Axver said:
My interpretation of events in the nineties is definitely where I'm at odds with many fans here, and while I appreciate the music, I'm not so sure where I stand on some of the baggage that came with it. You speak of the eighties with the "sullen photo shoots and very serious songs and very serious lectures" and that's what I love. It's so at odds with the whole rockstar image of trashing hotel rooms and sleeping with lots of women, while some of the nineties puts me off by the apparent embrace of some of the rockstar sleaze. Emphasis on 'apparent'.
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I would like to know just what influenced the dramatic personality change that led to Achtung Baby. I see no reason to question Bono's sincerity at the end of Lovetown: we know the band were getting frustrated and tired but there's not a real hint of The Fly persona. Yet suddenly, less than a year after the end of Lovetown, Bono's coming up with what ended up on Achtung Baby.
Have you read "At The End of the World"? They're on the Australian ZooTV leg, and Bono is sitting on the balcony of his Sydney hotel with the author ( and after talking up how spectacular Sydney is
) Bono points over to a nearby hotel and says that that is where he started to write the songs that became Achtung Baby, so I think it does edge into Lovetown. And again I don't think it would have been something that suddenly snapped, but a creeping need to kill off the caricature that rightly or wrongly he and they had become, and create a new one that they had complete control over and gave them the licence to be what they also wanted to be creatively. Again, back to the book, it documents the 'birth' of The Fly and it's all actually pretty natural and mostly begins as a laugh. I think I may re-read it. Haven't for a few years.... And if you haven't, you really should. It is still the most open account written on the band, the best access anyone has had and the closest to the truth you'll find from any era. You'll learn a lot about their 90's motivations and music.
As for the rock'n'roll sleaze and how much of it is real and how much is acting, we have no idea, although I would suggest that a lot of U2 fans are a little over protective of dear old Bono and even a beginners listen to those 90's albums suggests the guy certainly knows what he is talking about. It was actually only a few weeks ago that I had my girlfriend in the car while Achtung Baby was spinning, and she is no U2 fan, knows zero about the songs and their meanings and whatever, knows only the 'celebrity' version of their lives. 'Mysterious Ways' comes on and she's listening in and out of nowhere says "You know, I really want to believe that Bono is a nice guy" and I said something along the lines of "Huh?!?" and she said, "Well, that whole forever married to his childhood sweetheart thing. I mean, this song is clearly about fucking someone other than the person you love, right?" Might be a misguided interpretation, but essentially, give or take a song or two that land somewhere else, half of Achtung Baby is about having awful things done to your heart (which we assume is the Edge's story from the time), and the other half is about doing awful things to someone elses heart (which we like to think is Bono's imagination). The fact is, the stories, the whole Nighttown thing, the whole sun/moon temptation thing - it's not all make believe.
It might always have been in there, it might have been part of that growth, something they were in the middle of just at that time. I don't think they were room trashing, hooker fucking, nightmare rock star cliches at all. I think they were the biggest band in the world, some of musics greatest celebrities and that serious temptation came with that. The kind that maybe wasn't resisted at every turn, and it became the natural and honest dominant emotional influence and therefore creative influence. I think they then overblew that into the larger than life caricatures deliberately. Like I said, if the 80's U2 got up there, the "straight up honest" U2, and sang the Achtung songs with the same seriousness as he waved that white flag, we'd all take it as gospel that Bono fooled around, but with the characters and masks in place, there's room there for us, even the most skeptical of Saint Bono, to still go "Hmmm, don't know about that..."
Axver said:
This all said, I still feel that while the masks were used as a means of true self-expression, their inherent nature creates distance, distortion, and even exaggeration. I don't think 'characters' of the eighties such as Bono the White Flag Waver are quite the same as they are caricatures people created of Bono's means of expressing himself through fervent honesty. He runs out there with his white flag, leading political process, and people ascribe him a character to simplify/stereotype/exaggerate his personality; meanwhile, he created The Fly mask himself for his self-expression.
I agree 100%. It still did become his caricature though. Whether he liked it or not, or intended it or not, he became that caricature. I think he did learn from that, and even to the point of forever wearing those fucking shades, he learned that if it's going to happen, best he's in control of it.
Axver said:
My very simple response is three words I am sure you know well: "contradiction is balance."
Tell that to my boss.
