Tag: Bono

Pop Culture Roundup (Best of 2011 Edition)

New Year hat 2012 Happy new year! In case you have been too busy preparing for the new year, here is a sample of recent pop culture stories you might have missed. As you might guess, many of the interesting stories look back at the best and worst of 2011.


— Best of 2011 —

A number of websites and blogs consider the best music of 2011. The New York Post featured Twitter-sized reviews of the best songs of 2011. Ickmusic has a 2011 best-of list of albums and songs. Uprooted Music Revue listed its 50 Favorite Audio Releases of 2011. Entertainment Weekly listed its top 10 albums of 2011. USA Today critics picked their best albums of 2011. Cover Lay Down presented mp3s of the best cover songs of 2011.

A number of sites considered the best and worst films of 2011. Chicago Tribune critic Michael Philips picked his 10 worst films of 2011, and he also picked his 10 best films. Just Go With It was the number one rented film at Redbox kiosks in 2011. All of top 5 rentals were comedies. Leonard Maltin picked the 11 Best Films You May Have Missed In 2011.

Some posts examined the top books. For example, NPR listed its Best Music Books Of 2011. (Thanks @robertloerzel.) The New York Daily News picked the best under-the-radar books of 2011.

There were other end-of-the-year lists. For example, Salon featured the viral videos of 2011. Frontier Psychologist listed The Top 10 Not That Special People of 2011. (Thanks @HipandCritical.) Salon featured the best and worst Tweets of the year. Slate had the worst catchphrases of 2011. TV critic Robert Bianco put together a list of the best and worst of TV in 2011.

DJ Earworm created a mashup of the top 25 pop songs of 2011 in one 5-minute clip. It’s pop. There ain’t no Lucinda Williams or Ryan Adams in here.

— Other Recent Music News —

Beyond “more cowbell!” The New York Post examined Blue Oyster Cult in pop culture.

Kelly Clarkson received a big boost in album sales after she endorsed Ron Paul.

stuffed puppy toy
Thanks for saving me, Pink!

Pink saved a puppy thrown in a river. How cool is that?

Singer-actress Kaye Stevens passed away. She performed with the Rat Pack, on Johnny Carson, etc.

Bob Seger recently explained his 2011 highlight was playing with Bruce Springsteen.

The Los Angeles Times interviewed Woody Allen about his career playing New Orleans jazz.

Bono and Glen Hansard played on the streets of Dublin for charity on Christmas Eve.


— Other Movie News —

Me Tarzan, you ?? Maybe it isn’t true that the chimp that just died was the 80-year-old Cheetah of Tarzan movie fame.

Scientists have discovered the reason for the strange bird behavior that inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.


— Other Television News —

Anne Serling has written a memoir about discovering her father Rod through his show The Twilight Zone.

Slate has the best and worst ads inspired by director Wes Anderson.

Barry Livingston, who played Ernie on My Three Sons, is still acting and has a book out.

What were your favorite stories of the year? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • Bono and Glen Hansard: The Auld Triangle
  • “There’s No End to Grief, That’s How We Know There’s No End to Love”: The Story of U2’s “One Tree Hill”
  • “Falling Slowly” by Glen Hansard and . . . Eddie Vedder (Duet of the Day)
  • ‘Fairytale of New York’ at Shane MacGowan’s funeral
  • Death in Movies That Remind Us to Enjoy Life
  • Springsteen and Bono Sing “Because the Night” in Dublin

    • (Some Related Chimesfreedom Posts)

    MLK Shot This Morning, er. . . Evening

    U2’s powerful song “Pride (In the Name of Love)” commemorates this date in 1968 when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed on a balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. King was in town to support striking sanitation workers, and the day before he had given his famous “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech.

    U2’s song, which was from The Unforgettable Fire (1984) album, recounts the assassination:
    U2 Unforgettable Fire
    Early morning, April 4
    Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
    Free at last, they took your life
    They could not take your pride

    The shooting occurred at around 6:01 p.m. on this date, so why does “Pride (In the Name of Love)” refer to “early morning”? I have seen various explanations.

    Some wondered whether at the time of the shooting, the band was in Dublin.  In that city, the time is six hours later than Tennessee time, making it just after midnight and “early morning” in Ireland. But then the date for them would have been April 5, and the song still has the correct Tennessee date of April 4.

    The time change could have been poetic license, but most likely it was an error.  Perhaps the error occurred due to Bono’s memory of when he heard the news.

    Sources note that Bono eventually recognized the mistake years later and began singing “early evening” instead of “early morning.” For example, in U2’s performance at the 2009 concert to celebrate the inauguration of Pres. Obama, Bono sang the “early evening” lyrics.  Most recently, on U2’s Songs of Surrender release of new recordings of old songs including “Pride (In the Name of Love),” Bono again used the “early evening” line.

    This energetic Chicago performance also uses the historically accurate time of day starting at around the 2:15 mark:

    John Legend recorded a moving version of “Pride (In the Name of Love)” for King (2008), a series on the History Channel. His version, which also appears on the CD Yes We Can: Voices of a Grassroots Movement, is less bombastic than the U2 version, but it is still powerful.

    Legend replaces the “early morning” line with the words “late afternoon.”  Thus, he gives us a third time option in the lyrics to “Pride (In the Name of Love).” Check it out, with the time of day mentioned at around the 2:20 mark.

    Unfortunately, I listened repeatedly to the U2 albums The Unforgettable Fire (1984) and Rattle and Hum (1988).  So,I always expect to hear “early morning” as in the original music video.

    Either way, it is still a great song about a great man. And, the time of day Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed is much less important than what he accomplished in his life in the name of love.

  • The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and “We Shall Overcome”
  • Martin Luther King, Jr. Day News: From D.C. to Burma
  • “There’s No End to Grief, That’s How We Know There’s No End to Love”: The Story of U2’s “One Tree Hill”
  • Springsteen and Bono Sing “Because the Night” in Dublin
  • Martin Luther King Jr. on “The Merv Griffin Show”
  • Martin Luther King Jr.: “The Other America”
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