Achtung Bono

When it comes to U2 I’m kinda a Fuddy Duddy with them. My pal Muc was the guy back in 1984 who first told me about them as he was raving about U2’s Live Under The Blood Red Sky E.P that was recorded at Red Rocks.

Muc played me Sunday Bloody Sunday and I agree it was good but for me at the time it was about  Heaven’s On Fire by Kiss! Ha! Seriously though there was so much music floating around so some stuff would pass by me. U2 1984 kinda did. Muc though kept raving about them…

1985 U2 releases The Unforgettable Fire album and with all the hype floating around on it and a pretty good leadoff single(Pride In The Name Of Love) I was onboard(purchased the cassette).

1987 and everyone has Joshua Tree and I can admit it was pretty good. Man those songs were slammed down our ear drums. With Or Without  You to be honest I can’t handle that one anymore but In Gods Country,Where The Streets Have No Name,Bullet The Blue Sky are deadly tracks. U2 1987 = Everywhere!

1988 and U2 release Rattle And Hum and it’s awesome! I’m not gonna say much as I plan on spinning some words on this one along with the next studio album that followed in 1991. That album was Achtung Baby! These two U2 albums are classics! Achtung just falls outside my all time Top 15 so right there you all know I hold it in high regard.

The followup releases Zooropa (1993)and Pop (1997)especially lost me. Alright I get it bands tend too well keep pushing forward with different sounds and all to often they fall into a trap of basically which I would call plain and simple…. Garbage!

Now just  for the record I bought those two albums and to this day those tunes like  Numb (yikes!) and Lemon (seriously?) I just lost interest! Bono wanted to be President of Whatever and it’s good to pledge a cause but seriously do you need to ram your spiel down my throat?

U2 came unglued and there next few releases I found myself buying again and I was  aboard the U2 hype machine like it was 1985 again!

The later day U2 albums(All That You Can’t Leave Behind and Vertigo) had some decent stuff(Elevation is a Friggin good song) but it’s been years since I dusted them off and spun em!

New Line On The Horizon(studio album) I totally passed and of course…..

Songs Of Innocence(album) when Bono,U2 and the Apple marketing machine took it upon themselves to dump their new album on all apple devices worldwide!

That morning when I seen Songs Of Innocence on my iPad it  intrigued me. My first thought was “Wowzers! Deadly …Free Music!” Like any music freak I was totally  into free legit music!

Once I guzzled back my 6 am coffee and the early morning cob webs were dusted off the inside of my noggin I first thought how the hell did Apple get this through everything that I use personally(iPad  and iPod) right onto my two devices? Breach ? Myself I was like wow that’s crazy!

The classic line came from my oldest daughter Kylee whose first words to me  that morning was “What’s this U2 thingy doing on my phone and how do I get it off!!” Hahaha…..

Not just Kylee, my two twin daughters Lexie and Lauren as well wanted it off their devices! Even my wife Sue(The Boss) was like “where did and how could they do it too everyone’s devices and  get away with it”

Houston To Bono…. We Got A Problem Here!…….

Bono, take my house for instance. We have 5 people living here. 4 people wanted your album gone.. asap! Man do the math, that’s not good! Myself, the album is still sitting in the  cloud floating around Apple space waiting for me to push Download! Maybe some day I will….

How could U2 think that there ego is so big that they would think everyone would want a freebie album?

I would like to know the numbers that used the uninstaller to rub U2s Album off there Apple devices?

Of course Millions still love U2  and buy their albums and flock to there live show! More power to Ya….

Myself ….Nope …out of my missed Live shows category The Achtung Baby tour  I regret missing (1991-1992). That show looked huge….since than…no interest…

Bono. It’s not all bad,come back Friday for some Rattle & Hum!

 

$1.95 Spent In February 1985

Gotta laugh At The Title of The Accept Article The Metal Avengers! Who wrote this stuff? Ha!

The Pic of Roth is classic! Funky Roth it says. Ha! Classic pants with a tinge of a woman’s flair tossd in for good measure!

My sister in law Kristy came across this mint(all pages intact including the Judas Priest Centerfold) copy of Hit Parader while she was out doing  as she calls it Junkin! This mag came in at under $1! I paid $1.95 for it back in 1985.

So for this past  Christmas as a gag she wrapped it up and my nephew Cameron(Cambo)presented it to me. Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley in there 80s heyday glory on the cover of the February Issue(1985)

I howled as I unwrapped it and once I  seen the cover and the red Hit Parader title at the top! Wowzers I flashbacked like Marty Mcfly in Back To The Future and basically for about a minute I tuned out the whole world around me and flipped through it like I standing at Larry And Gary’s Convienance Store in Current River (Tbay)circa 1985 as a 18 year old!

Kristy laughed as I had told her I had this copy and many other magazines as well. It was a total score!

Once I snapped myself back into present day reality  I passed the Hit Parader over to my sisters boyfriend Darren who turned the pages and we laughed at the title of the articles! Man how much was it snowing at the editors table at Hit Parader?  Haha! We also marvelled at the one of the many T shirt adds for Rock bands! 2 Rock shirts for $11! That was 1985 and for those wondering that included the Maiden Shirts! The Number Of The Beast,Purgatory,Killers,The Trooper! The ironic thing is these Maiden shirts are in circulation today except it’s gonna cost you a lot more today! Damn Inflation!

My 75 year old Father (Don and Yep if your wondering if he has a nick name,it’s Ol Boy!)even took a turn leafing through the magazine! He even hollered over the people in the house “Derek is this one of the Kiss guys?” when he got to the Kiss article on page 34! Ha….

Brent Jensen in his superbly written No Sleep Til Sudbury book  states that magazines like Hit Parader and Circus were handlers for the record industry back in the 80s and I totally agree with Brent! Except at the time I didn’t realize it but after Brent wrote about and explained it I just had to laugh about it! Call Me Sucka!

Lemme explain ….

Basically I would buy the magazine…read the articles about bands and than go and buy the album! Repeat this process over and over,month after month!  Add in more magazines like Circus,Creem,Rock Scene,Faces and later on RIP and Metal Edge Magazines. Looking back and thinking about it I was the record company’s mule in the 80s! Transporting back and forth and spreading to all who would listen (take a bow Tbone) the new bands,what the current bands were doing! Holy hell I was doing free promotion for a ton of acts! Mr Jensen I could have used your wisdom back in 1985 …

They should have hired me I mean I laugh now at  it all but some of these  band articles with the titles are classic…. for instance and just  this issue….

Dokken-Rough And Ready,Dio- The Evil Eye,Scorpions- The Continental Noblemen,Fastway-Rocking On The Edge,Kick Axe-Pedal To The Metal and my fav titled article …Zebra- Earning There Stripes! Hahaha….

The back of each issue of Hit Parader would feature about a dozen or so pages of current rock songs with the lyrics. Can you say magazine filler! It irked me back than but today it made giggle! I mean here’s the lyrics to New Girl Now by Honeymoon Suite,Two Minutes To Midnight by Iron Maiden, Heavens On Fire by Kiss and many more! Give me more rock info so I could babble more about it. Than again maybe these dozen wasted pages did me a service by not featuring more articles whereas I would have spent more cash!

Writing this Ramble was fun! Thanks Kristy and now I know why Axl Rose went off the rails lyrically in the song Get In The Ring when Axl  spewed venom towards Andy Secher(editor) and Hit Parader Magazine. Ha!

Full Circle!