U-2 Lets Us Down Again

 

Now, don't take me wrong.  I began as a U-2 fan, but it's been a while.  Back in the late 1980s, for instance, U-2 songs got me through the hard work and isolation of one summer in particular.  Their music meant quite a bit to me back then, working on Whidbey Island.  Fast forward a few decades, and I even served as a guest DJ of sorts on Sirius XM's U2 channel, where I highlighted songs like Sunday Bloody Sunday, Where the Streets Have No Name (with Amazing Grace segue), and 40.

The remakes of the classic songs were irritating, but I didn't say much about them.  I will say now that they feel like all the power and testosterone have been sucked out of them.  I recall them whining recently about artists being allowed to change their style.  I can understand that as a writer.  I wrote a collection of short stories for a somewhat similar reason.  It remains, however, that artists, musicians, and authors can adopt whichever style they may prefer, but it doesn't mean their audience is locked into supporting their new works.  Frequently, the audiences are not.  When groups like U-2 rewrite classic songs in such a strange, discordant way, it betrays, in my mind, a degree of disrespect toward their original audience.

Add to that, and now Bono is endeavoring to stoke hysteria and anger in the United States concerning certain political issues du jour.  I am seriously tired of being preached to by wealthy, out-of-touch entertainers who embrace whichever cause they think will further their careers.  They preach the dangers of carbon whilst traveling on their private aircraft: hypocrites!  At one point, the band emphasized Christianity and truth before the lie, then, some decades later, they supported the legalization of infanticide in Ireland.  I am getting to the point of being sorely tempted to get rid of their music.  For now, I will remember them as they were and not as they are or have become.  They are such a disappointment.