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'WE'VE BEEN DEFYING GRAVITY FOR A LONG TIME'
25 years in the game, U2 is still flying high creatively – and aiming even higher for the future
By George Varga
UNION-TRIBUNE POP MUSIC CRITIC
NEW YORK – Too much, too soon?
Or a perfectly timed tribute to a timeless band that often thrives on moving in mysterious ways?
When U2 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 14 – exactly two weeks before this Monday's launch of its "Vertigo/2005" world concert tour at the San Diego Sports Arena – the four members of the Irish rock group reacted with a combination of pride and discomfort.
"We've been defying gravity for a long time, and this is a big occasion and you've just got to be careful you don't upset people," drummer Larry Mullen Jr. said in response to a question in the backstage press room after his band's rousing, post-induction mini-concert that night.
"But if I'm to be absolutely honest, I would really have liked this maybe 10 years down the line," he continued, as bassist Adam Clayton smiled and nodded in agreement. "It's a great institution, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and to quote Karl Marx – oh, no, no, Groucho Marx! – I'm not sure I'm quite ready to accept institutionalization. But it's a great thing and I'm happy to have it. I would have preferred it later on, but, hey."
The desire to still look ahead to the future, not back at its past, is key to U2's unusual longevity. So is the band's belief in the power of a great song to inspire and uplift, be it such classics as "Pride (In the Name of Love)" and "One," or last year's "Vertigo" (from the band's 14th and latest album, "How to Dismantle an Atom Bomb").
That U2 has survived, and thrived, since making its recording debut 26 years ago is all the more amazing in a pop-music world dominated by flavor-of-the-month marionettes whose careers as sonic confectioners usually last no longer than a hit single or two.
This is the reason U2's concert repertoire will likely be divided between its new album and its rich back catalog when the Dublin quartet performs at two sold-out shows here Monday and Wednesday at the Sports Arena. Hit singles, of which U2 has had surprisingly few, have always been secondary.
That is why Bono sounded a note of caution during his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame acceptance speech. "I'd like the music business to look at itself and ask some hard questions," U2's singer told the audience, following his band's 16-minute induction by Bruce Springsteen. "Because there would be no U2 the way things are right now."
Asked later in the evening to elaborate, he replied in a manner both earnest and self-deprecating: "What's great about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is, it's very humbling. And for very arrogant Irish rock stars, that might be important. Because you come (to this induction) and see Bo Diddley, Percy Sledge, the O'Jays, Neil (Young and) Bruce, and that kind of puts you back in your box.
"But the point I was trying to make is, there's very little chance for there to be another U2 the way the music industry is constructed right now. You just have to have a hit single, immediately, and if you don't, you don't get a second chance. And I don't think that's where the great American or European artists come from.
"Bruce Springsteen didn't have a hit single for 10 years! Neil Young, I'm not sure he ever had a hit single – and every Neil Young song sounds like a single to me."
There are other reasons it would be difficult, if not impossible, for another U2 to happen today – let alone flourish for a quarter of a century.
With the shifting of time and musical trends, few acts would even attempt to strive for the epic heights and aural grandeur of U2's best music. Fewer still would seek to emulate the band's combination of rock passion and spiritual fervor in songs that explore heaven and earth – the sacred and the secular – with chiming guitar riffs, walloping drum beats and lyrics that question and celebrate matters of faith and community, often in the same breath.
Or, as Springsteen noted in his U2 induction speech: "How do you find God unless he's in your heart, in your desire, in your feet? I believe this is a big part of what's kept their band together all of these years.
"See, bands get formed by accident, but they don't survive by accident. It takes will, intent, a sense of shared purpose and a tolerance for your friends' fallibilities and they of yours. And that only evens the odds. U2 has not only evened the odds, but they've beaten them."
U2 has, as its members acknowledge, stumbled at times over the years. This has happened mostly when the band has become overly earnest and self-important, letting its bigger-than-life image overwhelm its music and message.
Witness Bono's "McFly" and "Macphisto" stage personas of the early 1990s, which verged on self-parody, or the 40-foot-tall, lemon-shaped silver disco mirror-ball the band emerged from to start each show on its 1997 "PopMart"concert tour. (In true "Spinal Tap" fashion, the "lemon" malfunctioned at least once, leaving U2's members trapped inside and delaying the concert's start until they could be extracted.)
But any rock artist of note makes gaffes and stumbles, and often looks ridiculous in the process. What distinguishes U2 is its ability to recover from such missteps, get back on its feet and move forward to the next triumph or failure.
"Above all else," guitarist Dave "The Edge" Evans said in his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame acceptance speech, "what U2 has tried to avoid over the last 25 years is ...being completely crap. But next on the list down from that was to avoid being typical and predictable and ordinary, because it's so very hard to avoid the cliches – everyone else's, of course, but most of all your own.
"It's so hard to keep things fresh and not to become a parody of yourself. If you've ever seen that movie 'Spinal Tap,' you'll know how easy it is to parody what we all do. The first time I ever saw it, I didn't laugh, I wept. I wept because I recognized so many of those scenes. I don't think I'm alone amongst all of us here in that and, you know, we're all guilty of taking ourselves and our work way too seriously.
"...but the reason we're all here tonight is that, in spite of all the cliches that do exist, you know, rock and roll when it is great, it is amazing. It changes your life. It changed our lives ...I mean, amazing, really magic stuff. You can break it down, you can study it all you want, but you cannot just dial it up. It doesn't work like that."
U2's latest release, "How to Dismantle an Atom Bomb," finds the band at an interesting juncture.
The album, while certainly not phoned in, lacks the irony-drenched lyrics and fearless sense of musical exploration that typified the group's three albums of the 1990s, "Achtung Baby," "Zooropa" and "Pop." Instead, it mirrors "All That You Can't Leave Behind," the straightforward 2000 album that fueled U2's quest to reclaim its "biggest band in the world" status.
Yet, if "Atom Bomb" marks something of an artistic retreat, it also boasts some of U2's most overtly spiritual lyrics ever, in particular on the soul-baring ballad "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own" and the prayerful "Yahweh" (which is named after the God of the Old Testament).
"Vertigo," the album's first single, offers an apt summation of U2's musical journey, as Bono sings A feeling is so much stronger than a thought / Your eyes are wide / And though your soul can't be bought / Your mind can wander.
Where U2's collective mind wanders next is anyone's guess. But this is one of the few veteran rock bands to sustain worldwide fame that has resisted selling its soul and still approaches music and life with a wide-eyed sense of wonder. For U2, and for its many fans, anything less just wouldn't do.
To read the remainder of the article, please visit: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/features/20050324-9999-lz1w24u2.html
25 years in the game, U2 is still flying high creatively – and aiming even higher for the future
By George Varga
UNION-TRIBUNE POP MUSIC CRITIC
NEW YORK – Too much, too soon?
Or a perfectly timed tribute to a timeless band that often thrives on moving in mysterious ways?
When U2 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 14 – exactly two weeks before this Monday's launch of its "Vertigo/2005" world concert tour at the San Diego Sports Arena – the four members of the Irish rock group reacted with a combination of pride and discomfort.
"We've been defying gravity for a long time, and this is a big occasion and you've just got to be careful you don't upset people," drummer Larry Mullen Jr. said in response to a question in the backstage press room after his band's rousing, post-induction mini-concert that night.
"But if I'm to be absolutely honest, I would really have liked this maybe 10 years down the line," he continued, as bassist Adam Clayton smiled and nodded in agreement. "It's a great institution, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and to quote Karl Marx – oh, no, no, Groucho Marx! – I'm not sure I'm quite ready to accept institutionalization. But it's a great thing and I'm happy to have it. I would have preferred it later on, but, hey."
The desire to still look ahead to the future, not back at its past, is key to U2's unusual longevity. So is the band's belief in the power of a great song to inspire and uplift, be it such classics as "Pride (In the Name of Love)" and "One," or last year's "Vertigo" (from the band's 14th and latest album, "How to Dismantle an Atom Bomb").
That U2 has survived, and thrived, since making its recording debut 26 years ago is all the more amazing in a pop-music world dominated by flavor-of-the-month marionettes whose careers as sonic confectioners usually last no longer than a hit single or two.
This is the reason U2's concert repertoire will likely be divided between its new album and its rich back catalog when the Dublin quartet performs at two sold-out shows here Monday and Wednesday at the Sports Arena. Hit singles, of which U2 has had surprisingly few, have always been secondary.
That is why Bono sounded a note of caution during his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame acceptance speech. "I'd like the music business to look at itself and ask some hard questions," U2's singer told the audience, following his band's 16-minute induction by Bruce Springsteen. "Because there would be no U2 the way things are right now."
Asked later in the evening to elaborate, he replied in a manner both earnest and self-deprecating: "What's great about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is, it's very humbling. And for very arrogant Irish rock stars, that might be important. Because you come (to this induction) and see Bo Diddley, Percy Sledge, the O'Jays, Neil (Young and) Bruce, and that kind of puts you back in your box.
"But the point I was trying to make is, there's very little chance for there to be another U2 the way the music industry is constructed right now. You just have to have a hit single, immediately, and if you don't, you don't get a second chance. And I don't think that's where the great American or European artists come from.
"Bruce Springsteen didn't have a hit single for 10 years! Neil Young, I'm not sure he ever had a hit single – and every Neil Young song sounds like a single to me."
There are other reasons it would be difficult, if not impossible, for another U2 to happen today – let alone flourish for a quarter of a century.
With the shifting of time and musical trends, few acts would even attempt to strive for the epic heights and aural grandeur of U2's best music. Fewer still would seek to emulate the band's combination of rock passion and spiritual fervor in songs that explore heaven and earth – the sacred and the secular – with chiming guitar riffs, walloping drum beats and lyrics that question and celebrate matters of faith and community, often in the same breath.
Or, as Springsteen noted in his U2 induction speech: "How do you find God unless he's in your heart, in your desire, in your feet? I believe this is a big part of what's kept their band together all of these years.
"See, bands get formed by accident, but they don't survive by accident. It takes will, intent, a sense of shared purpose and a tolerance for your friends' fallibilities and they of yours. And that only evens the odds. U2 has not only evened the odds, but they've beaten them."
U2 has, as its members acknowledge, stumbled at times over the years. This has happened mostly when the band has become overly earnest and self-important, letting its bigger-than-life image overwhelm its music and message.
Witness Bono's "McFly" and "Macphisto" stage personas of the early 1990s, which verged on self-parody, or the 40-foot-tall, lemon-shaped silver disco mirror-ball the band emerged from to start each show on its 1997 "PopMart"concert tour. (In true "Spinal Tap" fashion, the "lemon" malfunctioned at least once, leaving U2's members trapped inside and delaying the concert's start until they could be extracted.)
But any rock artist of note makes gaffes and stumbles, and often looks ridiculous in the process. What distinguishes U2 is its ability to recover from such missteps, get back on its feet and move forward to the next triumph or failure.
"Above all else," guitarist Dave "The Edge" Evans said in his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame acceptance speech, "what U2 has tried to avoid over the last 25 years is ...being completely crap. But next on the list down from that was to avoid being typical and predictable and ordinary, because it's so very hard to avoid the cliches – everyone else's, of course, but most of all your own.
"It's so hard to keep things fresh and not to become a parody of yourself. If you've ever seen that movie 'Spinal Tap,' you'll know how easy it is to parody what we all do. The first time I ever saw it, I didn't laugh, I wept. I wept because I recognized so many of those scenes. I don't think I'm alone amongst all of us here in that and, you know, we're all guilty of taking ourselves and our work way too seriously.
"...but the reason we're all here tonight is that, in spite of all the cliches that do exist, you know, rock and roll when it is great, it is amazing. It changes your life. It changed our lives ...I mean, amazing, really magic stuff. You can break it down, you can study it all you want, but you cannot just dial it up. It doesn't work like that."
U2's latest release, "How to Dismantle an Atom Bomb," finds the band at an interesting juncture.
The album, while certainly not phoned in, lacks the irony-drenched lyrics and fearless sense of musical exploration that typified the group's three albums of the 1990s, "Achtung Baby," "Zooropa" and "Pop." Instead, it mirrors "All That You Can't Leave Behind," the straightforward 2000 album that fueled U2's quest to reclaim its "biggest band in the world" status.
Yet, if "Atom Bomb" marks something of an artistic retreat, it also boasts some of U2's most overtly spiritual lyrics ever, in particular on the soul-baring ballad "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own" and the prayerful "Yahweh" (which is named after the God of the Old Testament).
"Vertigo," the album's first single, offers an apt summation of U2's musical journey, as Bono sings A feeling is so much stronger than a thought / Your eyes are wide / And though your soul can't be bought / Your mind can wander.
Where U2's collective mind wanders next is anyone's guess. But this is one of the few veteran rock bands to sustain worldwide fame that has resisted selling its soul and still approaches music and life with a wide-eyed sense of wonder. For U2, and for its many fans, anything less just wouldn't do.
To read the remainder of the article, please visit: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/features/20050324-9999-lz1w24u2.html
I like that. Insufferable little Jesuses... 
Thanks beLIEve 
