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Sat 05 May 2010How to dismantle a U2 song
As he turns 50 next week Bono has much to celebrate, not least achieving world domination as the frontman of U2. But are his lyrics worthy of celebration and will they be relevant in another 50 years, asks TONY CLAYTON-LEA
CONSUMERS OF pop music are fussy about lyrics; the examples of good and bad are far too numerous to list (this writer’s favourite clunkers include “there were plants and birds and rocks and things” from America’s Horse With No Name, and the geographically unsound “Coast to coast, LA to Chicago” from Sade’s Smooth Operator), but you can guarantee that one person’s rounded gem of a lyric is another person’s dog-eared phrase.
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