Sharon Watson ([email protected])
Mon, 27 Jul 1998 18:00:14 +1000
So how do I view them now in their current incarnation? Well... to be
honest, I roll my eyes at the models and the rest of the rock star
bullshit. Music has always been a life force for me, but the hoopla that
often surrounds rock bands is something I've always viewed as superficial
crap. I groaned inwardly when Adam got engaged to Naomi Campbell. Adam's
intelligent, and I expected a little better from him than to settle for an
airhead model. He could have at least picked ones with brains...
But you know, for all that it might irk me, U2 still don't actually engage
in a fraction of the rock star crap that other bands do. And at the end of
the day they're entitled to live their lives as they see fit. And they
still do lots and lots of things that make me proud to say that I'm a fan
of theirs, aside from producing amazing music. Like Bono rings a lady in
the US on Mother's Day because he promised he would. And the Madres of the
Plaza de Mayo join them onstage in South America (my apologies for the
incorrect spelling). And they rail against Pinochet from the stage. And
they plant a hand for Aboriginal land rights and reconciliation in
Melbourne.
Beneath the veneer of MacPhisto et al, U2 are still the people they've
always been. That's quite amazing given the position they're in. And they
still look after their fans and treat them with the same respect they ever
have.
As I've gotten older, U2's music has perhaps become less important to me on
a political level, but the importance it has taken on in my personal life
is impossible to express. U2 teach me to dream and to love. They are two
of the most powerful things anyone can ever teach you. So y'know, I can
forgive them a million times over for being human and falling for some of
the trappings of stardom. They remain some of the only artists out there
telling their audience to "dream out loud", and in a world which quashes
your hopes and dreams by telling you that you'll understand how it really
is when you grow up, that's an incredibly powerful message.
U2 also write songs that articulate the complexity of real love, and real
loss, and at 28 I need that far more than I need a song about Northern
Ireland or Chile or El Salvador. To borrow from the Verve, "I need to hear
some sounds that recognise the pain in me", and songs like Ultra Violet and
Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses and so many others do that. But they do
still write political songs, and Please stands as one of their great
achievements, and the showstopper of PopMart, even if it went over the
heads of much of the audience.
When I was younger, U2 acted as a political beacon in some ways. Today
they are not so much my teachers as my kindred spirits in this journey
through life, and a group who have the ability to bring me into contact
with so many other kindred spirits out there.
Sharon
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Mon Jul 27 1998 - 01:06:08 PDT