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I'd Be Just Fine Without You

March 22, 2008 12:48 AM

friend of mine once described U2 as a band that people who know absolutely nothing about music really like. I think she meant that it's an easy enough band to enjoy but that they're really not all that special. I tend to agree, which means that the fact that some people call U2 their favorite band.

I mean, ok, U2 was the biggest band in the universe at one point. But that point was twenty-five years ago--I think we can move on. I mean, sure, The Joshua Tree, and Unforgettable Fire were decent albums. But the fact is that, as Mr. Morenononsense has pointed out of numerous bands, you can put together an amazing twelve-track U2 best-of compilation. (Mine would include "With or Without You," "Mothers of the Disappeared," "Staring at the Sun," "In God's Country," "Sunday Bloody Sunday," "One," "Love Comes Tumbling," "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me," "Bullet the Blue Sky," and that's pretty much it. So I guess I could make a nine-song best-of CD. Which just proves my point more.) But when you take a look at their whole career, it's sort of pathetic. And when you consider that at least their last two albums were completely worthless (I'd say their last three albums, except that Pop has "Staring at the Sun" on it), it starts to be pretty obvious that they're a mediocre band at best.

And, also, I don't know how many of you have actually seen a joshua tree, but they're ugly, stupid things. And Joshua Tree National Park is a desolate, hideous place.

And that's all ignoring the fact that one of the most obnoxious people of modern times fronts the fucking band. Bono is one of the biggest douchebags out there. Seriously, he's so fucking full of himself, I don't care if he singlehandedly cured both AIDS and cancer and then eliminated poverty, I'd still beat him up if I got the chance. And then I'd wipe my ass with his sunglasses which, while probably uncomfortable for me, would be a huge moral victory for the nondouches of the world.

My point is this: why the fuck is this band still relevant? Why do people still give a shit about them? As far as I'm concerned, they're only marginally better than, say, those guys that sang that song about walking a thousand miles for something.

So let's all just resolve to ignore U2 from now on. Maybe that way they'll go away.



11 Comments


JLee said:

Hi Ismael!
I have to laugh at this post because I have thought many of these same things! I loved them in high school (80s) but feel they totally sold out in the end.

March 22, 2008 8:48 AM



tRJ said:

They definitely haven't been good since Achtung Baby, which was a great album. And The Joshua Tree is one of the best albums ever recorded. My greatest hits list:

Sunday Bloody Sunday, New Year's Day, 40, Pride, Bad, Where the Streets Have No Name, With or Without You, Bullet the Blue Sky, Running to Stand Still, In God's Country, Desire, All I Want is You, One

March 22, 2008 9:43 AM



Santi said:

I agree somewhat that most people give U2 more credit than they really deserve, and that Bono may be somewhat of a douche, but disagree that this all makes them less relevant. As you say, you can put together a pretty awesome greatest hits CD -- in fact I own U218 (one such CD) and it's one of my favorite CDs. The thing is, unlike other bands for which you can do the same, U2's greatest hits are indeed such great songs that they overshadow the crappy stuff they may have done. Also, I would give "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" and especially "All that you can't leave behind" more props than you are giving them.

In conclusion, any band that can write a song like "Sunday Bloody Sunday", one of my all time favorite songs, deserves praise for decades to come based on that one song alone.

March 22, 2008 11:25 AM



butterflyfish said:

Sunday Bloody Sunday, One, Pride, Where the Streets Have No Name, With or Without You, Desire, Still Haven't Found...,

Gonna depart and add some recent ones I do really like:
Beautiful Day, Stuck in a Moment, Vertigo.

Wow, thought for sure I'd hit 12...

March 22, 2008 3:02 PM



TheExpat said:

Yes! Hating on Bono is fun. Sure, he uses his celebrity for great causes and reaches across political lines, but every time he opens his mouth I want to punch him. I agree with tRJ that post-Achtung Baby U2 bites. Hate hate hate.

March 23, 2008 12:11 PM



Wade Garrett said:

I really, really like U2. I think that the individual band members are all outstanding musicians, they're really tight as a band, and every albums of their is a serious attempt at art, even if some of those attempts (such as Zooropa and Pop) are full of more misses than hits. "The Joshua Tree" and "Achtung Baby" rank among the best rock albums of all-time - not top ten but definitely top 50. "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb" and "All That You Can't Leave Behind" are full of strong songs; as far as I'm concerned, the worst thing you can say about the album is that the whole isn't any greater than the sum of its parts. If any band other than U2 had made "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" "All Because of You" or "Original of the Species," they would have been lauded by independent radio stations everywhere, and "City of Blinding Lights" is the sort of arena-rock song that nobody - NOBODY - other than U2 seems to be able to pull off anymore.

For what its worth, I think that a lot of the criticism aimed at them is of the hip/hater community. What I mean is that, if you admit that you like something whose popularity is widespread, you are admitting that you're no cooler than the majority of people, and a lot of people don't want to admit that. For instance, I hate just about every aspect of mainstream tv - with few exceptions, the good shows, like Arrested Development and Freaks and Geeks and Friday Night Lights always get cancelled, and the shitty, copy-cat shows like "CSI" and "Two and A Half Men" become huge hits. I don't think those shows have much artistic merit, but, at the same time, I realize that I'm a much bigger hater than I really have any reason to be. Some people feel about mainstream rock music the way that I feel about mainstream television. Does that make sense?

I think that a lot of people hate U2 because they've been around for too long, people who were edgy and cool when U2 was new in 1981 are now middle-aged minivan drivers, and people who are edgy and cool today hate the thought that their age contemporaries listen to a band that middle-aged minivan drivers enjoy. But The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby withstand the test of time.

March 23, 2008 12:34 PM



Ismael Tapia II said:

JLee,
I definitely think that their last two efforts demonstrate that U2 sold out. I mean, "Beautiful Day"? Why not just call it "We Want More of Your Money"?

tRJ,
The Joshua Tree is a really good album, but I don't know if I'd call it one of the best albums ever. There are some weak tracks on there: I rarely listen to "Red Hill Mining Town," "Trip Through Your Wires," "One Tree Hill," or "Exit." I'm also not the biggest fan of "Running to Stand Still." I think it might be able to justifiably break into the top 100--maybe the top 50. But it would be hard for me to accept it anywhere in, say, the top 25.

Santi,
I mean, yeah, U2's definitely contributed some amazing songs. And I don't deny that "Sunday Bloody Sunday" is amazing. Maybe I was a bit too harsh on them, but when you consider the fact that they've been active for almost thirty years and it was difficult for me to come up with ten songs of theirs that I think are unequivocally awesome, that's not a huge accomplishment.

butterflyfish,
Really? "Stuck in a Moment"? Man...

TheExpat,
Remind me: what great fucking things has Bono done outside of music? I know that he's big on forgiving debt to developing countries, but I don't know of anything else he's done. And I can't imagine what the fuck he's done that would entitle him to even be mentioned in consideration for the Nobel Peace Prize--although apparently all you have to do to win that nowadays is narrate a documentary.

Mr. Garret,
I don't know if I'd say that they're good musicians. In fact, I know that The Edge could barely play guitar when they first started. But I do admit that they play pretty well together and that, more importantly, even though they aren't virtuosos, their musical styles all fit together well and they've never--to my knowledge--allowed musical showing off to overshadow a song.

As for your point about hip kids not liking music that minivan-driving adults like, I don't know. I mean, don't the hip kids like The Beatles? Or the Stones? I think it's more that U2 is a good average band, but they're not unfuckingbelievable. They're not amazing on the scale of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, or--more recently--Nirvana or Radiohead. You could argue about what kinds of bands typify that category, but I think it's pretty clear that U2 doesn't belong there.

March 23, 2008 2:35 PM



morenonesense said:

As with any musical post reply, I just want to emphasize that mr. here is no why is a butt-rocker at heart. But lets move past that.

I don't think that U2 is a band of great musician, but hey, what the hell do I know (although I'd say that Bono used to have a terrific voice). i would say that they do have a bunch of albums that are at least very decent, with only their most recent two or three being total crap. Several of my friends are huge U2 fans, and I usually wind up on the side of the argument that is anti-U2. But for this debate, I think i'll go pro-U2, and here is why. You could prolly not just get a GREAT greatest hits cd outta them, you could prolly get a greatest hits 3 or (maybe) 4 cd compilation. You could also get like a 4 disc set of greatest Craptastic songs, but i digress. I'm not really gonna run down the list of songs that would be great, but i'd just like to throw out a couple that haven't been mentioned.

Please; Maybe this Christmas; Angel of Harlem, etc. Lastly, Bullet the Blue Sky is amazing.

March 23, 2008 9:26 PM



Ismael Tapia II said:

As always, I want you to know that a) I am not a buttrocker and 2) you are an asshat.

But beyond that, I find your claim that you could put together three CDs of great U2 songs akin to Hilary Clinton's claim that she was shot at by snipers, which is to say that it is complete bullshit. No one here's been able to come up with even a dozen songs by U2 that they'd put on a compilation CD, and even including the ones you mentioned that no one else has, that's still nowhere close to thirty. Whatever merits some of their songs might have, U2 has failed to be a band that consistently delivers.

In fact, now that I think about it, I'd be hard pressed to come up with a band that's produced enough amazing songs to fill three or four CDs. I mean, I don't even think I could do that with The Beatles or The Smashing Pumpkins, and SP's my favorite band ever.

March 23, 2008 11:33 PM



TheExpat said:

To clarify, in case any of Mr. Garrett's post was in any way pointed in my direction, I like hating on Bono, not U2. I've been doing it since 1994 when I was a sophomore in high school. I am old enough to be driving the aforementioned minivan, but I still don't like listening to post-Achtung U2.

As for Bono, he and the band have continually spoken out against political violence in Ireland, and helped spread the word over the Good Friday peace accord. The band has also performed at tons of high-profile charity events (I leave it up to you to decide if that was motivated by tax write-offs). I actually think that his charity work in third-world debt forgiveness is pretty impressive. He's been doing it for well on eight years, nothing to sneeze at, especially if you're like me and you think the third world gets shafted by the World Bank and the IMF.

March 24, 2008 11:02 PM



morenonesense said:

Perhaps 3 or 4 greatest hits cds is a little much, but i'm not even sure. i guess we'd have to define what a "greatest hits" cd would consist of; is that only 5 star songs? 4 and 5 star songs? what is a 4 or 5 star song? We could debate this, but I have 19 4 or 5 star U2 songs on my media player right now, and i only have about half of U2's catalog. sometime when i have time i'll sit down and see if i can find 30 for 3 greatest hits cds.

also, i'd say that the pumpkins do have 20 or 30 songs for a greatest hits cd, i don't even think that'd be that hard.

March 24, 2008 11:50 PM



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