A music podcast where we discuss our favorite albums, song by song. New episodes every other Tuesday.

179: U2 - War (1983)

“War seemed to be the motif for 1982. Everywhere you looked, from the Falklands to the Middle East and South Africa, there was war. By calling the album War, we're giving people a slap in the face and at the same time getting away from the cozy image a lot of people have of U2.”

–Bono

Once the biggest, most monolithic band on the planet, U2’s reputation has suffered in recent years, in part because frontman Bono’s earnest, bleeding-heart, change-the-world attitude is out of step with the cynicism of the 21st century, but also because the band put an album nobody asked for on everybody’s iPhones. But there’s good reason why they were once so revered, and for the next two episodes, Discord & Rhyme is stealin’ back the band’s reputation. Featuring the classics “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “New Year’s Day” and cavernous production from Steve Lillywhite, the band’s 1983 album War was when they transformed from a spunky quartet of Irish schoolmates into an arena-sized force of nature. It’s a lively, fascinating album by a band you may have come to take for granted, and whether you’re a longtime fan or a skeptic, we hope you’ll enjoy this episode – and come back to learn about Zooropa in two weeks!

Miscellany

As Rich mentioned, most of the background information in this episode, especially for the band history, came from U2 by U2, an enormous coffee table book assembled out of interviews with the band conducted by Neil McCormick. It’s a terrific resource, but because the only sources are the four members of U2 and their manager Paul McGuinness, you have to be a little bit wary of drinking the band’s Kool-Aid. But as a look into the band dynamic, it’s pretty indispensable.
To learn more about Northern Ireland and the conflict known as the Troubles, Ben recommends the books Rebel Hearts: Journeys Within the IRA's Soul by Kevin Toolis, Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe, Loyalists: War and Peace in Northern Ireland by Peter Taylor, and The Troubles Podcast by Oisin Feeney.
Regarding Bono’s lost book of lyrics for October, this was reportedly not an isolated incident, and Bono would lose things on the road all the time. Bill Flanagan’s book U2 at the End of the World features an amusing anecdote where Bono realizes while getting on a plane that he was missing his famous sunglasses, and the entire U2-industrial complex springs into action to retrieve them.
The introduction comes from an infamous bootleg of American Top 40 disc jockey Casey Kasem, which was sampled even more infamously by experimental pranksters Negativland on their 1991 EP U2. Negativland printed their own name in small type on the cover and the title “U2” in large type, prompting a protracted legal dispute with Island Records and Negativland’s own label, SST.
In addition to the third Peter Gabriel album, some other albums produced by Steve Lillywhite that we’ve featured on this podcast include If I Should Fall From Grace with God by the Pogues and Under the Table and Dreaming by the Dave Matthews Band, in addition to albums by Phish, Talking Heads, the Rolling Stones, Crowded House, and Siouxsie and the Banshees.
Despite Ben’s promise in the closing credits, our Spotify playlist for this episode actually features no XTC, because Black Sea is oddly not on Spotify in the United States. Go buy it!

Discord & Rhyme Roll Call

Ben Marlin (moderator)
Rich Bunnell
Dan Watkins

War tracklist

Sunday Bloody Sunday
Seconds
New Year’s Day
Like a Song…
Drowning Man
The Refugee
Two Hearts Beat as One
Red Light
Surrender
40

Other clips used

U2:

Where the Streets Have No Name
I Will Follow
Out of Control (Three version)
A Day Without Me
Gloria
Van Diemen's Land
40 (Live at Madison Square Garden, NY, 09/28/87)
An Cat Dubh
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Wire
Bad (Live Aid 1985)

Others:

Pet Shop Boys - Where the Streets Have No Name/I Can't Take My Eyes Off You
The Cars - Good Times Roll
The Cars - Let's Go
Depeche Mode - People Are People
Joni Mitchell - The Jungle Line
Elvis Costello - Hurry Down Doomsday (The Bugs Are Taking Over)
Heart - These Dreams
Visage - Fade to Grey
XTC - Travels in Nihilon
Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #2 (Laïka)
Men at Work - Down Under
XTC - Living Through Another Cuba
XTC - Respectable Street
Liquid Liquid - Cavern
The Rapture - House of Jealous Lovers
Sarah McLachlan - Sweet Surrender

Band/album personnel

Bono – lead vocals, guitar
The Edge – guitar, piano, lap steel, backing vocals, co-lead vocals (2), bass (10)
Adam Clayton – bass (1–9)
Larry Mullen Jr. – drums, percussion
Steve Wickham – electric violin (1, 5)
Kenny Fradley – trumpet (8)
Cheryl Poirier – backing vocals (8, 9)
Adriana Kaegi – backing vocals (8, 9)
Taryn Hagey – backing vocals (8, 9)
Jessica Felton – backing vocals (8, 9)
Steve Lillywhite – production (1–5, 7–10), mixing
Bill Whelan – production (6)
Paul Thomas – engineering
Kevin Killen – engineering assistance
Gordon Vicary – mastering

Credits

“Discord & Rhyme (theme),” composed by the Other Leading Brand, contains elements of:

Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf
Amon Düül II - Dehypnotized Toothpaste
The Dukes of Stratosphear - What in the World?? ...
Faith No More - Midlife Crisis
Herbie Hancock - Hornets
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
Talking Heads - Seen and Not Seen
U2 - Sunday Bloody Sunday (this episode only)

You can buy War and other albums by U2 at your local record store, or the usual suspects such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Amazon. Follow Discord & Rhyme on Instagram and BlueSky @DiscordPod for news, updates, and other random stuff. Editing and production are by Rich Bunnell, and special thanks to our own Mike DeFabio, the Other Leading Brand, for our awesome theme song. See you next album, and keep as cool as you can.