boystupidboy
Refugee
i've heard it all before.If Bono wants to do his thing then fair play to him but when i go to a u2 concert i dont want to have it rammed down my throat.
'waits for more abuse'
'waits for more abuse'
The Pedestal We've Put Them On.
- Thread starter BonosSaint
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Aardvark747
Blue Crack Addict
boystupidboy said:
I think that's fair enough...we can see it on the future dvd release anyway!!
boystupidboy
Refugee
bullet the blue sky,crumbs from your table etc etc etc
starsgoblue
Blue Crack Addict
I don't see it as a big surprise that U2 are aware and sensitive to humanitarian/social issues....they've always been that way in their music, shows and actions. But whatever....
boystupidboy
Refugee
Ive finished playing devils advocate....roll on june!!!!
boystupidboy said:
Speaking only for myself...of course I wouldn't enjoy the music of the aforementioned songs (to which you could add Bad, Please, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Peace On Earth, etc. etc.) half as much if it were not for the meaning the underpins them. Bullet the Blue Sky is an exceptional song precisly because of what inspired it. I can feel the helicopters flying overhead strafing machine gun fire as Edge blasts into a solo and the dark place that Bono takes it as the song develops. If it were a ditty about a guy angry because he had not gotten tickets to see a rock gig it just wouldn't have the same effect.
OP
OP
BonosSaint
Rock n' Roll Doggie
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2004
- Messages
- 3,566
I was reading with some puzzlement (although not much intimidation) the responses to my thread on pedestals. All in all, I thought it was a quiet post.
To make myself clear, I love this band. I love their music, their energy, their perception and their daring. I also like them very much personally. I became interested in their music when I watched Bono induct Bob Marley into the R&R Hall of Fame. Absolutely charmed, I began to listen to their music, based purely on Bono's charisma. U2 is one of the few bands that changed the way I looked at things, thought about them. I admire immensely the work Bono does for social change and awareness. I appreciate his passion, his dedication, his use of language, his compassion, his curiosity, his practicality, that transcending voice and his wonderful ability to connect with people.
I read my post to see what some people could be so enflamed by. Perhaps the title ofended people. I was very careful how I worded it. I did not say they should be knocked off their pedestal. I said perhaps we should let them walk off it, take U2 off the hook for what they may not be able to provide anymore.
Perhaps the paragraph that follows offended: "I think they are grateful in the abstract. But they don't know jacksquat about us except that we love them. I'm sure that love is intoxicating for a while, but like anything, they don't need us as much as they used to. And you don't value what you don't need. And you don't really respect what you don't value."
This was not a cynical statement about the bad. That was a statement about human response and they are very human.
But they live in a world insulated by what the rest of us call reality. Every big band does. That insulation eventually builds a wall between them and the rest of the world, whether they want it that way or not. I think U2 makes an effort to connect, to listen, to care, but it is a wide gulf between us. The desire to tear down the wall may continue, but it can only last those few hours of a concert when exhileratingly, Bono is in your face and you are in his.
I will continue to listen to U2 with much pleasure. But I won't expect them to be anything more than human, with all the heights and lows that entails.
To make myself clear, I love this band. I love their music, their energy, their perception and their daring. I also like them very much personally. I became interested in their music when I watched Bono induct Bob Marley into the R&R Hall of Fame. Absolutely charmed, I began to listen to their music, based purely on Bono's charisma. U2 is one of the few bands that changed the way I looked at things, thought about them. I admire immensely the work Bono does for social change and awareness. I appreciate his passion, his dedication, his use of language, his compassion, his curiosity, his practicality, that transcending voice and his wonderful ability to connect with people.
I read my post to see what some people could be so enflamed by. Perhaps the title ofended people. I was very careful how I worded it. I did not say they should be knocked off their pedestal. I said perhaps we should let them walk off it, take U2 off the hook for what they may not be able to provide anymore.
Perhaps the paragraph that follows offended: "I think they are grateful in the abstract. But they don't know jacksquat about us except that we love them. I'm sure that love is intoxicating for a while, but like anything, they don't need us as much as they used to. And you don't value what you don't need. And you don't really respect what you don't value."
This was not a cynical statement about the bad. That was a statement about human response and they are very human.
But they live in a world insulated by what the rest of us call reality. Every big band does. That insulation eventually builds a wall between them and the rest of the world, whether they want it that way or not. I think U2 makes an effort to connect, to listen, to care, but it is a wide gulf between us. The desire to tear down the wall may continue, but it can only last those few hours of a concert when exhileratingly, Bono is in your face and you are in his.
I will continue to listen to U2 with much pleasure. But I won't expect them to be anything more than human, with all the heights and lows that entails.
I thought your post was very well said, BonosSaint.
Sometimes people just don't want to admit that they are partially responsible for a fiasco - even if it is just on the level of adulation.
U2 will survive this ordeal. Hopefully unscathed.
THE GOAL IS SOUL....
Sometimes people just don't want to admit that they are partially responsible for a fiasco - even if it is just on the level of adulation.
U2 will survive this ordeal. Hopefully unscathed.
THE GOAL IS SOUL....
OP
OP
BonosSaint
Rock n' Roll Doggie
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2004
- Messages
- 3,566
Thank you, Jamila.
Saracene
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
BonosSaint, your post pretty much summed up the way I feel about the band, too. I love the music, and find there's plenty to like about them as people. But I never thought them saints or embodiments of all that's pure and perfect. And although I think that love of music is their most important motivation, they're not at all indifferent to money.
starsgoblue
Blue Crack Addict
Jamila said:I thought your post was very well said, BonosSaint.
Sometimes people just don't want to admit that they are partially responsible for a fiasco - even if it is just on the level of adulation.
U2 will survive this ordeal. Hopefully unscathed.
THE GOAL IS SOUL....
Hey Jam! I just want to clarify I am NOT upset with the band right now at all...I got my tickets and I feel like I got them because I was persistent. I was just responding to the thought of Bono as an advocate for poverty and AIDS and the like, and Jam, I know you know my position on that. Peace.
mofo82
Refugee
starsgoblue said:
Becka, I wasn't sure if I read that right, but, in other words are you saying what happened Tuesday was ok?
I was persistent and I didn't get tickets. There were thousands of persistent people that didn't get their tickets. Hell, Fanfire told me before and after I bought my membership that members had no limit to the number of shows to buy presale tickets to. It that cool? Not so much. I can't even get a refund after buying the membership based on their false info. Is it right that we didn't know what the real number of available presale tickets were going to be until we got the email 4 days before the presale? They added so many little but important details that would've changed my mind about buying the membership in the first place.
I am upset with the band because they seem to have lost the passion to be in any close connection with one of the most important services to their fanbase- the operations of their fanclub, the paid one at that. If the right people were conducting business in their name the right way, this fiasco wouldn't have happened. There could've been a cap or limit on the number of memberships they sold to keep the congestion down, but instead the $ signs meant more to U2 the business. U2 seems to have gotten too big for themselves.
It truly hurts to say these things because U2 gave me an understanding of music and a right way of life, one I hadn't seen before. True, Bono continues to lobby for great reasons but it seems the band has dropped the ball as a group by, dare I say, exploiting their fans. They fell off the pedistal Tuesday and aren't even trying to get back up on it because they aren't responding to this mess. Instead we get more vague messages from U2.com. What a shame.
Last edited:
starsgoblue
Blue Crack Addict
No, Kev...I didn't mean it that way and I can see how my choice of words would definetly make you read it like that. And in saying I'm not upset with the band doesn't mean that I don't think the ticketing situation was definetly screwed up. My post was more in response to Jamila's than anything else...so I apologize for being off-topic.
Nobody should be putting anyone on pedestals however, that is a surefire way to lead to dissapointment...everyone is human and makes mistakes...
Nobody should be putting anyone on pedestals however, that is a surefire way to lead to dissapointment...everyone is human and makes mistakes...
Last edited:
mofo82
Refugee
ok cool
btw glad you snagged some tix
btw glad you snagged some tix
starsgoblue
Blue Crack Addict
Thanks for understanding, Kev. And thanks. I'm trying to see bout Chitown this weekend.... 
mofo82
Refugee
starsgoblue said:Thanks for understanding, Kev. And thanks. I'm trying to see bout Chitown this weekend....
Thanks Becka...if you can pull something off that'd be superawesomo!!!
Chicago
Columbus
sallycinnamon78
New Yorker
BonosSaint said:
I didn't take this to be a harsh criticism of the band - I thought it was actually quite sympathetic, articulate, and sensitive.
Absolutely. I think we expect a little more than we should of Bono (in particular) sometimes - he's a good, kind, warmhearted man - but not a saint.
boystupidboy said:
What the flying fucking fruitbat is THAT?
Oh yeah, totally agree. Damn Bono. How dare he use his position to attempt to help others? What sort of wanker promises to devote the rest of their life to eradicating poverty? You bastard, Bono - quit trying to save lives and stick to making music. Going round the world raising awareness of and funding for treatment of life-threatening diseases - what an evil man.
*realises that boystupidboy is just being a wind-up merchant, but likes taking a Pro Bono stance on these matters*
Last edited:
Pero
Refugee
Really, BonoSaint(or what ever)
Pack your shit and get tha fuck out
Pack your shit and get tha fuck out
Not nice Pero. Please follow the rules of the board. Personal attacks are not allowed.
OP
OP
BonosSaint
Rock n' Roll Doggie
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2004
- Messages
- 3,566
Pero said:
I'LL TAKE THE HEAT.
alreadygone
The Fly
BonoSaint, I think your original post was heartfelt, well-said, and gets at something that's been bothering me about this whole latest effort. I feel like a complete disloyal ass saying it (writing it), but BonoSaint is right--the only place that our worlds intersect is in those arenas and stadiums (stadia if you're a snob ). It's the one place where we need each other; where the relationship is incomplete without one or the other, audience or band. One could argue that the same relationship exists as soon as we pick up and listen to a record--we're giving them money, they wouldn't exist, at least not as they are, if we didn't buy their records (and their tshirts and their baubles and their...). BUT, it's so easy to imagine that the relationship is so much more intimate, personal, and important than it really is when it's just you and the boys in the privacy (lunacy) of your own living room. Sure, I'm bothered by ticketmaster, ticket scalpers, and the thought that I've given thousands of dollars over the years to 4 Irish dudes who don't know I personally exist, but by God I'll still be first in line to see them.
Peace y'all.
). It's the one place where we need each other; where the relationship is incomplete without one or the other, audience or band. One could argue that the same relationship exists as soon as we pick up and listen to a record--we're giving them money, they wouldn't exist, at least not as they are, if we didn't buy their records (and their tshirts and their baubles and their...). BUT, it's so easy to imagine that the relationship is so much more intimate, personal, and important than it really is when it's just you and the boys in the privacy (lunacy) of your own living room. Sure, I'm bothered by ticketmaster, ticket scalpers, and the thought that I've given thousands of dollars over the years to 4 Irish dudes who don't know I personally exist, but by God I'll still be first in line to see them.Peace y'all.
Similar threads
