U2 'from the sky down', tonight on BBC1..

[max_tranmere]

For any fans of U2 on the forum, this should be a very interesting documentary tonight. It covers the period during 1990-91 when U2 were recording the 'Achtung Baby' album, and the band revisit Hansa studios in Berlin where it was recorded and talk about what was a very difficult period in the band's history. At the end of the 1980's Bono said at a gig in Dublin "this is the end of something for U2, we're gonna have to go away and dream it all up again".

The band went from this, in the late 1980's:



to this:



It was certainly a reinvention, the band embraced irony and lots of modern technology. Q Magazine, when 'Achtung Baby' came out, called it 'the first real 90s album'. I remember drummer Larry Mullen later said of the 'Achtung Baby' sessions, "we had some real crisis meetings as a band, we were afraid we were getting it terribly terribly wrong". One night a tinge of optimism was felt, when they were jamming out what became the song 'One'. The opening line of that song "is it getting better or do you feel the same?" was Bono asking the other three whether they felt the new direction was working or had this whole attempt at a new direction been a total disaster. The resulting album is what I regard as one of the top 10 best albums ever released in the history of music.

Any U2 fans on here, what do you think of the 'Achtung Baby' album? I will certainly be watching this documentary tonight on BBC1. I'm looking forward to it.

[Arginald Valleywater]

And of course Bono's ego saved the planet yada yada yada. Great album, shame about the sham politics.

[lloyd42]

I just wish that they would 'do an REM' and retire gracefully.

[lloyd42]

Oh and just one more point to make."...the first real 90s album." LMFAO! In my opinion there were three other albums released in 1991 (Nevermind by Nirvana, 'Screamadelica' by Primal Scream, and 'Blue Lines' by Massive Attack) that had a far greater impact on music than'Achtung Baby' ever did.

[mrmcfister]

This is their best album IMHO.The Fly is a classic.This band still make great music and their live shows are superb.Long may they carry on!l

[max_tranmere]

I thought it was a very interesting documentary, although Bono did come across as very bossy, almost treating the rest of the band as his lacky's in the studio. I always thought U2 had equal input into everything they did - and also their two producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, who were both interviewed, have a lot of say in what goes on too. That did come across in the show.

As far as 'Achtung Baby' is concerned, I don't really even know what you would term the music as. Q Magazine in 1991, I mentioned their review earlier, said it was "U2's heaviest album to date - and best". Heavy, yes, but they hardly sound like Bon Jovi. Brian Eno said some years ago that the crunching sounds on the 'Zoo Station' track were "the sound of data flying around". On songs like 'Acrobat', and 'The Fly', the sound of the guitar is something that is hard to pigeon-hole. A heavy drone might be one way to describe what you hear on 'Acrobat', cheesy cartoon like pop quitar (but heaved-up as much as possible) might be what one could describe the guitar on 'The Fly' as sounding like.

What do people think?

Zoo Station



Acrobat



The Fly



I personally think 'Acrobat' is one of U2's best ever songs. As far as Achtung Baby being 'the first real 90s album', as Q Magazine described it in 1991, I think it was - and there weren't many others. Bands that took their inspiration from bands that had been before were generally doing retro pieces, and their sound was an amalgam of what had been before. U2 embracing modern technology, whilst still having a guitar/bass/drums live sound, was very revolutionary and something not really done by anyone else I can think of. The Prodigy released 'a 90s album' in the sense they were using sampling/modern technology, etc, to the max, but they were certainly not a live guitar band. I think what U2 did was unique, and unsurpassed in terms of innovation, to this day.

[Jonone]

You should listen to Faust and Can to name but two. Bono namechecked Kraftwerk last night and the Man Machine album but much of the really seminal 'Krautrock' stuff dates back to '71. Yes Kraftwerk were around this scene but there were other influential bands too which people like Bowie and Eno were drawn.

Don't get carried away Max. Achtung Baby was a departure for U2, it may have been influential in mainstream terms but remember that Bono was also namechecking industrial acts like Einsturzende Neubaten who are more 'out there', aren't assimilated by the mainstream and so are more groundbreaking but obviously much less visible than a band like U2.

When Kubrick made A Clockwork Orange he tried to imagine the pop music of the future. What he came up with was more akin the something like Phuture's Acid Tracks than it was to U2.

[mrmcfister]

Watched this last night.Fascinating stuff.Wonderful to see the 'birth' of great songs.

[max_tranmere]

I think Kraftwerk are a superb outfit. They were said to have heavily influenced the British club scene around the late-70's/early-80's - the era the New Romantc scene was born out of. Bono did namecheck those sort of bands in the documentary, but he mentioned that he liked them when he was younger, years before the 'Achtung Baby' phase of the band. So he liked them, when U2 were doing their serious rock thing in the 80's, but only started to draw from them musically with 'Achtung Baby'.

I saw U2 in 1993 at Wembley Stadium on the ZooTV tour, the tour that followed that album, and Bono would inhabit various characters at certain times in the show. He started as 'the fly': this PVC, black googles-clad, ego maniac, who smirked a lot. This was for the first 5 or 6 songs and they were all songs from that album. Later he was just ordinary Bono - dressed normally and no smirking and no irony. He became a ranting Vietnam war vet at one point later, then became Mr Macphisto. The last of those characters was the oddest one of all. Clad in a gold-lame suit and speaking in an upper class English accent.

The reasons for all these characters, and to get away from him as himself, was because the media had termed him an ego-maniac for years and he thought he would actually become the character the press regarded him as: a big-mouth who apparently loved himself. As Bono said in an interview about it all at the time when the media asked him why he was doing all this, he said to the media: "you didn't like me when I was me, so I found somebody new".

The 'original' Bono:



Bono as 'the fly':




I can't find any pics of the ranting Vietnam vet, but he became that during 'Bullet The Blue Sky' and 'Running To Stand Still' on that tour.

Here is Bono as Mr Macphisto, the gold-lame clad oddball with horns, who would appear for the encore:




I think the Achtung Baby/ZooTV phase of the band did a lot to shake off U2's image as over-serious rock stars and ever since Bono has just appeared on stage as a less uptight, serious at times but not over-serious like he was in the 1980's, person.

[max_tranmere]

There is apparently a 20th anniversary re-issue of the 'Achtung Baby' album, which is out next month. I read there will be a few extra songs on there that didn't make the album. They will be interesting to hear, and I intend buying the re-issue.