HelloAngel
ONE love, blood, life
There's a thread connecting Springsteen, U2 and West
BY KELLY-JANE COTTER
MUSIC WRITER
When Bruce Springsteen inducted U2 into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year, he recalled the first time he saw the Irish rock band.
It was in London during the early '80s, and Springsteen and Pete Townshend were checking out the younger competition, as it were. Springteen left the concert duly impressed.
"I was listening to the last band of whom I would be able to name all of its members," Springsteen said in his speech.
Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen and, most famously, Bono and The Edge, are the familiar names in that "last band." In 25 years, U2 has gone from being darlings of college radio to Grammy establishment.
Wednesday night, U2 took home more Grammys, in every category for which the band was nominated. Bono and the boys even beat their pal Bruce in two of those categories — rock song and song of the year. But Springsteen and U2 are members of a mutual admiration society that would ward off any rivalry.
Bono, an idealistic admirer of American culture, often has said that America is an idea, as well as a place, and that Springsteen personifies that idea.
Both men are liberals and committed to pointing out injustice when they see it. Bono has gone about this more visibly than Springteen, so much so that Bono's name was bandied about as a potential winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
For the most part, U2 fans are right there with him. But there's another reason why U2 remains so appealing to several generations of fans. Like the E Street Band, U2 manages to merge its musical and lyrical sensibilities.
The Edge plays the guitar with ethereal grace. The guitar parts of a U2 song are airy and atmospheric, but there's also an urgency to the sound, and often, an introspective protest. The opening notes of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "I Will Follow" both have the defiance and the sorrow to match Bono's wailing voice.
This style makes "Sunday Bloody Sunday" resonate with American fans who might have little knowledge of Irish history.
And when Bono writes about the personal, rather than the political, the resulting mix of words and music is shot through with passion.
Bono wrote "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" about his father, who had recently died.
The lyrics relate a typical father-son relationship, in which both parties butt heads and resent each other, but also deeply need and love each other.
In one of his acceptance speeches at Wednesday's awards show in Los Angeles, Bono lost his characteristic bravado and fumbled as he explained that the title of the band's album "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" referenced the aftermath of his father's death.
It was a real moment in the slick awards show, and it was easy to imagine just what sort of father would have raised such a feisty, fascinating individual.
Springsteen used to talk about his own dad in concert, how his dad didn't get his music and how they didn't see eye to eye. But it was always clear that the young Springteen wanted his dad's respect, and it seemed, at least from the perspective of one in the audience, that the father was probably confused by his son, and yet very proud of him, too.
"Kanye, you're next," Bono told Kanye West, who also was up for Album of the Year.
The outspoken hip-hop artist was the opening act during U2's recent tour. Maybe Bono sees in West something of an alternate route — the kind of artist he himself would've become had he born in a different time and place. There was a fatherly pride in Bono's remark, as Bono let West know he was sure the hip-hopper would make it on his own.
Bono likely sees West as well as Springsteen in the "idea" of America.
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060211/ENT/602110379/1031/NEWS03
Thanks Diane L!
BY KELLY-JANE COTTER
MUSIC WRITER
When Bruce Springsteen inducted U2 into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year, he recalled the first time he saw the Irish rock band.
It was in London during the early '80s, and Springsteen and Pete Townshend were checking out the younger competition, as it were. Springteen left the concert duly impressed.
"I was listening to the last band of whom I would be able to name all of its members," Springsteen said in his speech.
Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen and, most famously, Bono and The Edge, are the familiar names in that "last band." In 25 years, U2 has gone from being darlings of college radio to Grammy establishment.
Wednesday night, U2 took home more Grammys, in every category for which the band was nominated. Bono and the boys even beat their pal Bruce in two of those categories — rock song and song of the year. But Springsteen and U2 are members of a mutual admiration society that would ward off any rivalry.
Bono, an idealistic admirer of American culture, often has said that America is an idea, as well as a place, and that Springsteen personifies that idea.
Both men are liberals and committed to pointing out injustice when they see it. Bono has gone about this more visibly than Springteen, so much so that Bono's name was bandied about as a potential winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
For the most part, U2 fans are right there with him. But there's another reason why U2 remains so appealing to several generations of fans. Like the E Street Band, U2 manages to merge its musical and lyrical sensibilities.
The Edge plays the guitar with ethereal grace. The guitar parts of a U2 song are airy and atmospheric, but there's also an urgency to the sound, and often, an introspective protest. The opening notes of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "I Will Follow" both have the defiance and the sorrow to match Bono's wailing voice.
This style makes "Sunday Bloody Sunday" resonate with American fans who might have little knowledge of Irish history.
And when Bono writes about the personal, rather than the political, the resulting mix of words and music is shot through with passion.
Bono wrote "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" about his father, who had recently died.
The lyrics relate a typical father-son relationship, in which both parties butt heads and resent each other, but also deeply need and love each other.
In one of his acceptance speeches at Wednesday's awards show in Los Angeles, Bono lost his characteristic bravado and fumbled as he explained that the title of the band's album "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" referenced the aftermath of his father's death.
It was a real moment in the slick awards show, and it was easy to imagine just what sort of father would have raised such a feisty, fascinating individual.
Springsteen used to talk about his own dad in concert, how his dad didn't get his music and how they didn't see eye to eye. But it was always clear that the young Springteen wanted his dad's respect, and it seemed, at least from the perspective of one in the audience, that the father was probably confused by his son, and yet very proud of him, too.
"Kanye, you're next," Bono told Kanye West, who also was up for Album of the Year.
The outspoken hip-hop artist was the opening act during U2's recent tour. Maybe Bono sees in West something of an alternate route — the kind of artist he himself would've become had he born in a different time and place. There was a fatherly pride in Bono's remark, as Bono let West know he was sure the hip-hopper would make it on his own.
Bono likely sees West as well as Springsteen in the "idea" of America.
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060211/ENT/602110379/1031/NEWS03
Thanks Diane L!
