This week we got at least part of the results of U2's visit to Electric Lady Studios. U2 did another one of their rooftop performances, this time choosing a more acoustic version of "Sunday Bloody Sunday." Adam played keyboards in a live setting for the second time that I'm aware of ("City Of Blinding Lights" on the Vertigo tour being the first); Bono sported his new New Wave hairdo; The Edge reminded us how good his solo performance of the song was during PopMart; and never-changing Larry still made his martial drums move the song.

I've enjoyed the change in the vocal melody Bono has used in the second verse of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" since the U2 360 tour, as it seems that even small changes in old songs from the band can spark a new appreciation in me for them. On the whole, this stripped-down version very well suits a warm evening on a rooftop with drinks and food from the really good Thai place down the street. What a thing to say about a song like "Sunday Bloody Sunday," right? Yet I really enjoyed the performance … but I also really enjoy rooftop eating and drinking on a warm summer evening, so I'm biased.

Bono added these lyrics to the end of the song:

On another broken hill
Red crosses and crescent moon collides
Pilgrims pray to know God's will
Scratching in the dirt
Signing up to die
Scorched earth or a cruel sun
Is this the battle Jesus won on

Bono mentioned in the video that the song is popular in conflict zones. Iran is electing its new president on the day I'm writing this (June 14). For the first time since 2005, Iran will not have to deal with the inflammatory Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a candidate or a leader. Moderate cleric Hasan Rowhani is the early front-runner, but the memory of the 2009 elections, which were largely considered to be fraudulent, and the protests that came afterward have obviously stayed with U2. They were a constant presence in the break between the "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy" remix and "Sunday Bloody Sunday" on the U2 360 tour. Bono specifically mentioned Iran in the introduction to the video, and I doubt very much that it was a coincidence that this protest song was released right before the election.

The Middle East and Africa, specifically North Africa and the Maghreb, seem to be U2's current geographic area of focus. The early 1980s seemed to be focused on their stomping grounds of Ireland and the United Kingdom, the late 1980s the United States, the 1990s Europe, and the early 2000s the world. "Fast Cars" at the end of How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb had a Middle Eastern flavor, and that was followed more fully by No Line On The Horizon. Their latest album name-checked locations like Cadiz in Spain, Fez in Morocco and Lebanon. The album was ostensibly about a North African policeman in Paris who decided to leave Europe and return to his ancestral home.

I'm a traffic cop, Rue du Marais
The sirens are wailing
But it's me that wants to get away

Linear, the movie that accompanied the album, featured French-by-way-of-Moroccan-parents actor Saïd Taghmaoui traveling from Paris through Spain to the port city of Cadiz, which is on an extension of land only eight kilometers from Morocco. The video for "Magnificent" was filmed in Fez and portrayed the city as a revelation, with the buildings being revealed like new cars at a trade show. "Get On Your Boots" has not-at-all-subtle references to terrorist attacks and wars for oil. The band has been interested in this region for a while.

Why do I bring all this up? I'm coming to the opinion that this area of the world has been the least interesting and inspiring for Bono's lyrics. The lyrics of the early 1980s were about their home, their primary source of inspiration for what had been their entire lives. The late 1980s were about America, that shining land across the pond that produced such amazing music and movies and such screwed-up politics. The 1990s were about chaos that was not at home but right on their back doorstep with the collapse of European communism as a hegemon. They could look across the Channel and see grimy, amazing music coming out of the same continent that included the financial ruins of what was just a couple years prior one of the two world superpowers. This all made for some incredibly analytical and ANGRY music, and Bono's lyrics are always at their best when he's ANGRY.

The early 2000s featured perhaps a more centered Bono and happier lyrics. Instead of displaying his frustration with the process in his music, he became part of the process and actively started to influence what was frustrating him. Evidently, with great power also comes great positivity. The angry songs that made albums like Achtung Baby, Zooropa and Pop shine largely vanished. There were a few here and there, songs like "Crumbs From Your Table," "Cedars Of Lebanon" and "Disappearing Act," but we got even more hopeful or just plain SAD songs. Think "Wave Of Sorrow" and "White As Snow." They're songs of hardship, of oppression, of the sheer frustration and depression of being in a place that does not seem to want you there. It's music that seems to feel a need to act like a show-and-tell session, kind of like, "Hey, you must see what I just found!" They're not ANGER, not a rage to set things right, not "Silver And Gold." This Bono can't make us believe the line, "Tonight thank God it's them instead of you" the way the previous Bono could. They're songs by a guy who now has the power to set things right.

They're almost songs of pity. In a way that makes me a bit uncomfortable, Bono has decided a region of the world seems to be more deserving of worry than of shoving our faces in it, as he did with Sarajevo. Bono's not bugging us anymore, he's begging us, and this time he means to beg us.

So, as much as I love listening to No Line On The Horizon and remembering the beautiful, brilliant times I had on the U2 360 tour, I'm very pumped to see what new locales this upcoming album takes us to.

(c) @U2, 2013.

RTE-TV in Ireland has finally announced a date for its interview/documentary with Bono. The program, The Meaning Of Life with Gay Byrne, will air on June 25th at 9:35 pm on RTE One. This is the same as that mysterious TV listing that first showed up in early May.

RTE has posted a short preview clip from Byrne's interview of Bono, which you can see below.

Irish band Aslan has announced that U2 will participate in the “A Night for Christy” concert at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin on June 21 via video from their studio in New York. They’ll perform Aslan’s “This Is.” The concert, a tribute to Aslan frontman Christy Dignam, who is recovering from cancer, will feature other artists performing the band's hit songs with Aslan. The show is sold out, but will be streamed to more than 100 venues worldwide.

A list of confirmed streaming venues is available on Aslan's website.

Along with U2, participating artists include Bressie, Danny O'Reilly (The Coronas), members of Horslips, Ryan Sheridan, Paul Brady, Shane MacGowan, Mary Black, Don Mescall, Tom Dunne (Something Happens), Jerry Fish, Steve Wall (The Stunning), Gavin Friday, Mark Feehily, Paul Walsh (Royseven), The Riptide Movement, Jedward, Gavin James and Kiera Dignam.

Good news: The ONE Campaign only waited one day after announcing the Agit8 campaign to release U2's recent cover of "Sunday Bloody Sunday." This is what U2 taped on May 31st on the roof of Electric Lady Studios in New York City. You'll hear Bono change some lyrics in the second half of the song. The video is below.

[Ed. note: This is the 77th in a series of personal essays by the @U2 staff about songs and/or albums that have had great meaning or impact in our lives.]

"It's an area of Bono's lyric writing that I really like, cinematic, conjuring up a place and time, New York, a city that really brings you to somewhere, a state of mind."

That's Edge talking about "City Of Blinding Lights" in U2 By U2. I couldn't agree with him more. While a lot of U2's songs can take you to another place visually because of Bono's thoughtful songwriting ability, this particular song has had a special meaning for me from the very first listen. Perhaps it's because Bono knew the one way to get to my heart quickly: sing about New York City.

How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, the album that COBL is from, was released when I was a sophomore in college in the fall of 2004. Like every new album I get of a favorite artist, I listen to it in full about four or five times and then pick random tracks to listen to and focus on them more. I attended college in NYC because I knew it would be the perfect place to pursue my dream of being a journalist. This was also the perfect time to get to know the album better, as I had 90 minutes to travel to class every morning from my home in New Jersey.

When I got to the point of picking random tracks to listen to, I always found myself starting with "COBL." I just felt bonded to it, I think because it was so illuminating in terms of the lyrics that Bono had written. "Neon heart, day glow eyes" and "Flash bulbs, purple irises" were words that could get me so emotional. Even hearing Bono sing "In the city of blinding lights" made my head spin because he described the NYC skyline in one simple lyric. This was the album that made me really fall in love with U2, as I was in the early stages of my fandom. And "COBL" was sealing the deal for me that I would love this band forever.

My sophomore year I took my first creative writing class, where we were required to do writing workshops. I used to get so nervous before a class when my piece would be critiqued. I would sit outside the classroom before class began with "COBL" blasting in my earbuds to relax me. The opening swells, then Larry's increased drumming, would match my rapid heartbeats before class. "I knew much more then than I do now," Bono sang as I thought about how I had it all figured it out in high school and now here I was in college wondering if I could make it in the real world. The song was my own personal anxiety medication.

Fast-forward a few months later to May 17, 2005, when U2 were on their Vertigo tour in NJ and I got to see them live for the very first time. "COBL" was the opening song and I remember going out of my mind. "Beautiful Day" is my favorite U2 song ever and of course I was excited to hear that. But "COBL" was the one song my body craved hearing. Oh, did it deliver. However, it didn't compare to the next time I heard it live.

I went to another Vertigo tour show five months later on Oct. 7, 2005. But this was no ordinary show. This was a show at the big arena. It was at Madison Square Garden in NYC. I was a junior and interning at a major fashion magazine. I sort of felt like I was a big deal now and that I was on my way to "living the dream." My seat was in nosebleed heaven but when the lights got cut and "COBL" began, I didn't scream like I did in NJ. I promptly burst into tears. This is what the song was about, moments like this. "Oh, you look so beautiful tonight," all of these strangers around me chanted along with Bono. We didn't know each other, but we were all united in this gorgeous city on this night that bled so much emotion. I remember leaving the show feeling like I was on fire. I felt like I could conquer this city and the world. "A city lit by fireflies / They're advertising in the skies / For people like us," people like me who wanted to paint the town their own personal color.

Luckily at every U2 show I've been to since then, "COBL" has been in the setlist. It was simply magical during the recent 360 tour: being in a stadium with the summer night skies blanketing all of us as U2 played. The lyric "I'm getting ready to leave the ground," pulsed throughout the New Meadowlands Stadium in July 2011 during the band's NY/NJ show.

My friend Joy and I were clinging to the barricade in the GA pit and I would look at U2 in front of me and then up at the famous Claw stage beaming light at the stars above the stadium. It looked so brilliant. With the prospect of a new U2 album on the way this year, I hope the band doesn't abandon this song during their potential tour. I think it sounds glorious live and it would be tragic if it got cut.

Be it Jay-Z's "Empire State Of Mind" or "New York, New York" by Ol' Blue Eyes, people have their own personal NYC songs that they gravitate toward. "COBL" is mine and always will be. Every amazing moment I have in that beautiful city, this is the song I put on. Walking the streets of Greenwich Village after an epic night with friends or sitting on the subway after attending an event, hearing "Blessings are not just for the ones who kneel, luckily," is enough to make me realize that I am so blessed to know a town as loving as NYC that takes you in its open arms and holds you tight.

On the subject of love, I don't really consider myself the "marrying type." But should I find a man who could finally make an honest woman out of me, he would have to agree to two conditions. One, we must get married in NYC. Two, I'm walking down the aisle to this song. I think that sounds fair, don't you?

A lot of times I hear the phrase that goes something like "If you can see it, it will come true." The more you envision something (or to borrow from another U2 song, to dream out loud), it will eventually happen. With "COBL," I feel that the more times I listen to it, the more my New York dreams will come true. I'll have the job, the home, the guy and the life I've always wanted. Like Bono says about the song in U2 By U2, "It's about recapturing a sense of wonder, being in a city and reminding yourself that you don't have to lose your soul to gain the world." I don't have to kill myself trying. All I have to do is dream and believe. Because if there is absolutely one thing I truly believe in, it's the lyrical gospel of U2. The faith that I have in them and NYC is something I will never abandon.

© @U2/Marino, 2013.

It looks like we can say with some certainty that U2's recent re-recording of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" is for Agit8, a new campaign from ONE that uses iconic protest songs as a call for action on extreme poverty prior to the G8 Summit in Northern Ireland. Bono is quoted this way in the ONE announcement:

"This week we are reminded of the words of the great agitator Nelson Mandela –

"Like slavery and Apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome. Millions of people… are trapped in the prison of poverty. It is time to set them free. Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation."

Since the 1970s Nelson Mandela has called upon artists and bands to use their platform to fight injustice. We were honoured then, we're honoured now."

The Agit8 website lists the numerous artists that are part of the campaign and the songs they've sung. There are a couple covers of U2 songs -- "Sunday Bloody Sunday" by Cali and Steve Nieve 20/20, "Pride" by Chris Daughtry and Michael W. Smith -- but U2's recent version of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" isn't on the list. That said, several clips from U2's performance on May 31 in New York City are in the promo video for Agit8:

Our guess is that U2's version of SBS will make its way to the ONE/Agit8 website soon enough.

Recently I spent my birthday in Tallinn, Estonia. It was a beautiful city, and right in the middle of the old town, just around the corner from the city square, I made a musical discovery. Depeche Mode had been immortalized as a bar! Depeche Mode has long been a favorite band of mine since high school. So I couldn't resist stepping in.

The bar is not only named for Depeche Mode, but the entire bar is also decorated using imagery from Depeche Mode's singles and albums. Light fixtures make use of single covers. There are displays of old ticket stubs on the walls. The tables are covered with old magazine clippings including some from old fan club magazines. And the band has even visited and had their photos taken in the bar. It was a great space, and I loved sitting in that environment listening to songs from one of my favorite albums.

For those who don't follow Depeche Mode, they have long had an association with Anton Corbijn, who has been involved in shaping their image just as he has with U2. They've even worked with the team at AmpVisual on some projects along the way. So it was an easy jump for me to start thinking about what a U2 bar might look like while sitting and sipping on my "Enjoy The Silence" -- yes, all the drinks are named after Depeche Mode songs!

Bathroom symbols could be crafted from the Elevation logo. Tables could be covered in articles from Propaganda. The color scheme would be blacks and grays, with pops of red. The stereo would play the albums, the b-sides, and maybe a bootleg along the way. The bank of seats at the bar would be called "The Edge," of course. Fans would be able to walk in and order a "Where The Streets Have No Name" off the menu and sit and enjoy with other fans. Anyone want to help me craft the drink menu?!

The 20th anniversary of Zooropa is fast approaching. Twenty years ago I was a bit of a lapsed fan of U2. Rattle And Hum hadn't been my thing and during that time I had started to explore other music. Depeche Mode definitely came to the forefront for me with the release of Violator. And while I was quick to buy Achtung Baby I didn't connect with that album for a very long time -- it took me years to get into it although I did love "Mysterious Ways." I paid some attention to the Zoo TV tour, but I was unable to attend, and instead focused my musical interests elsewhere.

I didn't even know Zooropa was coming out. "Numb" wasn't getting any airplay. I had a busy job and wasn't paying attention to the music world. I was cut off from the Internet for the summer being home from university. The week the album was released I saw it in a flier for a music store. Living two hours away from the nearest store, I asked a friend to pick it up for me. I still liked material on Rattle And Hum and Achtung Baby enough to test it out.

U2 somehow had managed to figure out what I was listening to. All my explorations in music had led me to the same spot as U2. The album became a favorite. Returning to university that fall, I found myself living with three big U2 fans. That helped reel me in further. Original Soundtracks 1 and Pop continued to follow my path of musical development and strengthened my interest in the band again. But it was Zooropa that started my transition back to the fold. I still love that album, and still list it as a favorite.

I can't believe that was 20 years ago, and I've been living with Zooropa for half of my life now. It is the album I have the most vivid memories of taking out of the plastic and listening to for the first time.

Recently in the atu2.com forum someone asked about the 1998 theme to the Japanese television show "Godzilla Island." The song was credited to "The Edge" and a quick look around the internet made it look like it was U2's "The Edge." The song is a fun little song, with a female vocalist who sings about the many monsters from the Godzilla stories. But was it really U2's The Edge?

Wikipedia said yes. Several Godzilla fan sites said yes. But I wasn't happy and wanted confirmation. Nowhere on the Internet could I find information that clearly related who the artist was. I finally ended up tracking down a copy of the song on a 3-Inch CD single from Japan. Yes, the song is credited to "The Edge," but the CD single cleared up the rest of the mystery. With thanks to Hiro, I was able to translate the full credits from the single. It confirms that the vocals are credited to "The Edge." Yes, the female vocalist is The Edge as well, and it is not the guitar player from U2 on this track. Wikipedia was wrong, and I have since submitted edits to remove the reference. Mystery solved!

And while The Edge wasn't involved in the theme of "Godzilla Island," he did contribute the theme to another television show, "The Batman."

All the suggestions that a U2 album may be released this fall have me worried. I'm worried because another favorite, Arcade Fire, are rumored to be releasing a new album at the same time. I'm expecting some conflict for my attention, especially if both decide to tour. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll get to see them perform with U2 again, like they did the final night of the 360 tour in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, and at three nights on the Vertigo tour in 2005.

U2 fans may remember the song "Wake Up." It's the song U2 chose to take the stage to on the Vertigo tour. But have you ever seen Arcade Fire performing with U2? That's a Joy Division song they are covering during the Vertigo tour shows in Montreal. When Arcade Fire took the stage that night, the screen behind the stage turned red, and "Where The Streets Have No Name" played over the PA as a nod to U2 taking the stage to "Wake Up" each night.

(c) @U2, 2013.

You might recall the name Jaime K. Scatena. He was one of the people sharing photos last Friday in New York City as U2 did an acoustic version of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" on the roof of Electric Lady Studios, and later -- when it was just Bono and The Edge -- doing the same song again at a private event in the city.

Jaime -- who's working with the InsideOut art project folks -- has posted a full account of how the day went down from his perspective. It began with a call from InsideOut founder JR to get to the studios, where he helped post some of the artwork that appears behind U2 as they did the rooftop performance. It goes on to cover that and then all of the events at the InsideOut studio where Bono and Edge sang alone.

Some things that Jaime clears up along the way:

• U2 was recording "Sunday Bloody Sunday" for some kind of Iran-related documentary, not for an InsideOut project.
• Bono called JR asking if InsideOut had any Iran-related artwork they could use for the video shoot.
• Bono and Edge sang "Sunday Bloody Sunday" at the party in lieu of the tradition where party guests bring a book or drawing to share.

Jaime has also included a couple of his videos from Friday's events, so don't miss his story.

Bono and Bill Gates made a joint appearances Wednesday at the Forbes 400 Summit on Philanthropy in New York City, where they talked about their work together (and apart) in aiming to fight extreme poverty.

You can read about their appearance on Forbes.com, and Forbes has also uploaded this 24-minute video, which is embedded below (see the second video). But first, another video of Bono singing a tribute to Warren Buffett, who picked up the first Forbes 400 Lifetime Achievement Award for Philanthropy.

Billboard magazine is reporting today that U2 is targeting December to release its next studio album.

The news comes in the form of an update to an article that Billboard published earlier today, which largely sourced our weekend coverage of the band's work with Danger Mouse at Electric Lady Studios in New York City. The article has now been updated with this additional news/rumor:

"...sources tell Billboard that the band is aiming to release their next album in December, although no plans have yet been finalized."

As you can imagine, fans have already started discussing this news in our forum. You're welcome to join in.