The song that taught U2 how to shape their career
There are plenty of U2 fans out there who prefer the youthful post-punk energy of their 1980 debut album Boy, or the sexier vibes and big set pieces of the Achtung Baby! and “Zoo TV” era in the ‘90s. Maybe you didn’t come on board until you heard ‘Beautiful Day’ at a supermarket in 2001 and thought it slapped. All of these are perfectly acceptable entry points into the U2 universe.
None of them, however, come close to separating the band from the reputation it developed on its third album, when Bono and Co made it clear that they did – for better or worse – take themselves and the songs they wrote very seriously. Whether you saw it as much needed political activism in the spirit of The Clash or self-important posturing from clueless twats, the songs demanded attention; none more so than a single released in 1983.
Also serving as the opening track of their album War, ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ became more than just a protest anthem—it was something of a blueprint, or guiding light, for a lot of what followed for U2 over the rest of the 1980s. The song’s militaristic drum beat, the icy, slicing guitar riff, and Bono’s pleading vocal (“How long, how long must we sing this song?”) marked a dramatic escalation for a band still barely out of their teens. But more than that, the song forced U2 to figure out, once and for all, what kind of band they wanted to be.
Speaking to PBS in 2022, Bono reflected on how pivotal ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ became to their identity. “That song taught us what to do and told us what to do,” he said, noting that it even gave them insight on “how to dress” as they set out on the tour to support the War LP.
“Songs are like that,” Bono added. “They are not like your children. They’re much more like your father and mother. They sort of—they boss you about. They tell you what to do.”
‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ was written in response to the 1972 massacre in Derry, Northern Ireland, when British soldiers shot and killed unarmed civil rights protesters. But Bono was always careful to frame the song as a lament, not a battle cry. On stage, he famously introduced it by saying, “This is not a rebel song.” Still, its urgency and moral clarity turned heads and stirred debate, instantly establishing U2 as a band with something to say.
That moral seriousness would come to define the group, which certainly helped generate a lot of press, but also saddled them with some baggage. As U2 grew into global superstardom, critics began to take shots at the band’s sometimes lofty tone. Bono’s onstage monologues, their activist causes, and the band’s grand declarations about art and life were viewed by many as pretentious or self-righteous.
With the benefit of hindsight, Bono only partially corrects that narrative. “No, not self-righteous,” he told PBS. “An hour in our company and you will be rid of that.”
Forty years removed from writing ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’, though, Bono has learned to wear the other criticisms and pushbacks as badges of honour, even as it relates to U2 as a band of men now in their ’60s.
“Pretentious? Well, yes. Grandiose? Sometimes, for sure. And, also—yes, also earnest and kind of still in pursuit of those early beliefs.”
There’s a certain defiance in that last phrase, a refusal to accept cynicism as the price of experience. And maybe that’s another lasting legacy of ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday.’ Not only is it still a song with an important message, but it is also It gave its performers a direction and call to action: to stand for something, to risk ridicule, and to push sincerity to its breaking point.
