namkcuR
ONE love, blood, life
(Sorry if this isn't the right place for this, and sorry for the length)
U2's Legend and How They Earned It
It is now just over a month until U2's 11th studio record, enigmatically entitled 'How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb', is finally released. The operative word here is finally. It will have been four years and one month since their last studio release, 2000's 'All That You Can't Leave Behind', and, as always, the new U2 record is the most anticipated new record of the year. That in itself is sort of amazing, that after more or less three decades of existance, that U2 can put increasingly and distressingly long periods of time between records, and when they finally do get around to releasing them, still have legions and legions of fans watering at the mouth for what is, every time, invariably, the most anticipted new record of the year. That is a status that U2 have earned over their 28 year career.
They earned it by taking what raw talent they had in the late 70s and working hard at it, with an ambition and confidence rarely seen in any band before or since, working nonstop, putting out three records in the first four years of the 80s. By being able to reconcile their music with their faith at such an early age. With early classics ranging from 'Out Of Control' to 'I Will Follow' to 'Gloria' to 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' to 'New Year's Day', U2 developed a reputation and built a fanbase around their first three records, 'Boy', 'October', and 'War'.
They earned their status by still striving to grow even after their early success, by allowing their music to evolve into a more spiritual, ambient, and atmospheric entity. With 'The Unforgettable Fire' and 'The Joshua Tree', with too many enduring anthems and ballads to list, they were essentially crowned the biggest band in the world, a title they've yet to concede, though it may have been shaky at times.
They earned their status by not only refusing to fall apart after the negative backlash of 'Rattle And Hum', but by having the balls to turn away from what made them superstars and totally reinvent themselves and their sound, when they could just as easily have made 'Joshua Trees' for the rest of their career. With the trilogy of 'Achtung Baby', 'Zooropa', and 'Pop', U2 continued to push the envelope in every facet of their music, constantly trying to find something new, something they hadn't done before, some way to continue evolving musically, and in doing so, were intent on proving they could continually expierment and throw musical curveballs while still producing quality music. And for the most part, they were successful. Indeed, they earned it by having the sheer balls to release a side project like 'Passengers' under a different moniker, and with a single featuring Pavarotti, no less.
They earned their status by not being afraid to admit when perhaps they had pushed the envelope just a tiny bit too far, by diving headfirst into the idea of just rediscovering themselves instead of reinventing themselves, by letting the next U2 image find them, rather then losing sleep over how to elaborately construct one. By being the one band that had the cajuns to keep playing after 9/11. By writing songs like 'Walk On' and 'Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of', containing a unifying quality that came to comfort us all in the wake of the attack, and being the only band to accomplish that feat almost universally. By showing that they can still rock with the best of them with 'Elevation' and 'Electrical Storm'.
They earned their status by touring tirelessly and relentlessly over their entire career. From the raw, dangerous, Bono-life-risking outings of the early days that were epitomized with 'Under A Blood Red Sky', to the stadium epics of the late 80s that were showcased in 'Rattle And Hum', to the revolutionary, record-setting, bar-raising spectacles that were ZooTv and Popmart and the scaled down arena intimacy of Elevation, which have been captured on countless videos and DVDs, the live stage is where U2 became legends. They are still the only band that can play a 100,000 seat stadium and make it feel like a small club in which you are the only person. Bono connects with the audience in a way that perhaps no other frontman has ever been able to, and that enables the fans to very intimately connect with the performances and the rest of the band, who are near unanimously still labeled the greatest live act in the world. The fact that their 2001 Elevation tour was highest grossing tour of the year and the second-highest grossing tour in history, and the fact that fans have set up entire servers and hubs for the sole purpose of trading U2 concert bootlegs, are testament to the legend of live U2.
But if the live arena is where the heart and soul and energy of U2 are most apparent, the records are where the artistry of U2 is most apparent. On record, U2 can take all the time they need to make the music exactly what they want it to be. And as any fan knows, they DO take all the time they need. Because whereas a band like the Rolling Stones releases a half-assed record every 8 or 10 years just to have an excuse to tour, U2 cares a great deal about not becoming characatures of themselves.
They care a great deal about continuing to make music that MEANS something, about making albums that aren't just collections of songs, but cohesive entities, whole works of a quality high enough to ensure that in a hundred years, people will be listening to them through headphones just like people go to art museums to see the greatest paintings and sculptures ever created. And that's WHY they insist on taking such large periods of time to complete their albums. They are perfectionists, and they always want, nay, need, to make sure that their albums are more than adequate as the ultimate and enduring records of their art.
And throughout the years, the glue that has held everything together time and time again, is the friendship of these four men. It existed before the band did, and it will exist after the band ceases. It is at the core of everything that is and ever was U2. They left their childhood families together, and they've married and had kids of their own together. When the U2 members attend public events with their wives/girlfriends, they look like they're good friends, like they'd be spending the evening together even if they didn't have any event to attend. One gets the feeling that one member's kids might consider the other members to be uncles of sorts. No matter what U2 are doing musically or commercially, that sense of commradary amongst them has always been there, and they've definitely gotten each other through some tough times. Bassist Adam Clayton's drug and substance abuse, and guitarist The Edge's marital problems are just a few examples. The proof of all this is in the unspoken understanding that any fan would be familiar with. The one that says that the day any one member of U2 says he quits, is the day U2 ends. Such is nature of the U2. The friendship has always come before the band. Take the following quotes, from the conclusion of VH1 Legends U2; I think they capture how each member feels about the band very, very well:
Bono: "I don't wanna be in a crap band, and the minute U2 becomes a crap band, we're, you
know, we're all out of here. And crap does not mean, it's not measured in sales, or
even relevance, it's about the sense of adventure, is it still there, are you still
blowing your own mind, are you still growing as a musician, and as a songwriter, and as
a person, and I think, I think that in U2 we are, right now."
Edge: "It's hard to really say in a few sort sentences what everyone brings to the table
because everybody brings, in the end, brings everything they have, and that's a lot
because it's four very smart, very independent, thinking people."
Adam: "Hard as it is to keep it together, it is still possible to have those moments
when it is the four of you being able to keep the rest of the world out, and that's kind of
what it's about."
Larry: "It's bigger than all of us, and it is kind of indescribable, but it's a very special
thing, and I really, I don't want it to end, I don't want the experience to end, and I
know the band may have to do less, and maybe record less, and whatever, but whatever it
is that's special between the band, I never want that to finish."
Bono: "I just remember getting a real, just a sense of, this is the most extraordinary sound
I've ever heard, and it was still out of time and out of tune, and I thought if it made
all the people feel, half what it's making me feel, then this is the way I want to spend
the rest of my life, I mean I really remember feeling, very early on, a strong mesionic
complex coming on, I mean, you know what I mean, meglamania set in very early on with U2."
And today, in October 2004, as they promote their new material, the friendship is still clear as day to see, as is their passion for the music. And not only that, the music looks to be as good as ever. The first single off the new record, 'Vertigo', is as rocking as anything U2 have ever done, and is ridiculously sing-alongable. It is already at the top of the charts. A couple other pieces from the new record were performed live at a recent Top Of The Pops performance, and from what dodgy bootlegged recordings I've heard of them, this record is gonna be a great one. I may be setting myself up for disappointment, but I doubt it.
U2 have earned the privlege of having today's younger artists, the Coldplays and the Radioheads, the Travis's and the Moby's, among others, consistantly referring to U2 as 'the greatest band in the world' and as one of their biggest inspirations. Some of these bands and artists themselves are great, Coldplay and Radiohead in particualar. But if these artists are ever to reach the kinds of plateaus that U2 have been and continue to be on, they will have to earn it just as U2 had to earn it. And once they get there, they will have to avoid getting comfortable. They will have to take on the rock artists of the day head-on, including U2 themselves, who are still relevant as ever.
And still working and making music as if you they still have something left to earn and something left to prove. They never feel like they've made their best music, and that's what makes them so special. These younger bands have their work cut out for them if they want to approach the aforementioned plateau. With U2 set to have a monster year or two ahead of them with a new record and new tour, the youngsters will have to come up with something momentous to counter the U2 machine. I don't envy them right now. When U2 performed Vertigo for Top Of The Pops recently, they were doing so in pouring down rain, and they were faking the performance to an extent as TOTP requested a backtrack to be played with it. And in spite of all of that, and even though they have been around long enough to be on the cover of Rolling Stone with The Beatles, Hendrix, Dylan and Elvis as 'Immortals' of rock, U2 still looked as excited to be doing it as they did in the clubs of Irleand in the late 70s, and they looked like they could continue to do it for another ten or twenty years, easy. So did the fans who had stood in the pouring rain for nine hours just to see them. U2 deserves fans like that. They earned them.
U2's Legend and How They Earned It
It is now just over a month until U2's 11th studio record, enigmatically entitled 'How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb', is finally released. The operative word here is finally. It will have been four years and one month since their last studio release, 2000's 'All That You Can't Leave Behind', and, as always, the new U2 record is the most anticipated new record of the year. That in itself is sort of amazing, that after more or less three decades of existance, that U2 can put increasingly and distressingly long periods of time between records, and when they finally do get around to releasing them, still have legions and legions of fans watering at the mouth for what is, every time, invariably, the most anticipted new record of the year. That is a status that U2 have earned over their 28 year career.
They earned it by taking what raw talent they had in the late 70s and working hard at it, with an ambition and confidence rarely seen in any band before or since, working nonstop, putting out three records in the first four years of the 80s. By being able to reconcile their music with their faith at such an early age. With early classics ranging from 'Out Of Control' to 'I Will Follow' to 'Gloria' to 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' to 'New Year's Day', U2 developed a reputation and built a fanbase around their first three records, 'Boy', 'October', and 'War'.
They earned their status by still striving to grow even after their early success, by allowing their music to evolve into a more spiritual, ambient, and atmospheric entity. With 'The Unforgettable Fire' and 'The Joshua Tree', with too many enduring anthems and ballads to list, they were essentially crowned the biggest band in the world, a title they've yet to concede, though it may have been shaky at times.
They earned their status by not only refusing to fall apart after the negative backlash of 'Rattle And Hum', but by having the balls to turn away from what made them superstars and totally reinvent themselves and their sound, when they could just as easily have made 'Joshua Trees' for the rest of their career. With the trilogy of 'Achtung Baby', 'Zooropa', and 'Pop', U2 continued to push the envelope in every facet of their music, constantly trying to find something new, something they hadn't done before, some way to continue evolving musically, and in doing so, were intent on proving they could continually expierment and throw musical curveballs while still producing quality music. And for the most part, they were successful. Indeed, they earned it by having the sheer balls to release a side project like 'Passengers' under a different moniker, and with a single featuring Pavarotti, no less.
They earned their status by not being afraid to admit when perhaps they had pushed the envelope just a tiny bit too far, by diving headfirst into the idea of just rediscovering themselves instead of reinventing themselves, by letting the next U2 image find them, rather then losing sleep over how to elaborately construct one. By being the one band that had the cajuns to keep playing after 9/11. By writing songs like 'Walk On' and 'Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of', containing a unifying quality that came to comfort us all in the wake of the attack, and being the only band to accomplish that feat almost universally. By showing that they can still rock with the best of them with 'Elevation' and 'Electrical Storm'.
They earned their status by touring tirelessly and relentlessly over their entire career. From the raw, dangerous, Bono-life-risking outings of the early days that were epitomized with 'Under A Blood Red Sky', to the stadium epics of the late 80s that were showcased in 'Rattle And Hum', to the revolutionary, record-setting, bar-raising spectacles that were ZooTv and Popmart and the scaled down arena intimacy of Elevation, which have been captured on countless videos and DVDs, the live stage is where U2 became legends. They are still the only band that can play a 100,000 seat stadium and make it feel like a small club in which you are the only person. Bono connects with the audience in a way that perhaps no other frontman has ever been able to, and that enables the fans to very intimately connect with the performances and the rest of the band, who are near unanimously still labeled the greatest live act in the world. The fact that their 2001 Elevation tour was highest grossing tour of the year and the second-highest grossing tour in history, and the fact that fans have set up entire servers and hubs for the sole purpose of trading U2 concert bootlegs, are testament to the legend of live U2.
But if the live arena is where the heart and soul and energy of U2 are most apparent, the records are where the artistry of U2 is most apparent. On record, U2 can take all the time they need to make the music exactly what they want it to be. And as any fan knows, they DO take all the time they need. Because whereas a band like the Rolling Stones releases a half-assed record every 8 or 10 years just to have an excuse to tour, U2 cares a great deal about not becoming characatures of themselves.
They care a great deal about continuing to make music that MEANS something, about making albums that aren't just collections of songs, but cohesive entities, whole works of a quality high enough to ensure that in a hundred years, people will be listening to them through headphones just like people go to art museums to see the greatest paintings and sculptures ever created. And that's WHY they insist on taking such large periods of time to complete their albums. They are perfectionists, and they always want, nay, need, to make sure that their albums are more than adequate as the ultimate and enduring records of their art.
And throughout the years, the glue that has held everything together time and time again, is the friendship of these four men. It existed before the band did, and it will exist after the band ceases. It is at the core of everything that is and ever was U2. They left their childhood families together, and they've married and had kids of their own together. When the U2 members attend public events with their wives/girlfriends, they look like they're good friends, like they'd be spending the evening together even if they didn't have any event to attend. One gets the feeling that one member's kids might consider the other members to be uncles of sorts. No matter what U2 are doing musically or commercially, that sense of commradary amongst them has always been there, and they've definitely gotten each other through some tough times. Bassist Adam Clayton's drug and substance abuse, and guitarist The Edge's marital problems are just a few examples. The proof of all this is in the unspoken understanding that any fan would be familiar with. The one that says that the day any one member of U2 says he quits, is the day U2 ends. Such is nature of the U2. The friendship has always come before the band. Take the following quotes, from the conclusion of VH1 Legends U2; I think they capture how each member feels about the band very, very well:
Bono: "I don't wanna be in a crap band, and the minute U2 becomes a crap band, we're, you
know, we're all out of here. And crap does not mean, it's not measured in sales, or
even relevance, it's about the sense of adventure, is it still there, are you still
blowing your own mind, are you still growing as a musician, and as a songwriter, and as
a person, and I think, I think that in U2 we are, right now."
Edge: "It's hard to really say in a few sort sentences what everyone brings to the table
because everybody brings, in the end, brings everything they have, and that's a lot
because it's four very smart, very independent, thinking people."
Adam: "Hard as it is to keep it together, it is still possible to have those moments
when it is the four of you being able to keep the rest of the world out, and that's kind of
what it's about."
Larry: "It's bigger than all of us, and it is kind of indescribable, but it's a very special
thing, and I really, I don't want it to end, I don't want the experience to end, and I
know the band may have to do less, and maybe record less, and whatever, but whatever it
is that's special between the band, I never want that to finish."
Bono: "I just remember getting a real, just a sense of, this is the most extraordinary sound
I've ever heard, and it was still out of time and out of tune, and I thought if it made
all the people feel, half what it's making me feel, then this is the way I want to spend
the rest of my life, I mean I really remember feeling, very early on, a strong mesionic
complex coming on, I mean, you know what I mean, meglamania set in very early on with U2."
And today, in October 2004, as they promote their new material, the friendship is still clear as day to see, as is their passion for the music. And not only that, the music looks to be as good as ever. The first single off the new record, 'Vertigo', is as rocking as anything U2 have ever done, and is ridiculously sing-alongable. It is already at the top of the charts. A couple other pieces from the new record were performed live at a recent Top Of The Pops performance, and from what dodgy bootlegged recordings I've heard of them, this record is gonna be a great one. I may be setting myself up for disappointment, but I doubt it.
U2 have earned the privlege of having today's younger artists, the Coldplays and the Radioheads, the Travis's and the Moby's, among others, consistantly referring to U2 as 'the greatest band in the world' and as one of their biggest inspirations. Some of these bands and artists themselves are great, Coldplay and Radiohead in particualar. But if these artists are ever to reach the kinds of plateaus that U2 have been and continue to be on, they will have to earn it just as U2 had to earn it. And once they get there, they will have to avoid getting comfortable. They will have to take on the rock artists of the day head-on, including U2 themselves, who are still relevant as ever.
And still working and making music as if you they still have something left to earn and something left to prove. They never feel like they've made their best music, and that's what makes them so special. These younger bands have their work cut out for them if they want to approach the aforementioned plateau. With U2 set to have a monster year or two ahead of them with a new record and new tour, the youngsters will have to come up with something momentous to counter the U2 machine. I don't envy them right now. When U2 performed Vertigo for Top Of The Pops recently, they were doing so in pouring down rain, and they were faking the performance to an extent as TOTP requested a backtrack to be played with it. And in spite of all of that, and even though they have been around long enough to be on the cover of Rolling Stone with The Beatles, Hendrix, Dylan and Elvis as 'Immortals' of rock, U2 still looked as excited to be doing it as they did in the clubs of Irleand in the late 70s, and they looked like they could continue to do it for another ten or twenty years, easy. So did the fans who had stood in the pouring rain for nine hours just to see them. U2 deserves fans like that. They earned them.
for the Stones. Come on, you got to give Keith some credit for still being alive!)
