Any idea why Edge isn't playing Ultraviolet like Zoo TV?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Won't some other band come along and just mimic U2 of the 90's so that some of these folks won't have to live in the past? They can make a whole career of ZooTV and PopMart, they can play the characters, they can even dress the part.
 
Won't some other band come along and just mimic U2 of the 90's so that some of these folks won't have to live in the past? They can make a whole career of ZooTV and PopMart, they can play the characters, they can even dress the part.

You laugh, but I bet if someone did just that - they'd make a killing. ZooTV and POPmart are arguably the greatest tours of all time, and I doubt they'll ever surpassed. :D
 
You laugh, but I bet if someone did just that - they'd make a killing. ZooTV and POPmart are arguably the greatest tours of all time, and I doubt they'll ever surpassed. :D

They'll never be surpassed only if you never let anything surpass them. Self-fulfilling prophecies generally end up fulfilling themselves (go figure).

Much as I love ZooTV and PopMart... fuck the past, kiss the future. Dream out loud.
 
I like the new guitar part better. Its more atmospheric. And its such a big sound which is more fun to play haha. :lol:
 
Edge has been great, but Ican't say he has been on FIRE...it seems like he is playing a little sloppy this time around...unless he's doing it on purpose...2 songs that come to mind...the Walk On little interlude/solo has been pretty inconsistent and the other night he sorta fucked up the UTEOTW solo...still great though :)
 
The Edge IS on fire during the falsetto solo on Stuck.

Stuck falsetto solo > UC guitar solo

this is a lie!!!!!!

i agree with most of the other stuff here, but i get the feeling edge forgets how to play songs and then goes back to the album version to "re-learn" the songs and comes up with what he wants to play.
 
While I would prefer to hear UV than not....i too have to admit to my dissapoinntment with the way Edge plays it now. It was just dandy the way it was. BUT....the important thing is that it is being played again.
 
I prefer the way it's played now. But sometimes looking into the past and seeing what worked well and taking it to a new level is more useful than a lot of people realise. Simply ignoring something that worked so well however in the past, and coming up with a new lazier attempt is a bit more trial and error. With that, I think U2 kid themselves sometimes into thinking their lazier attempts are better.

Anyhow for the record (as I said before) I like the way UV is played now. But, WOWY is definitely not better now than it has been in the past Macphisto with or without.
 
Won't some other band come along and just mimic U2 of the 90's so that some of these folks won't have to live in the past? They can make a whole career of ZooTV and PopMart, they can play the characters, they can even dress the part.

It's a heck of a lot more fun than pretending to be U2 from the 80s, which is basically what the band has done since 2000.
 
Mac as a character was cool, as a singer he blew! I cringe everytime I hear him sing in that stupid accent. He was the downfall of WOWY. That's a confirmed rumor.

That "stupid accent" is upper-class English I'll have you know. And I completely disagree. In my view, Macphisto brought an Old European camp to Desire, particularly when he rrrolled his rrs Of course, it is highly amusing that you, always keen to stress subjectivity consider it a "confirmed rumour" that Mac ruined WOWY. There are many, myself included, who would disagree- on the Sydney DVD, I don't hear botched phrasing, in fact I hear a lot of power towards the end.
 
Last edited:
:huh:

Um, yeah... that makes about zero sense.

I am sorry if your faculties are not quite with you, today. Allow me to explain: in my opinion, impersonating 90s U2 is a lot more fun than impersonating 80s U2- the costumes are far more entertaining for a start. Regrettably, the boys themselves decided to take the latter course since 2000.
 
That "stupid accent" is upper-class English I'll have you know.
You just insulted a lot of the English.

And I completely disagree. In my view, Macphisto brought an Old European camp to Desire, particularly when he rrrolled his rrs
It worked for Desire(although Mirroball Man was better for that song) but not for WOWY.


Of course, it is highly amusing that you, always keen to stress subjectivity (when it suits you of course) consider it a "confirmed rumour" that Mac ruined WOWY.
For someone who likes Mac as much as you do, I would have thought you would understand sarcasm and irony. :shrug:
 
I am sorry if your faculties are not quite with you, today. Allow me to explain: in my opinion, impersonating 90s U2 is a lot more fun than impersonating 80s U2- the costumes are far more entertaining for a start. Regrettably, the boys themselves decided to take the latter course since 2000.

Insults aside, I'm curious, because I've asked this of many folks and no one has been able to give me an answer, but what exactly about the 2000s is impersonating the 80's?
 
You just insulted a lot of the English.


It worked for Desire(although Mirroball Man was better for that song) but not for WOWY.



For someone who likes Mac as much as you do, I would have thought you would understand sarcasm and irony. :shrug:


First of all, are you English? If not, then (understandably) you will not neccessarily appreciate the accent. There was an upper-class, rather acerbic Englishman called Quentin Crisp, who used to speak a lot like that. In fact he is said to have been among the sources of inspiration for Macphisto.

Secondly, Rumours can be confirmed- there is no logical contradiction. I gave you the benefit of the doubt, there and treated it as a serious point. I don't actually hear a lot of Macphisto on WOWY- there is a strong hint of course, but after the telephone call (and on Zoomerang, after Lemon), I get the impression that Macphisto and Bono merge.
 
First of all, are you English? If not, then (understandably) you will not neccessarily appreciate the accent. There was an upper-class, rather acerbic Englishman called Quentin Crisp, who used to speak a lot like that. In fact he is said to have been among the sources of inspiration for Macphisto.
But to me it's like saying Mirrorball Man is a real southern accent. They were both exagerrated spoofs of accents...

Secondly, Rumours can be confirmed- there is no logical contradiction. I gave you the benefit of the doubt, there and treated it as a serious point.
First of all the "confirmed rumor" bit is a joke here in interference, maybe it was before your time. But the point of the joke is that once it's confirmed, by definition it is no longer rumor but fact.

I don't actually hear a lot of Macphisto on WOWY- there is a strong hint of course, but after the telephone call (and on Zoomerang, after Lemon), I get the impression that Macphisto and Bono merge.
To each their own, I can hear it as plain as day, and I think it ruins the song. The accent, the phrasing, everything.
 
Insults aside, I'm curious, because I've asked this of many folks and no one has been able to give me an answer, but what exactly about the 2000s is impersonating the 80's?

Well the irony hasn't been there since 2000, allowing greater room for "sincerity". Their general "look" has been (as a rule) more conservative- especially on Elevation and Vertigo. Bono has neither sent his rock star image up nor adopted any alter-egoes. Although politics never went away in the 1990s, they have taken a more central position since 2000, the most obvious manifestations being Bono's speech before One in 2005 and more recently the Burmese mask protest. Some applaud this- for others it stirs uncomfortable meories of Rattle and Hum. Furthermore many of their setlists have revisited the 1980s with the returns for Out Of Control, Electric Co, Running To Stand Still, An Cath Dubh,and The Unforgettable Fire (all perfectly good songs) - these have been at the expense of their 90s material, which , AB aside has not figured so prominently. Meanwhile some of their new material frequently got out the old road maps- City Of Blinding Lights, Miracle Drug, Beautiful Day, Walk On and of course Vertigo, whose repetition in the European leg, consciously evoked their earlier years, when they didn't have so much material to play. In my view, these subtle differences have accumulated.
 
But to me it's like saying Mirrorball Man is a real southern accent. They were both exagerrated spoofs of accents...


First of all the "confirmed rumor" bit is a joke here in interference, maybe it was before your time. But the point of the joke is that once it's confirmed, by definition it is no longer rumor but fact.


To each their own, I can hear it as plain as day, and I think it ruins the song. The accent, the phrasing, everything.

Fair enough :up:
 
Well the irony hasn't been there since 2000, allowing greater room for "sincerity". Their general "look" has been (as a rule) more conservative- especially on Elevation and Vertigo. Bono has neither sent his rock star image up nor adopted any alter-egoes. Although politics never went away in the 1990s, they have taken a more central position since 2000, the most obvious manifestations being Bono's speech before One in 2005 and more recently the Burmese mask protest. Some applaud this- for others it stirs uncomfortable meories of Rattle and Hum. Furthermore many of their setlists have revisited the 1980s with the returns for Out Of Control, Electric Co, Running To Stand Still, An Cath Dubh,and The Unforgettable Fire (all perfectly good songs) - these have been at the expense of their 90s material, which , AB aside has not figured so prominently. Meanwhile some of their new material frequently got out the old road maps- City Of Blinding Lights, Miracle Drug, Beautiful Day, Walk On and of course Vertigo, whose repetition in the European leg, consciously evoked their earlier years, when they didn't have so much material to play. In my view, these subtle differences have accumulated.

MOST of these are very poor leaps of logic, so because they don't do irony or alter-ego they are trying to be 80's U2? Sorry that doesn't fly with me...

They are not nearly as earnest as they were in the 80's. To me the 2000s U2 is a natural evolution, they shed the earnestness by going to another extreme, now they have found a way to be serious but still embrace humor without going to any extremes.

For better or worse soundwise they haven't gone back. They may have used a more familiar sound in Beautiful Day, but other than that you would not have found that song in the 80's. They never attempted straight forward pop tunes like IALW or Wild Honey. They never had power chord songs like Vertigo. Lyrically, they definately went a different way in 2000. And I can't think of anything off of NLOTH that would have fit in the 80's either.

I think it's lazy comparisons that draw the two eras together.
 
One of the very few things that is bugging me about the band's performances at the moment is Larry resorting to a very lazy, boring drum part for Mysterious Ways which is one of his best and funkiest beats.

Get it together Lawrence !! :angry:
 
i don't remember u2 creating songs about nothing in the 80s.

if you want an album that goes back to the 80s, look no further than no line. but don't try to cite the last two pieces of shit as u2 going back to their roots.
 
i don't remember u2 creating songs about nothing in the 80s.

if you want an album that goes back to the 80s, look no further than no line. but don't try to cite the last two pieces of shit as u2 going back to their roots.

So what would you say "the last two" are? They aren't moving forward, let's face it, after Pop they quit experimenting and went back to their roots, they have even said ATYCLB is a throw back to their earlier days.
 
*as many songs about nothing. besides, trip has some meaning, it isn't a series of random words set to music.

regardless, u2 were not twinkly pop rock in the 1980s, like atyclb and hutdab are.

I actually prefer ATYCLB to TJT, even though Elevation is godawful. But I'd take TUF, probably October, probably War, and possibly Boy over ATYCLB. Bomb, on the other hand, is abhorrent... only R&H do I think is a worse album.

There's no way ATYCLB is a throwback to the old days, though. It's sonically much closer to AB than anything in the 80s, and its lyrics don't really resemble any other U2 album prior. Bomb (and Elevation) took the ATYCLB lyrical style and murdered it. NLOTH is really a combination of TUF, AB, Zooropa, and ATYCLB lyrically, with its own strong central concepts that make it a true concept album.
 
Back
Top Bottom