U2’s ‘Atomic Bomb’: Bono’s artful lyrics, but the album’s star is The Edge
Today’s the day!! YESSSSS!!!!
Once upon a time…in a land far, far away….
It was sometime in 1980 (Of course, it WAS a long time ago. I may be off by a year or so.). I walked into a record store on University Avenue in St. Paul, and on the store’s stereo system I heard something that absolutely took my breath away. One of the employees told me that it was a new Irish band called U2, and the album was called “Boy”. It was the most amazing and enthralling thing I’d ever heard. For the next half-hour or so, I pretended to look at records, just so I could listen to the album. I left with a copy of the LP that day, and I proceeded to almost wear it out on my turntable. (For those of you of more recent vintage, “records” were the media our music was delivered on back in the day, and “turntables” were the machines that played the music. Such was life in the Stone Age….)
What was born that day was a long-running love affair with a band that has, over the past 24 years, constantly found ways to amaze me. Though some of their work over that time has left me scratching my head, it is impressive that a band which captivated me as a college student is still able to evoke those same emotions in me as I trip and stumble headlong into middle age.
Today, U2 releases what seems like the 314th album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. Yes, I plan on buying my copy if I can find myway to a music store. I’m excited about hearing the album, because, except for Bruce Springsteen, no artist is able to transport me to another time in my life so effectively and dramatically. When I listen to U2 again, I’m once again a young college student, wandering through a record store and trying to figure out how to get laid. It’s a nice trip, and I’m looking forward to going there all over again.
