Sharon's Page

I saw U2 for the first time in 1982.  I have seen them in concert 7 times.  There must be over 1,000 videos of U2 to choose from.  But in this 1980’s video of U2’s “I Will Follow” video (below), I don’t think even Bono realized the magnitude of the lyric he wrote at the time.  Wow!  If you walk away, I will follow....
And (below) 2001’s “Beautiful Day” live from Slane Castle, Ireland.  “And the reason that you had to care....the traffic is stuck….and you're not moving anywhere”.  Achtung Baby!  As always, thank you Bono!
“Where the Streets Have No Name” - from U2’s 1987 Grammy award winning best album of the year, The Joshua Tree.  The song, often used to open concerts, over the years has become a centerpiece at U2’s concerts.  Open to interpretation to all who listen, it has been said that Bono wrote the lyrics in response to the notion that it is possible to identify a person's religion and income based on which side of the street they live on, particularly in Belfast.  It has also been said that Bono wrote the lyrics in response to his visits to Ethiopia, where many of his songs were rooted.  Many countries claim the song as their own.  Many individuals too.  The beauty of music.  The reach of lyrics.  After 9/11 the song never sounded more needed.
Thanks Bono.
Live, Bono comes close to uniting the collective consciousness of us all.  Actually, he does not come close....he makes it happen.  "Pride, In the Name of Love" from 1987.  Free at last, they took your life, they could not take your pride!!
"October" 1981
"October and Tomorrow" live from 1981 (music only)
Vertigo  "A feeling is so much stronger than a thought....your eyes are wide... and though your soul it can't be bought... you mind can wander"  Keeping their balance in an unstable world.
9/11 Tribute.  2002.  Most watched Superbowl half time show ever.  "MLK" and
"Where the Streets Have No Name" 

I wanna run, I want to hide
I wanna tear down the walls
That hold me inside.
I wanna reach out
And touch the flame
Where the streets have no name.

I wanna feel sunlight on my face.
I see the dust-cloud
Disappear without a trace.
I wanna take shelter
From the poison rain
Where the streets have no name
Where the streets have no name
Where the streets have no name.

We're still building and burning down love
Burning down love.
And when I go there
I go there with you
(It's all I can do).

The city's a flood, and our love turns to rust.
We're beaten and blown by the wind
Trampled in dust.
I'll show you a place
High on a desert plain (with no sorrow or pain)
Where the streets have no name
Where the streets have no name
Where the streets have no name.

We're still building and burning down love
Burning down love.
And when I go there
I go there with you
(It's all I can do).
MLK:
Sleep, sleep tonight
And may your dreams be realised.
If the thunder cloud passes rain
So let it rain, rain down on he.
So let it be.
So let it be.

Sleep, sleep tonight
And may your dreams be realised.
If the thunder cloud passes rain
So let it rain, let it rain
Rain down on he.
Kite.  2001 Live from Boston

http://youtu.be/mwMdO3HK_ws
(click on Blue Link above for a larger video image)

Something is about to give
I can feel it coming
I think I know what it is
I'm not afraid to die
I'm not afraid to live
And when I'm flat on my back
I hope to feel like I did

Cause hardness, it sets in
You need some protection
The thinner the skin

I want you to know
That you don't need me anymore
I want you to know
You don't need anyone, anything at all

Who's to say where the wind will take you
Who's to know what it is will break you
I don't know which way the wind will blow
Who's to know when the time has come around
Don't wanna see you cry
I know that this is not goodbye










In summer I can taste the salt in the sea
There's a kite blowing out of control on a breeze
I wonder what's gonna happen to you
You wonder what has happened to me

I'm a man, I'm not a child
A man who sees
The shadow behind your eyes

Who's to say where the wind will take you
Who's to know what it is will break you
I don't know where the wind will blow
Who's to know when the time has come around
I don't wanna see you cry
I know that this is not goodbye

Did I waste it?
Not so much I couldn't taste it
Life should be fragrant
Roof top to the basement
The last of the rock stars
When hip hop drove the big cars
In the time when new media
Was the big idea
That was the big idea
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own  2004

Tough, you think you've got the stuff
You're telling me and anyone
You're hard enough

You don't have to put up a fight
You don't have to always be right
Let me take some of the punches
For you tonight

Listen to me now
I need to let you know
You don't have to go it alone

And it's you when I look in the mirror
And it's you when I don't pick up the phone
Sometimes you can't make it on your own

We fight all the time
You and I, that's alright
We're the same soul
I don't need, I don't need to hear you say
That if we weren't so alike
You'd like me a whole lot more

Listen to me now
I need to let you know
You don't have to go it alone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuDqHtAR6L8
Click on the blue link above to watch the official video
And it's you when I look in the mirror
And it's you when I don't pick up the phone
Sometimes you can't make it on your own

I know that we don't talk
I'm sick of it all
Can - you - hear - me - when - I -
Sing, you're the reason I sing
You're the reason why the opera is in me�

Well hey now
I've got to let you know
A house still doesn't make a home
Don't leave me here alone...

And it's you when I look in the mirror
And it's you that makes it hard to let go
Sometimes you can't make it on your own
Sometimes you can't make it
The best you can do is to fake it
Sometimes you can't make it on your own
Well, hey now.

So, I created this page so I could post a few favorites.  However, casual listening to U2 is just not possible.  Continuously, there is always one more song to add.  I also have to face the fact that emphasizing just one lyrical quote just does not cut it.  Not from a band that spans over 30 years and is still going strong.  Not from a band who won not only 22 Grammy Awards, but multiple wins and nominations for Album of the Year, Record of the Year, and Song of the Year for 1987 - The Joshua Tree;  1991 - Achtung Baby;  2001 - All That You Can’t Leave Behind;  2004 - How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb.  In fact, quoting one line from one lyric simply opens a very big door.  Of course now I am posting the entire lyric. 

And of course I have to mention their first album: “Boy”  “Into the heart of a child I stay awhile.” - I’m back to those one lines!  In some ways, “Boy,” although it gives us Bono just beginning to explore his lyrical ideas, will always be one of the best U2 albums.  It’s like a toddler taking his first steps with the whole world in front of him.  Not literally though.  Literally, it’s about that year, month, day, and minute in time when a boy wakes up and discovers childhood is over. “Bright morning lights, wipe the sleep, from another day's eye, turn away from the wall and there's nothing at all, being naked and afraid, in the open space of my bed.”

http://www.u2.com/news/title/melody-maker-4-october-80/disc_review_boy/

How perfect that U2 who have reached the heights they have to have also called their first album “Boy.”

To many; myself included, “The Joshua Tree” is their best.  The funny thing is I am so busy listening to everything else they do, I hardly listen to the Joshua Tree.

And of course 1984’s “The Unforgettable Fire” was special; can’t leave that out.  The Unforgettable Fire sounds best when you have not heard it for awhile.  It is a multi-layered visual musical landscape, taking our senses and externally expanding over mountains and hills while internally reaching and locating our soul.

Nor can I leave out the mention of “Tomorrow” from 1981’s October.  

That brings me to “Rattle & Hum”, legendary in its time, and right!

This all brings me back to 1983 when I spent many, many days driving the Jersey Turnpike from Baltimore to New York City.  What I remember most was a radio station in New Jersey.  I could not get on and off the Jersey Turnpike without hearing “New Year’s Day” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday” at least twice; coming and going to New York.  Of course those are from the “War” album.

And I still did not mention 1993’s “Zooropa,” 1997’s “Pop,” or 2009’s “No Line on the Horizon.”

http://ww.u2.com/

Gee, I just wanted to have a little U2 page.  Not so simple.

I’m sure I will be adding more….
U2 & Bruce Springsteen - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For


Oh my gosh….don’t even get me started on Bono’s speech writing or I will have to create a new website.  This 1994 introduction he wrote for Frank Sinatra suggested the possibility of future passionate speeches to follow.  Bono admitted to a few Guinness’s while creating this piece.  He may also have had a few (he is Irish after all) while on stage.  However, he nailed it!  Sinatra claimed ‘that was the best welcome he ever had.’  Keep writing Bono!


I wanted to go back and find a good video from U2’s early days; something from 1980 or 1981 or even 1978.  But I came across this: over 18 million hits on YouTube.  Well, it’s going next in my little list of U2 videos.

2001 "With or Without You" live from Boston

In God's Country (1987)  One of the official videos from 1987's The Joshua Tree.  The Grammy Award Winning Album depicts the duality of America, with socially and politically conscious lyrics embellished with spiritual imagery.

40 (1983 Live at Red Rocks)

Exit and Gloria (1987's Ratttle & Hum)

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking for (1987 official video)
http://youtu.be/GSv-lKwOQvE click on this blue link to watch video

Where the Streets have no name (1987 Rattle & Hum)

In a Little While (2001, live from Boston)

Gloria (1981)  Bono - finding his way....and in writing lyrics too!
Great hair, Bono!

I try to sing this song
I, I try to stand up
But I can't find my feet.
I, I try to speak up
But only in you I'm complete.

Gloria
In te domine
Gloria
Exultate
Gloria
Gloria
Oh, Lord, loosen my lips.

I try to sing this song
I, I try to get in
But I can't find the door
The door is open
You're standing there, you let me in.

Gloria
In te domine
Gloria
Exultate
Oh, Lord, if I had anything, anything at all
I'd give it to you.

Gloria
In te domine
Gloria
Gloria

New Years Day (September, 2001) a week after the death of Bono's father.  Live from Slane Castle, Ireland  Click on Blue Link for a larger video image:  http://youtu.be/ZqeRwGnnVBo




I will be with you again....

...it's true, it's true...
And we can break through
Though torn in two
We can be one.

I will begin again

Grace 2001 (Bono - quite the prolific, gifted, skilled and talented songwriter)

Bono's Speeches

NAACP Speech

National Prayer Breakfast Speech

Harvard University Speech

Larry King Interview: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

Priceless!  U2's first interview in the U.S. on the "Tomorrow" Show with Tom Snyder.  1981.  They perform the song "I Will Follow" and sit right down for the interview.  A very, very young Bono reminding Tom Snyder they are from Ireland...not the U.K!  Bono - so young, so naive, how did he get so smart???

If you walk away, walk away
I walk away, walk away
I will follow.
If you walk away, walk away
I walk away, walk away
I will follow.
I will follow.

Your eyes make a circle
I see you when I go in there
Your eyes, your eyes
Your eyes, your eyes.

If you walk away, walk away
I walk away, walk away
I will follow.
If you walk away, walk away
I walk away, walk away
I will follow.
I will follow.
I was on the outside when you said
You needed me
I was looking at myself
I was blind, I could not see.

A boy tries hard to be a man
His mother takes him by the hand
If he stops to think, he starts to cry
Oh why?

If you walk away, walk away
I walk away, walk away
I will follow.
If you walk away, walk away
I walk away, walk away
I will follow.
I will follow.

I was on the inside
When they pulled the four walls down
I was looking through the window
I was lost, I am found.

LIVE AID....need I say more.  I was already a U2 fan, as were many in the audience, but when U2 performed at Live Aid in 1985 - the entire world was watching and not just at Wembley Stadium in London, but at home on their television sets....U2 entered everyone's home up close and personal and in doing so the band reached extraordinary heights!

Yet, extra-extraordinary heights were yet to come as 1987's The Joshua Tree album put U2 on the cover of Time Magazine, won the Grammy Award for Best Album of the Year, explored the duality of America, and thrusted U2 to a height that at the time even the band members were uncomfortable with.

So, a few years later, when you are at the very top (and in this case the spiritual mountain top) the only place to go is down....right?  Wrong.  U2 just jumped from one mountain top to a completely different mountain top when they released Achtung Baby which also won the Grammy for Album of the Year.  Bravo!  And what an album it was!  At the time the band members said that Achtung Baby was 'the sound of 4 men chopping down the Joshua Tree' which really revealed the discomfort they felt as people worldwide turned to them for ...well, just about everything.  In fact, in one biography it was reported that their was a child missing in Seattle.  And someone said, 'call Bono'.  Another person said, 'are you crazy, what do you mean, call Bono?  Bono is in Dublin.'  But that it how it was.  When a problem arose, didn't matter where, what or whom, the unconscious response was 'to call Bono.'

Time has passed.  And although The Joshua Tree will always be their best, their 2001 album, 'And All That You Can't Leave Behind' is my personal favorite.  But then again, so is "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" from 2005.

People still call Bono, but not really.  Instead they just expect him to show up.  And he does, like he did on 9/11.  Bono responded on 9/11.  The world looked for U2 on September 11, 2001 and they were there.   I wish I was at that concert at Madison Square Garden in 2001.

By the way, all the videos are from YouTube and you can go directly to YouTube to access them in 'full screen'.  A larger image makes a huge difference in the performance.

With or Without You (2001) Slane Castle, Ireland.  Alternative ending

U2 OBAMA CONCERT from ( Washington, 18th January 2009 ) ( Pride ) ( City of Blinding Lights ) WE ARE ONE

All I Want is YOU (LIVE) Milan

Christmas (great performance).  Click on video below or click on Blue Link which takes you to the YouTube Page for a larger video image:  http://youtu.be/XiSPNaQNGOY

Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of

Sunday Bloody Sunday Live From Slane Castle

Heartland & Bad (Rattle And Hum) 1987

See the sunrise over her skin
She feels like water in my hand
Freeway like a river cuts through this land
Into the side of love like a burning spear
And the poison rain brings a flood of fear
Through the ghostranch hills, Death Valley waters
In the towers of steel belief goes on and on

In this heartland
In this heartland
In this heartland

Heaven knows this is a heartland
Heartland

See the sun rise over her skin
Don't change it
See the sunrise on her skin
Dawn changes everything
And the delta sun burns bright and violent

Mississippi and the cotton wool heat
Sixty-six - the highway speaks
Of deserts dry, of cool green valleys
Gold and silver veins - shining cities

In this heartland

Heaven knows
This is a heartland.


Official Music Videos:


Where the Streets Have No Name

http://youtu.be/GzZWSrr5wFI




(click on video or click on Blue Link which takes you to the YouTube Page for a larger video image)






With or Without You

http://youtu.be/XmSdTa9kaiQ

"Moment of Surrender" Live at the Rose Bowl

http://youtu.be/SDP-TGE9AYs

I tied myself with wire
To let the horses run free
Playing with the fire
Until the fire played with me

The stone was semi-precious
We were barely conscious
Two souls too smart to be
In the realm of certainty
Even on our wedding day

We set ourselves on fire
Oh God, do not deny her
It's not if I believe in love
But if love believes in me
Oh, believe in me

At the moment of surrender
I folded to my knees
I did not notice the passers-by
And they did not notice me

I've been in every black hole
At the altar of the dark star
My body's now a begging bowl
That's begging to get back, begging to get back
To my heart
To the rhythm of my soul
To the rhythm of my unconsciousness
To the rhythm that yearns
To be released from control

I was punching in the numbers at the ATM machine
I could see in the reflection
A face staring back at me
At the moment of surrender
Of vision over visibility
I did not notice the passers-by
And they did not notice me

I was speeding on the subway
Through the stations of the cross
Every eye looking every other way
Counting down 'til the pain would stop

At the moment of surrender
Of vision of over visibility
I did not notice the passers-by
And they did not notice me

Kite (August 2001)  Dedicated to Bono's father, Bob Hewson.  Slane Castle

Staring at the Sun (September 1, 2001)  Slane Castle.  Click on video below or click on Blue Link which takes you to the YouTube Page for a larger video image: http://youtu.be/waphiN8wPLk

All I Want is You (September 1, 2001)  Slane Castle.  Click on video below or click on Blue Link which takes you to the YouTube Page for a larger video image:  http://youtu.be/hAQhrD6ek4k

One (September 1, 2001)  Slane Castle.  Click on video below or click on Blue Link which takes you to the YouTube Page for a larger video image:  http://youtu.be/3QKUIe_bqAo



....because where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die....
                - Bono

Support ONE:  www.one.org
www.u2.com

Walk On (September 1, 2001)  Slane Castle.  Click on video below or click on Blue Link which takes you to the YouTube Page for a larger video image:  http://youtu.be/HYu57Rwz-Xo

U2:  22 Grammy Awards...so far.  Time Magazine Covers:  3...so far.    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U2
What you don’t have, you don’t need it now.
What you don’t know, you can feel somehow.
Beautiful day