Re: Old Tours vs. New Tours, Bono's Voice


Jeff ([email protected])
Wed, 15 Jul 1998 22:01:42 -0400


> You look at Edge as only a guitar player?

Nope, I never said that.

 Don't you think that
> it was Edge that was keeping the guitar playing in check and
> coming up with those techno-oriented grooves and experimentations.

Honestly, I really don't know, and I guess I'm not all that interested.
I suspect Larry and Howie B had as much to do with it as Edge, though.

> I think it's been mentioned more than once by Edge and others that
> he gets bored with guitar.

I don't recall him ever saying that much explicitly. If it's true,
though, that's a shame. Frank Zappa once said that he had 'nothing left
to do' with the guitar. Such a comment is pretty bizarre, I think, even
coming from Frank Zappa. I doubt you'd hear someone like Eric Johnson
say it, though.

 It has it's limits that have been pretty
> well explored and it's hard to come up with anything new.

If someone isn't interested in trying to learn more about the instrument
or get better at playing it, I suppose those limits are self-imposed
ones then. The instrument keeps me pretty well challenged daily, and
I've been playing for 17 years or so...There's tons Edge could learn, if
he so desired.

> (and U2 is easily bored they've said)
> It seems that some fans can't connect any of U2's music that isn't
> on guitar with Edge for some reason.

I don't know how you squeezed that out of my post, but I didn't say or
imply it. I love Edge's keyboard/piano treatments. And, yes, he can
sing too. Just to cover all the bases...

Again, I merely said that I wish that he wouldn't have been so bloody
conservative in his guitar playing (who knows, maybe he *is* bored...?),
and I wish it wasn't kept in relative obscurity in the mix of some of
the songs on this record.

 I never liked the
> screaming part of his singing much anyway. I always think that singers
> do that because they aren't good enough singers to express their
> emotions any way except screaming.

You've said this a bunch, I've noticed over the last few months. I
really don't recall Bono screaming. I've never been sure what you mean
by the term, I guess, in a musical context.

  
> Like U2 said, the 80's were just a rehersal for
> the 90's (or something like that;)

Yeah, but what else are they going to say? It doesn't mean we're
obligated to take them at their word and/or agree with everything they
say regarding their own musical development. I like the U2 of the 90s in
many ways,but there are some things that the band had during the 80s
that I miss a great deal. I guess that's really my main point.



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