Dublin Opinion

Whatever we might think of Ireland’s very own rock monolith, we can’t avoid the fact they’ve managed to just about seep into every last corner of the globe over the last 3 decades. This was brought home to me this week when I heard on French radio a track from a compilation recently brought out of U2 covers done by African acts. The lady DJ presented the track (Guineans BA CISSOKO’s version of ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’) as being ‘Africa paying back Bono’ - in reference to Mr. Hewson’s persistent harassing of the great and mighty over 3rd World Debt. I often hear the original (of SBS) on French radio, giving me a little ‘frisson’ partly from teenage nostalgia, partly from repressed bashthebritsism, I suppose. BA CISSOKO’s version was the way a cover should be done - completely appropriated by them (and I still got the ‘frisson’).

A look around YouTube has yielded a few more fine tracks from the LP (unfortunately, the poster being the label, they are fairly bare-facedly promotional). First up is Mali’s Vieux Farka Touré (son of the late and very great Ali) doing this version of ‘Bullet the Blue Sky’ :

Now, this is a U2 track I could never really stand - coming from the period I started going off them. Vieux’s version does a good deal to redeem what I had taken for sonic fodder for filling Yank stadiums. It reminds me too of a momentous saturday night, the like of which I’ll not see again, when Kerr’s U-18s managed to win a European title in Cyprus and Vieux’s father set the Pod alight. I zigzagged home from Harcourt St. slurring ‘Liam George nananana…’ to myself - never found which of A F T’s albums that one was on since… Liam George seems not to have re-surfaced since either..

Another example from the LP is a further song from that Garden of Eden when I was an unquestioning U2 devotee (I WAS in my early teens…). Hearing ‘Seconds’ by Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars brought me back to the last time I heard it, probably on vinyl in someone’s sitting room in the early 80s :

For us, the lyrics are a bit anachronistic - I think Bonzo was referring to the possibility of nuclear obliteration. Unfortunately, they’re still fairly relevant in Sierra Leone. The lads seem to be recorded in some sort of airport transit lounge, as if to authenticate their name. I never could figure out how a country that produced such laidback and sweet music (try the wonderful S E Rogie for ex.) also manages to produce such savagery… diamonds might be a girl’s best friend but…

If all of this has made you curious, here’s the label’s site for the LP In The Name of Love Official Site Curiously enough, they don’t seem to be to forward in naming the label on the site - a branch of one of the big majors, I suspect. At least the album appears to avoid that scourge of ‘World Music’ albums - the ‘guest appearance’ by a big Western name - which is usually to the detriment both of the guest and host.

Hopefully, the LP will help to raise the profile of the artists involved and especially the less established names. Bono (& co.) will this do them another favour.

Footnote : Apologies if this album has already gotten airplay and press space in Ireland - I’m not too aware of such matters down here….