There’s a long list of U2 songs that largely go unnoticed by casual fans that are truly remarkable in their own right. One of the favorite underrated tracks is “The Ground Beneath Her Feet”. Used only on the UK version of All the Things You Can’t Leave Behind, “The Ground Beneath Her Feet” is a refreshingly simple love song. The Edge’s direct acoustic strumming captures your attention right away even before Bono breaks into the lyrics. You can expect something special right away from the melody. The fact that this song didn’t make the US version of the album is a testament to the level of songwriting the band was at during the All the Things sessions.

From the chord pattern to the lyrics, the song’s beauty is in its simplicity. The song almost sounds lke it could of been a Police hit in the 80’s with its almost reggae styled melody. The song still has Bono’s heart over head lyrical sensibilities with lines like “Black is white, and cold is heat/For what I worshipped stole my love away/It was the ground beneath her feet”. Check out their acoustic performance of the track here.

Time to catch up on all U2-related happenings of the last week or so. Just because Bono is recovering from back surgery doesn’t mean the rock star isn’t staying busy. Bono and his private-equity company Elevation Partners uped their stake in social media giant Facebook to $210 million. The successful businessmen is hoping this investment will prove much more lucrative then the company’s wretched investment in mobile phone manufactor Palm Inc.

The Edge has made use of his newly found free time by rocking out at Glastonbury with emerging rock superstars Muse. Edge joined Matthew Bellamy and company on stage for a rendition of “Where the Streets Have No Names”. U2 was suppose to headline the 40th edition of the UK festival, but Bono’s injury prevented their appearance.

 U2 ranked as #7 on Forbers World’s Most Powerful Celebrities list, making $130 million in the last year. The band had the 11th largest web rank of all celebrities. The year off touring should knock the boys off the list next year, but could see a return to the top after Bono’s recovery.

U2’s highly underrated track “Tryin to Throw Your Arms Around the World” isn’t a bad title for the band’s mission statement over the last three decades. The Daniel Lanois/Brian Eno produced track off of the magnificent 1991 album, Achtung Baby, has both a seductive and ambitious tone. The lyrics point to struggle between one’s balance of accomplishing one’s grand dreams and loving your partner. The song’s lesson on the surface is that one cannot be so consumed with one’s own might deeds, and ignore the one who they love they most. Bono almost is almost pleading for a woman to give him one more chance as he sings the chorus of “I’m gonna run to you…woman be still”. The enigmatic often brings a woman from the audience up on stage whenever they play “Trying to Throw Your Arms Around the World”. I’d love to hear a Bono and Edge rock out a acoustic version of this song. Maybe some day!

U2’s new album has a whole strategy behind it. This has nothing to do with the music, which is great. But U2 (read Bono) has a vision for the band. They want to become the biggest new band with the biggest album in the world. And right now, in a time of major transition for the music business, it is especially difficult to be relevent and to make a mark on the market. It’s just different now than it was when the band first started doing their work. With iPods and mp3s changing how we listen to music. We don’t listen to full sized albums anymore, but little pieces of them, whatever we happen to prefer. It’s really unfortunate for those who can’t shift their styles to fit the new system. But Bono is going to try, continuing to promote the new album in innovative ways. How fun to watch him go around that way.

The battle is on, and Kelly Clarkson is the one trying to knock our beloved band off the top of the charts. Already! You’d think she would have the decency to wait a few weeks to let us stay at the top of the Billboard charts for a little while longer. And Bono, et. al., have done so much to get the word out about No Line. They’ve really been working hard, from their evening on the Grammys, to the Letterman show and a couple of hardly-announced performances. Combined, Clarkson and U2 are trying to pull the world economy for music back from the breaking point. There are discussions about the digital age and who is losing money from youtube and other programs. This is a bigger topic than we can fully talk about here, though. But start buying those CDs to hold Clarkson down!

U2 played a free concert this weekend at Fordham University in the Bronx. It was apparently a great concert, but mainly just for students and faculty at the University itself. The article in the NYTimes is about those who wanted to get in from the city itself, but weren’t connect to the university. Some of them were able to get in, but other ones weren’t able to do so. Staff seemed to be able to get in, which was nice. Lots of local people were kind of upset that they couldn’t go. After all, they might live right next door, but they weren’t allow to enter. Anyway, it’s just another indication of how excited people are about this upcoming tour!

A few tidbits about U2, in case you wanted to know some trivia.

1. U2 has been actively involved in human rights and social justice campaigns over the years, including Amnesty International and the ONE Campaign.

2. U2 has won 22 Grammys over the course of the group’s decades-long career.

3. The band comes from Ireland orginally.

U2 is the first band slated to perform at the new revamped Point, O2. Owner Harry Crosbie has big plans for the Dublin venue and wanted to reopen the venue with a bang. And after being revealed that he was close with both the band and the manager Paul McGuinness, it was little surprise as to who would play first. U2 has been using this venue for rehearsals before it even opened, so the history should set in nicely with their plans to grab the headlines in December. Fans in the Dublin area are very excited for U2 to perform and it should be another amazing performance from the legendary band.

The lead singer of the world famous U2 band, Bono, celebrated his birthday last Friday night at Sass Café in Monaco and it was not an ordinary birthday party at all. The list of the invited guests to the birthday party goes like this: Brad Pitt, the U2’s lead guitarist The Edge and Prince Albert II of Monaco. The café manager said that it was a surprise party as they received a call to organize the same late on that afternoon. The dinner was all arranged by Bono’s wife Ali Hewson and the guests were treated with red wine at the dinner table. A champagne toast for Bono and a candle lit strawberry cake followed right after the meal.

There are news filtering through that the construction of the proposed landmark U2 tower Liffey high-rise is all set to commence by the end of the year after plenty of discussions, deliberations and rowing between the U2 members and the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA). The DDDA spokesperson said that the negotiations between the DDDA and the potential bidders are nearing completion and Geranger Ltd, a conglomerate of developer Paddy McKillen, Ballymore Properties and members of the U2, has been chosen as the preferred bidder. Geranger Ltd will be building a skyscraper that is about 60 m higher than the Spire and Dublin’s U2 fans will soon be able to see the landmark tower erected.