When four Dublin teenagers burst onto the scene in 1980, it is a possibility that they might have ended up being 'just another post-punk band', destined for an album or two, before fading into nostalgic obscurity.
Of course, U2 had too much about them for that to happen. But long before the Joshua Tree catapulted them into global superstardom, they had released three power packed albums that might be considered the best post-punk triple of them all.
That obviously leads to further questions. Firstly, what actually is post-punk? Were U2 actually a post-punk band? And finally, the best three album run of the genre.... really?
When is a punk a post-punk, or an art-punk, or a new waver (or even a no-waver)?
It may come as no surprise to you that the definition of post-punk is somewhat vague and open to interpretation.
In essence, it was a music movement that saw acts moving away from the raw three-chord simplicity of classic punk, whilst also bringing in influences more wide ranging than the usual rock n roll and blues. You started to hear the introduction of funk, jazz, dub and dance genres, with art and politics coming ever more to the fore.
It seems fairly well agreed upon, that in the UK it all starts with Siouxsie and the Banshees, along with Public Image Limited, Wire (but only from their second album) and Joy Division - while in the US, it came through in the form of Talking Heads and Television amongst others.
Jon Savage had used the term post-punk in Sounds as early as 1978, but Paul Morley (of the NME) has (of course) also claimed that it was a term of his invention! To confuse matters further, terms like art-punk and new wave also started to be used, and could seemingly be used interchangeably.
Clinton Heylin narrowed the start of the genre down to between August 1977 and May 1978, and a series of significant moments.
John McKay joins Siouxsie and the Banshees - Happy House
Magazine release their first album (Real Life) - Shot By Both Sides
Wire release their second album (Chairs Missing) - Outdoor Miner
Public Image Limited forms - Public Image
To highlight the open-endedness of post-punk as a concept, Simon Reynolds said that it is "less a genre of music than a space of possibility." Nicholas Lezard meanwhile, gives a rather more flamboyant explanation of it; "[post-punk] was avant-garde, open to any musical possibilities that suggested themselves united only in the sense that it was very cerebral, concocted by brainy young men and women interested as much in disturbing the audience, or making them think, as in making a pop song".
So - where do U2 fit in?
When U2 started out, they definitely fit the punk ethos - there was plenty of power, they were clearly pretty raw, and Larry Mullen (drums) and Adam Clayton (bass) both had something of a reputation for poor timing, especially on early forays into recording studios, which certainly met the kind of DIY, anyone can do it, punk attitude.
Their early influences, as they found their feet at Mount Temple Comprehensive in Dublin, were a good mix of classic British punk bands; The Stranglers, The Clash, Buzzcocks and the Sex Pistols. By the time they got to recording debut album, Boy, guitarist Dave 'The Edge' Evans was also drawing on bands we would now define as post-punk, like Television and the Banshees. Additionally, Edge also talked about the impact of early electronic music; "the German sort of sensibility, the music of Neu! and Kraftwerk, which was about a different sort of wat of using chord changes and a sort of nihilistic approach to the backbeat."
This introduction of other influences into their existing punk ethos, certainly helps confirm that they definitely fit the bill as a post-punk band.
Treblezine noted that U2s career can be framed in a series of trilogies:
The Unforgettable Fire, The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby, are the three that catapulted them into premier league rock star status.
Zooropa, Pop and Passengers (their collaborative album with Brian Eno), is where they explored the abstract.
But it is the first three - Boy, October and War, that saw them work through their developmental stage, and allowed them to move to those latter stages.
Boy: Stories For Boys
The band had come to the attention of CBS Ireland, which ultimately led them to going into the studio (Windmill Lane Studio) in Dublin in September 1979, with CBS A&R man, Chas de Whalley. They managed to lay down three tracks, Out Of Control, Stories For Boys and Boy / Girl. This was put out as a limited edition Three EP by CBS Ireland.
The CBS adventure did not last long, but they were soon snapped up by Island Records. Martin Hannett had produced the first Island single, 11 O'Clock Tick Tock, and he would have been favourite to record the debut album, but he fell apart following Ian Curtis' death in May 1980, and Steve Lillywhite was brought in instead.
It was to prove a shrewd move, as he had good experience and a deft touch, but still allowed the band some degree of freedom.
Out Of Control (Live at Red Rocks, 1983)
Boy was themed largely around the transition from childhood to adulthood. Twilight looked at adolescence, Out Of Control was an early consideration of mortality, The Ocean was about youthful ambition, An Cat Dubh explored blossoming sexuality, while the loud but poignant I Will Follow, dealt with the trauma of loss, centred on the death of Bono's mother aged 14.
An Cat Dubh (audio only)
Denti, writing on Rate Your Music, is full of praise for Boy - "This is the first major statement by the band and I still think it's one of the greatest post-punk albums of the era." Music journalist Mark Cooper adds, "[Boy's] drive and exuberance belongs to punk - but with an 'emotional palette' distinct from that. Here was a music thriving on teenage spiritual awakenings with a musical approach that owed next to nothing to tradition."
A Day Without Me (audio only)
Ian Birch, in Time Out, also noted those post-punk credentials, "Firing off a tradition laid down by the likes f Magazine, The Banshees and Joy Division, U2 have injected their own brand of grace and sinewy spaciousness to create a romanticism exactly right for those who sport chunky riffs and mackintoshes."
October: Rejoice is a powerful word
It is fair to say that, however much Boy might have been praised for its spiritual power, follow up October met with a much more mixed bag of views from the critics.
Rejoice (Audio only)
Spiritual themes were even closer to the surface than on the first record, perhaps in part driven by three of the band (Larry, Edge, Bono) being members of religious association, the Shalom Fellowship.
Second single, Gloria, is overtly religious, quoting from Psalm 30, "In te domine, Gloria exultante" (meaning - Glory in you Lord, Glory, exalt him). The song also referred to Colossians 2: 9-10 (Only in you, I'm complete) and James 5: 7-9 (The door is open, you're standing there). The song is clever as it touches on Van Morrison's song of the same name (from his Them days), making Gloria a woman, as well as a religious reference.
Gloria (Live on Dutch show Countdown, 1982)
Adam Sweeting in the Melody Maker was broadly supportive of the new LP. "Their whole musical sensibility is shaped by a strong emotional bond to their homeland and its traditions... it's given them the strength to assimilate a barrage of disorientation and to turn that into a cohesive body of music."
The first seeds of dissent were out there though. Barney Hoskyns in NME talked of the "forced power of U2s sound", while Jon Pareles wrote in Rolling Stone that "Bono's vocals impacted by him taking himself too seriously... [with] lyrics silly and cliched." A retrospective review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine for AllMusic, simply found it "too pompous".
Tomorrow (Audio only)
Denti acknowledges that, but adds more balance, noting that the album was much maligned, and that even the band themselves often reflected back on it as being quite weak, but he says it is important to note that "Bono doesn't hide his struggles with life and religion and family. It's clumsy, to be sure, but it's also raw and poignant."
War: How Long To Sing This Song
It seems that, if October was something of a stutter for some of the critics, album number three, War, was back to form. The themes of family, religion and finding ones way into adulthood, had been replaced, as the title might indicate, with a more socio-political heft.
Album opener, Sunday Bloody Sunday, and Like A Song focused in on the Troubles that were very much still a daily part of the Irish landscape in 1983. The rousing New Year's Day was all about the protests that had been going on in Germany, and the rise to prominence of Polish trade union leader, Lech Walesa. Seconds, one of the rare tracks with Edge on co-lead vocals, tackled the cheery subject of potential nuclear holocaust (which we sometimes forget, could seem much more real forty years ago). Surrender and 40 did both dip back into the religious themes though.
Like A Song (Audio only - full of fury, one of their most underrated songs)
Matt Dunn (Ultimate Guitar)was moved to call the record, "an Irish London Calling of sorts", which is clearly a high complement to make, but might be stretching it a bit? Having said that, JD Considine, writing in Rolling Stone, seemed to agree, saying "The songs here stand up against anything on the Clash's London Calling in terms of sheer impact." Dunn would note though, that this was the album where Adam and Larry came to the fore, as "there was so much space on War for [them] to fill" - the LP also so more use of synthesisers and sequencers by the band.
Two Hearts Beat As One (Official music video)
Treblezine, highlighting their idea that U2 albums came in threes, saw it as a clear divider. "War is the dividing line between U2, the young Dublin new wave act and U2, the heroic stadium rock band." War was "two punchy, muscular sides of earnest rock music that retained a punk edge in spite of the fact that they were on the verge of being too big to be in the same sphere as punk."
As mentioned, the short and blunt title captures the state of the band, and an unsafe world, as it sometimes felt in 1983. The use of a young boys face (Peter Rowen, the same lad from the Boy cover, and brother of Bono's friend Guggi) rather than weaponry and destruction, added an emotional element. It was the record where Simon Reynolds says, U2 "turned pacifism itself into a crusade". It also provided them with their first UK number one record.
Seconds (Live at Red Rocks, 1983)
Bono would tell the NME "We're not just interested in the physical aspects of war. The emotional effects are just as important, 'The trenches dug within our hearts'. People have become numb to violence watching the television, it's hard to tell the difference between fact and fiction" - something that feels all too familiar us sometimes, four decades on!
And while the rabble rousing song for peace, Sunday Bloody Sunday, opened the record with Larry Mullen firing on all cylinders. Album closer, 40, was more "an epilogue that and anthem", quoting from Psalm 40, and cleverly echoing the words of the first song - "How long must we sing this song" becomes "How long to sing this song".
It wasn't universally adored though. Gavin Morgan (NME) felt that "where Boy shone and flowed, War is dull and static." While Dave Marsh said that it didn't quite match "the pure chilling intensity" of Boy.
The last word on the record will go back to the idea of this being the last of a trilogy, with Jeff Terich in Treble calling it "a triumphant close to [U2s] post-punk trilogy". Again, there was some dissension on this, as Bob Stanley would argue that they could no longer be considered post-punk by now, because they had moved away from regionalism to international success. This seems a little harsh, to judge worth within a genre based on sales and popularity (or lack thereof).
40 (Live at Red Rocks)
So - the best post-punk trilogy?
Well, let's look at those couple of questions I posed at the start.
What actually is post-punk?
Well we know that it was a move away from the raw simplicity of punk, with more genres of influence being added and explored.
Were U2 actually a post-punk band?
There were some almost mystical elements to their early work, and we know they were actively listening to a lot f electronic music, and indeed, some of that started to filter through as they moved through the albums. Enough critics of the time seemed happy enough to label them as post-punk, and that is good enough for me.
And finally, the best three album run of the genre.... really?
This is quite a suggestion, so perhaps we should look at the competition. Wire, who if you remember, were deemed to be part of the birth of the genre with second album Chairs Missing - went on to put out another classic in 154, but the seven year hiatus before record four (The Ideal Copy), did not necessarily give them the perfect trio. Joy Division would undoubtedly have had a shot at winning this, had Ian Curtis not died before second album Closer was released.
One of the best bits of competition comes from The Fall, whose output was frequent but often inconsistent in quality - but their fans would likely argue that you could one of the three run options from their first four studio albums (Live At The Witch Trials, Dragnet, Grotesque and Hex Enduction Hour). I would say that the strongest counter to U2 comes from Siouxsie And The Banshees, whose opening run of albums was so very strong and highly lauded, and you could probably pick your run from, Scream, Join Hands, Kaleidoscope, Juju and A Kiss In The Dreamhouse.
Of course, anything like this is highly subjective and everyone will have their favourites. What I would say on behalf of U2 is, the thing that has always captured me and drawn me in to these first three records is the passion and the power. You can argue all you want that later versions of the band became too big for their boots, but you absolutely cannot argue against the music they have fairly consistently put out for 45 years - and those first three records were a more than adequate catapult for their later success.
I will leave you, if you wish, with this 40 minutes of live performance from the Werchter Festival (Belgium) in 1982 - as it has everything I love about them at this stage of their journey - the power and punch - and perhaps most importantly, the clear and obvious joy they have in playing these songs.
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