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Post by Sneelock on Nov 4, 2021 20:17:17 GMT
for me, it's all about The Edge. that guy can ring his guitar like a freakin' bell. I'll admit there's a certain amount of Ye Olde Singer/Guitar Player dynamic which does make them stand out. the thing is, when something stands out, it's easier to notice if you don't really like it.
their first couple of tunes that came ringing out of my radio were hard not to spot and single out. I might have liked them better if I'd not known so many straight up assholes that were crazy about them.
one friend of mine who was very stingy with his praise saw them on that tour where they were calling the White House every night. He loved it so much that it just drove him NUTS. seriously. the guy went pretty goddam crazy pretty soon after. I'm not blaming U2 but I'm not sure it's a coincidence either.
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fange
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Post by fange on Nov 5, 2021 12:02:54 GMT
They had IT for a long while - a handsome, born front man and excellent lyricist, an excellent guitarist, a decent rhythm section (which is sometimes fine for a rock band if you have the last quality) and the mystique of being a proper ROCK AND ROLL BAND. 4 guys from the same town, who had a sound and vision to make rock music the way they wanted, and went out to conquer the world.
They were one of my favourite bands from when War was released to Zooropa. Red Rocks is a beautiful document of a great rock and roll band hitting their stride as a BAND, with enough good songs behind them by that stage and their stage show all about an energetic connection with the crowd. They still had it in fucking spades when they came to Melbourne for the "LoveTown" Tour (with BB King, God bless him; one of my most treasured musical memories, seeing him live); they played the shit out of their best songs the night i saw them, just a great rock and roll show.
Sorry Sloop, but i'm with Jimmy on October - their weakest album, for mine, in their classic run until into the mid-90s.
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U2
Nov 5, 2021 12:04:24 GMT
Post by Mr. FOLLARD on Nov 5, 2021 12:04:24 GMT
Sorry Sloop, but i'm with Jimmy on October - their weakest album, for mine, in their classic run until into the mid-90s. I agree, but I think from reading his post that sloop thinks War was the second...
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god
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U2
Nov 5, 2021 15:41:03 GMT
Post by ~ / % ? * on Nov 5, 2021 15:41:03 GMT
i love October, has a great rainy windswept atmosphere, very early 80s in step with Comsats, Chameleons, The Sound, Bunnymen, etc., A good watershed album for the band firming up the band interplay and honing their dynamics before War and the ethereals of Unforgettable Fire.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 5, 2021 16:57:14 GMT
They had IT for a long while - a handsome, born front man and excellent lyricist, an excellent guitarist, a decent rhythm section (which is sometimes fine for a rock band if you have the last quality) and the mystique of being a proper ROCK AND ROLL BAND. 4 guys from the same town, who had a sound and vision to make rock music the way they wanted, and went out to conquer the world. Mystique..?Honestly they were seen as a bunch of badly dressed hicks playing happy-clappy Christian stadium rock. Like Bon Jovi crossed with The Salvation Army! Trust me, they were never cool.
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Post by Sneelock on Nov 5, 2021 17:06:07 GMT
I had the misfortune of working a movie theater when "Rattle & Hum" was new. It was nice being able to let people in for free who liked U2 - the misfortune came from working for a company that was too cheap to fix the stereo even though they were running ads that bragged of the movie being presented in a bitchin' stereo system that the theater didn't have.
EVERY night and a dozen times on Friday I would have to 'splain to UCLA college boy types that I would be happy to give them their money back since it was NOT in Bitchin' Stereo sound. this wasn't good enough. it seems they expected me to pull a state of the art stereo system out of my ass.
I mention this because while I claim no knowledge of what is or isn't cool, I know for a fact that when they shot that "streets have no name" video in downtown L.A. a lot of people who THOUGHT they were cool planned their entire week around being down there. I know because there were fewer boneheads to haggle with in the theater for a couple o' days.
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Post by Reactionary Rage on Nov 5, 2021 17:08:11 GMT
They had IT for a long while - a handsome, born front man and excellent lyricist, an excellent guitarist, a decent rhythm section (which is sometimes fine for a rock band if you have the last quality) and the mystique of being a proper ROCK AND ROLL BAND. 4 guys from the same town, who had a sound and vision to make rock music the way they wanted, and went out to conquer the world. Mystique..?Honestly they were seen as a bunch of badly dressed hicks playing happy-clappy Christian stadium rock. Like Bon Jovi crossed with The Salvation Army! Trust me, they were never cool. Ignore him Fange. He was too busy listening to SHALAMAR
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 5, 2021 17:21:05 GMT
Mystique..?Honestly they were seen as a bunch of badly dressed hicks playing happy-clappy Christian stadium rock. Like Bon Jovi crossed with The Salvation Army! Trust me, they were never cool. Ignore him Fange. He was too busy listening to SHALAMAR We need to met up in London so I can teach you BODY POPPING D!
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Post by Reactionary Rage on Nov 5, 2021 17:53:54 GMT
Will you dance with me?
(damn, that lass is cute!)
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U2
Nov 5, 2021 22:27:27 GMT
via mobile
Post by fonz on Nov 5, 2021 22:27:27 GMT
They had IT for a long while - a handsome, born front man and excellent lyricist, an excellent guitarist, a decent rhythm section (which is sometimes fine for a rock band if you have the last quality) and the mystique of being a proper ROCK AND ROLL BAND. 4 guys from the same town, who had a sound and vision to make rock music the way they wanted, and went out to conquer the world. Mystique..?Honestly they were seen as a bunch of badly dressed hicks playing happy-clappy Christian stadium rock. Like Bon Jovi crossed with The Salvation Army! Trust me, they were never cool.
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U2
Nov 5, 2021 22:32:17 GMT
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Post by fonz on Nov 5, 2021 22:32:17 GMT
They had IT for a long while - a handsome, born front man and excellent lyricist, an excellent guitarist, a decent rhythm section (which is sometimes fine for a rock band if you have the last quality) and the mystique of being a proper ROCK AND ROLL BAND. 4 guys from the same town, who had a sound and vision to make rock music the way they wanted, and went out to conquer the world. Mystique..?Honestly they were seen as a bunch of badly dressed hicks playing happy-clappy Christian stadium rock. Like Bon Jovi crossed with The Salvation Army! Trust me, they were never cool. Maybe you had the (dis)advantage of age, or maybe just the ennui that comes from being s as Londoner, but as a young teen, from a northern (?disaffected, fuck, I don’t know, can’t remember)) town, in the early eighties, U2 *were* great, dynamic, meaningful… I
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Post by fonz on Nov 5, 2021 22:36:26 GMT
My quest for something ‘more’ was fulfilled in mid eighties’Joke, but for a time, U2 really meant something, and the live record, despite it’s obvious faults, blew everything, and I mean every fucking contemporary thing, away.
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Nov 6, 2021 14:20:45 GMT
fonz likes this
Post by Deleted on Nov 6, 2021 14:20:45 GMT
Mystique..?Honestly they were seen as a bunch of badly dressed hicks playing happy-clappy Christian stadium rock. Like Bon Jovi crossed with The Salvation Army! Trust me, they were never cool. Maybe you had the (dis)advantage of age, or maybe just the ennui that comes from being s as Londoner, but as a young teen, from a northern (?disaffected, fuck, I don’t know, can’t remember)) town, in the early eighties, U2 *were* great, dynamic, meaningful… I I was exaggerating a bit for comedic effect. I saw them on the war tour and they didn't impress. That kind of stadium rock cheerleading approach was quite off-putting to me as I wasn't into mainstream stuff at the time. I did like some of the album tracks from them though ( I threw a Brick, Electric Co. spring to mind).
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rayge
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Post by rayge on Nov 6, 2021 14:35:14 GMT
They had IT for a long while - a handsome, born front man and excellent lyricist, an excellent guitarist, a decent rhythm section (which is sometimes fine for a rock band if you have the last quality) and the mystique of being a proper ROCK AND ROLL BAND. 4 guys from the same town, who had a sound and vision to make rock music the way they wanted, and went out to conquer the world. Mystique..?Honestly they were seen as a bunch of badly dressed hicks playing happy-clappy Christian stadium rock. Like Bon Jovi crossed with The Salvation Army! Trust me, they were never cool. I was hanging out in Rough Trade around 1981-82 when this teen - dressed to be cool - was spaffing on about them, and specifically the great rebel, Bonio, to Judy, one of the three co-owners who worked the counter. I quite liked the band at the time - I really liked Eleven o'clock Tick Tock, and bought that and Boy, which I also enjoyed - so I just let him blather on indulgently, but then he compared Bono's impact and philosophy to that of Macolm X(!), and I had perforce to intervene: the Xian inanity was one of several points with which I belaboured his sorry arse and sent him, cowed and shrunken, on his way.
For which I was thanked by Judy. The force of my own rhetoric somewhat took me aback - I'm a gentle soul, really - and I never felt really comfortable with U2 thereafter, athough I still have some affection for Edge's chiming guitar sound. In fact, it's really the image that gets to me, rather than the sound they make.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 6, 2021 14:48:53 GMT
Mystique..?Honestly they were seen as a bunch of badly dressed hicks playing happy-clappy Christian stadium rock. Like Bon Jovi crossed with The Salvation Army! Trust me, they were never cool. I was hanging out in Rough Trade around 1981-82 when this teen - dressed to be cool - was spaffing on about them to Judyuon of the three co-owners who worked the counter. I quite liked the band at the time - I really liked Eleven o'clock Tick Tock, and bought that and Boy, which I also enjoyed - so I just let him blather on indulgently, but then he compared Bono to Macolm X(!), and had perforce to intervene: the Xian inanity was one of several points with which I belaboured his sorry arse and sent him, cowed and shrunken, on his way.
For which I was thanked by Judy
That Messianic thing was there from the start, wasn't it? There's that cringeworthy story Tony Wilson tells of Bono visiting him shortly after Ian Curtis' death and saying "Don't worry, we're gonna finish off what Ian started". I mean what do you say to something like that!
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