This thread makes me laugh at myself, a "veteran" since Gloria ... first video I watched of the lads was on June 21, 2001, when I got the Best Of collection.
I've told variations on this story before, but the bizarre truth is that I never subscribed to Muchmusic, I didn't go much to bars after 1984, and still don't even have basic cable. Rattle & Hum is the obvious exception to my video-less condition, and I had the luxury of seeing several showings in a fine old theatre before resorting to the VCR. But even that film is in its way as iconic as the photos I drew from all those years... I will say, though, that R&H plugged me into Bad like no song before or since.
The two ZooTV shows I saw touched me with their -- you know the feeling, their
humanness *L* -- but didn't "prove it" to me like Elevation did... before that, it was mostly just me and the albums. The songs. Audio, baby...
I took the following from my notes to a friend after watching the Best Of for the first time. [I WAS in awe. As I've declared before, they were always a band of angels to me, singin' my soul, not a band of men. Actually SEEING them is a sort of religious experience...]
It's so funny... it ain't like I never watched videos in the Eighties; while in art school I did, and prior to that there was always the technological novelty of the "videotheque" uptown. LOL But really, from '86 on, I didn't have them around. I think I saw The Unforgettable Fire once, and the last part of Pride I recognize. So what I get is a sort of (homecoming...) flashback on my U2 life, in some parallel world -- Bono wasn't really a "real guy" to me 'cause I never really saw him, that's all! Yes, there was R&H of course, fixing JT-era U2 iconically forever in my imagination. But I didn't watch them grow up.
Last night, I did. *s* [The '98 clip, in contrast, for Sweetest Thing helped.]
Some purely aesthetic observations: of course I did see a ton of photos of the boys. In Bono's face I saw all the fire and intelligence I knew of his conversation and performances. I never found him attractive, nor even beautiful in that all-lit-up sort of way, mostly 'cause I wasn't looking, I guess. [--A lean, lanky, SHIRTLESS Adam in the Streets clip, however...!] ...he wasn't pretty, he was just Bono. He WAS astonishing, he WAS a flaming Spirit --"attraction" was irrelevant. Like asking if your guru's good-looking, you know? It ain't right! *L*
But gee, now...*snerk*
Plus, as i'm painting him (for the first time in years), I'm really looking at him, studying the soul of him in the face.
Sunday Bloody Sunday, live at Red Rocks (mighta seen that once, too) yanked me back to being a 21-year-old who was looking at a riveting, glowing, beautiful
24-year-old Bono afire with spiritual desire and a shaman's authority. His eyes, in those earliest clips especially, were big and dark, wild and humble at the same time.
And then I look at him in With or Without You. I HAD NO IDEA! It does look an awful lot like the treatment in R&H, which I furthermore never did like to look at; the lighting is too harsh on him. But they got it right for the original video!
I really love the I Still Haven't Found... video, even though I "shouldn't." That is such an earnest, pious song, and the video is rock-star playful. But it works. Because it's candid...Larry and Adam actually sing, and laugh! Bono smiling... utterly changes him, softness and light where we are accustomed to seeing deep intensity. I love where he seems to be taunting Edge, trying to make him crack a smile -- while Edge just turns his eyes the other way, his mouth fixed, smile-less. Edge's hair so long and loose (Bono's hair in Desire is, um, PLEBA material...) is a rush...meanwhile, Bono pulling the rock-star, just-got-out-of-bed scuzzy look doesn't do anything for me. I forgive him, though, after watching him hug and kiss those women, and do the twist on the sidewalk, and roll on top of the hood of that car...gee, do ya think there was any drink involved that day? He's so sweet and silly. Bono, come on over for some whisky, hon...
Only the last few weeks, I've been catching up on them ALL. (if it ain't out on videocassette, I haven't seen it, though) It is glorious, it's surreal, it's a blessing.
That's the long answer to the short question.
Deb D
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He set my feet upon a rock
made my footsteps firm
the greatest frontman in the world -- by truecoloursfly:
http://www.atu2.com/news/article.src?ID=1575
[This message has been edited by truecoloursfly (edited 01-02-2002).]
