Song of the Day 2/20: U2, “American Obituary”
U2 released its first new music in nearly a decade on Ash Wednesday, and the lead track on the six-song EP “Days of Ash” joins the growing list of anti-DHS protest songs. Though “American Obituary” sounds like the title for a requiem for the United States, it’s actually an elegy for Renee Good.
Renee Good, born to die free
American mother of three
seventh day January
a bullet for each child, as you can see
Renee, the ‘domestic terrorist’?
What you can’t kill can’t die
America will rise against the people of the lie
In an extensive fanzine interview, Bono characterised Good as “a woman committed to nonviolent civil disobedience.”
He said he was deeply troubled by her being dubbed a domestic terrorist by Kristi Noem, head of the US Department of Homeland Security. “This was an attempt to assassinate meaning itself, the meaning of words, the meaning of truth,” Bono said. “If you let people [get] away with that, you can kiss your democracy goodbye.”
“American Obituary” is just one of the topical songs on the EP. “One Life at a Time” is about Awdah Hathaleen, the Palestinian activist killed last July 2025 by an Israeli West Bank colonizer. “Song of the Future” spotlights the Women, Life, Freedom protest movement in Iran and namechecks Sarina Esmailzadeh, the 16-year-old died in 2022 after a brutal beating from the Ayatollah’s security forces.
although I share these sentiments, bono is still a giant turd of a person and doesn’t have any standing.
If you want *real* protest music, ICP’s seminal The Great Milenko has some great tracks which really indulge some justifiably violent fantasies- Piggy Pie envisions beating MAGA-types to death with a shovel and Hall of Illusions details a final judgement/torture sequence at the hands of the titular Great Milenko. That’s some top tier horrorcore shit. No one wants to listen to Bono’s whining.
And I don’t want to listen to horrorcore shit. Does that make us even?
Also, the YouTube video has 460,000 views in two days, which makes your claim about “no one” wants to listen to it rather specious.
Remember the little stunt U2 pulled with iTunes? Forcing an album on people doesn’t count.
given their history, I’m sure that better than half of those views can be ascribed to people wanting to see a trainwreck. Hell, even I watched the highlights real from the Turning point halftime show just to see the white trash parade.
Sure, whatever. Wake up on the wrong side of the bed today?
It was really, really easy to delete that album from iTunes.
I didn’t see defending Bono on my bingo card today, but what the fuck are you on about? He’s been married to the same woman his whole adult life, he donates a ton of money to humanitarian causes, he remains a practicing Catholic, he uses his voice and standing to highlight injustices around the world. Rather than an throwing out an ad hominem attack to needlessly plug ICP–which has nothing to do with U2 or Bono, why don’t you cite some facts that would in any way support your conclusion that Bono is “a giant turd of a person”?
LilBubbyChild sounds unhinged. I recommend staying clear of that person regardless of political views. And sure, anybody who would send you free music must be a turd.
There were quite a few people who considered unsolicited music showing up in their computer an invasion of privacy or something. As the frozen dessert commercial used to say, everybody doesn’t like something.