OnTheEdge
Refugee
Bono: I must say, there is a reall thrill to being onstage in front of 50,000 or 60,000 people. The event is much larger than the group and the audience. It's an amazing thing to see people united and in agreement, even if only for an hour and a half.
David Breskin: Does it ever frighten you, seeing that?
B No, because I never underestimate the intelligence of the U2 audience en masse. I actually feel that they know more about the group than we do.
We were in the audience when the Clash played Dublin. We just got up out of the audience ourselves and played. I feel very close to the audience. There's no sepration in my own mind. And I know if I told them all to stand on thier heads, they'd tell me where to go.
DB But you clench your fist in a particular way, and all 60,000 will clench thier fists accordingly. Is there not something within this gesture that gives you pause?
B When a Japanese man bows to another man, and the other man bows in response, that's nothing but a sign of consent. When people respond, or when they sing a song I've asked them to sing, they are just being part of a bigger theatrical event. The idea that they are rather moronically being lemmings, following Adam, Larry, Edge, and Bono off the cliff's edge with thier fists in the air, does not pay them enough respect. (<-- I guess that would be the key quote in this.)
DB But there is a power inherent in your position, and it would take a certain amount of deplicity or false humility on your part to suggest that there's not. And that power. . .
B Can be taken advantage of. Maybe.
DB And you never have intellectual of emotional hesitations about that kind of power?
B That kind? No. There are other kinds of power - the kinds that are not seen - that worry me. If you could see into the dressing rooms and offices of a lot of bands in our position, you would see the real abuse of power. Like making a promoter crawl because you are paying his wages; like making the road crew wait for four hours because you are late for a sound check; like the sexual abuse of people who are turned on by your music. I don't know whether I am guilty of all of those. Maybe I am. But that is the type of power I worry about in rock & roll.
------------------
Laura
~~~
Something to do with politics, kids, freshness, and breakthrough.
And love.
(Joan Baez)
~~~
[This message has been edited by On The Edge (edited 01-10-2002).]
David Breskin: Does it ever frighten you, seeing that?
B No, because I never underestimate the intelligence of the U2 audience en masse. I actually feel that they know more about the group than we do.
We were in the audience when the Clash played Dublin. We just got up out of the audience ourselves and played. I feel very close to the audience. There's no sepration in my own mind. And I know if I told them all to stand on thier heads, they'd tell me where to go.
DB But you clench your fist in a particular way, and all 60,000 will clench thier fists accordingly. Is there not something within this gesture that gives you pause?
B When a Japanese man bows to another man, and the other man bows in response, that's nothing but a sign of consent. When people respond, or when they sing a song I've asked them to sing, they are just being part of a bigger theatrical event. The idea that they are rather moronically being lemmings, following Adam, Larry, Edge, and Bono off the cliff's edge with thier fists in the air, does not pay them enough respect. (<-- I guess that would be the key quote in this.)
DB But there is a power inherent in your position, and it would take a certain amount of deplicity or false humility on your part to suggest that there's not. And that power. . .
B Can be taken advantage of. Maybe.
DB And you never have intellectual of emotional hesitations about that kind of power?
B That kind? No. There are other kinds of power - the kinds that are not seen - that worry me. If you could see into the dressing rooms and offices of a lot of bands in our position, you would see the real abuse of power. Like making a promoter crawl because you are paying his wages; like making the road crew wait for four hours because you are late for a sound check; like the sexual abuse of people who are turned on by your music. I don't know whether I am guilty of all of those. Maybe I am. But that is the type of power I worry about in rock & roll.
------------------
Laura
~~~
Something to do with politics, kids, freshness, and breakthrough.
And love.
(Joan Baez)
~~~
[This message has been edited by On The Edge (edited 01-10-2002).]
