Monday Music: Another Band that Mattered

(Re)Appraising U2’s War as It Turns 40

Hank Kalet Mar 21 ∙ Preview

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U2 during the War years. From U2.com.
It’s easy to forget the impact U2’s War had when it hit the airwaves in 1983. It’s easy to forget today, when Bono’s earnestness and his buddying up to the rich and powerful have turned him into a punchline.

Bono and the Edge are now on tour supporting Bono’s book Surrender and the band’s Songs of Surrender — a collection of rerecorded versions of the songs detailed by Bono in the book.

Recent years have not been kind to the band’s reputation, and less kind to Bono’s. A botched album roll out — sending free copies of Songs of Innocence to every iTunes account led to a backlash, while the album and its follow-up Songs of Experience (both titled borrowed from William Blake) were deservedly panned by critics. The band has made good music over the last 30-plus years, but not enough of it; most of the records released since the masterpiece Achtung Baby! have mixed strong songs with filler and pretension.

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Grassroots: Eco-Terrorism, Corporate Style

The Willow Oil Drilling Project in Alaska is the Kind of Existential Threat We Used to Justify War

Hank Kalet Mar 15 ∙ Preview

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From https://hindisujhav.com/willow-project-wikipedia-petition-update-alaska-news/
This is an advanced copy of my upcoming column for The Progressive Populist. It is for paid subscribers to this news letter.

The column argues that the recently approved drilling project is part of a larger capitalist attack on the common interest.

My last column ran Feb. 15 and was on the rights of labor militancy.

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