Bono's piano lessons on NLOTH?

[Bean_Counter]

While listening to the new cd I began thinking about all of the news that trickled out over the past two years about the making of NLOTH. Wasn't there talk some time ago about Bono taking piano lessons and how he was writing lots of songs on the piano, etc....

I don't notice alot (read = any) piano-based songs on NLOTH. So, what happened to all of these songs...

I think chopsticks would have fit perfect in GOYB, right after the 'let me in the sound' part.

Bean

 

[Bonogirl777]

Chopsticks

 

[Irishteen]

Bono and Will.i.am did some keyboards on Magnificent

 

[Peterrrrr]

 

[Muldfeld]

Chopsticks

Everyone seems to learn that one first, eh? I remember my mother teaching me that when I was 6, but not the fingering or anything. That's amazing that it's such a shared piece.

 

[last unicorn]

Bono doesn't have any piano credits on the album. I would have loved to hear him play.

Maybe he played the organ in UC?

 

[zoopop]

There is quite a bit of piano on MOS. I think he might sit down and sing this one behind the ivory during the show. He did a pretty good job on Sweetest Thing.

This has nothing to with anything but I'm seeing Elton John & Billy Joel Saturday night. I'll pick up some pointers for Bono.

 

[adam3000]

good question. maybe he learned the song "o come, o come emmanuel". maybe we'll here some stuff on "songs of ascent".

maybe it's like his guitar playing... they mix it in really really low into the mix.

 

[Zoomerang96]

didn't he play piano on the sweetest thing in concert?

he has a basic understanding of the instrument, it's a shame he doesn't play it live instead of having the band resort to pre-recording it for live shows.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

thank god and all things holy he doesn't play the piano more... The Coldplay/Chris Martin comparisons are bad enough as it is...

 

[Montrose]

I had thought the songs Bono wrote during his piano lessons had made their way into the Rubin sessions. I heard Rubin liked bands to come into the studio with songs in-hand, something U2 aren't famous for. The only songs that came out of that period were Windows in the Skies and The Saints Are Coming, the latter of which is a remake.

 

[CosmoKramer]

thank god and all things holy he doesn't play the piano more... The Coldplay/Chris Martin comparisons are bad enough as it is...

I agree but it was pretty cool on the Elevation Tour when he played "Sweetest Thing" on the piano. He likes to walk around the stage and interact with the crowd too much to be "stuck" at the piano anyway.

 

[neatperson42]

Yeah, I remember when Bono was in Africa with Brian Williams filming for NBC, he mentioned that he was taking lessons and writing songs. I agree, chopsticks would be perfect

 

[U2FloridaFan]

didn't he play piano on the sweetest thing in concert?

Yes, it was fantastic. I love that song live.

 

[bigjohn2441]

i wonder which, if any, songs he will play guitar on. i think breathe and SUC should have a 2nd guitar due to the heavy rythym guitars behind Edge's part throughout the songs. i like breathe live so far, but at times it does sound a little empty. also maybe NLOTH, like the Dublin video on youtube.

 

[phillyfan26]

didn't he play piano on the sweetest thing in concert?

he has a basic understanding of the instrument, it's a shame he doesn't play it live instead of having the band resort to pre-recording it for live shows.

YouTube - U2 The sweetest thing live in manchester 2001

Imagine him trying to remember lyrics while playing piano, though. He can barely do it while only singing.

 

[last unicorn]

I really don't see Bono as a piano player and I hope he will never play the piano live again. People will say he's copying Chris Martin. Bono is not the piano kind of guy. Instead he should learn to play the guitar properly.

 

[redhill]

I really don't see Bono as a piano player and I hope he will never play the piano live again. People will say he's copying Chris Martin. Bono is not the piano kind of guy. Instead he should learn to play the guitar properly.

I have to say, as someone who went to 5 Elevation shows, I loved it when Bono played piano on the Sweetest Thing.

It was like...yea - go for it! It was another, different layer of excitement for the show.

He catches so much crap (even from himself) about his guitar playing that I thought it was a bit of a triumph for Bono to do it even if it was not perfect. Plus it is more difficult to play and sing (for most people I imagine) so...

But then I grew up listening to Billy Joel ;]

 

[yolland]

Just because the recorded version of a song doesn't feature piano/keyboard parts doesn't mean it wasn't originally composed on one, in part or in full...lots of composers do that, they'll flesh out a melody they've been tossing around in their head on a piano first before arranging it for other instruments. (Didn't Edge originally compose "One" on piano, just for example?) But as far as whether Bono in particular is competent enough at piano to do that, I'd have no idea.

 

[Marien]

Edge composed One??????

 

[mikal]

i am ABSOLUTELY REPULSED by Bono's piano playing.

 

[yolland]

Edge composed One??????

I phrased it as a question because I can't recall exact details...I just remember reading an article or book, many years ago now, recounting how one of the songs off AB originally took the form of two separate piano parts Edge had come up with, and at some point someone else suggested, why not combine those parts into one song? And I had it in my head that the song under discussion was One; I could be wrong. Anyhow, I was just citing it as an illustration of the more general point that musicians often work out the basic structure of a song on the piano first, regardless of whether they ever intended the song to feature a piano part in its final version.

 

[Marien]

I phrased it as a question because I can't recall exact details...I just remember reading an article or book, many years ago now, recounting how one of the songs off AB originally took the form of two separate piano parts Edge had come up with, and at some point someone else suggested, why not combine those parts into one song? And I had it in my head that the song under discussion was One; I could be wrong. Anyhow, I was just citing it as an illustration of the more general point that musicians often work out the basic structure of a song on the piano first, regardless of whether they ever intended the song to feature a piano part in its final version.

Oh, I know it isn't important for the discussion here, I was just shocked because Edge composing One and on piano was very different from what I remembered, but as you say it was just an example to your point. I've had a look into U2 by U2 and what they tell is that Egde took two incomplete ideas they had and tried them together, but it didn't work, Daniel Lanois suggested him playing one into the other, so Edge took the acoustic guitar and Bono the microphone and within an hour they had the first version of the song, lyrics included.

May I mention I love your avatar? I have a magnet with a similar design, with the word Peace both in Hebrew and Arabic, I bought it in Jerusalem.

 

[yolland]

Thanks! It was the homepage decoration for awhile of a rabbi whose social commentary I admire, and I was on the lookout for an avatar at the time so I thought, Why not.

On a hunch I just checked out U2 at the End of the World online and I *think* this is the passage I was remembering:

[p. 11]

One night they are struggling with a track called "Ultra Violet" and it's going nowhere. Edge figures the song needs another section and goes to the piano in the big room to come up with a middle eight. After playing for a while he has two possible parts and isn't sure which one would be better for the song. He comes back into the control booth, picks up an acoustic guitar, and plays both of them for Lanois and Bono to see which they prefer. They say that those both sound pretty good—what would it be like if you put them together?

Edge goes back out into the studio and starts playing the two sections together, one into the other. Larry and Adam fall in behind him on the drums and bass. Bono feels the muse knocking on his head as surely as in one of those old Elvis movies where the king jumps up in the middle of a clambake and starts rocking. Bono goes out to the microphone and begins improvising words and a melody: "We're one, but we're not the same—we get to carry each other, carry each other."

U2 plays the new song for about ten minutes. "Is it getting better," Bono sings, "or do you feel the same? Is it any easier on you now that you've got someone to blame?" Edge feels that it's suddenly all jelling—the band is clicking and all four of them know. They come into the booth and listen to a playback with a relief close to joy. By the next morning they have recorded "One," as strong a song as U2 has ever written. It came to them all together and it came easily, as a gift.

So, not exactly how I recalled it and apparently not quite what U2 by U2 suggests either, but it still illustrates how a piano is often used to work out part or all of what's ultimately destined to be a guitar-based piece. I play a few instruments including piano, and there's just something about the piano's design, the intuitive ease of visualizing musical structure it offers, that tends to make it my preferred instrument for figuring out a part or piece I'm struggling with, so I've always found it kinda cool that so many far more accomplished musicians like to do the same.