Peterrrrr said:
Well the voice took damage from Lovetown, he started to smoke more. For a while ago I saw an interview from 91 or 92, and you realy heard his smoking hoarse sound in his voice that he hadnt in 89/90. But I think Bono didnt give his all on ZooTV, I think he listend to what the throat doctor said tom him. He started to sing lower. But he had power, he managed to hit "Wide Awake" alot of times, wich he didnt do on LT. All "come on love"(MW), Take Me Higher(non-falsetto), Love Love Love(UTEOTW), Halelujah(RTSS) and all falsettos proved that his voice was very strong. the 93 shows he went weaker. But his 92 voice was very strong.
Some of those songs you referenced though are from '93.
Anyway, I do think he sounded fine for all tours. In fact, while we give Bono some hassle over the '93-'03 years (end of the Zoo tour through Elevation Tour), he had tons of brilliant moments. I just think we were so spoiled by his great voice from late '83 through '92 that any change (due to age, smoking, alcohol, extensive use, etc.) made us think his voice was suddenly "weak and bad". But truthfully, he was still able to belt out songs then. He had his weak moments, but some great ones too. For example, PopMart in Mexico City was very strong. Sadly, the Chicago DVD for Vertigo was not his strongest on that tour (at least I can say I was at that show!). I've heard him be FAR stronger on other nights for that tour (thank goodness for boots).
But I'm really writing to remind everyone of the change both U2 and Bono made for ZOO TV and AB. Comparing R&H and Love Town to AB/ZOO TV is truly apples and oranges. While there are some similarities (both apples and oranges are fruits and have seeds, while both albums and tours featured the same four band members), the differences are staggering. And one is the whole image - and with that image, came a different style and sound. For Bono to belt out AB or ZOO TV songs like he did with JT and R&H wouldn't have worked at all. In fact, it really took the Elevation and maybe even the Vertigo tour before Bono could nicely combine that "funky" side of songs (from the 90's and 00's) with those operatic moments ("Miss Sarajevo", "Sometimes..."). While it's obvious U2 has lost passion for some songs (like "With or Without You" - at least in comparison to the JT and Love Town tours), "Bad" is still fantastic.
So the change we hear for ZOO TV isn't due to Bono's "weakening voice". It was deliberate. In fact, the best example of this comes from the song "One". On AB, "One" is sung in a scratchy, weaker voiced style - a style Bono had not used before. This suited the song brilliantly and is one reason the song is so well loved. Mary J. Blige may have a great voice, but her belting out the song in that duet with U2 misses the whole point of the song. This is a song about a person at the end of his rope, begging, pleading, in pain, hoping - not a person joyously belting out how great life has been. This is why her duet wasn't that big of a hit - she missed why the song was so great! Bono's vocals on AB for "One" are near perfect. But even Bono had some "trouble" duplicating them, because on the ZOO TV tour, his voice sounds almost too rich and powerful for the song. Fortunately, he's able to tone it down again for more recent tours, making the song powerful once again.