"ONE Presents agit8" - Various Artists

Streaming Album

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Full Track Listing:

Volume 1:
Universal Soldier – Donovan (2:50)
Africa Mon Afrique – Amadou & Mariam (3:12)
Flesh Shapes the Day – Tom Morello (3:58)
Exodus – Novalima (4:26)
Intervention – Lily & Madeleine (4:22)
What’s Going On – U.S. Royalty (4:14)
Redemption Song – Wayna (6:08)
Man in Black – Cherry (3:56)
This Land is Your Land – David Crowder (3:29)

Volume 2:
Give Peace a Chance – Sean Lennon, Al Jardine and Friends (00:41)
Promised Land – Bruce Springsteen (4:15)
The Ghost of Tom Joad / Do-Re-Mi – Elvis Costello with Mumford and Sons (5:58)
For What its’ Worth – Kid Rock (4:14)
Same Love – Macklemore and Lewis (featuring Mary Lambert) (5:30)
Living on the Edge – Aerosmith (5:04)
Masters of War – Ed Sheeran (4:07)
99 Revolutions – Green Day (5:01)
Sunday Bloody Sunday (Live from New York, May 31, 2013) – U2 (4:41)

Background Information

While U2 was finishing work on an album at Electric Lady Studios in New York, they took a break from the sessions to record a few songs for charities. On the evening of May 31, 2013 they set up on the roof of the studio and recorded “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and a cover of Aslan’s “This Is”. The later was shown at a Christy Dignam tribute concert in Dublin, titled “A Night for Christy”. “Sunday Bloody Sunday” was used for the ONE campaign “agit8”. The agit8 campaign used iconic protest songs, as a call for action on extreme poverty in the days leading up to the G8 Summit in Belfast. Bono is quoted as follows in the ONE announcement: “This week we are reminded of the words of the great agitator Nelson Mandela – Like slavery and Apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome. Millions of people… are trapped in the prison of poverty. It is time to set them free. Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation. Since the 1970s Nelson Mandela has called upon artists and bands to use their platform to fight injustice. We were honoured then, we’re honoured now.”

The agit8 website launched with a series of videos on YouTube on June 11, 2013. At that time the U2 song was not part of the site but clips were used in the promotional video for agit8. “Sunday Bloody Sunday” recorded by U2 would appear on the second day the site was live. This was the video that was filmed on May 31, 2013 on the rooftop of Electric Lady Studios. The video opens with U2 walking onto the roof, and a short spoken introduction by Bono while volunteers put up posters around the roof. During the performance Bono does add addtional lyrics to the song:

“On another broken hill
Red crosses and crescent moon collide
Pilgrims pray to know God’s will
Scratching in the dirt, standing up to die
Scorched earth or a cruel sun
Is this the battle Jesus won?”

On June 28th, the recorded version of “Sunday Bloody Sunday” recorded on the rooftop appeared on streaming music service Spotify. The version appearing there is identical to the video, and you can hear the band take to the roof, and Bono’s spoken introduction, and the sound of posters being hung in the version streamed through Spotify. Spotify contained two volumes of music from the agit8 campaign. All appear to have the same audio as the videos posted to YouTube. Spotify runs on a monthly subscription model, and the ability to download individual songs was discontinued prior to the release of the agit8 albums. Thus, these songs are available for streaming only and at this time have not been made available in another form.

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