+1bajillion. Mark David Chapman shot the wrong Beatle.[/justkiddingextremehyperboledon’tshootme]
I’m surprised that the Rolling Stones are getting a pass here.
I think you misunderstood my meaning. Instead of “pretentious”, try “braggarty”. Then think about it.
That’s because from 1966 to 1972 the Stones put out a string of some of the best rock albums ever recorded (with the exception of 1967’s “Their Satanic Majesties Request”). Although if you want to give them crap for pretty much everything they’ve done since 1981’s “Tattoo You” album, by all means go ahead.
Well, exactly. I think the OPs main point was that U2 has been on the spotlight for years after their prime. And if there’s a standard for bands that keep going like the energizer bunny, it’s the Rolling Stones.
Mind you, IMHO I think both bands should rock on instead of going away.
While I agree with pretty much everything the OP has said about U2 and Bono, I think the platonic ideal of a wanky nickname is actually “Sting”. He was a teacher or something who played in a jazz band in the 1970s. He wore a yellow and black stripy jumper. Instead of calling him something normal like “Waspy” or “Bumble-bee”, his jazz friends called him “Sting”. He decided to carry on referring to himself that way. I mean, come on.
I think Bono, Chris Martin and Sting are all similar characters; they have this inner fire that makes them want to (be seen to) be good, but there’s something missing that stops them from fully understanding how others see them. I think it’s along the lines of a real sense of humour, but it might be more than that. Sometimes it looks like they genuinely see themselves as being Christ-like.
That’s why there is simply no comparison between the above mentioned holy trinity and the likes of Jagger, Lennon, McCartney and other great front men; however arrogant the latter guys were, they retained an accurate image of how they were perceived, and they are known for positive traits such as being able to make a wide variety of people laugh. Lennon might have had cold eyes but they still had much more soul in them than Chris Martin’s.
My only issue with U2 has been the iPod. Of all the bands that Apple could choose to give a “signature” iPod to, with all the promotion of an eye-catching iPod styled ad, they chose a band that whose members had not (to that point) been seen using iPods and who are all PC users. Meanwhile there are bands which could’ve used the cross-promotional fire of an iPod and the marketing blitz, whose members use iPods and Macs, even Macs on-stage to power their shows. Poor, poor choice.
How many of those bands have sold 150 million albums worldwide?
And it’s a brand of fucking computers, not a religion (I think).
I have resisted posting to this thread but I can’t stand it anymore (I’m weak).
U2 is quite possibly the lamest band EVER, the first record was decent (but not great) and everything since has been poppy, cheesy versions of the first album.
Bozo is the most pretentious, smug, condescending Crapmeister in the freakin’ Universe “I’m so pious and humble that I wear a dumb hat”.
Bozo would go to the opening of an envelope if he thought it would get him some “camera-time”.
Bozo pretends to care about the Yuppie-Flu-of-the-day, puts out some Crocodile tears and is hailed as some kind of a “good-guy” but in fact is just a publicity whore.
The Fudge has been milking the EXACT SAME guitar line since day 1, if you want to see it done properly check out David Rhodes on Peter Gabriel’s “Shaking the Tree”.
It’s not an anti-Irish thing, after all Thin Lizzy is an Irish band and they certainly don’t suck!
Unclviny
P.S. To be fair, as a band they have done one thing that I liked, the day Joey Ramone died they were playing (Seattle I think) and stopped the show to talk about Joey and his contributions to music for a few minutes.
Yeah, what about that? Then the dude puts on face paint and takes up professional wrestling. What’s up with that? ;)
The one specifically in mind has. All those big worldwide concerts U2 has done (Live Aid, Live 8, Live Earth) they’ve done too. Same sorts of rabid fans. Down between the two, it’s still annoying that Apple went with U2 whose name cache is somewhat higher, rather than the band that is brand loyal to Apple.
Meh.
I really like Joshua Tree – discovered it in college about ten years after it was actually released and popular and such, and I used to put it and Blondie’s Greatest Hits in the CD changer when I was cooking dinner for the co-op. Gives a girl the energy to cook for twenty people, it does.
I’m sick of some of the songs, but Bullet to Blue Sky is somewhere in my top 25 songs, give or take, for nostalgia’s sake if nothing else. Is it deep philosophy? Is it holy writ? Is it the best song ever created in lyrics, in music, in rhythm, in composition? Hell no, but I like it.
I have no particular time for or interest in the artists. I have vague awareness that there’s some fellow calling himself Bono in the band. I wouldn’t have remembered The Edge unless you mentioned it, though my immediate reaction to the name was vague annoyance.
Still, though, the cries of self-promotion strike me as being about as relevant as the people who gripe that “You people (generally a company that puts out something nice, like books or games or whatever) are just in it for the profit!” Why yes. Yes, we are. If we JUST wanted to make the world that much more snuggly, we’d give our stuff away for free.
It’s like grumbling that Gisele Whateverherlastnameis, that model, looks so great because she spends sixty hours a day working out and has a personal trainer, dietician, what the hell ever. Of COURSE she does. HER JOB IS TO LOOK PRETTY. If my job was to look pretty, I damn well would be in shape.
If my job is to sell records and the best way to sell records is to be popular rather than excellent, well, I hope I’d make the choice to go with quality, but popularity can get you better results.
The problem, of course, is believing your own hype. Naturally it’s hard to hype yourself without believing some of it, so this is a pretty common trap. Getting used to your wealth and status can also make a person pretty intolerable. But while I am personally a big fan of those threads discussing which famous guy is a darling and which is an absolute jerk, whether a person is pleasant to be around has minimal impact on my desire to watch them on stage or screen.
I guess I’m kind of pissing all over a really really entertaining rant, though. Never mind all that, it’s claptrap, U2 teh sux 
If you mean these as statements of baseless, entirely non-factual opinion then OK, but I’d love to see you justify these statements on any analytical, objective basis.
U2’s first record was pretty good, they had a new and different sound but instead of expanding on it they (as a band) decided to milk it for whatever they could get. They have sold a crapload of records, but sales does not equal quality (the Spice Girls sold records fer cryin’ out loud!). To each his own, but I consider them a “squandered talent”.
As far as The Fudge’s guitar “work”, all you would have to do is listen to it, David Rhodes takes The Fudges one guitar line and plays it smoother and technically WAY better than The Fudge could ever dream of.
In this world you are certainly free to be whatever you want, if U2 fanboy is your choice, go for it! I was expressing my (relevant, I feel) opinion on a web forum.
Unclviny
I’m sorry,
I forgot this was the Pit,
U2 is teh suk!!!11!!!
Unclviny
Fanboy I ain’t though I certainly think they’ve done some worthwhile stuff. But you clearly have nothing other than a vague but utterly unsupportable assertion you pulled from your ass but are unable to back with anything. There’s not a word in your quoted post that amounts to jack shit.
All the Edge does is milk the “EXACT SAME” guitar line. Fine. I play guitar a little. I understand some musical basics. Let’s talk actual tracks and guitar lines from all his stuff and give me a point by point on how it’s all the “EXACT SAME”. Or are you full of it?
All their albums are just versions of the first one. Come on, give us some musical analysis. Are we talking lyrical themes? Chord progressions? What? Just hot air, I suspect.
Heck, you’re not even consistent. First we hear that all the Edge does is milk the “EXACT SAME guitar line” but now when you’re called on that steaming load you segue off into some assertions someone else plays it better.
Why don’t you just say “U2 teh suxxors”? It’d amount to as much.
This version of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” is much better than the original version from U2. 
P.S.: Definitely NOT a RickRoll! Watch the video (with sound). You won’t be sorry.
What other group are you talking about?
It’s got to be Coldplay. That dickhead even named his daughter “Apple”. Now there’s brand loyalty (a vomit-inducing concept if ever there was one).
I don’t mind U2 but can’t freaking stand Bono.