'Sunday Bloody Sunday'

There are actually two versions of this song that I know, the first of course being John Lennon's from his Sometime in New York City album from 1973. I may have been the only person at the time who loved that LP, possibly because I was a nine-year-old kid who was totally divorced from the events under protest on that album.

Here's the thing with John Lennon: you don't want to piss him off, 'cause he will write a song about you. Taylor Swift? pfft! John is the archetype, the man who will crucify you in song. Just listen to "Gimme Some Truth". Unfortunately "Sunday Bloody Sunday" got lost in the melange that was this album. That was too bad 'cause it was the best song, hard, biting with the full power of the Plastic Ono Band at his back and a merciless solo bridging the choruses.

Curiously this was also the first LP where Yoko sounded fabulous. Where John was angry, Yoko was lyrical, more serene, which made her political sentiments more effective. One could say the student had exceeded the master.

Count ahead ten years. I barely knew U2; most of us didn't in 1983. What'd they have on MTV back then, like three videos? With the concert at Red Rock, Colorado, they became flesh, four passionate young men ready to storm the world. I believe that was the point of the concert, to make the world aware of them. It worked for me, they never left my sight after that. Especially after they performed "Sunday Bloody Sunday", their own version.

That was the first time i fell in love with that song, with Bono stomping the beat, waving that white flag while the Edge cranked out the riff. reminding us that we need to stop this, just stop it:

"How long, how long must we sing this song?
"Tonight, we can be as one, tonight..."

And just when you thought the song was over, they bring it back full force for one last refrain.

"Sunday Bloody Sunday' never gets old, and maybe that's the problem. This whole generation of vipers, all those old geezers are leading us into new wars, new acts of terrorism. They keep promoting the wrong ideas, the same outdated group-thinking that if you bomb the blazes out of people, the enemy is going to surrender. Either that or you'll pound the people around them into annihilation. Look at the Middle East; all that's accomplished is making another generation that's going to grow up hating us, with good reason.

What we need is what we haven't got, a President who's willing to stand up, who has the moral courage to tell us, "Stop it stop it just #@*&^%$# stop it! We're not Neanderthals, We don't need to do this anymore. We're not going to accomplish anything with a military solution. We're not going to win if we keep killing each other."