Someone has to round out the story for me

[mrclutch34do]

I have been a fan for a long time but never started to learn their story/how it all got started before the "U2 by U2" book. From the beginning of the book, I read about a few things I already knew. Larry started the band by posting the note about a drummer wanting to start a band at their school, from there...well I dont need to eleborate on it with anyone from this site. I also somewhat knew that the guys didnt really have much individual knowledge/talent of how to play their instruments or play together etc. However, I didnt really figure out how they end up playing gigs and transforming into the biggest band of all time when no one knew how to play? Did they have instructors, someone giving them lessons? From the book it seems to go from them preforming in Larrys kitchen, with no one knowing what they were doing to playing covers of songs, to being a successful act. I think it was The Edge who says something like "when the Rolling Stones got together they were indivudially accomplished musicians and we didnt know anything". So, thats my question. How did they actually learn to play so well? Bono says that they were more or less bs'ing in the beginning at school gigs and the energy impressed people more than the playing.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

Self-taught, I suppose? For the most part.

Drums, bass, and guitar are not terribly difficult instruments to learn.

 

[mrclutch34do]

Self-taught, I suppose? For the most part.

Drums, bass, and guitar are not terribly difficult instruments to learn.

Yeah, I suppose they probably learned a lot on their own, but even Bonos singing. The Edge says that before one of their school gigs, the girls they had brought in to sing backup asked Edge if he could sing because Bono couldnt sing at all. Then, within a few years they put out Boy, right? It just seems amazing to me that they could go from not knowing anything other than wanting to look cool, to what they were accomplishing early on.

 

[The Sad Punk]

It's practice, man. And hell, Bono still couldn't sing that well when they did Boy.

 

[65980]

I didnt really figure out how they end up playing gigs and transforming into the biggest band of all time when no one knew how to play? Did they have instructors, someone giving them lessons? From the book it seems to go from them preforming in Larrys kitchen, with no one knowing what they were doing to playing covers of songs, to being a successful act. I think it was The Edge who says something like "when the Rolling Stones got together they were indivudially accomplished musicians and we didnt know anything". So, thats my question. How did they actually learn to play so well?

This is an interesting question, but, in fact, I think this question can be applied to any great artist. For example, Bob Dylan: When he hopped the train for Chicago and later a friend's car for New York -- from Minneapolis -- in 1960/61, he was a total nobody -- an amateur who impressed few from the local scene and was given no chance of making it in Minneapolis, let alone in New York. When he returned from Greenwich Village to the mid-west for a brief visit in the spring of 1961 -- perhaps six months after leaving home and just a few months after hitting New York -- he was talented and precocious professional, impressing everyone he'd left behind. A few months later he was offered a record contract by one of the biggest recording companies in the world (Columbia), and in November of 1961 recorded his first album. His (jealous) peers in the Village had been toiling away for ten years without getting record deals.

In short, what allowed U2 to become great -- while others bashed away in garage bands on weekends for a few years and then fade into obscurity -- is GENIUS.

It's a rare and inexplicable thing.

 

[mrclutch34do]

It's practice, man. And hell, Bono still couldn't sing that well when they did Boy.

No, I know lol, I hear ya. I just thought there had to be some point where they got some training or thought there would be more to the story when they started out. Just curious I guess. Makes them that much more fantastic to me if they really learned on their own actually.

 

[The Sad Punk]

This is an interesting question, but, in fact, I think this question can be applied to any great artist. For example, Bob Dylan: When he hopped the train for Chicago and later a friend's car for New York -- from Minneapolis -- in 1960/61, he was a total nobody -- an amateur who impressed few from the local scene and was given no chance of making it in Minneapolis, let alone in New York. When he returned from Greenwich Village to the mid-west for a brief visit in the spring of 1961 -- perhaps six months after leaving home and just a few months after hitting New York -- he was talented and precocious professional, impressing everyone he'd left behind. A few months later he was offered a record contract by one of the biggest recording companies in the world (Columbia), and in November of 1961 recorded his first album. His (jealous) peers in the Village had been toiling away for ten years without getting record deals.

In short, what allowed U2 to become great -- while others bashed away in garage bands on weekends for a few years and then fade into obscurity -- is GENIUS.

It's a rare and inexplicable thing.

If genius = pure luck?

 

[Galeongirl]

Larry was the only one who actually had lessons. He was in the Artane boys band. Edge had piano lessons but not guitar, he got taught by his brother partly. The rest is self taught.

Adam couldn't play bass to save his life and Bono couldn't sing or play guitar.

What a long time ago that was when you compare NLOTH to Boy or their earlier work.

 

[phillyfan26]

Adam has said his first bass lessons ever happened in 1994, so he certainly didn't have training. And knowing piano really can be helpful with learning guitar, which probably helped Edge.

 

[digitize]

I have a feeling Edge's guitar style might have been influenced by the fact that he learned piano first.

 

[JCOSTER]

Adam acted as the bands manager in the earlier days, pretty much bullshitting his way into gigs for the band. He even made up business cards for himself which supposedly he still carries with him. As for learning instruments, I know in the past few years Adam took the bass lessons and Bono has taken piano lessons.

 

[U2girl]

Larry and Edge had lessons.

Adam didn't until 1994/95, and Bono I think only a few years ago had singing lessons and (a little) piano lessons.

 

[Montrose]

They had talent, and worked really really hard.

One of the reasons their music is unique and of a genre called 'U2' music is that they really did kinda make it up from scratch.

They had their influences.. they learned by covering other bands' songs, and learned to play them. Then they started figuring out how to write their own songs. Bono listened to his dad's opera a lot, Edge had the piano lessons, and his brother who was in the band early on. Edge taught Adam a lot about playing, I'll bet.

I'm also assuming that when one person picked up on something, they were quick to bring the other members up to speed. So they taught themselves, then they taught each other, and probably got some help once in the studio.

 

[pacemaker]

Also, playing music with other people will expedite the learning process. Or at least, it becomes a crash course in learning how to play with other people (as opposed to just learning to play by yourself, and applying those skills to a band situation). Moreover, they always had the drive and desire, and since they all came into their own via coming into the band's collective own, I think that was a huge advantage in terms of the four of them sticking together over the years (no personnel changes, etc.).

None of them are virtuosos, but lets be honest, U2 would probably be awful if they could "actually play". Plus, as a result of the way they learned, each of them pretty much have their own, very recognizable style. Which is cool.

 

[zooropop40]

its an amazing thought to think that if one of the 4 members were replaced with someone else, the band U2 would cease to exist. If bono, adam, and edge never saw that note, all that music would never be heard or created?

 

[Galeongirl]

its an amazing thought to think that if one of the 4 members were replaced with someone else, the band U2 would cease to exist. If bono, adam, and edge never saw that note, I wonder what they would be doing now in their life? all that music would never be heard or created?

Don't think like that too much. You could also start about what if your mother never met your father, or your grandma never met your grandpa.. and so on and so on. What ifs can be good thoughts in some situations, but most of the time it'll just give you a huge headache.



And I don't want to think what my life would be without U2.

 

[rihannsu]

See, I think this is what makes U2 truly unique. Because it's not so much that they learned to play but that they learned to create. Most musicians spend years first learning to play other people's music and some eventually start creating their own. But U2 turned that around and learned to create their own music because they sucked at playing others. They spent much more time developing their own unique creativity rather than learning the rules of music. This means that they don't have to try to think outside the box because the box never existed for them in the first place. One of the great stories from early on in their career was I think on the War tour Edge was talking to Ronnie Drew of the Dubliners and was saying that he really should learn to read music. Drew told him if he ever caught Edge with sheet music in his hand he beat the tar out of him. In other words Drew recognized that their strength was in the fact that they were'nt traditionally trained musicians.

Dana

 

[dan_smee]

Adam is very obviously self-taught.

I remember reading a book of Bono quotes about edge that went something like "Edge doesn't know any chords. He doesn't know the names of any chords, he makes them all up and they seem to work"

I do believe Edge recieved encouragement and private tutoring from the school music teacher.

Larry played drums in a marching band, or something like that.

So when they say they had no idea, they had virtually no idea. Edge had at least some prior interest (having built a guitar), bass isn't hard, especially early Adam "root note" Clayton, and Larry could keep time.

I suspect what they mean is that they couldnt play them well, nor play together. Maybe also Bono means that HE couldn't play his instrument

 

[dan_smee]

See, I think this is what makes U2 truly unique. Because it's not so much that they learned to play but that they learned to create. Most musicians spend years first learning to play other people's music and some eventually start creating their own. But U2 turned that around and learned to create their own music because they sucked at playing others. They spent much more time developing their own unique creativity rather than learning the rules of music. This means that they don't have to try to think outside the box because the box never existed for them in the first place. One of the great stories from early on in their career was I think on the War tour Edge was talking to Ronnie Drew of the Dubliners and was saying that he really should learn to read music. Drew told him if he ever caught Edge with sheet music in his hand he beat the tar out of him. In other words Drew recognized that their strength was in the fact that they were'nt traditionally trained musicians.

Dana

Once again Dana,