U2 Into The Heart

Featuring original and revealing interviews with band members and key people close to them, and tracing the band's meteroic rise from the early days to a group that has galvanized the pop music scene for more than twenty years, Into the Heart was the first book to explore the background and inspiration behind every song written by U2, and is the definitive text on the subject. Hitting No. 1 on both sides of the Atlantic with How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, and winning three Grammys for hit single 'Vertigo', U2 remains in every sense a world-class rock 'n' roll band, and this book takes you into the heart of the group, to reveal the inspiration behind their music.

Featuring interviews with key people close to the band, this work tells the story of U2's meteoric rise to fame, from their early days in Dublin to their status as a world-famous rock and roll band. It also explores the cultural and social context which provides a backdrop to their songs.

Covers every U2 song from their debut album, Boy, through 1997's Pop, exploring how this band has reinvented itself over and over again while staying true to its Irish cultural and political sensibilities.

Exploring U2: Is This Rock 'n' Roll? features new writing in the growing field of U2 studies. In keeping with U2's own efforts to remove barriers that have long prevented dialogue for understanding and improving the human experience, this collection of essays covers such disciplines as literature, music, philosophy, and theology.

Weaving the threads of U2's lyrics, scripture, and theology into one cord, this book tracks the Irish rock band's theological insights and perspectives through their poetry. Along this lyrical path we encounter the characters of the Drowning Man, the Wanderer, and the Sojourner. Though seemingly different, they are one and the same, and they represent each of us. If you're a U2 fan, a theologian, or both, Religious Nuts, Political Fanatics: U2 in Theological Perspective will offer a different angle of popular culture and theology.

With over 24 pages covering the band's newest CD, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, U2: Into the Heart examines the behind-the-scenes influences that shaped U2's internationally popular and critically acclaimed music. Included are original and revealing interviews with band members and the key people close to U2. The band's rich cultural and social context is fully explored, providing a colorful backdrop to the songs. U2: Into the Heart traces U2's meteoric rise from the early days of their career with Boy, their first album, to the spanning success of The Joshua Tree, Rattle and Hum, Achtung Baby, and Pop. U2 is a group that has become a world-class rock 'n' roll band; a band that continues to invent themselves and are not afraid to take chances with their craft—as well as make a unique impact in the world of music with their raw, emotional energy.

In U2’s Songs of Trauma and Hope: “Between the Midnight and the Dawning", Ingunn Røysland and Charles Ivan Armstrong show that trauma is an important theme for U2. While this leads the band to confront extreme instances of grief and suffering, this does not prevent them to cross (in the words of their song “A Sort of Homecoming”) “the fields of mourning to a light that's in the distance.” Theories from trauma and memory studies are deployed in the examination of song lyrics and performances by U2, spanning from the early days of the band to more recent times. In their exploration of light and dark, of hope and trauma within the U2 catalogue, Røysland and Armstrong acknowledge the complexity of the songs, addressing different layers, including romantic as well as divine allegory. The authors also address the band’s troublesome lyrics, with an entire chapter devoted to “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” as well as the role of multidirectional memory and significant places, so-called lieux de mémoire, in U2’s dealings with a ranger of historical conflicts and crises. They further examine how music plays an important part in the path of healing from traumatic wounds, analysing the reception of the songs. Ultimately, it is suggested, U2 shows us how to get “through the night.”