You may cry “No fair!” but I sense that a good deal of Townspeople have found Bono to be as annoying as anyone in rock at some point. Let’s get it off our chests once and for all, then find a way to admire the guy for what he is, within reason.
Those of us who feel this way may easily agree on the whole package of annoying behavior that could lead to screen-length rants, but for today’s Last Man Standing, I ask that you attempt to detail specific things about Bono that annoy the crap out of you, from his Holstering techniques to elements of his Look. Save the rants; state your beefs, one at a time. Let’s see what it adds up to.
Remember, Last Man Standing drills require the submission of no more than one (1) entry per post. When all ways in which Bono annoys the crap out of you have been exhausted we will take a moment of silence to celebrate the awarding of the RTH non-prize!
His vest without shirt Look.
His “I surrender to the will of my audience” Rock Moments, which mostly occur at the end of song performances. You know, he falls to one knee, crosses his arms penitently, palms up, and gazes at a spot at the front of the stage that only he understands.
…his continued tendency to pretend that the wordly concerns he addresses are more important to him than his own reputation / celebrity / fame.
Man, Saturn, that is COLD!
Running around carrying a flag.
By doing that nightly onstage rap during the Pop Tour where he said selling their gear at the K-Mart chain was actually a sneaky way of subverting the system.
I’m actually more annoyed by the obsession with Bono’s annoying characteristics than by anything he himself does. His refusal to wear anything resembling normal eyeglases is the worst offense I can come up with.
Originally billed himself as “Bono Vox”. Yuck. (Also the sunglasses thing.)
Has some responsibility for making the waters safe for the politicized Irish nationalist yodel used for a few years by Sinead O’Connor and The Cranberries.
paraphrasing rock critic JD Considine… maybe it’s because every time I see a picture of Bono, it looks like he’s about to deliver the Gettsyburg Address.
He’s got to get a proper pair of eyeglasses…
The self-important pompous Christ complex thing would be bad enough, but it’s infuriating coupled with his complete and utter lack of anything remotely resembling Skill as a lyricist. Moon / June / Spoon bollocks.
Loved this comment by critic Dave Marsh on ‘Pride’:
MacPhisto: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyAJzGS6x44&feature=related
The 9-11 memorial Superbowl halftime show
The American flag inside his leather jacket used to cap off his 9-11 memorial Superbowl halftime show!
His holstering, of course.
“Charles Manson stole this song from the Beatles. We’re stealing it back.”
The period when he tucked his pants into his boots. BAD LOOK!
Kissing the black woman in the video “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”
Can we do this for Michael Stipe too?
His long history of terrible rock hair.
All the above would be forgivable if he was FUN.
At no time has BONO/U2 ever been any fun.
Same thing goes for Stipe/R.E.M.
Those bands weren’t supposed to get huge. They were COLLEGE ROCK…remember?
It made sense for them to be too smart for their own good, have a conscience and do all that Amnesty Itnl. shit.
Nobody feels the need to give Pat DiNizio or Paul Westerberg a bunch of shit, cause they were’nt shoved down all your throats on MTV trying to fill stadiums…
Elvis was a holsterer.
Pince nez time: While I despise The Cranberries every bit as much as you seem to, mwall, for many different reasons (exception to the rule: I will forgive their pretty good first album, though; I was just watching the episode of My So-Called Life with “Dreams” on it and I remembered how good that song was and yes I actually own that first album; in case you’re wondering why I was watching the show, well the DVD box set came out and I spent part of my Thanksgiving weekend watching disc 1; I hadn’t seen it in years), they did write an anti-IRA/Irish nationalist/Republican (in the Irish sense, not in the American one) called “Zombie” on their second album.
Plus, it’s not fair to blame U2 for any Irish nationalism given the anti-violence stance of songs like “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and Bono’s background (1/2 Protestant, 1/2 Catholic). While I’m as annoyed at Bono for some of the things (esp. the sunglasses and overall pomposity) mentioned above, this just doesn’t fly.
As for Sinead, well you might have a point. U2 were early supporters, but she burned her bridges with them pretty early on. I’m sure they weren’t too thrilled with her pro-IRA stance in the UK press, either. With that said, I’ll always have a soft spot for her because of her debut The Lion and the Cobra. I know that Townsman cjdawson is also a big fan of this album.
Actually I don’t despite the Cranberries, oddly enough. I even like the singer, despite myself. It’s just that yodel thing. Bono made the waters safe for that vocal sound; I’m not talking about the local politics at all necessarily, which for Bono is clearly nothing more than a vast panorama for international melodrama.
Pince nez back at you, my friend.
Actually you wrote “politicized nationalist Irish yodel”, which references both the singing style (which I admittedly overlooked; oh and I generally dislike that style, too, so I don’t disagree there)as well as the (assumed) political stances of The Cranberries and Sinead. Thus, you can understand why I thought you WERE talking about the Irish political situation, no? In any case, sorry for the misunderstanding. I do agree with your conclusion re: Bono, though. He always had those “king of the world” ambitions, which would make it hard for him to focus on these issues.
Here’s my Bono gripe, though it applies to U2 in general. Though I like their ’80s output as a general rule, some of it made the world safe for Christianity in rock music that isn’t overt like the CCM stuff or Stryper, but for the likes of Creed and their ilk.
Interesting, berl. I think what I would say is that the yodel itself has am implied politicized Irish nationalism about it; the sound says “Hey, I’m Irish and proud of it.”” I suppose it doesn’t automatically have to mean that, but that’s really how it comes across. I often like the Irishness of Irish music, but in the case of the yodel as it appears in rock, it always just feels pompous.
Bono yodel? Which song? Seriously I get the Cranberries singer as a yodeler, but for Bono I’m not coming up with anything, and I’ve been a fan since U2’s first album.
Steve, you’re missing the point. Bono didn’t use the yodel, but his pompous “I am Irish and political” vocal grandstanding enabled a whole new generation of pompous Irish “I am political” musical grandstanding that defined itself vocally by the yodel.
And again, when I say “pompous” here, I’m not talking about what the man does or doesn’t do in the actual world of politics. I’m saying the Bono vocal sound is pompous, and a whole series of pompous sounding Irish singles followed in his wake.
Other, non-yodeling ways in which Bono might annoy the crap out of you: “Am I buggin’ you? I don’t mean to bug ya! OK, Edge, play the blues!”