U2: A History in Gigs No.4 – St. Patty’s in New York, March 17th,1982*

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By Kenneth MacLellan
2007.06



“There’s one thing that always bothers me, and it’s about what the Americans thought about the Irish. I thought that they had this cartoon image of the Irishman that he either had a bottle in his hand or a shillelagh… it’s not true. And the other one people have is that they think every Irishman has a petrol bomb in his hand and that’s not true either.” -- Bono, onstage at The Ritz, New York, March 17th, 1982

According to Into the Heart, during U2’s first tour of America, some members of the band woke up with the sudden realization that they were Irish. With raised eyebrow, the sardonic may proffer a comment along the lines of “What took them so long?” or “Didn’t they look at their own passports?,” but the on-the-road epiphany relates to a tangle of issues more personal and complex than customs stamps or visa applications. Touring had held up a mirror to each member of the band, making them reflect internally about their own Irish-ness, and it also made them contemplate the Ireland they had become unofficial ambassadors for.

That the issue of U2’s nationality came to the fore in the United States should be of no surprise. Not only did touring the US hold up a mirror to the national identity of each member of the band, but the presence of the Dublin band held up a mirror to the thoughts and attitudes of the Irish communities they encountered in the US.

Crossing the Atlantic again, this time in support of the October album, U2 began to define who they were, where they came from, and what they represented more clearly to the American audiences. Looking back at the St. Patrick’s Day show in New York on that tour, the broadening of the band’s purpose and goals is evident – albeit tentative. U2 was growing into itself as a band, and the ideas and beliefs that they formed or had challenged during this period, such as nationality, came to inspire the band’s first major statement, War.

“There seems to be a lot more people here than there was the last time. Some of you must have very big mouths!” -- Bono, onstage at The Ritz, March 17th, 1982

1981 had been a year in which the very existence of U2 had been in question. The threat had been twofold, both internal and external. Bono, The Edge and Larry Mullen Jr. had become more involved, more committed to the Christian group, Shalom, since the release of Boy. This had led to the unintentional isolation of Adam Clayton within the framework of U2.

Back in Ireland at the end of the tour, Bono, The Edge and Larry Mullen had many discussions with their fellow parishioners who questioned whether life as a musician, as a rock n’ roll musician, could be squared with a credible faith. Uncertainty over the band’s future lingered for a number of weeks. At one point it looked as if both Bono and The Edge were out of the band. After further thought, they decided they could pursue music and reconcile their rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle with their Christian beliefs.

However, the internal instability within U2 fed through to the music the band was creating. Rushed and unfocused, the decisions made by the singer, guitarist and drummer over continuing with U2 were almost moot when the album was presented to Island Records.

Boy, the band’s debut disc, had been well received by the music press and the resultant buzz was confirmed and continued by the ragged passion of the band’s early live shows and support slots. The strategy to break U2 internationally agreed upon by the band, Paul McGuiness and Island Records centered on touring and the construction of a solid and loyal fan base. The approach was suitable to the character of the band. With make-up and hype and flashy videos all out, the importance of a marketable album was clear.

However, as is often the case with sophomore albums, the momentum of a long-term marketing strategy and the time needed to make an album of considered quality came into conflict. Mix in the mindset of the band members, the loss of Bono’s briefcase of lyrics and notes three months prior to its recording, and the expectations of those who had heard Boy, and the dissatisfaction with October comes into context. To the casual listener, the album is about as sticky as a second album gets. Island Records had grave reservations over how it could be sold. There were meetings. There were questions. Eventually McGuiness and U2 persuaded the record company that they could make the album work on the road. Had the fledgling band been in this situation twenty-five years later, they would have almost certainly been dropped from the label.

Despite the mixed response to October, the sales and chart positions in Ireland, the UK, and Europe for the album and its singles were encouraging. But as is often the case for any band from Europe, the prospect of breaking into the American market remained a key objective. To U2, the USA would soon come to mean more than a lucrative market. Likewise, U2 would come to be one of the nation’s most cherished bands – especially among the sizable Irish-American community. But the love affair between the band and the USA has had its moments of difficulty.

Growing up as they did in Dublin, the band couldn’t escape knowledge of the generations of Irish who had crossed the Atlantic in search of the opportunities America offered. It had been a practice that been going on for hundred of years. In the Ireland of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s emigration was on the rise. For many the destination was the United States. The reason was for leaving was simple. It was a dire time for the Irish economy, with mass employment and its effects filtering through the country. And, across the border, in Northern Ireland, “the Troubles” were still very much a going concern. This meant there was plenty the American Irish wanted to discuss with U2 when the band was in town.

Incredible as it may seem from the perspective of the 21st Century, there was a time when U2 was not synonymous with advocating political and social justice. While topics such as politics, war and religion were never going to be taboo with Bono around, U2’s vocal position on contentious subjects came about through a process of evolution. Barely into their twenties, the band was still finding out who they were as individuals. Waking up and suddenly realizing they were Irish is just one example of this. But life on the road, and the myriad newspaper and radio interviews the band did, quickened the process.

Establishing what they were and were not about was complicated in the USA because of the band’s nationality. Distanced by time, ignorance or the obvious geography, there were a number of Irish-Americans who were out of touch with the day to day reality of the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland, who romanticized the glory of the continuing struggle to liberate Ireland from the clutches of the British. Touring brought these misapprehensions within earshot of U2.

Proud as they were of being Irish, they were keen not to be associated with the campaign of violence perpetrated in the North by the republican group, the IRA. The wish to distance themselves went deeper than cheap, careerist ends. Aside from the fact that peace is as fundamental to Christianity as sound is to song, one of the ways in which Bono, The Edge and Larry Mullen had been able to reconcile being in a rock band with their beliefs had been the idea of using their music to do good. An overt promotion of peace and the rejection of Nationalism was a logical, even necessary, next step for the band.

It was also the starting point and theme of the album they’d start work on later in 1982, War. This approach is particularly evident in the album’s opening track, “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” a song that would be introduced live with the disclaimer that it was ‘not a rebel song’ and would see Bono wave a white flag during its performance, reinforcing a sentiment he expressed during the show at The Ritz:

“There’s only one part of the Irish flag that really concerns me and that’s the middle, that’s the white bit. Okay?” -- Bono, onstage at The Ritz, New York, March 17th, 1982

As well as setting the musical and lyrical agenda for War, U2’s thinking around this time would lead them to the activism that they’d become known for as much as music. From here you can trace a thread through the band’s involvement with causes that go beyond the boundaries of national borders such as Band Aid, Live Aid, and Amnesty International; Sanctuary, Greenpeace, and War Child; DATA, Make Poverty History, and Music Rising.

The most recent of those causes, Music Rising, aims to benefit the victims of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. It is one of the ways in which U2 has given something back to the people of the United States, a country that has been very good to the band over the years.

Aside from the revenue of the millions of albums and concert tickets purchased by American fans, or the record number of Grammy’s the band has won, America has given something else to U2, something intangible but no less important – inspiration. And without it, there would’ve been no Joshua Tree. According to Rolling Stone magazine, Bono described that album as “dismantling the mythology of America.” But before the Irish rockers could do that, they had to dismantle the mythology of themselves, and, by extension, that of their native Ireland for its American audience.

One of the earliest ways the band attempted this was by closing the concert at The Ritz with a snippet of John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance,” disarming the image of the Irishman with a bomb. But as appropriate as the song’s message is, it only hints at the band U2 would become: give peace a chance would not be all U2 would be saying when global popularity offered it the platform to contribute on important issues.
 
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