One year ago today

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Say what you will about Ordinary Love (and the disastrous year that followed it for U2), but that live performance of it is fantastic.


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I loved Edge's cooking show, wish it was only about music, not about pasta. Plus, I wish Flea also played some bass in that session, man.
 
How hopeful most people were back then. So glad I've become the cynical bastard that I am. Some days I miss the childlike excitement, but ah well, at least I didn't get my hopes up for nothing.

And I still love Invisible. Damn, what happened to that tune and the album it was supposed to be on? :(
 
Galeongirl said:
How hopeful most people were back then. So glad I've become the cynical bastard that I am. Some days I miss the childlike excitement, but ah well, at least I didn't get my hopes up for nothing.

And I still love Invisible. Damn, what happened to that tune and the album it was supposed to be on? :(
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Well we got half of it... in the form of SOI's second half.
 
Hopeful? People were pessimistic as hell back then, bitching about the wasted opportunity with the Super Bowl ad and stuff. Now, a year later, we have a new U2 album and we've had some great promo stuff going on. We're looking forward to a mega tour. I don't get the negativity. The only really bad thing is Bono's accident. Without it, we'd be having a LOT more U2 going on right now.
 
U2 could write the biggest song of their career and there'd be a ton of negativity here.


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last unicorn said:
Hopeful? People were pessimistic as hell back then, bitching about the wasted opportunity with the Super Bowl ad and stuff. Now, a year later, we have a new U2 album and we've had some great promo stuff going on. We're looking forward to a mega tour. I don't get the negativity. The only really bad thing is Bono's accident. Without it, we'd be having a LOT more U2 going on right now.
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Actually, at the time of the Fallon taping people were still under the assumption that there would be an album. The bitching and confusion over what in the hell they were actually doing came a few weeks later.

But thanks.

And the idea that everything was going swimmingly until Bono smacked his head against a horse poop covered bike trail is just revisionist history.

The entire last year is pretty much a case study in how not to market an aging rock band.
 
Galeongirl said:
How hopeful most people were back then. So glad I've become the cynical bastard that I am. Some days I miss the childlike excitement, but ah well, at least I didn't get my hopes up for nothing.

And I still love Invisible. Damn, what happened to that tune and the album it was supposed to be on? :(
Click to expand...

It was white washed in the name of heeeeetz. Lots and lots of heeeeetz.

It was all McGuinne$$ idea, I tell ya.
 
Ouch this place has become awfully depressing


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SOI was more or less the album I figured we would get after U2 sat on the Danger Mouse material for another 7 months.
 
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This is one of those situations where it almost doesn't matter how good the music is -- its release and promotion has been bungled. They could have released Achtung Baby and that album would be the fart in church that SOI has sadly become. I still think it's rather good, definitely more engaging than NLOTH. But it never really got a chance. I mean maybe if they had a song as all-conquering as "one" it might have connected, but it's seeming to me that Guy O (and, yes, Bono's coma) is very much at fault here. The band *did* deliver a good album, they more or less did their job (we can debate taste and quality, but not effort -- clearly they worked very hard) it seems as if management hasn't done theirs. At least measures by the goals the band has laid out for themselves.

Maybe no one can manage them at this point.


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Headache in a Suitcase said:
The entire last year is pretty much a case study in how not to market an aging rock band.
Click to expand...


Best way I've seen somebody put it! Good use of words!

It's a shame because I really like SOI, invisible and ordinary love. I think musically they're still very strong. But my God, what an abysmal job U2 and their management have done with their marketing and public relations. I doubt anybody could have predicted the extent of the backlash that the iTunes free release generated. That story really took on a life of its own!

They'd have been much better off releasing it the old fashioned way. They could at least attempt to get some mileage out of it, string along a few singles, etc. Instead they just gave it to everybody, and then after a few weeks of everyone bitching, nobody spoke of it again. Why try to promote the album? Everyone already has it!

They need to keep doing what they're doing, stay quiet and out of sight, and come out guns blazing in May and kick every negative Nelly's ass with their awesome tour. Then release SOE in the usual manner, and people will think OH THANK GOD THEYRE BACK TO NORMAL AFTER THAT TERRIBLE SONGS IF INNOCENCE!



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KUEFC09U2 said:
Ouch this place has become awfully depressing


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Click to expand...

Detroit

Irvine511 said:
This is one of those situations where it almost doesn't matter how good the music is -- its release and promotion has been bungled. They could have released Achtung Baby and that album would be the fart in church that SOI has sadly become. I still think it's rather good, definitely more engaging than NLOTH. But it never really got a chance. I mean maybe if they had a song as all-conquering as "one" it might have connected, but it's seeming to me that Guy O (and, yes, Bono's coma) is very much at fault here. The band *did* deliver a good album, they more or less did their job (we can debate taste and quality, but not effort -- clearly they worked very hard) it seems as if management hasn't done theirs. At least measures by the goals the band has laid out for themselves.

Maybe no one can manage them at this point.


Sent from
Click to expand...

Which begs the question, if Achtung Baby were released today, and somebody here farted in church, who ya gonna call?
 
And the idea that everything was going swimmingly until Bono smacked his head against a horse poop covered bike trail is just revisionist history.
Click to expand...

Yeah. Usually it takes a least a few years before the revisionist history starts kicking in. I'm sure there are still a few people around here who will continue to obstinately insist that the SOI release was a brilliant and game changing move that will be regarded as revolutionary genius in the years to come, but mercifully I think more and more people are accepting the reality that the whole thing has been a complete fiasco since the first performance of Miracle.

And I think it's time to acknowledge that the Guy Oseary era thus far has been a disaster. And I doubt at the end of the day he'll care very much. He's got his fingers in a lot of stuff, and U2 is just another client for him, albeit a high profile one.

Say what you will about Magoo...he may have been old school and not what U2 thought they needed in this day and age, but U2 was essentially his only client, and they got his attention and priority. He put everything he had into that band. Add to that the fact that he genuinely cared about all of them and the bands legacy, something I'm sure Oseary couldn't care less about. IMO it was a mistake, and a classless one at that, to let him go the way they did.

Karma is a bitch.
 
i'm not sure McGuinness would have been anymore successful -- i think it's also fair to point out that no one really could have predicted the Apple backlash, and it's not like McGuinness would have told them *not* to do it. i'm sure he would have been all about it had he the opportunity. now, the fallout/backlash, who knows? the Fallon residency was supposed to be the antidote, and the small Euro promo tour seemed to be working in the right direction, as was noted in here -- the EBW performances were powerful, and most importantly about the *music*, and about their inarguable gifts for drama and performance. but we'll never know.

the evidence we do have is that Guy O has not managed this well, but maybe no one could have. still, it falls on his lap. and given U2's ability to be utterly ruthless when it matters (i.e., Julie Taymor) -- and no one at their level isn't ruthless -- it wouldn't surprise me if a lot of this present coma is due to their deciding the ultimate fate of Guy O.

maybe that should be the title of their last album. "U2: Unmanageable."

what evidence do we have that McG was treated poorly? i'm not saying he wasn't, but i'm not aware that there is bad blood between him and the band.
 
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