Solo careers and side projects?

[CrashedCarDriver]

its an interesting debate especially given that other bands out there tend to not make it such a big issue to veer off and do solo projects/ albums etc

eg take for example radiohead: thom yorke releasing a side project

johnny greenwood scoring the musical score for the movie 'there will be blood'

blur in the form of damon albarn and graham coxon have moved on from being associated with the single act

guns n roses' slash and duff have jumped ship and gone with velvet revolver

im sure other bands in the world like franz ferdinand or interpol - when the time comes will not find it such a big issue to do a side project or start a new band of their own

is it u2's pretentiousness that has gotten in the way of bono not being associated with anything else other than the voice of this band?

 

[pacemaker]

I think a lot of it might have to do with Bono, or any of the other three, not feeling totally comfortable without their heteromusicmakinglifemates.

When the time comes though, I think that we'll get solo albums/ new projects/ soundtracks and scores/ etc. I could see Bono embracing a World sound and turn in his take on the David Byrne/ Peter Gabriel mold, Edge pursuing film scoring and instrumental work. Maybe Adam would turn out a surprisingly funky offering, and maybe Larry will retire from music altogether. I'd love it if Edge sang (a lot) if and when he's on his own.

 

[FitzChivalry]

 

[last unicorn]

Interesting topic.

I've always felt, and still feel, that Bono in particular schould have done a solo project/album, but I know he rejects it whenever someone asks. I don't really understand it, because he's done side projects before. I often feel that, most of the time he isn't really able to show his abilities as a vocalist in U2. It has improved in recent years, especially live, but from various side projects we know that he can do all sorts of stuff, so I would love to hear him doing a solo project one day, not only duets, but just he himself.

Genereally, I feel U2 have done some great side projects and have always colaborated with other artists, which I find important and really refreshing.

 

[U2girl]

Spiderman, Passengers, MDH soundtrack, Captive...and Bono in particular has recorded plenty of songs solo.

 

[Cactus Annie]

Bono should do an album of covers. Not just rock, that'll be boring, but he should sing an album with various types of music.

 

[The Sad Punk]

Bono should do an album of covers. Not just rock, that'll be boring, but he should sing an album with various types of music.

I tried thinking of something worse, but I couldn't come up with it.

 

[Cactus Annie]

I tried thinking of something worse, but I couldn't come up with it.

Why do you say that?I'd love him to do an album of all the old jazz classics. Louis Armstrong's What A wonderful World, Nat King Cole' When I fall In Love and Peggy Lee's Fever.

Jazz is very difficult to sing because it's a style that has no rules on how it's played. If you were sitting at a piano and you only had 5 notes to play, you can play those notes however you like. So imagine when you've got a full sized piano with an endless number of notes to play. You need a very good ear to sing jazz so you know which notes to sing. Plus you also need rythem.

(I must start my own thread about jazz)

 

[The Sad Punk]

You do that. But well, I hate Bono's singing in U2's Night and Day version and the I've Got You Under My Skin with Frankie. Sure, that was 15+ years ago, and in the former the rest of the band didn't help much, but as far as I'm concerned that's one area where Bono should just stay the hell away. He's got no idea how to sing any jazz or swing.

 

[nathan1977]

Bono should do an album of covers. Not just rock, that'll be boring, but he should sing an album with various types of music.

I've put together a playlist of bono's solo material. It is surprisingly heavy on jazz stuff -- between "That's Life", "Two Shots of Happy," "If You Wear That Velvet Dress," "I've Got You Under My Skin", "Save the Children," "I Wanna Be Around," and the MDH soundtrack, he has a surprising bent towards the medium.

 

[last unicorn]

You do that. But well, I hate Bono's singing in U2's Night and Day version and the I've Got You Under My Skin with Frankie. Sure, that was 15+ years ago, and in the former the rest of the band didn't help much, but as far as I'm concerned that's one area where Bono should just stay the hell away. He's got no idea how to sing any jazz or swing.

You're wrong. Most of the songs he did with others are great. The Sinatra duet is a critically highly acclaimed one, Bono was just amazing on that.

I'd love Bono to do more crooning. I think it fits his voice very well. More of the kind MDH Soundtrack. I think he should do what people least expect him to do. Well, maybe not Hip Hop

I don't know why some people don't accept that Bono is not simply a rock singer but can go out and do other stuff as well.

He should do as much as he wants to and can do, IMO, I'd love to hear more solo stuff from him, various projects, styles, genres. Not only doets and covers, but solo stuff and his own music, that would be great for a change.

And Night and Day is just , especially the MusiCares Live version.

 

[pepokiss]

something like Robbie Williams' "Swing when you're winning" could be something good for Bono

Bono Duets or something... a lot of great songs of all time, and you could have something there

hell, he could play Vegas


The Edge solo album

 

[BVS]

I think the premise of this thread starts off on the wrong foot. Some of the examples you gave didn't even make sense, they were examples of bands breaking up and starting new ones not side projects...

is it u2's pretentiousness that has gotten in the way of bono not being associated with anything else other than the voice of this band?

Where was U2's pretentiousness when...

Edge did the Captive?

Larry and Adam did Mission Impossible?

When Bono did his dozens of solo songs?

When Larry played drums on Lanois, Emmylou Harris, and Nancy Griffith's albums?



Where was their pretentiousness?

 

[phillyfan26]

Why hasn't Bono done a side project?

Most likely because he cannot play an instrument, I'd guess.

 

[pepokiss]

there's artists that can't even sing, yet they have carriers...

Bono doesn't have to play anything to make music, he's goddamn Bono

 

[U2girl]

That, and he's, you know, a singer. Funny thing is he actually did more collaborations and solo song than the rest of the band.

 

[65980]

Well, the guys have done solo-projects before. The Captive soundtrack by Edge is maybe the most individualistic in that it had his name on the cover and was billed as his music. This is distinguished from a single here or there (Larry and Adam doing the Mission: Impossible theme or Bono/Gavin Friday doing "In the Name of the Father"). But on Captive it's mostly instrumental soundtrack music or another singer (the young Sinead O'Connor), not Edge's voice.

What we've never seen is an album credited to "Bono" or "Edge" which was their voice, billed under their name. (I'm assuming that Larry and Adam would not be contemplating solo projects under their own names... can you picture it?: Larry Mullen Jr. sings Disco Favourites! -- $9.99 at Wal-Mart.)

It is interesting to consider why they've never done this, because they've certainly had enough time between projects in the past 15 years. I suppose it comes down to a few factors:

-- U2 are a school-boy band in origin with a very tight-knot holding them together. Breaking ranks would be frowned upon.

-- From an early age, they were made aware of their musical shortcomings, and are still self-conscious about it today. Working with other musicians sometimes scares them.

-- They're not prolific. Thus, spending energy on solo projects would be taking it away from U2. (It's not like Prince, where he needed to create side-projects to get out all of his endless productivity.)

-- After (especially) Rattle & Hum, U2 have been sensitive about how the public perceives their pretensions, since they're a band that loves to stick its neck out onto the guillotine. So I really can't see Bono doing a "jazz standards" album and being taken seriously by anyone but hardcore U2 fans. Solo projects bring a lot of scrutiny on the individual.

-- What's the point of a solo album when the band they're in still get along well and are probably the biggest group on earth?

 

[u2search]

I think Bono and Edge both have stated that they like working with U2 better than doing any of their solo/collaborations work. Bono wanted to try something a la Sinatra; he did, and that's it. He still writes a lot for other artists. Larry and Adam have proven they can do something on their own so that ambition has been fulfilled for them. Larry once said he wanted to do some sessions work, just to try what it's like. I guess that's what he did on the diverse projects he worked on (don't forget Underworld, released thsi year).

I don't see them do ths type of thing just because some fans would like it. As far as I can see they are free to do whatever they want outside of U2, they just don't want to.

 

[The Sad Punk]

You're wrong. Most of the songs he did with others are great. The Sinatra duet is a critically highly acclaimed one, Bono was just amazing on that.

And Night and Day is just , especially the MusiCares Live version.

I've never heard any critical acclaim for the Sinatra duet. I've heard gushings from overenthusiastic U2 fans, but I've never heard a good word about it from a jazz critic. I've heard some pretty damn terrible things about it, in fact.

Their version of Night and Day is similarly frowned upon. I'd quote an excerpt from Will Friedwald's Stardust Melodies in which he compares different versions of standard American songbook songs and states that U2's version of N&D is one of the worst he's ever heard, but he calls them "British" in it so you wouldn't take it seriously, despite the fact that for the most case, he's bang on the money.

Bono doing a swing album? Nobody would take it seriously except a handful of eager fangirls such as yourself.

 

[last unicorn]

I've never heard any critical acclaim for the Sinatra duet. I've heard gushings from overenthusiastic U2 fans, but I've never heard a good word about it from a jazz critic. I've heard some pretty damn terrible things about it, in fact.

Their version of Night and Day is similarly frowned upon. I'd quote an excerpt from Will Friedwald's Stardust Melodies in which he compares different versions of standard American songbook songs and states that U2's version of N&D is one of the worst he's ever heard, but he calls them "British" in it so you wouldn't take it seriously, despite the fact that for the most case, he's bang on the money.

Bono doing a swing album? Nobody would take it seriously except a handful of eager fangirls such as yourself.

Yes because jazz critics are the center of the musical universe.

I haven't heard any terrible things about that duet. Please don't go dig up any old reviews because honestly I don't care.

I'd rather be an "eager fangirl", as you call it, than bashing nearly everything Bono has ever done as you like to do.

 

[The Sad Punk]

Yes because jazz critics are the center of the musical universe.

I haven't heard any terrible things about that duet. Please don't go dig up any old reviews because honestly I don't care.

I'd rather be an "eager fangirl", as you call it, than bashing nearly everything Bono has ever done as you like to do.

I never said they were, but I think they'd have more of an idea of talking about a jazz song than rock critics.

I don't have any intention to do so. Of course, it's your right to say whatever you want, and have your opinion, and so forth. I'm just expressing surprise that anybody's ever said any good things about the duet, and that any further forays into Jazz and Swing by Bono would be even more embarrassing - he is a rock singer, with some amateur qualities in other genres, but little more than that.

I'm not even going to bother with that last bit.

 

[blueeyedgirl]

Fight! Fight! Fight!!!

Sorry, thought I was back in the playground then....

 

[The Sad Punk]

I nearly broke my wrist in a playground fight with some kid. That was a while ago though, a few weeks ago. Can we call this a day, LU? Agree to disagree?

 

[U2girl]

I wouldn't mind Bono trying himself in a non-rock genre but he's probably content with a few songs here and there rather than a full-blown solo album. Perhaps the critics were upset that the young rock star worked with a legend like Sinatra ? (much like they were when U2 worked with BB King or Dylan a few years earlier...)

U2 always were weak at covers.

 

[The Sad Punk]

I wouldn't mind Bono trying himself in a non-rock genre but he's probably content with a few songs here and there rather than a full-blown solo album. Perhaps the critics were upset that the young rock star worked with a legend like Sinatra ? (much like they were when U2 worked with BB King or Dylan a few years earlier...)

U2 always were weak at covers.

Bono was like 75 in Rock Years (as of that time) when he worked with Sinatra, so I doubt it was that.

 

[U2girl]

Sinatra probably was that age, if not closer to 80. Bono was 33. I think it's probable that the serious jazz critics wasn't ready to gush over the hip youngster working with Blue Eyes.

Some reviewers like what they rate, some don't.

 

[bambu]

I don't know about the others but I can imagine Adam doing commercials for Nespresso - what else?

 

[chocky]

I just did a quick check on my iTunes and counted these (and probably not definitive ):

Bono: 36 songs from solo/side projects (officially released songs only - including duets, soundtracks and collaborations)

Edge: 1 album (Captive) and the Ecco Homo collaboration

Adam: Mission Impossible plus performing on a dozen or so songs for other artists (and collaborating Bono)

Larry: Mission Impossible, Put 'em Under Pressure single plus performing on a dozen or so songs for other artists (and collaborating with Edge on Capitive)




These exclude Passengers and Million Dollar Hotel which adds another 2 dozen tracks. I doubt there are many other bands in the world that had THIS many solo or side projects before they split up.

 

[last unicorn]

I don't know about the others but I can imagine Adam doing commercials for Nespresso - what else?

Adam is the new George Clooney.

 

[phillyfan26]

I love how any criticism of a band member is now "bashing everything they've ever done."

Fannnnnnnnntastic. EYKIW > Logic.