Into the Heart: The Stories Behind Every U2 Song

Rating:
Summary: Nice, but.....
Review: A lot of this book was interesting, especially when Stokes would go into the story behind writing and recording the song... but a lot of the book is speculation, and not tremendously in-depth at that. Its a good read for big U2 fans, but not a must-have.

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Summary: Guide to U2
Review: Bono's lyrical subtlety and the layers of meaning behind U2's songs make it a challenge to understand what their songs are about. I am repeatedly surprised to discover that what at first seemed like love songs (e.g., One, The First Time, Until the End of the World) are really not. This book makes that discovery easier.

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Summary: Packed with information but poorly written
Review: I have loved the band U2 for about 20 years, but I found this book to be very disappointing. The author seems to think his audience already has a great deal of background information about the band, so he doesn't bother to explain many things. He strings adjectives together in order to express his admiration for the music, and so the meaning is lost. The worst thing the author does is add "funny" little captions to all the photos, but the problem is that they are not funny at all, just stupid. The book seems disjointed to me, like the author wrote at different times in different moods, never in the same voice throughout. Even though I was eager for the information, I found the book difficult to read because I kept getting distracted by the inconsistencies in the writing, by the silliness and triteness, and by the typos. Obviously, much work was put into the research, but the writing is unprofessional.

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Summary: A MUST HAVE FOR EVERY U2 FAN
Review: I LOVED THIS BOOK. THE AUTHOR REALLY DUG DEEP INTO THE THOUGHTS OF U2. STOKES LEFT OUT ALL THE BORING MEDIA JAZZ AND PUT THE HONEST AND DEEP MEANINGS BEHIND EVERY U2 SONG (BEFORE ZOOROPA).THE PICTURES ARE A GREAT COLLECTION TO HAVE OF THE BAND AND IT WAS WELL DONE. THANK YOU NIALL STOKES.

Rating:
Summary: Slightly Dissapointing
Review: I'm a big U2 fan, and I just got this book. It's mostly good, but the author focusus alot on how each song was produced rather than the meanings behind the songs (not to say there wasnt some of that in there). Also, the interpretations of some songs were questionable at best (Grace is about the celebration of womanhood??? Where the streets have no name could be about Bono's personal hell???WTF??). The author seemed to regard U2's Christian influences and inspirations with little regard, bordering on contemption. Alot of the captions on the photos screamed cheese.

Rating:
Summary: an essential book
Review: INTO THE HEART IS AN ESSENTIAL BOOK NOT BECAUSE OF THE ORIGINALITY OF THE PHOTOS ,BUT BECAUSE EACH SONG IS RELATED TO A PERSONAL STORY OF U2 MENBERS BUT ALSO TO AN HISTORICAL ,SOCIAL,CULTURAL EVENTS .IT REPLACES THE SONG IN THE BACKGROUND OF THAT PERIOD.SO YOU CAN LEARN WHILE ENTERTAINING YOURSELF!PERHAPS SOMETIMES ITS BETTER NOT TO KNOW WHAT THE SONG TALKS ABOUT .IF YOU WANT TO KEEP THE MYSTERY ABOUT U2 SONG DO NOT READ THAT BOOK ! LEAVE THE SONG TO YOUR OWN INTERPRETATION.

Rating:
Summary: U2, Song By Song
Review: Into The Heart is an impressive look into the stories behind each and every U2 song from Boy to Pop. Writer Niall Stokes gets right down to brass tacks and relates the band's own accounts about such classics as "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "Bad", "With Or Without You", "One" and all the rest. The book gives a chronological account of all their recording sessions and includes b-sides, unreleased tracks, movie songs and songs that were released on albums like Sun City. The book is has a nice large size and is loaded with great pictures. Any fan of U2 should have this book in their collection.

Rating:
Summary: More Than Just the Songs
Review: Into the Heart tells so much more of the band U2 than the meaning of their songs. It explains much of the band's life, how they dealt with many problems, and how a lot of the songs reflect this. I also love the layout of the book; easy to find what you're looking for. I highly recommend this book for any U2 fan.

Rating:
Summary: I like U2. I like the book about U2.
Review: It was extremely good.

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Summary: when good ideas go bad
Review: It's a scene familiar to any aficianado of musical bio-pics: at some point, one of the characters in the film will say something that incorporates a song title or a bit of the lyrics of the artist in question, as a kind of wink to the audience (examples: the "stu sutcliffe" character in BACKBEAT telling his doctor he's been working "eight days a week," Benny's music teacher in THE BENNY GOODMAN STORY crying out "don't be that way!", etc.). There are two responses to this sort of winking-- 1) You think it's hokey and squirm in your seat or 2) You think it's cute and feel pleasure at getting the joke. If you fall into category two, you will probably enjoy INTO THE HEART, which is full of such passages (Bono is said to be "ready for what's next," the band is "even better than the real thing," etc.). If, like me, you fall into the first category, you'll probably see the book as a missed opportunity. This is a wonderful idea for a book, and it starts off promisingly, with an introduction full of amusing anecdotes and thoughtful contextualization (you have to respect a writer who sees connections between the band's music and the work of paul auster, for instance). But as Stokes moves from album to album, song to song, a sense of disappointment slowly descends-- he seems caught between seeing the tunes as mere pop ephemera (there's a constant resistance to interpretation) and wanting to place the band in a tradition of great irish artists (wilde is one touchstone mentioned). Fine, U2 *does* embody such seeming contradictions ("right in the middle of a contradiction, that's the place to be," Bono quotes Sam Shepard at one point), but Stokes, unlike his subjects, is unable to make these paradoxes work for him, and the result is a schizo volume that, for all of its author's obvious knowledge of and love for the music, feels like a cheap fanzine. The most useful passages are on POP, an album whose genesis has not received enough attention, and ALL THAT YOU CAN'T LEAVE BEHIND, as stokes traces out U2's turning back to earlier sounds and impulses after the glorious decadence of the 90s. For anyone interested in U2 -- the songs, the image, the tours and their wider cultural and social meaning-- between BOY and PASSENGERS, Bill Flanagan's U2 at the end of the world is a far funnier, better written, more searching volume (one which Stokes borrows from quite a bit, actually).