Talk:Sunday Bloody Sunday

GA status

This article could do with a lot more references. Lincher 00:36, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

External link may be bad

According to siteadvisor, if you give your E-mail address to the first external link, it will post it to the web, and you'll get something like 20 spam E-mails a week. Should the link be removed?

Glorification?

There is a line under reactions "Even without some of the lyrics, a few listeners still immediately passed off the song as a "rebel" song—even one that glorified the events of the two Bloody Sundays to which the lyrics referred."

This is ludicrous as there was never any mention that the acts were being glorified by U2, it was the complete opposite!!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.206.171.244 (talk • contribs)

I think this should be discussed before being completely removed. Here are a couple of quotes that back up the claim that some listeners passed off the song as "one that glorified the events of the two Bloody Sundays to which the lyrics referred."

From Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2: "There were, of course, those who misunderstood "Sunday Bloody Sunday." The band got into trouble on both sides of the politial divide. The Protestants were displeased with the seeming glorification of Bloody Sunday, which the Nationalists had been using as propaganda against the British troops."

And a quote from Fachtna O'Ceallaigh from U2 at the End of the World, in many ways a more authoritative source because the author spent time with the band: "The idea of some major rock star going around the world with a white flag in his hand and singing 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' and then saying, This is not a rebel song has some nerve, as far as I'm concerned, to exploit the pain and suffering of people in a part of…whether it's his own country or anybody else's."

The point I attempted to bring when writing the original line about glorification is that some residents of Ireland felt the Bloody Sundays were being glorified just by there being a song written about them. I think completely removing a statement that helps explain a crucially different fan reaction to the song is a mistake. --McMillin24 _contribs^talk 20:34, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

: Glorification, to me, implies that the song was interpreted as glorifying what mass murder in Derry. No one could be dense enough to hear the song and think that, quite the opposite actually; one might hear "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" and come to the conclusion that the British Army has to go, and that only violence will get them out. Other rebel songs make that same point, when commemorating that event or similar tragedies in the nationalist community. So Bono, as I understand it, wanted to make it clear that he wasn't supporting the IRA, even though he was condemning the random killings of protestors by the British Army. In my opinion, that's pretty stupid, and should almost go without saying-- although if you really bristle that much about a Derry or Belfast republican singing your song about their pain, well, that's your choice I guess.

Anybody going to add a mention of the George W Bush "cover"? 60.241.69.75 02:18, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

Alvin and the Chipmunks version

I added a little sidenote about the Alvin and the Chipmunks version to this article. I don't know where I'd find the actual song, though. Anybody help?§§§§Brieanna

Rolling Stone Magazine

I really like this quote from RS's review of Under a Blood Red Sky. Should we incoporate it into the article somehow?:

But the high point is "Sunday Bloody Sunday." It may not be a rebel song, as Bono tells a presumably baffled German audience, but it is practically everything else: an anguished, thoughtful synthesis of religious and political beliefs, backed by the bone-crushing arena-rock riff of the decade. This is "Stairway to Heaven" for smart people -- even if it is played a tad too fast -- and it kicks Under a Blood Red Sky over the rainbow.

--Merbabu 14:46, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

It's a very good quote, but I'm not sure where it would fit. I've been toying with a quote from the RS interview with Bono, and which part of it is most appropriate to use:

Bono on War:

Great collection of songs. Strong in content and ideas but poor in lyrical execution. We were trying to be the Wlio meets the Clash. I spent minutes on these things rather than hours. So "Sunday Bloody Sunday," which was supposed to contrast Easter Sunday with the death of thirteen protesters in Derry on Bloody Sunday, didn't quite come off. And yet melodically and the suggestion of the lyrics stood up to the test of time. I've changed the lyrics when I sing it now just to make it more believable for myself. I don't think anyone else notices. But that's a great song—mostly Edge's song.

In particular, the last sentence might belong in the background section. McMillin24 _contribs^talk 23:19, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Quotes -> prose

As the FAC has pointed out, we've got two large quotes bulking up the article, and they should be converted to prose. I don't mind letting the first one go to prose, but I think the second quote (the Denver speech) needs to be preserved somewhere in its entirety...maybe on Wikiquote, perhaps as an audio file. Thoughts? McMillin24 _contribs^talk 01:40, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

It might be more manageable if you trimmed it of verbiage. + Ceoil 01:57, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

I would leave that cquote the way it is. It's the climax of the "story" of this article, and deserves to be very prominent. Wasted Time R 02:01, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

Problem is its disproportionally large in a series of choppy paras.+ Ceoil 02:06, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

How about "<blockquote>-ing" it, in addition to a couple of removed sentences? I'm not sure why it's only 75% of the width of the page—my 1280x1024 resolution creates a big white space underneath the image at that width. How about:

I've had enough of Irish Americans who haven't been back to their country in twenty or thirty years come up to me and talk about the resistance, the revolution back home…and the glory of the revolution…and the glory of dying for the revolution. Fuck the revolution! […] What's the glory in taking a man from his bed and gunning him down in front of his wife and his children? […] Where's the glory in bombing a Remembrance Day parade of old age pensioners, their medals taken out and polished up for the day. […] To leave them dying or crippled for life or dead under the rubble of the revolution, that the majority of the people in my country don't want. No more!

I've left (in my opinion, at least) the harshest condemnations in, and it's cut down to four lines of text at 1280x1024 (five lines at 1024x768). McMillin24 _contribs^talk 02:15, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

Now that the main quote is in the much less obtrusive format, I've restored it to its original text, which isn't visibly that much longer. This is better because whenever you pepper a quote with "[...]"'s, the sharp reader wonders whether the stuff you're leaving out changes the meaning of what you're leaving in. So when it's practical (such as here), it's better to give the full passage. Wasted Time R 13:24, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

Songwriter credit missing

What is the songwriter credit for this song? --83.253.36.136 19:03, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

Covers

The Covers section seems to be getting a little cluttered. I've tried to clean it up a bit by removing random live performances of the song by other artists, but I figured I should put these questions out there for debate. What covers should be included (live vs. studio)? How notable should the artist, or performance be? Should the cover versions have references to verify their authenticity?

I personally feel that a notable artist such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers or Royal Philharmonic Orchestra should be kept, as should some more (can I say notorious?) versions - the George W. Bush version comes to mind here. Some versions mentioned, like the one done by The Living End seem a little obscure. And I also think that references could only help the article, especially if it is to be nominated for FA again. MelicansMatkin 04:09, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Song sample

The sample appears to be corrupted and it won't play. Could someone fix it/reupload it/upload a new copy as a new file? Y2kcrazyjoker4 (talk) 18:20, 6 February 2009 (UTC)