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Bono finally admits it


Rabs

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What we all knew already  😄 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60051813

 

Bono: U2's "name and songs make me cringe"

U2 frontman Bono has said many of his band's songs makes him "cringe" with embarrassment, and that he doesn't like their name much either.

The band, comprised of Dublin schoolmates, has sold more than 150 million albums over a 40-year career.

But speaking on the Awards Chatter podcast, the 61-year-old said that, aside from 2004 track Vertigo, he finds it hard to listen to their music.

He added that his voice sounds "very strained" on earlier recordings.

"I've been in a car when one of our songs has come on the radio, and I've been the colour of - as we say in Dublin - scarlet," he told The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Feinberg during an hour-long interview.

"I'm just embarrassed. I do think U2 pushes out the boat on embarrassment quite a lot.

"And maybe that's the place to be as an artist is right at the edge of your level of pain for embarrassment, your level of embarrassment."

He added: "And the lyrics as well. I feel that on Boy and other albums it was sketched out very unique and original material. But I don't think I filled in the details."

While Bono agrees that his band "sound amazing", he said he does not like the sound of his own voice at all, except on Vertigo, which featured on How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. "Most of the other ones make me cringe a little bit," he said.

 

And despite a career spanning four decades, the Irish singer believes his voiced sounded weak early on and that he "only became a singer recently".

"I just found the voice very strained and kind of not macho and my Irish macho was kind of strained by that," he continued.

"A big discovery for me was listening to the Ramones and hearing the beautiful kind of sound of Joey Ramone and realising I didn't have to be that rock and roll singer.

"But I only became a singer recently."

'The one that we hated the least'

The singer appeared on the podcast alongside bandmate The Edge, who also revealed that the group was never particularly fond of its famous moniker.

U2, he explained, were originally supposed to be called The Hype, but ditched that plan as the name sounded unoriginal.

Their friend, the graphic designer Steve Averill then suggested some better ones. "Of the suggestions, it wasn't that it [U2] jumped out to us as the name we were really looking for, but it was the one that we hated the least," said the guitarist.

He said it sounded "fresh" at least at the time, and it was not "obvious from the name what this band would sound like or be about". "It was the one we chose and we didn't really love it at first."

"I still don't," offered Bono. "I really don't.

"But I was late into some kind of dyslexia, I didn't realise that The Beatles was a bad pun either." (The correct spelling of the insect is beetle.)

The band, he said, thought their name would conjure up "futuristic" images of "the spy plane" and "the U-boat".

"But then as it turned out to imply this kind of acquiescence, no, I don't like that name."

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U2 used to be fake protest music for teenagers, to get upset about how bad it is living in suburbia with parents, and whine about the fact that they won't buy them a new Lexus.  Now they are just old guys making the same music they have aways done. How many processors, and delays can The Edge use on one guitar? 

Answer - a lot.

Edited by Sgt. Pepper
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Although I can't name any off the bat, I understand many musical artists, famous on one level, personally think they're not as good as the hype built them up to be.  I was never too big on U2, them only doing a couple of tunes I thought were OK.  

The band name thing gets me.  I always did think it had something to do with those surrendering U-boats docking somewhere in Ireland.  And does anyone really know where The Beatles name stems from?

I doubt it had anything to do with Lennon's supposed dream about a woman appearing to him on a flaming pie and telling him, "It should be BEATLES with an "A"  ".  :rolleyes:

Whitefang

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1 hour ago, Whitefang said:

Although I can't name any off the bat, I understand many musical artists, famous on one level, personally think they're not as good as the hype built them up to be.  I was never too big on U2, them only doing a couple of tunes I thought were OK.  

The band name thing gets me.  I always did think it had something to do with those surrendering U-boats docking somewhere in Ireland.  And does anyone really know where The Beatles name stems from?

I doubt it had anything to do with Lennon's supposed dream about a woman appearing to him on a flaming pie and telling him, "It should be BEATLES with an "A"  ".  :rolleyes:

Whitefang

I think its a word that is meant to emphasise the word Beat..  As in drum beat.. and then a pun on the word Beetle..  I think...  Theres a film about their Hamburg days called Backbeat (from the lyrics if its got a backbeat you can blues it). I think thats what they were on about anyway.

Edited by Rabs
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1 hour ago, Whitefang said:

Although I can't name any off the bat, I understand many musical artists, famous on one level, personally think they're not as good as the hype built them up to be.  I was never too big on U2, them only doing a couple of tunes I thought were OK.  

The band name thing gets me.  I always did think it had something to do with those surrendering U-boats docking somewhere in Ireland.  And does anyone really know where The Beatles name stems from?

I doubt it had anything to do with Lennon's supposed dream about a woman appearing to him on a flaming pie and telling him, "It should be BEATLES with an "A"  ".  :rolleyes:

Whitefang

John was a jokester and I am sure it was something funny to tell the press how they got their name. Of course you are going to substitute an A, for an E in Beetles when you are a musical group.

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33 minutes ago, Rabs said:

I think its a word that is meant to emphasise the word Beat..  As in drum beat.. and then a pun on the word Beetle..  I think...  Theres a film about their Hamburg days called Backbeat (from the lyrics if its got a backbeat you can blues it). I think thats what they were on about anyway.

I think the lyric is "If its got a back beat you can't lose it". That is what I have always heard.

Edited by Sgt. Pepper
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1 minute ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

I think the lyric is "If its got a back beat you can't lose it". That is what I have always heard.

Yes I think you are right there..  I always seem to hear something different to most people.. :rolleyes:

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4 hours ago, Rabs said:

I think its a word that is meant to emphasise the word Beat..  As in drum beat.. and then a pun on the word Beetle..  I think...  Theres a film about their Hamburg days called Backbeat (from the lyrics if its got a backbeat you can blues it). I think thats what they were on about anyway.

The idea for the name is said to have been inspired by this scene from the movie “The Wild Ones” starring Marlon Brando & this scene featuring Lee Marvin…. Enjoy..

 

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19 minutes ago, Larsongs said:

The idea for the name is said to have been inspired by this scene from the movie “The Wild Ones” starring Marlon Brando & this scene featuring Lee Marvin…. Enjoy..

Ahh ok.. Well I was probably very wrong in my theory then.. Or is this something that everyone seems to have their own theory on?

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2 hours ago, nhwildbill said:

As for U2, I saw them twice during the "Joshua Tree" tour - they were a great band then.  After that they went to ****...

I still like the War album but that is all I can take by them. Bono is still a rotten vocalist.

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