Opinions: Bono and his amnesia "I forgot what goes after this line"

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

i_love_adam

War Child
Joined
Sep 28, 2005
Messages
531
Location
leading a real life. Gone.
I'm personally a bit unhappy that Bono keeps forgetting the lyrics to the songs he wrote. Even the fans know the lyrics better than him. I say, if the rest of the band can make the effort to learn their drum parts, bass lines and guitar riffs, why can't Bono do his part of learning his lyrics?

I know his head is filled with many important facts like 35 000 children in Africa die DAILY of causes directly related to sarvation, but people fight and scramble and pay good money for tickets to see him! And he's earning buckets doing concerts!
 
I heard sometimes he gets so nervous that he blanks out and forgets a line or 2. I heard or read that somewhere, but it doesn't occur that often.

Anyone remember where this might have been mentioned???
 
funny, my dad felt the same way after i got him tickets to the 10/16 philly show. he loved the concert, but was shocked to learn that Bono often forgets lyrics and has a teleprompter onstage... he's also 15 years older than bono...

personally, i don't think it's a big deal- he remembers the lyrics MOST of the time. and i actually like it when he improvises. :wink:
 
Bono has written lyrics to 100's of songs. Can you try to remembering all those lyrics?
 
not to mention, we (fans) listen to those songs all the time. It's no wonder we know all the lyrics when we hear them every day. I doubt Bono goes around listening to his own music all the time. Anyway, despite appearance, he IS only human. :angel:
 
I read that he's sometimes still drunk or hungover - therefore forgetting some of the lyrics. It doesn't bother me though - at least he's actually singing instead of lip synching - as other performers are known to do :D
 
It doesn't bother me if he forgets lines once in a while, or has to use a teleprompter. The little imperfections add to a performance, I think, and his use of a teleprompter doesn't take anything away from a performance.
 
Imagine getting onstage in front of 25-75000 people.

Try to imagine singing the national anthem to whatever country you are from (or any other song for that matter)

I bet you would have a hard time doing it.

I am sure Bono has a hard time remembering words with all that is going through his mind onstage.

no biggie.
 
exactly... I'm still surprised how conscientious
the boys are on stage and what they do remember
and how they respond to the audience in a live setting;
I think that's why the shows are relatively similar,
it's hard to remember some of those old tracks!!
Yes, he wrote them, but he did a lot of stuff in between!!!!
;)
LA 11/01 show rocked//
 
Carmelu2fan said:
Bono has written lyrics to 100's of songs. Can you try to remembering all those lyrics?

He’s not singing 100’s of songs every night; he sings the same songs over and over months on end. If they busted out a new song every other night the flubs would be excusable but under the circumstances it might seem a little sloppy. But that’s Bono’s style on tour now, he likes to improv just about every song and I think that adds charm and uniqueness to each performance, but if you want literal reiteration of every song just save your money and stick to cds. And for what’s its worth I like to think I know the band’s lyrics pretty well but when I sing along at shows I often mangle the lyrics too.
 
Doesn't bother me in the least bit that sometimes Bono forget's his lyrics. It's pretty cute with the stuff that he comes up with! lol. Know that he said on the VH1 special before that he still get's stage fright. Who wouldn't just blank out every now and then? Us fans come to the shows for a good time and personally I walk away feeling quite satisified! :happy:
 
people bring up the stage fright thing, but he has said he has been more comfortable on this tour than on any other tour, and i don't really remember any other tour where he has forgotten lyrics as much as he has this tour.
 
i_love_adam said:
Even the fans know the lyrics better than him. I say, if the rest of the band can make the effort to learn their drum parts, bass lines and guitar riffs, why can't Bono do his part of learning his lyrics?

All band members makes mistakes... Not just Bono... I don't think he's any worse than the others... Sometimes he improvises, but sometimes of course, he just forgets the words... But both Adam and Edge misses some tones here and there, and I have seen Larry loose his drumstick at least on one of the bootlegs this tour... Not remembering which one atm though.... :wink:
 
Carmelu2fan said:
Bono has written lyrics to 100's of songs. Can you try to remembering all those lyrics?

I guess my argument back would be... pay me $35M a year and I'll learn as many songs as you want me to.

These songs aren't that complex to remember. Have you ever seen Bob Dylan perform? He's in his 60's, has written many more COMPLEX songs than Bono, plays a different setlist every night, and doesn't need any sort of teleprompter.

My opinion is that Bono is just too preoccupied with saving the world at this point to put himself 100% into the show.

The teleprompter really becomes a non-issue, technically because it doesn't prevent Bono from screwing up.... I just watched a ZooTV DVD and there was no teleprompter and Bono was dead on the whole night....

I think it's acceptable to use the teleprompter early in the tour to get the words back into the front of your brain, but there has to be a point where you wean yourself off of it.

It's a sad day when Bono needs the teleprompter to sing 'One'.

But who knows, it could be a medical condition? Old age? Weirder things have happened.
 
Last edited:
u2wedge said:


I guess my argument back would be... pay me $35M a year and I'll learn as many songs as you want me to.

These songs aren't that complex to remember. Have you ever seen Bob Dylan perform? He's in his 60's, has written many more COMPLEX songs than Bono, plays a different setlist every night, and doesn't need any sort of teleprompter.

My opinion is that Bono is just too preoccupied with saving the world at this point to put himself 100% into the show.

The teleprompter really becomes a non-issue, technically because it doesn't prevent Bono from screwing up.... I just watched a ZooTV DVD and there was no teleprompter and Bono was dead on the whole night....

I think it's acceptable to use the teleprompter early in the tour to get the words back into the front of your brain, but there has to be a point where you wean yourself off of it.

It's a sad day when Bono needs the teleprompter to sing 'One'.

But who knows, it could be a medical condition? Old age? Weirder things have happened.

and I forgot that Eddie Vedder seems to sing 30 songs a show without a teleprompter either...

again, I say this just as an observation and as much as I hate stating the obvious, U2 is still the best damn rock band... period.
 
If Bono forgets a lyric is it really a big deal? Fuck no. If anything it only adds personality and charm to the performance.
 
Chizip said:
people bring up the stage fright thing, but he has said he has been more comfortable on this tour than on any other tour

What I saw one time was right before the opening night of the first Vertigo show and the guy was clearly nervous. Even if he is more comfortable as on this particular tour. That still doesn't mean stage fright won't him every now and then. Or who knows maybe he just enjoys improvising more than singing the actual lyrics! Really doesn't matter to me he still does one hell of a job!
 
Why do people care? it's not like he's doing it every song. he makes, what, one mistake a night? maybe two? And a lot of Bono's improvised lyrics aren't because he forgot them but because he likes to improvise. Though he certainly improvises to cover up forgotten lyrics too :wink:

really I don't see why it's a big deal, I thought the Walk On thing was hilarious. Now if that was a common occurence I could understand why people would be mad, but I think people are exaggerating his mistakes... at my show (5/7) I think he maybe mumbled one line from The Fly and that was it, he was spot on otherwise (though his rhythm on Vertigo was way off :huh: ). Point is, he makes mistakes about as often as anyone else in the band (okay...maybe a little more :wink: ), there's always going to be a few mistakes during a show from someone, who cares? I'd say overall U2 is very tight live.
 
According to Paul McCartney sometimes when he's trying to concentrat on something, he'll notice a fan holding up a sign, and half of him has to read it, while the other half is saying no! you need to focus on this chord. Anyways maybe this has happened to Bono before, and he messed up a lyric
 
I don't see the big deal either. Honestly, I find it endearing. I mean, they work so hard and Bono puts half of himself into the One campaign and such that he's maybe often distracted by something.

Who knows? He's only human...
 
I'm in high school and everyday before 3rd period we say the pledge and then I'm one of the people that reads the "daily bulletin". It's just like announcements that teachers/clubs/sports need to tell the whole school. I've said the pledge nearly everyday since like 1st grade or whatever...but when I'm on the PA echoing through the whole school....i always have to read it off the sheet or else I will probably screw up.
 
wenda said:
I don't see the big deal either. Honestly, I find it endearing. I mean, they work so hard and Bono puts half of himself into the One campaign and such that he's maybe often distracted by something.

Who knows? He's only human...

It's not a big deal but there’s no show tonight and what else are we going to talk about? Aussie rules football? :)
 
u2granny said:
He's been forgetting lyrics as long as he's been writing songs. It's really not a new phenomenon.

what's old is always new here.....

personally i am more offended by his terrible dancing. ya know, if u2 were a professional band, like say nsync, they would really put some effort into their dance moves, but bono in particular seems very preoccupied with politics.

sometimes when bono dances with his blindfold on, he can't even find his microphone.
 
Back
Top Bottom