Bono fakes playing guitar in "Rattle and Hum": Annoying or no?

[Via]

I saw it for the first time not too long ago and had a hard time getting past the fact that he pretends he's playing guitar on many of the songs. His act is not some over the top showy glitz, but appears to be a real attempt to fake people into believing he can actually play well enough to perform in public (which he obviously can't, since he's faking).

Am I being too harsh? Is that just part of the "show"?

Maybe U2's tendency to get pretentious (despite making some really good music) increases my annoyance on this.

You have one of the great rock voices of all time. Just sing, butthead.

 

[Ichinisan]

Video?

 

[mkrohn]

as long as he's not lip synching I'm fine, never even knew he played a guitar since his money is made singing

 

[lxskllr]

Using a guitar as a prop is hardly unprecedented. I think it's kind of dumb, but not a big deal.

 

[olds]

For the last 15 years, anything Bono has done has been annoying.

 

[Scotteq]

/shrug The Edge has been faking for decades...

 

[manimal]

/shrug The Edge has been faking for decades...

sequencers and tech isnt cheating its innovation. You may not like it but the edge is great. Bono is a vainglorious lead singer. I know its hard to believe.

 

[KeithP]

U2: Annoying or no?

FTFY

....and the answer is annoying, yes.

-KeithP

 

[Imp]

I don't know if he fakes guitar in Rattle & Hum, but it's pretty common where I can't even hear an amped guitar from the lead singer regardless of band. Think I read about Bono commenting on how you can't hear his guitar before in an interview -- admits he can play, just nowhere near as well as Edge.

Seen them in concert twice, not complaining.

 

[WilliamM2]

U2 still exists? Why?

 

[Imp]

U2 still exists? Why?

Cause Bono made >$500 million on Facebook, their tours make >$100 million a year, and their old music is probably a turn-key operation by now.

 

[darkswordsman17]

What "really good music" has U2 made in what the last 20-25 years?

sequencers and tech isnt cheating its innovation. You may not like it but the edge is great. Bono is a vainglorious lead singer. I know its hard to believe.

The Edge is almost as big of a self righteous douche. FFS he calls himself The Edge. For all his "greatness and innovation" its wasted on a lot of uninteresting music these days.

U2 is like a pop/soft rock version of Metallica. Instead of figuring out what made their music great and putting in the work to recreate that but with new music and skill gained from decades of playing, we get all this extraneous bullshit and mediocre "experimentation" and people go to their concerts almost entirely just to hear their 80s/early 90s stuff (or to say they saw them in concert).

Only positive is at least they've both mostly STFU and just focused on playing music, unfortunately that hasn't really led to any good new music from either.

 

[Scotteq]

sequencers and tech isnt cheating its innovation. You may not like it but the edge is great... I know its hard to believe.

Quite :biggrin:

 

[Miramonti]

In general I'm not a fan of faking musicianship, but his talents lie in vocals (and interpretation), and I'm a big fan of some of his music, so this doesn't trip me up at all.

 

[Meghan54]

I saw it for the first time not too long ago and had a hard time getting past the fact that he pretends he's playing guitar on many of the songs.

Meh, just get over it. Irrelevant overall.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

Bono is annoying without a guitar. So yes, very annoying.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5f7hOhl-jE