“The Unforgettable Fire” introduced a new U2 - moodier and more impressionistic on anthems more wistful (“Bad”) or hopeful (“Pride”) than angry. Over stinging guitar and thrashing drums, Bono acknowledges he is playing a role as punk protester and argues against stubbornness and for compromise. “Like a Song” is a furious but nuanced take on The Troubles and war in general. “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” “New Year’s Day” and “Two Hearts Beat as One” dominate the band’s breakout album, “War,” which is also its most overtly political.

Larry Mullen’s drumming and Adam Clayton’s bass drive this track as Bono, a motherless child clashing with his father, howls about being stuck in a situation he can’t get out of. U2’s second album “October” was largely a step back, but its best songs were still fueled by a punk fury.

Here are a dozen more for a different playlist, one that may be far from definitive but that memorably charts the band’s journey by winding through its side streets and back alleys. The songs he chose make a great playlist, but U2’s strength is not just in its greatest hits - it’s in the lasting power of its deeper cuts, songs that may be overshadowed on the albums but still reverberate and resonate down through the decades. Related: Sign up for our free newsletter about books, authors, reading and more The 40 songs cover most of the band’s biggest and best, from “I Will Follow” and “One” up to “City of Blinding Lights” and “Moment of Surrender” (albeit with disproportionate representation from the band’s two most recent albums, “Songs of Innocence” and “Songs of Experience,” which consist of nearly one-fourth of the chapters). Bush, Rupert Murdoch and Bill Gates.īono uses songs as chapter titles, recounting the writing or recording but also for thematic purposes – “Sunday Bloody Sunday” discusses the creation of the track but also The Troubles in Northern Ireland and its impact on Bono as a person, a songwriter and an activist. Always reaching, sometimes he soars but sometimes he crashes – a recent New York Times interviewer took the singer to task for going easy on his high-profile pals like George W. The U2 showman veers from intimate to over the top, from insightful to overwrought. 1, is exactly what you would expect from Bono’s memoir.

“Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story,” which hits stores Nov.

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