Podunkian Music Club

U2- Pride in the name of love



Tonight on the Music Club we showcase a solemn remembrance of history from forty years ago.

It was on April 4th of 1968 that the United States was thrown into turmoil with the assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King, the murder of the civil rights leader at a Memphis hotel would signal the start of perhaps the most desperate of times for the US since their Civil War.

Dr. King's assassination was the fuse for a hot and deadly spring and summer in America, a time of fear and rage, of leaders seeking cooler heads to try to rebuild faith in a system that seemed to have gone terribly off the rails. 1968 would become one of those pivotal years of history, as within a few short months of the death of Dr. King, the horror of assassination was revisited again with the murder of Bobby Kennedy.

Those events seemed to signal the end of dreaming for a generation of Americans, with the key proponents of change and equality snuffed out at the hands of gunmen.

From that era of horror, U2 has provided what is perhaps there most poignant of videos. It defined the bands social conscience and ability to present the backdrop of societies concerns in musical form.

A youngish looking Bono, leads the band from 1984 with a lyrical and musical walk through history, providing one of their more overtly political songs, far removed from the pop drivel that was coursing through our radios in the mid eighties.

Taken from the Unforgettable fire, it would mark the groups first top ten hit. It became the musical introduction to America for a band that would dominate the imagination and the music charts for years to come.

Early morning, April 4
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride

Those four stanzas tell you all you need to know about the genesis of the song, they ring out as a reminder of change taken away, but a dream that still endures today.

From a library of songs that have swayed a generation, Pride, is perhaps one of their greatest achievements, more so in its ability to educate and hopefully to motivate.

Group--U2
Recording--The Unforgettable Fire