For sure, doing even the simplest stuff he does while running around on stage in a stadium I imagine is really hard! Edge is the best Edge we will ever get.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 31 December 2017 17:19 (six years ago) link
I want to say achtung baby and zooropa was the last time he did anything that caught my attention. A song like Until the End of the World, he's moving around a lot more than usual, even has a guitar solo!
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 31 December 2017 17:22 (six years ago) link
Ok. I think there's at least an equally interesting debate about whether Adam Clayton can play bass or not.
Consensus in my youth was that Adam could not, in fact, play bass particularly well.
Consensus in their mid-career period was, who cares?
I don't know the current consensus. Still stuck on "don't care."
― twas in the fleek midwinter (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, 31 December 2017 17:24 (six years ago) link
my relationship with U2 ends abruptly around Zooropa/Passengers so it’s possible my perspective is tainted.I think adam is okay - he doesn’t have jazz chops or anything but you can catch him bringing something to the song.as an aside, it’s probably a different thread really but I can’t understand bonamassa at all. he’s like a walking museum of ancient licks and he will influence no one.
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Sunday, 31 December 2017 17:29 (six years ago) link
rogermexico, as an aside, there are actually two good bonamassa threads
thread for discussion of guitarists i have only heard of because i read guitar magazines in the late 90s
OFFICAL ILX JOE BONAMASSA CELEBRATION THREAD
― sympathy for the tasmanian devil (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, 31 December 2017 17:32 (six years ago) link
Adam iirc couldn't even play bass when he joined up, they just thought he was a cool-looking dude and he happened to have a bass or something. i could be misremembering my U2 history. he's good, i think. he's had a lot of good bass lines in his career, memorable ones.
Larry is probably the best musician in the bunch.
Bono has been both great and terrible in terms of both singing and lyrics.
― omar little, Sunday, 31 December 2017 17:32 (six years ago) link
Larry is p much unimpeachable, agreed
― sympathy for the tasmanian devil (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, 31 December 2017 17:34 (six years ago) link
thanking u mad puffin
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Sunday, 31 December 2017 17:37 (six years ago) link
For sure, doing even the simplest stuff he does while running around on stage in a stadium I imagine is really hard!
I prefer when he falls off stages in stadium, tbh, if only he'd do more of that I've have more respect for him. Seriously though I think he's always been the only interesting musician in U2 and still is.
― Whiney Houston (Tom D.), Sunday, 31 December 2017 17:42 (six years ago) link
my challenging opinion is that, in any creative field, if you don't think you're at least hypothetically capable of producing your very best work in the near future, you should just stop.
― Karl Malone, Sunday, 31 December 2017 17:45 (six years ago) link
I'm sure they think they are but hasn't the Edge got some ridiculous clifftop mansion to maintain?
― Whiney Houston (Tom D.), Sunday, 31 December 2017 17:48 (six years ago) link
...And my counterchallop is that as long as someone wants to hear what you're doing now and where you're going next, you may as well continue exploring/experimenting.
No, most people don't go to see the Rolling Stones with a burning desire to hear them say "here's one from our new album."
But on the other hand, making Tom Rush or Bob Dylan slog around with the same ten songs they wrote when they were 20 seems cruel in a different way.
― sympathy for the tasmanian devil (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, 31 December 2017 17:49 (six years ago) link
Oh right, he hasn't built it yet - well, as of May 2016 that is, an update would be appreciated...
http://static.latimes.com/the-edge/
― Whiney Houston (Tom D.), Sunday, 31 December 2017 17:50 (six years ago) link
IMO clifftop mansions are great for immensely rich older men with young, physically fit wives.
"Ooops, he slipped! There was nothing I could do!"
― sympathy for the tasmanian devil (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, 31 December 2017 17:54 (six years ago) link
Adam's bass playing is imo the highlight of "Pop." Adam, fwiw, also the only member of U2 to ever miss a gig (and, related, go to rehab).
I'd argue U2's major advances post Popmart have been stage design and presentation. The claw stadium stage, the Songs of Innocence set, even (in that context) the stripped down Joshua Tree redux stage.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 31 December 2017 18:04 (six years ago) link
He's not too nimble on his feet either, as we have seen earlier.
― Whiney Houston (Tom D.), Sunday, 31 December 2017 18:05 (six years ago) link
i heard American Soul off the new album on the radio recently and it reminded me that the way they've focused on 'rocking out' in the last 15 years or so, contrary to all their previous strengths, is so strange and i can't believe they're still at it
― ufo, Sunday, 31 December 2017 18:12 (six years ago) link
um throwing Alex Lifeson in with Phish when he's probably the most economical guitarist of his generation is pretty bonkers
― Joan Digimon (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 31 December 2017 18:17 (six years ago) link
I think the new one "rocks" a bit more than the last one. The last one was also a better album.
― omar little, Sunday, 31 December 2017 18:19 (six years ago) link
xpost Lifeson also clearly glommed on to what the Edge and cohort were up to.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 31 December 2017 18:21 (six years ago) link
Bono thinks The Biggest Band in the World should record rock singles * shrug*
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 31 December 2017 18:23 (six years ago) link
Edge should have just had them include this Bill Bailey clip in that doco
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8dZwXnMrRU
― shackling the masses with plastic-wrapped snack picks (sic), Sunday, 31 December 2017 18:30 (six years ago) link
also Rush literally afaik has never jammed or improv'ed ever in concert
― Joan Digimon (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 31 December 2017 18:31 (six years ago) link
GUYS the distinction is "admired by chops-hungry muso types" / "reviled by chops-hungry muso types."
You can quibble all you like about who is included/excluded from each bucket, but it is a recognizable distinction.
― sympathy for the tasmanian devil (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, 31 December 2017 18:54 (six years ago) link
Edge can't play
But hes read all the manuals of the post-playing equipment
This is not even up for argument tbh. He couldn't even figure out the chords for the weight ffs
― remember the lmao (darraghmac), Monday, 1 January 2018 00:56 (six years ago) link
Quick note here that Bono, in his introduction to Tom Doyle's Billy Mackenzie biography The Glamour Chase, specifically admitted that they tried to rip off the Associates (and that he knew there was no way for him to rip off Billy's singing, a wise assessment). And as Doyle himself says in the book, I think you can pretty clearly hear it on the band's 1980 song "Paperhouse," from their debut The Affectionate Punch -- definitely a proto-Edge guitar break in there:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U3xiazgtmA
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 1 January 2018 03:41 (six years ago) link
(Should add of course that said guitar is played by the other core member of the original band, Alan Rankine.)
so as ILM's likely most loyal U2 fan i feel the need to add my 2 cents about the new album. don't read if you hate them, or me i guess.
like all U2 albums, if you're a U2 fan you're probably going to enjoy it but it feels like only half their work, there are a lot of songs on here that sound very much unlike them. more generic. This one too often feels like the work of other parties in places (recognizing that U2 has worked with other parties before of course but it felt a lot more collaborative in those instances.) though in a few cases on this album it works, the song w/Haim and a couple of the tracks with Andy Barlow from Lamb are nice.
But this is down there with Rattle and Hum and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb but where the former fell flat on its face sometimes bc of miscalculation and the latter was U2 settling into a very by-the-numbers groove, at least in R&H there were some genuinely outstanding songs and in HTDAAB they nailed a classic U2 sound and there are a couple of genuinely rousing tracks.
(also: after sitting with it for awhile i think Songs of Innocence is the better album and actually winds up in the middle of their discography quality-wise for me. upthread i complained about it but i think it's actually very good and sounds like a very heartfelt U2 album -- similar to No Line on the Horizon, albeit not nearly as great.)
my updated, subjective album rankings:
Achtung BabyThe Joshua Tree ZooropaWarUnforgettablePassengersPopBoyNo Line on the HorizonSongs of InnocenceAll That You Can’t Leave BehindOctoberRattle and Hum/How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb/Songs of Experience
― omar little, Friday, 5 January 2018 17:35 (six years ago) link
Probably wouldn't quibble with that ranking, even if I might shift a couple of the top ones around. Haven't even bothered with the new one.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 5 January 2018 17:57 (six years ago) link
clicked this What's Going On cover expecting it to be disastrous, to my surprise it is not horrible https://open.spotify.com/track/5CPWcXuqQ2QSXJmc1sT19u
― niels, Friday, 5 January 2018 20:29 (six years ago) link
WarThe Joshua TreeUnforgettableAchtung BabyNo Line on the HorizonRattle and HumPassengersBoyZooropaOctoberPopSongs of ExperienceSongs of InnocenceAll That You Can’t Leave BehindHow To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
― reggie (qualmsley), Friday, 5 January 2018 22:08 (six years ago) link
one of us could win!
https://www.omaze.com/experiences/U2-play-mini-golf-red?ref=U2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO1gzR36K0I
― sleeve, Sunday, 7 January 2018 00:51 (six years ago) link
Just look at these two
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Sunday, 7 January 2018 20:31 (six years ago) link
Putt on your boots
― failsun ra (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, 7 January 2018 20:35 (six years ago) link
Just-For-Men-Gel of Harlem
― attention vampire (MatthewK), Sunday, 7 January 2018 21:12 (six years ago) link
where the geeks have no shame
― pee-wee and the power men (bizarro gazzara), Sunday, 7 January 2018 21:14 (six years ago) link
i still haven't found what i'm looking for, which is my golf ball, so i'll have to take a two stroke penalty
― omar little, Sunday, 7 January 2018 21:19 (six years ago) link
how long, how long must we play this hole
― failsun ra (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, 7 January 2018 22:08 (six years ago) link
Before and after hairplugs.
― MaresNest, Sunday, 7 January 2018 22:38 (six years ago) link
Stuck in a sandtrap you can't get out of.
― Whiney Houston (Tom D.), Sunday, 7 January 2018 22:45 (six years ago) link
“You’re the best thing about me” is worse than “I’m my own best friend” and bono should just go crawl under a rock somewhere and not bother anybody
― calstars, Saturday, 13 October 2018 22:53 (five years ago) link
this hardwell remix, which truly goes hard, is hilarious https://open.spotify.com/track/242D4gArhDykTJodk93EP1?si=ecxVeq4TQo-FhU10iDNqmA
― niels, Friday, 23 November 2018 10:39 (five years ago) link
U2 have shared a new song called “Your Song Saved My Life.” Their new track appears on the soundtrack to the upcoming animated film Sing 2, which stars Bono as a reclusive lion rock star named Clay Calloway. Listen to the new song below. Sing 2 hits theaters on December 22.
!!!!!!!!!!!
― have you considered that there are 1 shades of gray (Karl Malone), Wednesday, 3 November 2021 21:48 (two years ago) link
All of that sentence makes me a little ill.
― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 3 November 2021 21:50 (two years ago) link
Wait till you hear the song :(
― o shit the sheriff (NickB), Wednesday, 3 November 2021 21:55 (two years ago) link
Finally, the Performance remake I’ve been dreaming of.
― JoeStork, Wednesday, 3 November 2021 22:00 (two years ago) link
Pretty sure KM's sentence gave me a good enough sense of that too!
― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 3 November 2021 22:01 (two years ago) link
The only hope I have for this is that "rock star Clay Calloway" is an homage to rock star Clay Collins, played by Rick Moranis in SCTV's soap opera parody The Days of the Week.
― Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, 3 November 2021 22:26 (two years ago) link
Is it April 1 already? I could've sworn it was November.
― birdistheword, Wednesday, 3 November 2021 22:28 (two years ago) link
I've got to be honest, of all the people/bands to be mostly quiet these past couple of years, U2 is not the band I would have guessed. Like, Paul McCartney and Springsteen have been inescapable, Stones back in gear, other people have been doing shit, surely U2 wanted in on the international mood.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 4 November 2021 02:15 (two years ago) link