How U2 Betrayed Rock ’n’ Roll

by John Waters

The band U2 has announced it supports the pro-abortion side in Ireland’s upcoming referendum on abortion. Continue Reading »

7 May 2018

Carl’s Rock Songbook #60: David Bowie, “Fame”

by Carl Scott

We left off the analysis of ALMOST FAMOUS at the key point, where we were about to get into what it says about Rock and Fame. That is a complicated subject, because you need to consider the phenomenon of Fame itself, before you get into what Rock does with it. Bowie’s deliberately sour song is . . . . Continue Reading »

3 Sep 2012

Carl’s Rock Songbook #6: Bob Dylan, “Blowin’ in the Wind”

by Carl Scott

In the comments on Songbook #5, I was reminded that Bono said he wrote the central verse of U2’s “New Year’s Day” with Solidarity’s struggle in mind. My reply there lays out the erotic and political elements any full analysis of that song would address, and why the . . . . Continue Reading »

10 Jun 2011

Carl’s Rock Songbook #5: U2, “New Year’s Day”

by Carl Scott

One night in early 1983, my teenaged-Christian-60s-obsessed-socialist/pacifist-leaning self heard this song on the radio. I had not heard U2 before, and I was thrilled. Here was a band politically committed in a way that smacked of the idealism of the 60s I had been reading about in library books, . . . . Continue Reading »

30 May 2011