typhoon said:
From the White Album alone, you've got Paul singing about injustice on "Blackbird" (and somehow avoiding the phrase "cool down, mama" in doing so), John singing about his dead mom on "Julia," and George crying for God in "Long, Long, Long." That's Bono's lyrical troika right there.
(Oh, and since people are comparing guitarists, I want to point out that all three songs have beautiful acoustic figures, an area where Edge, uh, sucks. Of course, Edge is an awesome guitarist still, I'm just pointing out that it's hardly cut and dry.)
(Although, honestly, Paul McCartney alone is probably better at any instrument than any other Beatle or U2 member.)
Oh, and what's everyone's favorite U2 Beatles cover? Mine's "Rain."
Good points. Especially the one about Edge's acoustic deficiency. I've felt that for a long time and am so glad they dropped the acoustic halftime show from the tour this go around. It's been a real drag for me over the last 3 tours. Edge just doesn't have enough ability in that department to make it interesting. Maybe he's getter better, though. Because I think his most beautiful acoustic figure is at the tail end of "A Man and A Woman" when all the other instrumentation clears out and it's just guitar and some vocal.
As for U2 vs. Beatles, I agree that there's really no comparison based on all the obvious criteria like influence, consistent songwriting, etc. But I do think that U2 has one potent attribute in their favor: When U2 gets it right, they get it RIGHT. In other words, I believe their highs are higher than the Beatles highs. Now a high might only mean 20-30 seconds of a song, but I would put those 20-30 second U2 peaks up against anybody's 20-30 second peaks. An example for me would be say the last 45 seconds of "Pride" with Bono doing the 'Mmmm's' and the background vocalist doing their 'Uh, uh, oh's'. Now taken as a whole, there's at least 30 Beatles songs that exhibit more talent and ability than "Pride", but there's not many, if any 45 second or similiarly lengthed musical peaks in the Beatles catalog.
I know I'm splitting hairs in my attempt to justify why I LIKE U2 better than the Beatles, but I really think that U2's ability to reach these musical moments/highs of rock beauty, spiritual transcendance or whatever you want to call them are unparralled by anyone. U2 truly are great at bigger than life moments. The Beatles don't have enough of those to keep me interested in them for any length of time.