There’s David singing, “Oh, God – where are you when I need you? / You call yourself God?” And you go, this is the blues. Both deal with the relationship with God. That’s really it. I’ve since realised that anger with God is very valid. We wrote a song about that on the “Pop” album – people were confused by it – “Wake Up Dead Man”: “Jesus, Jesus help me / I’m alone in this world / And a fucked-up world it is, too / Tell me, tell me the story / The one about eternity / And the way it’s all gonna be / Wake up, wake up dead man.”’ It was 1983’s ‘War’ album that really brought the band into international focus, largely down to the popularity of the ‘New Year’s Day’ single, a piledriving anthem which focused on U2’s knack for a singalong chorus, a catchy but simple guitar riff and an expert ability to change the atmosphere from mellow to urgent and back again at the flip of a coin. Much of this was attributable
Click the above photo for a video link Bono discusses how nationality has affected U2’s music. 26