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Bono: ‘I’m just embarrassed’ whenever I hear a U2 song on the radio

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Do you still listen to U2 songs? I do, sometimes. Sometimes I’m in the mood for the Joshua Tree album especially, and sometimes Achtung Baby. I still think “One” is one of the most beautiful songs to come out of the 1990s. “With or Without You” still hits. “Pride (In the Name of Love)” didn’t age well, but it’s still okay. “Bullet the Blue Sky” can still slap. I didn’t even remember that U2 had a song called “Vertigo” but they did and, according to Bono, that’s their best song? Or his favorite song. Bono chatted with the Awards Chatter podcast about how most of U2’s songs make him cringe, and how the band name is stupid.

U2 frontman Bono has said many of his band’s songs makes him “cringe” with embarrassment, and that he doesn’t like their name much either. The band, comprised of Dublin schoolmates, has sold more than 150 million albums over a 40-year career. But speaking on the Awards Chatter podcast, the 61-year-old said that, aside from 2004 track Vertigo, he finds it hard to listen to their music. He added that his voice sounds “very strained” on earlier recordings.

“I’ve been in a car when one of our songs has come on the radio, and I’ve been the colour of – as we say in Dublin – scarlet,” he told The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg during an hour-long interview. “I’m just embarrassed. I do think U2 pushes out the boat on embarrassment quite a lot. And maybe that’s the place to be as an artist is right at the edge of your level of pain for embarrassment, your level of embarrassment. And the lyrics as well. I feel that on Boy and other albums it was sketched out very unique and original material. But I don’t think I filled in the details.”

In defence of his band, U2 have had 10 UK number one albums and seven chart-topping singles, since arriving on to the scene in the early 1980s. Their fifth album Joshua Tree – featuring anthems like With Or Without You and Where The Streets Have No Name – was recently named as the best album of that particular decade by Radio 2 listeners.

While Bono agrees that his band “sound amazing”, he said he does not like the sound of his own voice at all, except on Vertigo, which featured on How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. “Most of the other ones make me cringe a little bit,” he said.

And despite a career spanning four decades, the Irish singer believes his voiced sounded weak early on and that he “only became a singer recently”.

“I just found the voice very strained and kind of not macho and my Irish macho was kind of strained by that,” he continued. “A big discovery for me was listening to the Ramones and hearing the beautiful kind of sound of Joey Ramone and realising I didn’t have to be that rock and roll singer. But I only became a singer recently.”

[From BBC]

I listened to “Vertigo,” thinking I was missing something. His voice sounds TERRIBLE on that song!! It sounds really strained, so I don’t know what he’s talking about here at all. Personally, I don’t think U2 was particularly good at lyrics or vocals, and yet I would probably agree with the sentiment that they were/are one of the best bands of the last fifty years. They were more than the sum of their parts.

His vocals sounded best in the Joshua Tree/Achtung Baby era, my God. I have no idea what he’s talking about.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

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Malawian Government Tells Madonna To Stop Expecting Special Treatment

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Even Malawi has had enough of Madonna. Despite having adopted two children from the country, Malawian president Joyce Banda recently issued a statement basically telling the state that there’s no need to give the ‘Material Girl’ singer any special treatment, despite what Madonna herself might expect. This came after reports surfaced that Madonna was unhappy with the way she was treated during her last visit to Malawi, where I guess she expected a red carpet and a place to take her Instagram selfies in peace.

From Nyasa Times:

State House has noted these claims and misgivings. State House has followed the debate incidental to these claims with keen interest, and would wish to respond as follows to put the record straight:

1.    Neither the President nor any official in her government denied Madonna any attention or courtesy during her recent visit to Malawi because as far as the administration is concerned there is no defined attention and courtesy that must be followed in respect of her.
2.    In any case, even if the defined parameters of attention and courtesy existed in respect of Madonna, the liberties of discretion to give or not to give that attention or courtesy would ordinarily and naturally remain the preserve of the host. Attention or courtesy is never demanded.
3.    Granted, Madonna has adopted two children from Malawi. According to the record, this gesture was humanitarian and of her accord. It, therefore, comes across as strange and depressing that for a humanitarian act, prompted only by her, Madonna wants Malawi to be forever chained to the obligation of gratitude. Kindness, as far as its ordinary meaning is concerned, is free and anonymous. If it can’t be free and silent, it is not kindness; it is something else. Blackmail is the closest it becomes.
4.    Granted, Madonna is a famed international musician. But that does not impose an injunction of obligation on any government under whose territory Madonna finds herself, including Malawi, to give her state treatment. As stated earlier in this statement, such treatment, even if she deserved it, is discretionary not obligatory.
5.    It should be put on record that Madonna did not come to Malawi at the invitation of the President nor her government. In other words, she was neither the guest of the President nor of her government.
6.    For all that is known, she came to Malawi like any other visitor that feels like coming to Malawi. Such visitors don’t have to meet with the President and are never amenable to state attention or graces.
7.    If the argument is that because she is an internationally renowned star, and, therefore, Madonna believes she deserved to be treated differently from other visiting foreigners, it is worth making her aware that Malawi has hosted many international stars, including Chuck Norris, Bono, David James, Rio Ferdinand and Gary Neville who have never demanded state attention or decorum despite their equally dazzling stature.
8.    Among the many things that Madonna needs to learn as a matter of urgency is the decency of telling the truth. For her to tell the whole world that she is building schools in Malawi when she has actually only contributed to the construction of classrooms is not compatible with manners of someone who thinks she deserves to be revered with state grandeur. The difference between a school and a class room should be the most obvious thing for a person demanding state courtesy to decipher.
9.    For her to accuse Mrs. Oponyo for indiscretions that have clearly arisen from her personal frustrations that her ego has not been massaged by the state is uncouth, and speaks volumes of a musician who desperately thinks she must generate recognition by bullying state officials instead of playing decent music on the stage.
10. For all that is known, Mrs. Oponyo has never been responsible for arranging state meetings with foreigners who are looking for those meetings. If Madonna was indeed a VIP and a regular guest of State Governments as she wants to be seen and treated, she would have been familiar with procedures that have to be followed to get such meetings. They don’t happen by simply sneaking into a country whose President and Government you scarcely desire to meet.
11. Even if Madonna followed the procedures to have her meetings with the President or government officials, the administration reserved all its rights to grant the meetings or not.

CONCLUSION
It must be noted that the President, Her Excellency Dr. Joyce Banda and her Government are ready to welcome any philanthropist seeking to assist in improving the welfare of the people of Malawi knowing that Her Excellency, herself, is a known philanthropist. However, acts of kindness must always remain as such; they must not smack of blackmail. In addition, let philanthropists not hold to ransom the President and any official of her Government because they showed some kindness to any Malawian.

Well, that was intense – and a total BURN on Madonna. Seriously, you don’t become the hero of Malawi just because you have two children from the country. You didn’t do them a favour by adopting two children, so time to climb down off your high horse, lady.

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