Sunday, March 13, 2011
Fuck the revolution
Sorry for the recent bout of nostalgia but I'm just in one of those moods at the moment. Re-reading Rino's book last night I was reminded of this performance of Sunday Bloody Sunday. I think anyone who saw Rattle and Hum could not have been affected by this performance and aside from all the bullshit and crriticism that U2 cop (from myself included) this is a document of why they're a great band when - passion, raw emotion and good tunes. Bono's third 'no more' when his voice cracks gets a little tear everytime... Good one Bono.
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it's a brave thing, even more so in retrospect. A humane conscience-call. If I ever meet The Boner I want to ask him about that day, that moment. They used to be a *political* band in a way.
ReplyDeleteOh, and by the way, Owsley died in a car crash in Queensland a couple of days ago...
Wow, I just got shivers - so sad he died that way. It's so strange as I hadn't really thought about meeting him in years until recently. I feel given my limited knowledge of him at the time and not really being a Dead fan, it was a meeting that was probably wasted on me in retrospect. I guess he gets to catch up with Jerry and Jimi now...
ReplyDeleteI will always give U2 a listen because of that version of that song. I liked it when they became more introspective on Achtung but you're right, the politics have gone by the wayside.
I love this photo:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.abc.net.au/reslib/201103/r733929_5943028.jpg
Also - more Boner waffle - I was going through a compilation recently and came across an early track again. Mind - I have a lot of waffle for U2, as you know - and this is likely because I was a very big fan when I was 14/15 - and a large part of their stuff has just become part of my brainscape. Also, listening to that compilation, realising that they've really got a huge swathe of songs and hits and the like, and that a lot of these aren't half bad as pop songs etc. So I came across this track Tomorrow again, off the 2nd difficult "It's About God" album, October. When I was a young fan, I reacted to the intensity of the track. The lyric details, the buldup, the moody clang of those guitars when they hit. It's got some of the patented Early Bono plaintive wailing - but what can you expect, it's about his mother's death - you can hear he's still grieving through the song. The way he calls out "I'm gonna be there, mother" - is well powerful, personal, painful. "Who heals the wounds, who heals the scars?" - the answer being God/Jesus of course - but there's no other band whose flailing (early) Christianity I can forgive as readily as that of U2 - because it's just so emotional. Some of The Boner's best songs have an element of being near grief, I was thinking. Even With/WithoutYou maybe...
ReplyDeleteAnyhoo, I still have respect for them despite not really being bothered to get their new stuff (for the last 3 albums now). My idea of what a bassplayer should do and sound like is very much built on the idea of Adam Clayton.
The Bono is on record as saying he really dislikes listening to the early stuff because of said plaintive wailing Bononess - but I feel like saying to him, That's no problem, Edge was in *very* strong form on those early cuts, we hardly noticed...
End gush.
Reading this, I think I'll have to go back re-listen to those albums. I never really gave early U2 as much attention as I did their latter stuff and was basically really infatuated with the Unforgettable Fire, the Joshua Tree and especially Achtung Baby. I have to say that the last U2 album I enjoyed was All That You Can't Leave Behind but that seemed like more an exercise in nostalgia than anything really inspired. An Atomic Bomb was almost unlistenable and I didn't even bother with the last one.
ReplyDeleteThe Christianity question is a troubling one. I think I'm ok with it as long as I know about it up front or else I feel like an artist is trying to trick me into hearing their sermon. I really love Sufjan's Seven Swans even though there's a lot of God on that record but I knew that going in. On the Crow soundtrack there was a Helmet-esque band called For Love Not Lisa who sounded awesome and rockin' - that was until I read the lyrics some months later and it was all about dying for Jesus. I've never listened to that song again.
One day I'd really love to hear (or for you to write about) why you rate Adam Clayton in detail. While you mention it in passing in the book, I've met a bunch of bass players who all sing his praises. I always thought his strength was that he really played for the song and anchored the U2 sound with Larry so Bono and Edge didn't seem so pretentious. If anything Adam is cool because he idolised Phil Lynott - what's not to love?