100 Songs That Have Moved Me | Song #014: "New Year's Day" (1983)

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Title: "New Year's Day"
Artist: U2
Composer: Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen Jr.
Producer: Steve Lillywhite
Release Date: January 1, 1983
Peak Chart Position: #53 (Hot 100)
Album: War (1983)

Rolling Stone metadata:

Rank: #435

Blurb: "New Year's Day" lifted U2 out of the rock underground for good. As he often did, Bono made up his lyrics on the spot. "We improvise, and the things that came out, I let them come out," he said. "I must have been thinking about Lech Walesa being interned. Then, when we'd recorded the song, they announced that martial law would be lifted in Poland on New Year's Day. Incredible." (Source)

Words from the artist:

The lyric had its origins in a love song from Bono to his wife, but was subsequently reshaped and inspired by the Polish Solidarity movement. The bass part stemmed from bassist Adam Clayton trying to figure out what the chords to the Visage song "Fade to Grey" were.

In 1983, Bono said of the song, "It would be stupid to start drawing up battle lines, but I think the fact that 'New Year's Day' made the Top Ten indicated a disillusionment among record buyers. I don't think 'New Year's Day' was a pop single, certainly not in the way that Mickie Most might define a pop single as something that lasts three minutes and three weeks in the chart. I don't think we could have written that kind of song." (Source)


Before starting that project, Edge, the group's most accomplished musician, spent three weeks trying to put together some musical ideas so they wouldn't be starting strictly from scratch in the rehearsal hall. Two of the ideas led to "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "New Year's Day," songs that lifted the band to new creative heights.

"My job is to find an image that sort of evokes the music," Bono says, "and it was easy with 'New Year's Day.' The piano notes on the song were icy, and Adam's bass line told you it's outdoors, not indoors."

As he stood in the studio on the day in 1982 that U2 was finalizing "New Year's Day," Bono had a mental picture of Lech Walesa, the Polish Solidarity leader, standing in the snow on New Year's Day, leading a workers strike. It resonated with him.

The band members had gone through some problems, and they weren't sure they wanted to continue together. Their spiritual values seemed at odds with the rock lifestyle, but they finally realized they could use the music to share their beliefs. So it felt like the band too was beginning again.

Against a gentle musical backdrop, Bono pieced together a message about starting over and solidarity, a message of innocence and hope. (Source)

How this song moves me:

It's not surprising to me that this was a breakthrough single for U2 - it embodies what we've come to think of as their "sound" - larger than life, atmospheric, almost ethereal. The way all of the pieces of the band meld together to become greater than the sum of its parts? Breathtaking ♥

I'm also not surprised to learn that this song started life as a love song from Bono to his wife (even if it morphed into something completely different). It's right there in the chorus: "I will be with you again." Incredibly powerful, especially for someone like me who LOVES the idea of a long and enduring relationship, one that survives pitfalls large and small. It gives new hope, which is the best way to start a new year ;) The world looks fresh and new and promising, even if only for a short time, and here is the hope we can hold onto that we can make a difference, be it in a relationship or in an entire goddamned country.