|
 |
|
|
|
|
"What we mean by pop music of the '90s is maybe not what everyone else thinks but it's pop to us." -- Edge, on Pop |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"What we mean by pop music of the '90s is maybe not what everyone else thinks but it's pop to us." -- Edge, on Pop |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
My Fan Year - #39
@U2,
October 23, 2005
Happy birthday, @U2. You're how old? Shoot, you don't look a day over three. But 10 years online -- that's like 70 in people years. Most web sites are way more ephemeral. You're a Galapagos turtle in a world of mayflies. Without you I'd never have become the sort of person who knows the name of a new album weeks before any official announcement. On second thought -- maybe I might have, but it would have involved more work and possibly some illegal activities. So thanks for keeping me out of jail, @U2! One of my favorite parts of this site is the News Archive, which houses an immense amount of writing about...well, I certainly hope you know what about by now. I just went through and counted, finding 295 articles covering the years 1978-1987 alone. Many a happy day have I gone down U2 Memory Lane thanks to the efforts of those fans (yes, I'm talkin' to you, Rashas, Teresa and Daisy) who transcribed interviews and profiles in print magazines or hunted online for quality commentary. I know Matt likes lists, so in honor of the day I hereby present the Top Ten Articles to Be Found in the @U2 Archive and Why They Should Be Required Reading for Any U2 Fan. 1. "U2 Could Be a Headline", Bill Graham, Hot Press, March 8, 1979 "Somehow, I don't believe U-2's future will be among the more predictable," Graham says, and then he goes on to predict it. He explains how and why U2 will be treated differently in Britain and in the States. He says the Virgin Prunes will continue to influence them. He talks about their fascinations and flaws and how he can't always tell which is which. All this not just before the release of Boy, but before the release of U2-3. 2. "U2: Here Comes the "Next Big Thing," James Henke, Rolling Stone, February 19, 1981 It takes a lot of guts, in your first interview with Rolling Stone, to compare your band to the Rolling Stones, the Who and the Beatles. I don't have to tell you that Bono did in fact point the bat in the direction of the coming home run. And if you think about it, isn't U2's whole career (not to mention Bono's moonlighting in politics) about saying outrageous things and then watching them come true? 3. "U2 Versus the U.S. (Parts 1 and 2)," Bill Graham, Hot Press, April 25, 1981 I tried in this list to represent a variety of authors, but Graham is so dead-on with his critique of the American radio industry, with his assessment of U2's strategy of conquering middle America, with, well, anything he chooses to comment on, that he more than earns another spot. Bands starting out today could still go far by applying the lessons in this article. The only fault I find is with the title -- this tour of America isn't a battle, it's a courtship. 4. "U2," Fred Schruers, Musician, May 1, 1983 Earns its place here with the first four words. 5. "Pluck of the Irish," Philip Bashe, International Musician and Recording World, December 1, 1984 Remember: back then no one knew radical change was one of the weapons in U2's arsenal. This is my only pick in the "techno-geek" category of writing; nice to see someone focus the nuts and bolts, the sonic underpinnings (and the hardware that gets it there) of the first Eno-Lanois-U2 collaboration. 6. "Luminous Times (Parts 1 and 2)," John Hutchinson, Musician, October 1, 1987 It's easy to forget, from this vantage point, what a catapulting leap forward Joshua Tree was -- that before it, U2 never had a Top Ten hit in the U.S., that they went from being known only in rock circles to the cover of Time magazine. This piece captures the vertiginous moment when U2 skipped being stars and went straight to megastars. Yet it manages to allow the band members a chance to talk about the music. It's not so much about the U2 Phenomenon, which only got more ridiculous the more articles that were written that said, "See how many articles are getting written about U2!" 7. "Pure Bono (Parts 1 and 2)," Adam Block, Mother Jones, May 1, 1989 Besides being a very unusual Bono interview, it's a chance to listen in as Achtung Baby is born conceptually. Bono laments about Rattle and Hum: "I don't have an ironic persona like David Byrne or David Bowie to stand behind." The interviewer confronts him with the criticism that U2 are "nearly sexless." (And now Bono's the number one ubersexual -- there's hope for us all!) Favorite exchange: Block: What do you find really sexy? 8. "Bringing Up Baby," Brian Eno, Rolling Stone, November 18, 1991 Who could peg Achtung Baby in prose better than Eno? Pick a phrase at random: "The record came to be seen as a place where incongruous strands would be allowed to weave together and where a probably disunified (but definitely European) picture would be allowed to emerge." "It's an album of musical oxymorons, of feelings that shouldn't exist together but that are somehow credible." Just as number five on this list describes an album's sonic underpinnings, this one gives the conceptual framework. Heavy stuff, man, but so worth knowing. 9. "… Only Now Do We Look Cool" and "I Feel Caught Between the Bootboy and the Ponce," Keith Cameron, NME, March 8 and 15, 1997 This is slightly less heavy. NME has never quite known what to make of U2, which means they can provide a perspective that is neither worshipful or sneering. This is here also because I had to make sure I included an example of British Press-speak, which is a language unto itself and a key element of U2's history (in the role of Favorite Sparring Partner). This doesn't seem as astonishing in retrospect, but I remember the interviews Bono was giving in the time leading up to this. He had seemed guarded; he was beginning to rely heavily on his stock phrases and anecdotes. And then suddenly there was a whole set of interviews in early December which were soul-baring. So there you have it -- one small glance into what this site has to offer. It's nowhere near all I could say about what this site, its staff, its readers, mean to me, but I don't know how else to say it: Happy birthday, @U2. © @U2/Pancella, 2005.
|
|
|
||||||
|
||||||||
