it feels strange to say this...

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
I do think that's in Flanagan. Shocking news, I can't find my copy of Flanagan right off-hand; I've been working on stuff for my history sites and every book about the medieval Turks ever written is on the floor beside my computer. What a mess! :shocked: :silent: :censored: :censored:
I'm not shocked that he did this, he's a curious guy who likes to learn, and that's a novel experience. I only think that stuff is wrong if you do it habitually; it's cool to try it once.
 
Last edited:
"Do you know the story of how Edge lost the Secret of the Uni­verse?" Bono asks. Oh boy, a Hibernian folktale! "No, Bono, tell me."

"It started when Edge got a jar of psychedelic mushrooms," Bono begins, as wise as Uncle Remus. The legend, in summary, goes like this: Being very scientific, Edge decided that if he was going to sample any psychedelic mushrooms at all, he might as well eat the whole jar. Apparently those were potent fungi. Edge's eyes spun around and his hat flew off his head. He figured he'd better not take a chance on any impressionable members of the U2 Fan Club seeing him like this, so he went upstairs and got into his bed. He lay there for a while and then imagined he heard his wife calling him. He went to the door. No one was there. He went back to bed. And then, amid kaleidoscopes of spinning dimensions like an old Dr. Strange comic, Edge was given the Secret of the Universe.

Wow!" he thought. "The Secret of the Universe! I'm no fool, I better get this down on tape!" See, Edge reckoned that he was not the first traveler on the astral plane to grok the S.O.T.U., but that others might in their altered state just assume they would remember it. That's where they goofed! Edge would take no such chance. He swam over to his shoulder bag and found his Walkman. He turned it on—and began laughing hysterically at the little red light. Finally the scientist within got control, he regained his composure, and spoke the Secret of the Universe into the recorder.

His duty done, he put down the Walkman and exited Earth alto­gether.

Upon returning the next day, Edge got out of bed, went down to the kitchen for something to eat, and when he opened the refrigerator more than one light went on. "Hey!" Edge said. "I learned the Secret of the Universe and I got it down on tape!" He ran upstairs and found his tape recorder, played it back and heard himself saying, "Gn@rjB ®8a'Bxr! Kt~rcg+Bing fr'azzp!"

Complete gibberish. Badly recorded gibberish, too, as he seemed to have been holding the Walkman upside down when he taped it.
 
well, if anyone was going to discover the Secrets of The Universe, it was going to be Edge :lol:

I love the tone Bono uses when talking about it :)
 
discothequeLP said:

the Edge is the coolest

does the book give a year to the story?

No, but it was prior to 1992. Plus he was still with his wife so I'd say it was prior to 1990.

I LOVE that story. One of Edge's funniest moments!
 
:shifty:

Where are the English Lit majors?!?! :reject: Here's where I become total :nerd: :der:

This is basically Kubla Khan, a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge written in the late 1700's. Bono could have just been goofing off too when he told the story and not really telling something that actually happened...Kubla Khan was written by Coleridge immediately after he woke up after sleeping off some opium he took. It's a bizarre poem to say the least....read it to see what I mean. It's about creation so I would guess that's where the "secret of the universe" stuff comes in with Bono's story. It was fashionable to take opium in Coleridge's time. It was also written during the Romantic period in lit. Romantic with nature not neccessarily romance between two people. There was a lot of soul searching, nature realated stuff from then. I haven't been in school for a while now so don't quote me on any of that! :shifty:

When I read this in Flannagan's book I just felt it mirrored the story of how Coleridge wrote Kubla Khan a little too much for me to really take it for much.

Oh well....it's still fun to imagine Edge really doing something strange like that!

I found this on a website with the poem....
He claimed that this poem came to him in an opium dream. It opens with an enigmatic but precise description of an emperor's pleasure dome located in an enchanted, savage spot where a woman cries for her demon lover and the sacred river is flung up violently, then meanders before plunging through caverns into a sunless sea. In trying to interpret this symbolic site we can begin by seeing the dome as a human creation (art) built in and over nature's beauty and power. Note that in the last part of the poem the newly introduced "I" has a vision in which, inspired by a singing woman, he would imaginatively recreate in air the Khan's dome. The artist who could accomplish this would be regarded with awe and even fear by those from whom he is separated by his inspiration.
 
This is from

Closer to the Edge (pt. 2)
Hot Press, December 04, 2002


Tricky once told me a funny story about taking mushrooms with Bono in Jamaica...

Well, there's one story about me doing mushrooms, which was in the Bill Flanagan book, which was about how I discovered all the secrets of the universe in Adam's house one time. I was on my own and very, very much in the middle of a psychedelic experience. And I found my Walkman -- a little like this thing (picks up Hot Press's Sony) -- and spent about four hours recording all the insights I was getting, all these amazing pearls of wisdom. So the following evening I remembered that I had done this, so I ran up to the room, put the tape in and hit the play button. And all I could hear was, "MUMPPHH, MUMPPHHH" (makes muffled sound). I'd spent three hours talking to the battery compartment! All of that wisdom gone forever (laughs). It was a shame. As far as I can could remember, I'd figured out most of the important issues.
 
Perhaps Edge had the knowledge of the Coleridge dream...and in his drug induced concioussness thought he was having a similar experience without really realizing it, if that makes any sense....

Then again...being an English major I know of many many pieces of work being written under the influence of something....Alice In Wonderland comes to mind....
 
I read that story during my reading class and I laughed so hard I was asked to leave the room.

Yes, I am aware that I am the world's biggest dork. :happy:

Or.. WAS.. I'm cool now! :cool:

Secret of the universe was never meant to be recorded...Silly Edge.. I got the secret of the universe too, like years ago when I tried the same psychadelic mushrooms.
 
Dutch Partygirl said:
Tricky once told me a funny story about taking mushrooms with Bono in Jamaica...

Aha! So Bono is 'guilty' too!

Here's Tricky's story, from Hot Press magazine (and it tells you a lot about Bono's character, more than many full length interviews):

Q: Are there any celebrity musicians you get along with?

A: Actually, I get on with Bono real well. He's one of the funniest people I've ever met. He's nothing like what I expected. For one of the biggest rock stars in the world, he's SO not a celebrity. I've never seen anyone like him. I took mushrooms with him in Jamaica and I was rolling on the floor, man. There aren't many people I'd just listen to telling stories, but when I'm with him, I can sit down and listen to him for two or three hours and just not say anything. You know, he can do impressions of people and shit. He cracks me up. I just like Bono's personality, full stop. What I like about him is that he doesn't hate anything. Like me, I hate everything. His attitude is to be cool with everybody. I sometimes wish I could be more like that.
 
Back
Top Bottom