Surrender discussion

To start, I want to say that I am open to corrections and I want to hear other peoples' insights.

Here are my observations as far as the title goes: It has these intentional or unintentional references in it:
"Surrender" is from U2's album War
"40" is from the Joshua Tree and talks about "I will sing a new song"
"One" is from Achtung Baby

War, Joshua Tree, and Achtung Baby are major checkpoints in U2 history. War is the beginning's checkpoint, angry, right off of post-punk, talking about social issues, and not wanting to surrender.

Joshua Tree is the peak of the 80s stuff as classic U2. "40" is about submitting your will to God's. It's also largely based off of Psalms 40.

Achtung Baby is the start of U2 doing a new thing that continues through the 90s in Zooropa and Pop. Achtung Baby is pretty dark and deep, and I think it's basically "War of the soul" mirroring the first album mentioned. The way I see it, "One" is a relationship conflict between the speaker, someone else, and God. I think it's like "40" except he's only doing the "how long to sing this song" part. I have mixed feelings about "One" because it seems so cynical, but I think it has a deeper message concealed in irony.


***So basically, the progression of songs is "don't surrender," then "surrender," then "how can I surrender?"***


It's also interesting that Bono doesn't always sing from his own perspective. In "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses," he sings from Edge's perspective. In "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out of," it's a conversation between two friends, so he switches points of view. In "I Will Follow," he apparently sings from his mom's point of view. So that tool of perspective can be used to interpret the songs referenced in the title. U2 songs often have multiple interpretations.

Bono has also had some trouble with glaucoma and conflict with his dad over the years. I think that's played a role in him maturing (a possible theme in the Surrender story?). Also, he's said that he has a big mouth, which I think goes with the "Surrender" song part of the story.

Let the discussion begin.

I think the title Surrender is terrible. The concept behind it is very pretentious. You may well be right in your views Sharon. I think some of the book is spin and not quite accurate. What people claim today is not necessarily what they were thinking or meant at the time.

Hugh wrote: "I think the title Surrender is terrible. The concept behind it is very pretentious. You may well be right in your views Sharon. I think some of the book is spin and not quite accurate. What people ..."

Okay, can you clarify what you mean by that? I wrote this before the book came out, so I had no way of knowing what the final product was going to be. I understand a lot of people have a problem with Bono for being pretentious, and I personally don't have a problem with the concept. To what degree do you think he's spinning stuff, though?

I just don't like the title. It contradicts U2's reason for being in the first place. It also contradicts their early years and the point of the music scene that they came from. Throughout his career Bono has spun his and U2's identity. For example in America he frequently played up the false narrative that the band were working class Dubliners. This of course was never the case.

Sharon wrote: "To start, I want to say that I am open to corrections and I want to hear other peoples' insights.

Here are my observations as far as the title goes: It has these intentional or unintentional refe..."

Just a slight correction, "40" is on the War album, not Joshua Tree. But, perhaps it could just as well been from the JT period.

Jeremy wrote: "Sharon wrote: "To start, I want to say that I am open to corrections and I want to hear other peoples' insights.

Here are my observations as far as the title goes: It has these intentional or uni..."

I got it mixed up, thanks for the correction.

Hugh wrote: "I just don't like the title. It contradicts U2's reason for being in the first place. It also contradicts their early years and the point of the music scene that they came from. Throughout his care..."

I think I can see what you mean now. That's a good point. There is the idea of not surrendering to the world while surrendering to God, though. I think that's what the original reason was, "don't surrender to the world." Have they said things since then that were surrendering to the world? Yes. And those were mistakes. I hope they've grown from those. I like it when they spread some goodness, though.
Can you explain more about them trying to sell themselves as working-class? It sounds to me like you might be talking about songs like "Red Hill Mining Town." Can you please tell me the examples you're thinking of?"

It was more Bono trying to sell the band in America as working class Dubliners than anything else. To the best of my knowledge, I don't think the other members of the band ever did that. But I am open to correction on that.

In the late 1980s word filtered back to Ireland about Bono making statements in America insinuating and in some cases saying that the group were working class Dubliners. It was said to the media and to audiences at gigs in the USA. This caused a backlash against the band within the Dublin music community. In particular from working class bands who called him out on it. It was well documented at the time.

Bono previously went on about the theme of Surrender when discussing their album War. I think he said that the title Surrender would have been a more appropriate title. To be honest, I always thought the title War was a great title for an album by a young (they were at the time) band.

"40" is from War, not Joshua Tree.