It’ll Never Be The Same Again

February 5, 2002 4:32 AM

It’ll Never Be The Same Again (~2.5mb mp3 down at the bottom there.) After Neil Young’s predictable homage, Paul McCartney’s song I can’t stand nor can I escape; Bono’s immense display of poor taste; the atrocious "What’s Going On" cover (I laugh at you Limp Bizkit!); I finally found a tune that makes sense of 9.11 for me. Ryan Adams’ "New York, New York" doesn’t count because it isn’t about that Tuesday. Fine track though.
posted by raaka (23 comments total)

Isn't that a cover of "Tangled Up in Blue?" And what "immense display of poor taste?"
posted by yerfatma at 4:43 AM on February 5, 2002

Whats going on? I like the word atrocious. And speaking of poor taste, I don't trust people with only one name, like Bono. What does he think he's better than everyone with a last name or something?
posted by Keen at 5:00 AM on February 5, 2002

Do you think Bono dreamed up the big bedspread tribute? For Super Bowl halftime shows, that was actually the most low-key I can recall. The thing I didn't like was the symbolism of putting the victim names on a big tower-like sheet, and then dropping it unexpectedly to the roar of the crowd.
posted by rcade at 5:10 AM on February 5, 2002

bono does have a last name -- it's "vox". sadly, he dropped it as his ego inflated.
posted by pxe2000 at 5:38 AM on February 5, 2002

Bono, U2. Man those guys are sad. Hard to believe they were part of a reaction against corporate rock. Now they're the bloated ones.

Neil Young is a sell out too. I used to have a few of his tunes like Ohio & Rockin' in the Free World .. I took them off after he voiced his support for the fascist "Patriot Act".
posted by Mondo at 6:42 AM on February 5, 2002

Dad lives, son dies
Dad dies, son lives.

Sod's law.
posted by niceness at 7:32 AM on February 5, 2002

It fell into a heart.
posted by mblandi at 7:40 AM on February 5, 2002

bono does have a last name -- it's "vox". sadly, he dropped it as his ego inflated.

Bono has a last name -- it's Hewson. He also has a first name -- it's Paul. Sadly, he dropped both as his ego inflated.
posted by kindall at 8:49 AM on February 5, 2002

I consider myself something of a Paul McCartney fan, yet even I have to say that his tribute song "Freedom" is incredibly banal, boring, repetitive, uninspired.

Not too long after he first performed the song, I heard him say (in an interview, I think) that he wrote it in an unusually short time span (an hour? a few hours? I forget exactly) on Sept. 12. My response: "Yes, I can tell."
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 8:59 AM on February 5, 2002

You think Bono has a big ego?

Hell, he could take lessons from Neil Young.

Neil could take lessons from Paul McCartney.

I still have not recovered from his duet with Terry Bradshaw. Yeah, he used to be a Beatle but Paul has always had the attitude than any little piece o' shit he writes is pure gold and should be force fed to the masses.
posted by BarneyFifesBullet at 9:45 AM on February 5, 2002

Mondo:

Perhaps you missed Neil's endorsement of Ronald Reagan for president.
posted by argybarg at 10:00 AM on February 5, 2002

My Bono has a first name...it's O-S-C-A-R.

DevilsAdvocate: I also think "Freedom" is pretty lame, but he also wrote a lot of his classic Beatles songs pretty quickly.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:01 AM on February 5, 2002

He may be a big headed Bono. But he's OUR big headed Bono.

How many millions in debt relief? How many again?

I'd be big headed too if I'd helped accomplish that.
posted by prolific at 11:18 AM on February 5, 2002

I don't see why anyone should have to make apologies for Bono. I shit you not: that man's a saint. I think Prol knows the figure quite well, but I know I do: that'd be $435 million in debt relief pledged by the U.S. alone. I don't have the numbers that the rest of the G8 committed lying around. And don't be fooled, that money would not have appeared without Bono, as absurd as that sounds. You mock his egotistical posturing, but he's no fool: he knows that it's exactly that kind of posturing that made politicians respond to him. (Because God knows reason doesn't get through to those guys.)

That said, I hated that f*cking jacket. Always have (he first unveiled it months ago on tour) and always will. And I *loved* last night's DAILY SHOW -- "Jon, why can't you just do what Bono says?" But I'll always respect that man deeply, eTrade halftime show paycheck or no.
posted by logovisual at 1:11 PM on February 5, 2002

I often waver between thinking Bono's a brilliant, charismatic and ballsy guy to thinking he's a shameless opportunist/egotist blessed with a nose for good PR.

How can someone who was the star of the show at the World Economic Forum only days before turn around and play the goddamn *Super Bowl halftime show* while names of 9/11 victims fight for monitor space with the friggin' eTrade logo in the background?

The mind boggles.
posted by Aphex Kid at 2:03 PM on February 5, 2002

that money would not have appeared without Bono

Uh, okay.

US pledges $435 debt relief:

At a White House ceremony, Clinton praised his debt relief allies in Congress, members of Non-Governmental Organizations working for debt relief, African aid advocates, as well as international advocates ranging from Pope John Paul II to Bono.

the man's a saint

I suppose, if you water down the definition a great deal, and consider debt relief not tied to institutional reform a good thing. But then, isn't being a saint all about good intentions? I'm a nice person who wants the best for everyone -- does that make me a saint?
posted by dhartung at 2:25 PM on February 5, 2002

You know, my sister has a CD with that "Freedom" song sung by another band, and she got it before the 11th. It didn't have the idiotic "It's my right, a right given by god". It's nice that he was able to reduce centuries of philosophical thought into just a sentence like that.

If anything, the bible says not to try to build really tall buildings.
posted by delmoi at 3:36 PM on February 5, 2002

"Freedom" is incredibly banal, boring, repetitive, uninspired.

and i still have that song stuck in my head!

i like enya :)
posted by kliuless at 3:42 PM on February 5, 2002

"debt relief not tied to institutional reform"

It is, in fact, tied to institutional reform. The World Bank put multiple restrictions on the money. And so far, those restrictions have been working effectively to prevent misappropriation -- for starters, three times as many children now attend school in Uganda since debt relief was passed.

And of course good intentions ALONE don't make you a saint -- and I'm not exactly urging the canonization of Bono here. Perhaps "saint" was too strong a word. But I firmly believe he does not deserve the shit he catches for wanting to change the world AND be an entertainer at the same time.
posted by logovisual at 6:03 PM on February 5, 2002

Bono: Does lots of fantastic work for the poor, disenfranchised and needy of this world.....oh yeah, and he tells everybody about it.
posted by niceness at 5:01 AM on February 6, 2002

Far be it for me to slam the man's charity work, which is wonderful...but has he no respect for his own country?

Why have some of the loudest declarations of American patriotism since 9/11 come from an IRISH CITIZEN???

(Neil Young, a Canadian, at least lives in the U.S.....)
posted by 23lemurs at 5:10 AM on February 6, 2002

Hey niceness... the reason he can do all that work is because he tells... no THE MEDIA tell everybody about it. The power of celebrity is exactly that. Bono goes out and uses his celebrity. Milks it. Whores it. For good. What does he get in return? Endless criticism.

23lemurs: I don't know... YOU tell me why some of the loudest declarations have to come from an Irish citizen. Nobody else filling the gap?

Bono is a resident of New York too, The Edge's wife is American. I don't have to tell you about the strong connections between Ireland and America (10,000s of people went to sign the condolence books at the American Embassy in Dublin). They, U2, were right for the job.
posted by prolific at 11:50 PM on February 6, 2002

... logovisual, agree on the jacket. The look, this tour, is just plain awful. And let's not get into the wig.
posted by prolific at 11:52 PM on February 6, 2002