3 Song Rule – Achtung Baby by U2
Achtung Ireland! It may come as a surprise to you that U2 are one of the biggest rock groups of all time. By most standards they are the most successful band currently in existence. It may also be surprising for some people that U2 reached this lofty position due to the sheer quality of their output, their world dominating live shows, determination, hard work, invention and re-invention. Amazingly, it appears that this isn’t a popular opinion in Ireland right now. As a result, I must call on the power of the 3 Song Rule to prove a point.
As a Liverpool FC fan, I hesitate to remind you that there was a time when Manchester United FC had a pretty decent football team. In 1999 they dominated in both the Premier League and Europe. Thankfully they’ve lost that dominance now but when they were at their peak an unusual type of football supporter emerged, calling themselves ABUs (Anyone But United). These ‘fans’ delighted in seeing Manchester United suffer and supported any team that could take the champions down a peg. Most ABUs didn’t actually support a Premier League football team, they were just sick of hearing of the success story that was Manchester United.
I suspect that this movement was mostly limited to Ireland’s fair shores. Rather than celebrate and appreciate success, the begrudging Irish would rather revel in misery. U2 are a similar success story, in this case a home grown success one, yet a growing number of so called music fans, critics and fellow artists refuse to recognise this. A new movement has emerged: the ABU2s.
When U2 surprised the world with their latest album, Songs of Innocence, a number of hacks claiming to be music experts wrote reviews containing references to the band’s tax status. I believe the financial affairs of a band hold no place in an album review, unless the album is about the band’s financial affairs. Songs of Innocence is about love, family and growing up in Dublin. Making reference to the band’s financial dealings is a deliberate barb, which aims to insight anger and distract from the rest of the review. Some of these reviews were published remarkably quickly, despite the surprise nature of the release. One wonders if it’s possible that such reviews were marred by preconceived views of the band rather than the album itself.
The latest wave of malcontents focus on the band’s distribution method. U2 shocked the world by distributing their album as a free gift through Apple as part of their latest product launch. As a result the band challenged the status quo in a labouring industry whilst breaking world records, distributing their music to over half a billion fans worldwide. And they got paid to do so. The music industry has struggled with the cost of distribution and apparently the losses they have made due to piracy since the 80′s and has done nothing but whine about it. As a result record labels have become reluctant to fund bands during the recording process, which means there’s less music for them to distribute.
U2 bypassed this flagging outdated process and proved that, for big names at least, there are still alternative ways to get your music to your fans. They weren’t the first to do so of course, Radiohead released In Rainbows in 2007 on their website using a pay-what-you like model. Even music fans are coming up with new and innovative ways to see and hear their favourite bands. Fans in Birmingham recently launched a successful crowd-sourcing campaign, using Kickstarter to pay for the Foo Fighters to play a gig in their home town. If these giants are struggling to fund records and tours imagine how difficult it is for unknown and unsigned bands. Yet those that try to innovate, like U2 have done, are criticised by music artists, critics and industry moguls. Even Paul Brady is jumping on the bandwagon:
So U2 gave away their album? I guess any of us would give away our work in return for reputedly $100 million. But what about the rest of the musical artists in the world who were kind of hoping that proceeds from the sale of their records to the public might go some way to offsetting the cost of producing them?
This is a further and highly visible nail in the coffin of a sustainable music business from a band that continually waffles on about fairness and human values. Music costs money to make. It has value. It should not be given away free. Shame on you, U2.
Paul Brady, Facebook
That’s pretty clever from Mr Brady. He manages to contradict himself in this widely publicised quote, claiming that U2 have given their album away for free yet reputedly collected $100 million in the process. Not bad for four lads from Dublin. One wonders is he just annoyed that a niggling hand injury has caused him to cancel an upcoming tour. Perhaps he’s miffed that he doesn’t have the pulling power (no hand puns intended) to rock into Apple headquarters and demand $100 million for his next album. That’s Paul Brady, the Accrington Stanley of the global music industry. Who are Accrington Stanley? Exactly.
My Krank colleague Graham was one of the few brave enough to give U2′s new album the glowing review it deserves. As Graham rightly points out “Fans of the band will be delighted to hear that, for the first time in years, they finally sound like U2 again”. He goes on to compare the album with their 2000 offering ‘All That You Can’t Leave Behind’. With its constant references to love and family and because this album was released at a time when U2 no longer seemed relevant, I’d be more inclined to compare “Songs of Innocence” with U2′s most successful album of all time Achtung Baby.
Achtung Baby sold over 18 million copies worldwide, won the band a Grammy Award, revitalised a band that was deemed to have fallen out of fashion with the end of the 80′s and reinvented Bono as a leather clad, shade wearing rock god. Bono’s ‘The Fly’ persona was the first in a series of characters he adopted throughout the 90′s allowing him to adopt a front man swagger without the risk of exposing himself as a vulnerable human being. Achtung Baby and its follow up Zooropa allowed the band the creative freedom to transform their live concerts into extravagant thematic events such as the Zoo TV tour.
Released in 1991 and recorded in both (newly reunified) Berlin and Dublin, Achtung Baby is an album that has and will stand the test of time. It’s an album so full of quality tunes that I can probably rattle off a quick 3 Song Rule without using any of it’s 5 singles (One, Mysterious Ways, The Fly, Even Better Than The Real Thing and Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses). So with One hand tied behind my back, so to speak, here it goes:
1. Zoo Station
The album opener announces itself with a ticking time-bomb. U2′s previous adventure Rattle and Hum (which was slammed by the critics) had been an old fashioned blues affair. It even guest starred old school blues guitarist BB King. Zoo Station was the opposite of old fashioned, it created its own fashion, merging grunge with stadium rock in a way the world had never heard before. Critics of the band often claim that The Edge hides behind his effect pedals but there’s nowhere to hide behind this invisible wall of sound. Effects will accentuate a good guitarist but there needs to be a raw talent there in the first place otherwise effects will only magnify their shortcomings. Just knowing what buttons to press and how to structure guitar effects is a skill in itself and the Edge is a technological wizard in this respect.
In the ’80s Bono could blast out his vocals with the best of them (Jon Bon Jovi for example) but this new incarnation rasps out his opening lines like a wheezing beast of the underworld, the vocals are distorted for added effect. In fact, aside from the bass guitar, nothing sounds like it ought to sound in this track. Even the drums are effect laden making them sound like a metal bin (wouldn’t sound the same with the wheely bin of today) crashing down a concrete stair-case. Bono’s opening gives a clue as to the madness to follow:
“I’m ready, I’m ready for the laughing gas”
2. Acrobat
Spoiled for choice I had two options for exhibit B. My initial choice was going to be So Cruel purely for its stand out vocal melody which echoed through many a large stadium in the early ’90s as fans sang along with gusto and lots of ohs, “ooooh they say in love there are no rules, ooooh sweetheart you’re so cruel”.
My third choice is a slower number though so I thought I’d maintain a bit more momentum with this song and what better way to do that than with the tumbling Acrobat. This song opens with a gentle jazz tempo raining down gently on the cymbals, then along comes the Edge which his whining guitar echoing and repeating in what would become his signature sound. What I love about this song is Bono’s defiant defence, calling out a line that must have become a mantra for both the band and fans alike when times were tough. It shows a wonderfully human side to Bono; despite his apparent swagger and alleged hypocrisy he’s still just a vulnerable man and needs to protect his ego now and again:
“And you can dream, so dream out loud
You know that your time is coming round
So don’t let the bastards grind you down”
Check out the Fly and some of Bono’s other personae:
3. Love is Blindness
Last on my list is an admission of defeat, in spite of their best efforts throughout the album of analysing love the band throw their hands in the air and admit their chosen topic is too intricate to describe. Instead they admit that love is an intangible darkness and one that they’re willing to throw themselves into it headlong:
Love is blindness
I don’t want to see
Won’t you wrap the night
Around me
Oh my heart
Love is blindness
This album is U2 at their lyrical best and this melodic track wraps up an album full of classics. If not for songs like One this could have been the classic single to be repeatedly crooned via karaoke machines around the world. Bono himself croons like one of his heroes (and later a collaborator) Frank Sinatra but trails off in the end into a truly Bono-esque falsetto. It’s a true classic and in case you don’t believe me, here’s Jack White’s version:
Having started the album trying to prove he’d left old school blues behind, the Edge reaches back into the past in this performance and brings the blues up to date. His guitar whines and evokes the emotion of a man in pain with stop-start bursts before screaming into his own version of a BB King solo.
Achtung Baby is a truly wonderful album by a truly wonderful group of musicians. To all the haters and ABU2s out there, keep it about the music, the rest is not important. ‘Free your mind and your ass will follow’, as Bono would say.
http://www.krank.ie/category/ent/mus/3- ... baby-u2/2/
