U2-"War"...reminiscing

Great album. Great tour. I saw them that year ...'83. Alright....

I remember when my friend first laid the needle into the groove of "Gloria" ( and not off of the THEM album), I knew I was in on the ground floor of something different.

I'm not to keen on their latest stuff, but I can't begrudge them their success. Not in the least. If anything, you know they actually work at what they do.

TG

I was also on the 'ground floor' to see the beginnings of U2 and it's actually a pretty cool thing to look back on all these years later. In fact I can't believe it was that long ago.

I remember first hearing "I Will Follow" in, believe it or not, the 80s teen sex b-movie 'Last American Virgin". As I recall I saw it at a midnight movie, probably around '82 or '83. From that point on I was a disciple of U2. The sound of "I Will Follow" was so weird and new to my ears then, that I thought I was hearing, and getting into a band that was so obscure nobody around town would know who they were except me. And they were pretty obscure there for a minute.

As I got deeper into U2 that year, I could hear that they had political and religious themes in their songs that, although I couldn't totally wrap my 16 year old head around it, I could sense that they had a positive message in their music a-la John Lennon, and I'm not just talking about religion or anything like that. It was just cool, positive political music to me, and I thought Bono was probably one of the most charismatic performers that side of Jim Morrison, who I was obviously too young to have seen, but was a big fan of also.

As I said, I saw U2 on the 'War' tour, with The Alarm opening up for them in the summer of '83. I was so obsessed with the band that a friend and I found out what hotel they were staying in, which as it turns out was near my house, and lurked around until we saw a chubby older guy with a U2 shirt and an Irish accent chatting with some people in the lobby. Sure enough it was their manager, and me being the unmannered, innocently rude kid that I was, I went up to him and asked if we could meet the band. His reply was..in an aggravated tone "Yes they're here, but they're tired. Wouldn't you want rest if you were tired?!" Then he went on to tell me that they would be at the venue later that afternoon, if I wanted to meet them, I could do so there. Sure enough we go down there and their bus pulls up, the door opens and out comes an actually pretty freakish looking entourage and then there's Bono looking like he just woke up. I had a 12" single of 'Two Hearts Beat As One" with me. Someone passed me a ballpoint pen and Bono starts to sign, but the pen had hardly any ink in it, so the autogaph is like half-signed/half-no-ink-imprint. Then TheEdge comes off the bus. He signs it too, and I said to him "hey, can I talk to you" because I'm sure I had some of what I thought were pretty serious things to say to him, but The Edge blew me off. He was friendly about it though. Something like..."I gotta go inside and sound check" or something like that. I can still picture him walking away from me and saying that at the same time. He was cool about it, but hey...I was a 16 year old guy...not a 16 year old GIRL. I'm sure I woulda been invited in to watch the sound-check if I was the latter, but that's show-biz. By the way, I still have the signed 12".

The show that night was still to this day, one of the most amazing shows I have ever seen. Bono was the first performer I ever saw that literally went into the audience. And he also did something that years later we would be calling 'crowd surfing'. Back then it was just "the singer was carried through the audience BY the audience" COOL!

I saw U2 again in '85 during 'The Unforgettable Fire'. They had gotten way more popular by that point and played a venue that was twice the size of the place I saw them originally. Bono was then regularly grabbing some random girl from the audience and hugging her on-stage as part of their show. The same thing he had done at Live Aid that year. It looked pretty sicere though...I must say.

After they released 'Rattle & Hum' I stepped off with U2. My interest had gone elsewhere, and quite frankly I thought they were getting a little too pretentious for their own good. They were also attracting a much larger mainstream audience and were no longer my underground heroes from 'War' days. People at the mall suddenly knew who U2 were. Back then, that was a very strange and dissapointing thing to me.

I still think U2 is pretty cool, and even in though they and rock music are commercial beyond commercial, U2 still somehow has maintained their integrity and don't come off as complete sell-outs. I thought Bono's politics were simply 'limousine liberal' shenanigans for a long time, but you know what? I think he actually beleives in what he's doing as far as that stuff goes, so that's cool with me.

Hopefully I'll get to see them on their upcoming tour. It would be good to see them live after all this time.

THE END ©2004 'this has been a rambling donhonyc production in association with Mark Goodson/Bill Toddman Productions'

[ Edited by: donhonyc on 2004-12-11 00:35 ]

I'd rather eat a lumpy spunk sandwich than ever have to listen to U2 again.

Trader Woody

One of my biggest concert regrets was missing out on a U2 show in 83. I was living in Boulder, Colorado at the time, and had checked the concert listings for Red Rocks, the Outdoor Ampitheatre at the base of the Rockies. U2 were one of the few bands that fit or came close to my definition of rock/new wave that were playing up there - most of the other artists were more mainstream - REO Speedwagon or George Benson type stuff.

I kept on procrastinating, plus I was low on funds at the time. A few days beforehand I was thinking about driving up and buying a ticket at the gate. But the day of the concert, it was raing/snowing in Boulder, and I decided I didn't want to risk the drive up to Red Rocks, or be freezing outside.

A few days later, the music critic for one of the Denver Papers wrote a review, saying it was perhaps the best live rock show that he had ever seen - the combination of bad weather, a sparse but enthusiastic crowd, the flames used as part of the stage set-up - everything combined to a great experience,and I had missed it. This was the show that was captured on the 'U2 - Live at Red Rocks' LP and video.

It wasn't until a few months later that I saw my first Red Rocks show - which featured the Clash (and 2 days before that, the then yet-to-have-a-hit Stray Cats playing in a movie theatre) so I guess things turned out well.

I later saw U2 during their big 90's Arena shows, and still have (I think) the souvenir condoms, still unused, that were sold at those shows.

Vern

Vern,

Don't sweat it. It was that show that made me realise they were a pack of bombastic, self-serving t**ts. How anyone can fall for that mediocre fashion-chasing shite is beyond me.

I can see why people fleeing East Germany when the Berlin wall fell looked to them as some sort of Western Rock saviours, but anyone this side of the wall has no excuse.

Trader Woody

[ Edited by: Trader Woody on 2004-12-12 09:27 ]

A highlight of my time as an Outlaw Caterer was catering the "Where the Streets have no Name" video: up on the roof with the LAPD & Fire Department trying to shut us down, the band had had the elevators shut down, the stairs locked & barricaded, and brought their own generators for when the power was cut. The band kept playing 'til the LAPD cut through the doors to the roof.

Woody, yes they can be bombastic, but you're saying that like it's a bad thing. Sometimes it's just fun to run around a stage waving a giant flag. :D

War was the first Cd I ever bought (before then it was all cassettes). Bought it used at a comic shop that I rode my bike to. Ha Ha. Still like the band after all these years, good old Irish boys. Its comforting to see a band as big as they have become still getting along together after all these years. You never read about them trashing hotel rooms or anything. If they all had egos they would have self destructed years ago, and you just got to love that last song off Zooropa with Johnny Cash. Love em or hate em there probally the biggest band in the world, and Bono didn't have a wardrob malfunction during his superbowl performance either. Thats class baby. And what about that Frank Sinatra speech, old blue eyes never had a grander introduction.

I lean toward fondness for U2.

I liked the way the drums sounded like gunfire in Sunday Bloody Sunday.

I'm not a video fan, but I liked the one they did in Glitter Gultch in Vegas - kind of a visual vs. lyrical contrast thing.

I also admire how, even if I don't like a certain album, that they were brave enough to change their sound rather than grind out the same stuff every time.

That new IPod song is OK, my kids like it.

I'll say they pass the audition.

I love U2!
But then again. I’m also an Irish alcoholic.

On 2004-12-17 10:28, Unga Bunga wrote:
I love U2!
But then again. I’m also an Irish alcoholic.

Isn't "Irish Alcoholic" redundant?

OK - for the record I still like some (older mostly) U2...

But this made the milk come a-squirtin' outta my nose.....

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=11worst

Tangroa-

I start reading this guy's stuff and I immediately think 'wow, I thought I was cynical'. I like that he's at least articulate and sometimes funny as hell, expecially when talking about Celine Dion ( I totally agree). I'm not defending U2 at all, but I think there are other waaaaay more shitty things out there on the cultural landscape that deserve the ass-whipping he gives to Bono and company. I agree, how can you be all righteous when you are selling an iPod (an item I despise, by the way) that is specailly desinged to play your band's music. I don't know...that's the world we live in, I think it sucks too. It's either live in the modern world with all it's crappy Access Hollywood mentality or go find a mountain far, far away and live like Jack Kerouac did in 'Dharma Bums' keeping a lookout for forest fires in the valley.

Lonesome Traveller...

On 2004-12-29 23:16, donhonyc wrote:
.... but I think there are other waaaaay more shitty things out there on the cultural landscape...

Yeah - there are - but I still thought it would go good in this thread...

How dare you hate my beloved iPod! I'm listening to Arthur Lyman on it right now....

seriously though - why do ya hate it? Because it's being shoved down our throats - or the item itself?

Tangaroa-

Please...I have no prob with people that are cynical. In fact the attitude shouldn't be called 'cynical', it should be called 'realistic'. Sometimes I get heat because of my 'half empty, bad attitude' when I sit around and talk about how much popular culture sucks. I can understand this...On the one had who wants to hear my shitty attitude, on the other how can you NOT say something about the ridiculousness of a Wal-Mart society (no offense to Wal-Mart shoppers).

As far as iPods...I'm not a huge fan of the walkman format. If I'm out and about, riding the bike or whatever, I like to hear what's going on around me. Not because I like the sound of it, I just like to be aware. The other reason is, having those headphones plugged into your ears all the time is b-a-d for your hearing. Especially for somebody like me who likes to blast music alot. My hearing is already sort of shot and I wanna maintain what I have for as long as I can.

And finally...as we sit here in what we use to refer to around twenty years ago as 'the future' I am still not willing to get on the bandwagon with all of the latest technology. That's a major contradiction since I am sitting here now typing on a message board. Basically I'll get on board with the latest techno stuff if it has some vital functionality that will actually move your life forward. Email, digital photography and that type of thing are, less face it, more convinient than their analog counterparts. iPods I can take a pass on. I'm getting a little creeped out with this constant desire to compact and consolidate 'things'. It kinda reminds me of that Rod Steiger film 'The Illustrated Man'. What's the big deal of having a stack of CDs or LPs? Nothing personal iPod people, but why must we have 5,000 songs at our disposal on a little box? Can't we live without some of this crap? Technology is a great thing, but it is also a major double-edged sword. The upcoming generations of kids are already showing signs of disconnections from reality as we know it. Everything has to be 'now', and that is not always a good thing. The trends now seem to rely less on building your imagination than they do on how to accelerate it.

[ Edited by: donhonyc on 2004-12-30 11:53 ]

On 2004-12-30 11:41, donhonyc wrote:
Tangaroa-

Please...I have no prob with people that are cynical.

Yeah - I'm a pretty cynical one myself - although I'm trying not to be! I hope you didn't take that as a criticism - just a comment. I love that guys smart-ass comments...

having those headphones plugged into your ears all the time is b-a-d for your hearing. Especially for somebody like me who likes to blast music alot.

No doubt - my hearing is a little rough too, probably from too many concerts as a teen & too much 'Walkman' abuse as well....

I'm getting a little creeped out with this constant desire to compact and consolidate 'things'. It kinda reminds me of that Rod Steiger film 'The Illustrated Man'. What's the big deal of having a stack of CDs or LPs? Nothing personal iPod people, but why must we have 5,000 songs at our disposal on a little box?

Well - for me (other than the having it all at your disposal - instant access aspect of it), I have soooooo much junk in my life - I'm happy to minimize anything I can! I'll keep all my vinyl handy - but my cds are going in a box in the garage! I simply have too much crap and not enough space for it all. Why, just this morning I was up early - and my daughter came into my office and started merrily pulling cassettes out of a holder (my fault for leaving it within reach) & tossing them on the floor! Also - I don't know about you - but 5,000 songs isn't enough for my whole collection! I may be obsessive - but I really look forward to the day when I can fit all the audio I own onto a small portable device. When it comes to the joy of just listening to my music - weird audio - whatever - I want to be able to find that stuff fast. And I'm rarely able to do that because I'm such a pack rat.... Your mileage may vary!

The mileage does vary indeed. Yeah, I guess whatever works for somebody. I guess the thing is with all this future stuff is that it comes down to responsibility. There are the responsible technology users out there who are educated about what they are getting involved in and get along with technology without hurting anybody. Then there are the very irresponsible people out there who just consume this stuff willy-nilly and don't care who, what, where, or how they use this stuff ie. parents that get their children X-Box video games and wonder why they are so aggressive after playing Grand Theft Auto all summer instead of being outside hanging out and having some fun with their friends. That, in my opinion, is the problem with technology. I could go down the list of scenarios, but you get the idea.

Yeah - having said all that I have - I agree that we as a society are becoming more insulated, staying inside - not going out and enjoying life without being "plugged in" - I have a hard time breaking away sometimes!