U2's The Edge and Bono perform acoustic version of Sunday Bloody Sunday with new lyrics

By his own recent admission, Bono is embarrassed by some of his lyrics but we're betting Sunday Bloody Sunday isn't one of them. The U2 singer and The Edge marked the 50th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday massacre in Northern Ireland with a poignant acoustic rendition of the track with new lyrics. 

The track is the opening song on the Dublin band's 1983 third album War, and remains a firm live favourite with fans. for this rendition Bono changed the final verse lyrics to;  'Here at the murder scene / The virus of fiction, reality TV / Why so many mothers cry / Religion is the enemy, Holy Spirit guide / And the battle just begun / Where is the victory Jesus won?' 

Bloody Sunday was a massacre on 30 January, 1972, when British soldiers shot 26 unarmed civilians during a protest march in the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland, killing 14. While 13 of those people died at the scene, another would succumb to his injuries four months later. 

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Rob Laing
Guitars Editor, MusicRadar

I'm the Guitars Editor for MusicRadar, handling news, reviews, features, tuition, advice for the strings side of the site and everything in between. Before MusicRadar I worked on guitar magazines for 15 years, including Editor of Total Guitar in the UK. When I'm not rejigging pedalboards I'm usually thinking about rejigging pedalboards.