U2 plans to tour “The Joshua Tree,” its 1987 album, all over again, to celebrate its 30th anniversary. Can’t they do something new?
U2: World’s Laziest Band
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
12 Comments. Leave new
My god how the money rolls in….
Henri
World’s laziest band? Maybe the world’s most over-hyped band, but certainly not lazy for not writing new material. It’s still a lot of work to tour, especially for a band that is over 40 years old. Maybe they still don’t know what they are looking for? 🙂
I have an unnaturally large loathing of U2. It’s not that their music is the worst. Although, it’s not my cup of tea. It boils down to people I know who are fans who find such inspiration in their faux activism and transparently superficial concern for the world. It boggles my mind that people who I generally think of as intelligent would be taken in by the Über Baffoon, Bono.
«It boggles my mind that people who I generally think of as intelligent would be taken in by the Über Baffoon, Bono.» Alas, Meursalt, intelligence is no guarantee against being duped, not least because we all have a tendency to believe that what we should like to be true is, in fact, true. There is a distinction between intelligence, on the one hand, and what the Greek philosophers called sophrosyne (σωφροσύνη) – sometimes translated as «prudence», but I think «wisdom» comes closer to its essence – on the other. Intelligent people get taken in by Bono, by Barack Hussein Obama, even, mirabile dictu ! by Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton. As Axel Gustafsson Oxenstierna af Södermöre wrote to his son Johan, who had been appointed to lead the Swedish delegation to Münster to negotiate the Peace of Westphalia and who doubted his capacity to hold his own with Europe’s top diplomats :
«An nescis, mi fili, quantilla prudentia mundus regatur ?» (Do you not know, my son, with what little wisdom the world is ruled ?)
Nothing has changed in this respect over the intervening three and one half centuries….
Henri
PS : As an example of what I mean, I’ve just received an email message from the New York Times with the following subject line : «Hold world leaders accountable. Subscribe to The New York Times.»
The prosecution rests its case….
I agree with your assessment. I particularly find merit in your statement that people tend to believe what they want to be true. I’m guilty of this in my life, I am sure. Especially when it comes to relations with the opposite sex. However, I try not to hold any sacred cows (even Ted Rall!) I realize people are complicated and no one is a saint. It’s that lionization of Bono that I find distasteful and repulsive. By the way, thanks for not grammar policing me on misspelling the word buffoon. Oh, the irony of misspelling that word. I realized I fat fingered it as soon as I hit post.
Actually, Meursault, I found «Baffoon» an excellent term for Mr Hewson. 🙂 But like you, I do wish Ted would provide us with a means to either preview our contributions or edit them after posting….
Henri
Never liked ’em. They ripped a lot offa Golden Earring, though they’d never ever admit it.
30 years? WTF??! I still consider U2 to be ‘new guys’
I can still remember U2 being hailed as the Band of the 80s by Rolling Stone. Why couldn’t they have stayed there?
To be fair, they are not the only “heritage” band to tour and play a popular album in its entirety.I will admit I did enjoy 4 out of the 5 concerts of theirs that I have gone to over the years. First one was in 1987– original JT Tour. This year I did not feel like forking over $100 or so to see them in a stadium. They are giving fans what they want that’s what an old band does.
> To be fair, they are not the only “heritage” band to tour and play a popular album in its entirety
A while back I saw an excellent ROGER WATERS production of ROGER WATERS’ The Wall, starring ROGER WATERS in the role of ROGER WATERS whining about how hard it is to be ROGER WATERS.
Even though the guitarist was no David Gilmour, it was great to hear the music in a concert format again, and great to see all the old props again.
Oh, did I mention that ROGER WATERS was there?