Bono, The Edge (two of the greatest stage names ever), Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen, Jr. originally formed U2 in 1976 in Dublin, Ireland and like many a great band before them it took a few years for them to become musically proficient enough to actually perform in professional circles. But once they did...hoo-boy, did they ever create quite the career. Their list of accomplishments is stunning, having released fourteen albums and 70 singles (in various incarnations) over the last forty years. They've sold over 170 million records (over fifty million in the U.S.), had 8 #1 albums on the Billboard 200 (and two more in the top ten), and two #1 singles (and four more in the top ten) on the Billboard Hot 100. They've won more Grammys (22) than any other band, had the largest attendance and money grossing tour in rock and roll history (U2 360 tour), and were elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (rather unsurprisingly) in their first year of eligibility. All this, and they've still managed to find time for more political, social, and charitable causes than can be counted--outside of Bob Geldof, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who has devoted more of his time to world causes than Bono. And to be quite honest, their Wikipedia entry is one of the most interesting I've read in quite some time...
Fun Fact: A couple of years into their tenure as a band, a family friend of Clayton's suggested six names for the band--and they chose U2 because it was the suggested name they disliked the least. Not a lot of points on the coolness quotient, but it's certainly an interesting tidbit.
"Staring at the Sun" was released in 1997 on their Pop album. It would go on to reach #26 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the album would reach #1. In something of an oddity, though, Pop would be one of U2's worst selling albums, barely cracking the one million mark (and wouldn't that suck--only selling a million copies).
While "Staring at the Sun" is one of my favorite U2 songs, it probably isn't my favorite, but I chose it for a number of reasons. First, a lot like REM's "Imitation of Life" (FNJ #132), it came at a point in their career when I thought their best singles days were behind them (though the same could be said of "Vertigo" released a few years later) and came as quite a nice surprise. Second I had the pleasure of seeing U2 on their PopMart tour (a takeoff on Kmart--and how sad of a company is Kmart when one of the greatest bands in the world can't even save them) and they did a wondrous acoustic version of the song with just Bono and the Edge playing acoustic guitars (got to see it with my two oldest children, too, so it gets extra bonus points). Third, while I would never say the Edge is underrated as a guitarist (#32 on Rolling Stone's list of rock's greatest guitarists), I think he's often forgotten on the list of guitar greats and "Staring at the Sun" showcases some of his best work. Finally, it's got an anthemic nature to it, almost reminiscent of the Who's "Baba O'Riley" (for those of you saying "WTF!" I distinctly wrote almost) in that it's got that the world is kind of fucked up but we're all feeling in the dark (so to speak) together and we can get there as long as we keep trying (um, Shakespeare I'm not) vibe to it. At any rate, it's a hell of a tune from the lexicon of a band that's had more than its share of hell of a tunes....
Lyric Sheet: "There's an insect in your ear if you scratch it won't disappear/It's gonna itch and burn and sting/Do you want to see what the scratching brings..."
Enjoy:
Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee
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