking the middle ground between its Thinline brethren, Gibson's ES-345TD remains a versatile, if underrated, gem.