U2 are the most recent recipients of the Woody Guthrie Prize, which honors those that embody the assumption that music is usually a power for social justice and alter. Bono and The Edge accepted the prize on behalf of the band at a ceremony hosted by the Woody Guthrie Heart and held at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Forward of the award presentation, Bono and The Edge participated in an onstage dialog about artwork, activism, poetry, and protest with producer and musician T Bone Burnett.
“Our favorite protest songs always had a sense of vision, something to aim for. … You don’t talk about the darkness, you make the light brighter,” The Edge mentioned, including: “I believe music can actually change the mood of the room and actually shift a culture.”
Bono credited Bob Dylan for introducing U2 to Guthrie’s music. “Bob Dylan really did bring us to the place where the song was an instrument to open up worlds. And the world of Woody Guthrie, I wouldn’t have entered if not for Bob.”
Bono additionally referenced the present challenges confronting America. “America is the greatest song still yet to be written. The poetry is there but it’s still being written… don’t imagine it will continue to be extraordinary on its own, that if you fell asleep and woke up in twenty years, the world would be fairer or freer. It won’t, that’s not the way it works.”
When talking with Burnett concerning the songwriting course of relative to protest songs, Bono spoke about discovering motivation in emotion, saying, “You can’t write a song to order.” He learn lyrics to a track that may be a work-in-progress, written concerning the July killing of Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen by an Israeli settler.
Bono and The Edge carried out six songs, together with a pair of tracks that integrated snippets of Guthrie songs. The set featured “Running to Stand Still” (with a snippet of “Bound for Glory” by Guthrie), “Mothers of the Disappeared,” “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” “One,” “Pride (In the Name of Love)” (with a snippet of Guthrie’s “Jesus Christ”), and “Yahweh.”
The final time Bono and The Edge had been at Cain’s Ballroom was in 1981 to advertise U2’s debut album, Boy.
Guthrie’s granddaughter Anna Canoni and Woody Guthrie Heart director Cady Shaw additionally spoke on the occasion. “Woody and U2 have been aligned for decades,” mentioned Canoni. “Whether it is protesting against war and violence, standing up for humanitarian rights, singing about greed, corruption and injustice.”
The occasion raised funds to help the Heart’s academic applications, public concert events, exhibitions and the legacy of Guthrie. The occasion was introduced by the Harper Home Music Basis. Earlier honorees of The Woody Guthrie Prize embody Tom Morello, Pete Seeger, Mavis Staples, Kris Kristofferson, John Mellencamp, Chuck D, Joan Baez, Bruce Springsteen and Pussy Riot.
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