Opining

I'll make this as quick as I can. For their longetivity and continuity of putting out quality music from the early 80s until now, two and a half decades worth of sheer musical genius, I believe U2 has every right to call themselves the best band in the world. I will. When most known acts put out a CD it's a local event. For some bigger groups, it's a big event. For U2, when they put out a CD, it's a WORLD event. Everyone cares. Everyone wants to hear what they have to say. Some people hate them, and still want to know how they did this time. Because with the fickle nature of the music industry, and the constantly changing new "big thing," to do what U2 has done -- staying relevant, staying meaningful, and staying musically superb -- for as long as they have (especially now when every kid in the world it seems wants to have a rock band and be famous), how can that be deemed as anything other than extraordinary. Sure the Stones, Aerosmith, a member or two of the Beatles, Dylan, and maybe one or two other bands have kept making music over a long period of time, but NONE OF THEM make music that the world cares about on a large scale. U2 does it with every CD they put out. Their music still sounds as passionate now as it did when they were raw, just directed in other ways. U2 is great. Any superlative I could think of for their body of work wouldn't do it justice. People can argue all they want about who the greatest rock band ever is. I wasn't alive when the Beatles first hit and the British Invasion began. No one has been more influential than the Beatles, but for my money, no one's been as uniformly great as U2 over rock's short history.

Bono. I've gone back and forth on Bono, because sometimes he'll just do or say things I simply don't get. But I've arrived. I think he's awesome. Is he bold, brash, cocky, full of ego? As a front man for U2 and even as a rock spokesman, he's all those things. He's been impetuous, vulgar/profane, and selfish at times. You know what, so have I. So has everybody reading this, most likely. How about on the other end? If we were in Bono's position, would we be stalking world leaders, diplomats, presidents, stars, the world's rich and famous to help the world's smallest, most insignificant, and voiceless? Would we brave conservative/liberal talk show hosts, the President of the United States of America, our position as a rock star with the peer pressure that comes with it, our family and friends, and call every one of them out, to do what we thought was right with AIDS in Africa, the famine-stricken in Africa and around the world, the destitute in Ireland, his homeland? Would we be venturing to Africa and hugging the AIDS victims? Showing Christ to a world that has blinders on? If you can say yes to that, you're a better man than I am. Bono is a better man than I am. In fact, to compare is ludicrous. And lately, he's been beating his head against the wall talking about Christ to a world that hardly fathoms what the word means -- the world of celebrity. Yeah, he still says things I don't get and that are questionable, but I think his heart's in the right place. We could all take a lesson.

U2/Bono