Hamilton Spectator
27th November, 2004
How to Last Like U2; Seven-Step Program to Staying Relevant
By Rob Faulkner
By the time any rock band called "the world's greatest" has been in the
game for 26 years, 11 albums and one greatest-hits sampler, you expect
them to either stink or split up.
Take the Rolling Stones. The original bad boys have been in a creative
slump since the '80s and, sadly, few are originals. Perennial rock-mag
champs the Beatles? They imploded, after a decade, in a mud puddle of
lawsuits.
But U2 is different. And not just because they're still here and still
making music. Something happened that day in 1978 when drummer Larry
Mullen pinned an ad on the bulletin board of Dublin's Mount Temple High
School.
So, in honour of the release of their 11th album, How to Dismantle an
Atomic Bomb, I offer a primer. Here's how you become the world's
biggest band, get your own iPod and make sure your own U2 never
crashes.
1. Stay together. There's nothing worse than a band (read: Van Halen)
whose history has to be parsed into periods depending on who's in
rehab, who's suing and who just choked on his own vomit. Who is U2?
Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen -- no one gets in, no one
gets out. Like a musical Mafia.
2. Be epic. No, don't declare yourself bigger than Jesus. It's been
done. Do let your fans in on something more than the amps, cords, mics
and set lists that make music happen. "We've always been about more
than music," says Bono, who refers to U2's magic. "We're about
spirituality. We're about the world we live in."
He was born to play arenas, not clubs, if only because the white flag
he carried for "Sunday Bloody Sunday" wouldn't fit in a place like the
Underground.
3. Be silly. Some hate Bono because he's too political, pompous and
fond of bug-eye shades. Fine, then. U2's '90s experiments in techno
(see 1997's Pop) also saw them poke fun at pretension. They mocked
themselves on The Simpsons. Asked if he was a pioneer, Bono declared
himself "one of the inventors of the mullet." The Lizard King, Jim
Morrison, would never say that.
4. Be political. If you want otherwise respectable people to wave
lighters at your gigs, you need a message. Thanks to Bomb's liner
notes, we know U2 supports Amnesty International, Greenpeace, a free
Burma, debt-relief and AIDS drugs for Africa...and photo-ops with
Paul Martin. On Bomb, the song "Love and Peace or Else" craves peace
for
the Mideast's "daughters of Zion/All you Abraham's sons." In a hint at
Bono's AIDS work, "Miracle Drug" tells us he's "not giving up/On a
miracle drug." Which leads us to...
5. Be vague. Despite noble "stands," U2's lyrics are blank slates.
After Sept. 11, "One" became an anthem. Why? "We hurt each other/Then
we
do it again," is pretty vague, and grim. A U2 song often takes you to a
better place. But unlike the once political Bob Dylan, we don't get
names like Hurricane Carter, Davey Moore and Emmett Till. With Bomb, we
get a title that seems radical (Dismantle!) but really isn't: It
apparently refers to Bono's father, who died of cancer in 2001. Bono's
politics give him a conscience, but he's far from alienating. Did you
know "Pride (In the Name of Love)" was about Martin Luther King Jr.? Me
either. War, peace, love, rockets -- U2's vocabulary lets us flesh out
the details, one crucial step on the way to universality.
6. Create trademarks. Bomb is billed as an album all about the Edge.
But the odd thing is, U2 is always a band. Sure, the band plays epics,
rediscovers the blues, borrows techno. But they're not daft enough to
exult one member entirely: U2 is a gestalt band, one that's clearly
more than the sum of its parts. And we all recognize its pre- and
post-pop parts: hopeful lyrics, soaring wall-of-sound guitars, urgent
drumming and belted-out high vocals. Well, that, sunglasses and funny
fake names.
7. Keep moving. At the risk of courting cliche or making them sound
like Madonna, critics have long known that U2 is incapable of making a
terrible CD because they keep trying new things. Originally, they were
a punky late-'70s band full of spirit and no record deal; in the '80s
they were arena-rock pioneers fond of the grand gesture; by the '90s
they went ironic, using TV clips and humour to become postmodern
media-jammers; and now, just to prove that the unforgettable fire
started in Dublin still burns, they're going back to their roots with
the Bomb.
© Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd., 2004.
I found this to be one of the best and most original articles on the staying power of U2 in the music industry.
Read and enjoy!
ORIGINAL OF THE SPECIES....
27th November, 2004
How to Last Like U2; Seven-Step Program to Staying Relevant
By Rob Faulkner
By the time any rock band called "the world's greatest" has been in the
game for 26 years, 11 albums and one greatest-hits sampler, you expect
them to either stink or split up.
Take the Rolling Stones. The original bad boys have been in a creative
slump since the '80s and, sadly, few are originals. Perennial rock-mag
champs the Beatles? They imploded, after a decade, in a mud puddle of
lawsuits.
But U2 is different. And not just because they're still here and still
making music. Something happened that day in 1978 when drummer Larry
Mullen pinned an ad on the bulletin board of Dublin's Mount Temple High
School.
So, in honour of the release of their 11th album, How to Dismantle an
Atomic Bomb, I offer a primer. Here's how you become the world's
biggest band, get your own iPod and make sure your own U2 never
crashes.
1. Stay together. There's nothing worse than a band (read: Van Halen)
whose history has to be parsed into periods depending on who's in
rehab, who's suing and who just choked on his own vomit. Who is U2?
Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen -- no one gets in, no one
gets out. Like a musical Mafia.
2. Be epic. No, don't declare yourself bigger than Jesus. It's been
done. Do let your fans in on something more than the amps, cords, mics
and set lists that make music happen. "We've always been about more
than music," says Bono, who refers to U2's magic. "We're about
spirituality. We're about the world we live in."
He was born to play arenas, not clubs, if only because the white flag
he carried for "Sunday Bloody Sunday" wouldn't fit in a place like the
Underground.
3. Be silly. Some hate Bono because he's too political, pompous and
fond of bug-eye shades. Fine, then. U2's '90s experiments in techno
(see 1997's Pop) also saw them poke fun at pretension. They mocked
themselves on The Simpsons. Asked if he was a pioneer, Bono declared
himself "one of the inventors of the mullet." The Lizard King, Jim
Morrison, would never say that.
4. Be political. If you want otherwise respectable people to wave
lighters at your gigs, you need a message. Thanks to Bomb's liner
notes, we know U2 supports Amnesty International, Greenpeace, a free
Burma, debt-relief and AIDS drugs for Africa...and photo-ops with
Paul Martin. On Bomb, the song "Love and Peace or Else" craves peace
for
the Mideast's "daughters of Zion/All you Abraham's sons." In a hint at
Bono's AIDS work, "Miracle Drug" tells us he's "not giving up/On a
miracle drug." Which leads us to...
5. Be vague. Despite noble "stands," U2's lyrics are blank slates.
After Sept. 11, "One" became an anthem. Why? "We hurt each other/Then
we
do it again," is pretty vague, and grim. A U2 song often takes you to a
better place. But unlike the once political Bob Dylan, we don't get
names like Hurricane Carter, Davey Moore and Emmett Till. With Bomb, we
get a title that seems radical (Dismantle!) but really isn't: It
apparently refers to Bono's father, who died of cancer in 2001. Bono's
politics give him a conscience, but he's far from alienating. Did you
know "Pride (In the Name of Love)" was about Martin Luther King Jr.? Me
either. War, peace, love, rockets -- U2's vocabulary lets us flesh out
the details, one crucial step on the way to universality.
6. Create trademarks. Bomb is billed as an album all about the Edge.
But the odd thing is, U2 is always a band. Sure, the band plays epics,
rediscovers the blues, borrows techno. But they're not daft enough to
exult one member entirely: U2 is a gestalt band, one that's clearly
more than the sum of its parts. And we all recognize its pre- and
post-pop parts: hopeful lyrics, soaring wall-of-sound guitars, urgent
drumming and belted-out high vocals. Well, that, sunglasses and funny
fake names.
7. Keep moving. At the risk of courting cliche or making them sound
like Madonna, critics have long known that U2 is incapable of making a
terrible CD because they keep trying new things. Originally, they were
a punky late-'70s band full of spirit and no record deal; in the '80s
they were arena-rock pioneers fond of the grand gesture; by the '90s
they went ironic, using TV clips and humour to become postmodern
media-jammers; and now, just to prove that the unforgettable fire
started in Dublin still burns, they're going back to their roots with
the Bomb.
© Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd., 2004.
I found this to be one of the best and most original articles on the staying power of U2 in the music industry.
Read and enjoy!
ORIGINAL OF THE SPECIES....
