... blogging, the drug of the nation...
Solo performance videos by Bono singing ‘So Cruel’ and The Edge singing ‘Love is Blindless’ as a promotion for the From The Sky Down, the Making of Achtung Baby DVD video that is released tomorrow.
Bono would do well to bring Edge along and focus on the singing rather than playing guitar, but otherwise a coupe of great acoustic performances of two of my favourite songs from the album.
For World Aids Day chatting about Red and The One Campaign.
Sorry rest of the world. I don’t have the links for that. YouTube?
U2’s Achtung Baby has been covered from start to finish. Originally released in the UK with the December issue of Q magazine, the album features artists such as Nine Inch Nails, Damien Rice, Patti Smith, Garbage, Snow Patrol, Gavin Friday, The Killers and Jack White each taking a track from U2’s 1991 album.
It’s selling for $7.99 and $6.93 of each album sold will be donated to Concern.
Jack White covering ‘Love is Blindness’ is probably the standout track for me. Damien Rice doing ‘One’ is also great, as is Snow Patrol’s slowdown of ‘Mysterious Ways’.
The man has good taste in electronics. And guitars.
Achtung Baby is when I fell in love with U2. There’s a term for fans of U2 that started liking them when that album came out — appropriately enough they’re called ‘Achtung Babies’ and it used to be almost dismissive because at one point, Achtung Baby was a fairly recent album and an Achtung Baby was a fan who only liked U2 because of their last album.
Now, 20 years on, I’m proud to say I’m an Achtung Baby. It’s definitely one of the best albums of the last 20 years. It’s one of the only albums I know backwards and forwards on guitar, from start to finish.
From the opening crash of landing in ‘Zoo Station’ to the lament of ‘Love is Blindness’, the whole album is a wonderful journey through a band’s attempt to leap from one mountaintop experience to the next — including the valley in between.
For now, view the trailer on U2.com, but I’m sure it will find it’s way onto Youtube/etc. after the documentary opens at the Toronto International Film Festival tonight.
Likely due to their concerts in Montréal this weekend, much of U2’s catalogue is on sale at iTunes. $7.99 albums, $0.69 songs and $0.99 videos. Even if you’ve got most of their library in various forms, there’s the remastered versions of The Joshua Tree, The Unforgettable Fire , Under a Blood Red Sky, October or War that will likely sound better than the versions you have now.
I’d hold off on buying a copy of Achtung Baby or Zooropa since there’s remastered/repackaged versions of those albums coming out this year.
At the end of their recent Nashville show, Bono notices a fan — who happens to be blind — holding up a sign that says he would love to play a song for his wife. Bono brings him up on stage and starts singing ‘All I Want is You’ with him, eventually the whole band joins in.
After the song, Bono sends him away with his custom built Gretsch tele. A beautiful guitar and an amazing experience for this fan.
Depending on when you view this, U2’s collection is on sale in the iTunes music store.
