Re: Negativland on tour...ENO and U2

[Cheryl_L_Boone@vanguard.com]

Hello, I do not know how but my work address was added to your discussion 
group.
Could you please remove me from your email group.  Thanks.




"Larry Tremblay" <ltct@concentric.net> on 04/20/2000 12:58:30 PM
Please respond to Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com

To:   Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com, ew37@bellsouth.net
cc:    (bcc: Cheryl L Boone/Indiv/VGI)
Subject:  Re: Negativland on tour...ENO and U2



First of all let me say I like much of U2's music.
But for the record, Eno saved U2's floundering career.
This is a well-documented historical fact.

U2's association with Eno was *Eno's idea* - he heard something
he liked that he knew could be B-I-G with the right amount of
coaxing.

Regarding the Edge's guitar style, I remember reading
an interview in Guitar Player or somewhere with one
of those dime-a-dozen Satriani/Vai/<insert lame
sound-alike speed-virtuosi here> geetarists. The
interviewer played a little U2/Edge music and asked
him what he thought about his style. The trog said,
"I don't hear it" (TRANSLATION: Where are the 500 mph
Mixilodian scales, ProCo distorto-box, and erzatz-Halen
power-dives? ANSWER: Up your myopic dinosaur ass.)

For the 'youngins' out there, The Edge was once considered a
neo-psychedelia reverb-monger (a good thing at the time)
along the lines of Echo & the Bunnymen and Teardrop
Explodes.

So..., it took a visionary like Eno to bring U2, and the
Edge, to where they are today, commercially and technically.

-Larry T

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Biffle" <mbiffle@svg.com>
To: <Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com>; <ew37@bellsouth.net>
Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2000 11:42 AM
Subject: Re: Negativland on tour...


> >>> "X-ray" <ew37@bellsouth.net> 04/19 11:34 PM >>>
> >>non-mentioning of the fact that it was ENO that came up with the
> whole idea with the TV screens/satellite access and all, Again, credit
> placed where not deserved.
>
> > Hmmmm.  Not sure I agree.  U2 has quite often given credit to Eno
> for the initial concept of that tour (even in the tour program).
> Certainly the band were the "directors" of the production whereas Eno
> was the one who wrote the 1st draft of the script (sorry for the
> analogy).  I'm not sure it's fair to
> suggest that it was Eno's baby and U2 were just along for the ride.
>
> I remember Bono saying something like... "We finally have enough
> money to do such a bloated grandiose thing... Why not? If not us, then
> who?" I think he's correct in that statement... they were huge, had
> the capability, so they went for it and staged an incredible, very
> successful production. For it's sheer scope, it was certainly the most
> modern and hi-tech I've seen to date. Sure beats the Stones bloated
> retro machine...
>
> >>Then I saw U2 making scads of money making music that sounded like
> someone elses' work
>
> > Just out of curiosity, other than the rootsier Joshua Tree/Rattle
> and Hum period, who do you find them to be imitating???  Again, just
> curious.
>
> I think it became popular to disinherit U2 due to their tremendous
> success... The Edge managed to assemble several existing simple guitar
> techniques into a cohesive style... and has continued to experiment
> far more than your average rock star type does... His stuff on Pop is
> really cool... Great sounds... it is ROCK music... If you can't hack
> rock, then sure... they probably suck for you. But I think U2 is a
> great ROCK band... They benefitted a lot from their association with
> Eno.
>
> -Miko
>
>