When I was a kid, my father cranked up the car stereo after “Vertigo” came on the radio one fateful evening. The loud, distorted riffs of The Edge’s guitar ripped through my little eardrums as I sat in the back seat, covering my ears until the song was over. It was magical.
As I grew older, I began to appreciate U2’s politics. I saw them as more of a protest group than simply a rock band. They did not shy away from The Troubles in Northern Ireland, the Polish Solidarity movement, or U.S. foreign policy in Latin America, particularly under Ronald Reagan. They were the first major band to play in Sarajevo after the Bosnian War. Standing up to hate and violence seemed to be their theme, and I liked it. Combine that with lead singer Bono’s humanitarian work around the world, especially the fight against AIDS, and U2 became something of a musical moral compass for me.