Are you cooler than ex-Apple design guru Sir Jony Ive? Ex-Apple design whiz Sir Jony Ive appeared on the BBC's long-running Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs over the weekend. Despite his storied career and close friendship with the late Steve Jobs, his picks were pedestrian even for a Brit in his late 50s. For those unfamiliar, Desert Island Discs tasks its guests (castaways) with …
I've never thought of U2 as boring, but I was born in the mid 70's, and don't listen to much recent pop music because I can't stand the sound of autotune.
I've got to ask,has the author listened to "The Joshua Tree", "Rattle and Hum", "Actung Baby" and "Zooropa"?
For the record, I enjoy a range of music from They Might Be Giants to relatively recent dance music (e.g. Justice or Jon Hopkins), but including ska / two tone (topical, because of the recent album with many artists sending their listeners to Coventry ;-), rap, a range of electronic music and some of the lighter bits of heavy metal...
If we're here putting down our qualifications, I'm in the process of digitising my music library to play on a little Hiby thing for work and on to my music server at home. I've got Abba, I have Alphabeat, I have Motorhead, Black Flag, Mark Knopfler, The Anchoress, The Beat, The Specials, The Selecter, UB40, Status Quo, Bruce Springsteen, Manic Street Preachers, Meryl Streek, Public Image Ltd, The Alarm, Big Country, Buena Vista Social Club etc etc etc. I think the only genre I don't care for is happy hardcore, euro house, bulgarian folk trance etc.
And with all of this music at my beck and call, even I with the username I've got can tell you beyond all certainty U2 have always been boring and the nepo baby's Inhaler band are just as fucking bland.
But then some people like bland. That's why Coldplay exists. That's why you can still buy magnolia emulsion at B&Q. Some people want to be challenged, have their heart made to race, to feel from the effects of a guitar and drums. Some people though would genuinely enjoy taping away on a Mac listening to musak designed for elevators.
But U2 are fucking boring man.
I've almost never thought of them as anything other than boring — except possibly for Pop, which was at least an attempt.
Though I wonder whether that's just because I'm a decade or so too young for them; any band as successful as U2 is likely to seem boring in hindsight through ubiquity. From the same broad category, I really don't find anything interesting or enjoyable in Queen but that's probably just because circa. 2000 their Best Of was often the one CD owned by people who don't otherwise buy music, to be found next to the registers at every supermarket in the land.
It's hard sometimes to spot what's only middle-of-the-road because the road moved to where it was.
Bit unfair on Queen. Their early stuff was really good up until and including "The Game". I personally like "Hot Space" but a lot don't, but at least they were trying the disco thing at that time.
Everything after that just slowly goes down a hill a lot of bands go down where it's paint by numbers. I think Roger Taylor is one of the best drummers ever, but on the "A Kind Of Magic" album he plays the same drum pattern in about 6 of the 10 songs on the album.
Well, A Kind Of Magic is a soundtrack, where some consistency is expected... Will you complain about Flash Gordon soundtrack as well, just because some patterns appear in several songs? The latter would be nothing without that soundtrack, disappeared in the heap of trashy movies of that time - if not for a young Ornella Muti....
Oh, that discussion about "A Kind Of Magic" again :D. Yes it is a studio album, not officially mark(et)ed as "Soundtrack", but with the status of "unofficial soundtrack" since no official soundtrack was ever released. With only six of nine tracks with clear reference to the movie, which only make sense from the lyrics etc in the context of that movie. And three which could be referenced to the movie depending on the interpretation, fantasy or "made, but not used in the movie".
I'm with you on Autotune, modern pop music is like saccharine, much too sweet. I find a lot of modern music simply headache inducing. There are some good singers around and I do enjoy some modern music, but the general "pop" stuff is just sickly sweet diabetes coma inducing stuff.
That said, I was never really a U2 fan, a couple of their tracks were okay, but it isn't a band I could sit down and listen to a whole album.
> 'someone who listens to John Coltrane and Aphex Twin probably wouldn't end up designing featureless rectangular black slabs that sell by the truckload'
... neither would someone listening to Fela Anikulapo Kuti's 'International Thief Thief', I guess.
> Aphex Twin
Can't find that in the article. Go me a link where it says he listens to? I hope not, or else I have to....
I never thought of U2 as boring. I just didn't think of them much at all, to be honest. Their music was, with a couple of minor exceptions, utterly forgettable for me.
My first impression of them as a kid in the 80's was that they looked like a student band that was trying too hard. Bono was sure he was the coolest cat in the room, when he actually just looked like a tit. Their guitarist called himself "The Edge", but didn't seem to be playing well enough to be worthy of the title. Both of these were good reasons to turn my attention elsewhere.
So I carried on with my mix of pop, hard rock, blues rock, metal and classical. Later I added a little hip hop. (The good stuff. To quote: "Guns, b*tches and bling were never part of the four pillars, and never will be.")
I don't like judging folks based on their music taste, but I struggle not to feel deeply suspicious of anyone who fails to be cheered by Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now", so that would probably be in any selection I made.
The rest would depend on my mood. After all, the idea of planning for a desert island is faintly ridiculous. If it happens by accident then you get what washes up on shore with you. If you're actually planning it ahead of time that rather suggests things have gone very, very badly for you... and perhaps your time could be better spent elsewhere?
> It was a sad day when Scroobious Pip stopped making new music, it's true.
Very true. There would be a lot of very happy people if he chose to restart.
His companion, Dan le Sac, is still making music - most recently he did the music for one of the Tron games.
@Philip Storry
"Bono was sure he was the coolest cat in the room, when he actually just looked like a tit."
Obligatory mention of the cover of "Achtung Bono" , which emphasised exactly that, by the brilliant HMHB
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fa/Achtung_Bono_cover.jpg
Their guitarist called himself "The Edge", but didn't seem to be playing well enough to be worthy of the title.
He got that name because of his physical appearance, his face.
I saw them early on, still at school I did the classic lie to parents about doing some homework round a friends house and we stole away on the train. Missed the last train back and had to phone dad from a payphone and confess to get fetched back. It was a good gig and I eventually bought War on cassette. Not bothered with them since.
Huh. My assumption about the nickname was wrong, so I apologise for that, and have a virtual pint!
It still feels like a sixth form band thing though - so it doesn't change my opinion of them.
That being said, I'd see them live if someone else bought the tickets. Based on their reputation I reckon that they'll put a lot of effort into their live performance and it'd be great fun.
Hopefully your dad was forgiving. ;-)
> Bono was sure he was the coolest cat in the room, when he actually just looked like a tit. Their guitarist called himself "The Edge"
As a wise man once said, "These guys are from England and who gives a shit?"
> Actually Irish
Yes, *I* know that, but I knew that someone would feel obliged to correct "my" mistake, so I hoped that the title of my post would make that clear enough without being too distracting. Evidently not. :-(
Anyway, the quote is from an infamous off-air rant by American DJ Casey Kasem who either didn't know- or possibly didn't give a shit!- that U2 were Irish, not English.
Even James Last was cool enough for Hawkwind. Check out his orchestra's groovy version of Silver Machine.
I used to think they were a pretty ordinary band....
Seeing them live at Hammersmith Odeon changed that. They really are/were a band to see live.
Don't buy any of their albums though, the recording quality is a bit like someone in the audience recorded it... through a bucket.
For the record... (Ha!) Out of Ive's choices I'd take Simple Minds anyday.
But which Hawkwind?
Personally, I liked the Rob Calvert period (1975~1979), and the Hawklords tour was particularly impressive.
However, Rob Calvert’s solo albums are definitely an acquired taste and aren’t easy listening or something I would recommend for casual listening.
"often spirtually/politically incorrect subject matter is not conducive to the positive and safe atmosphere I wish to foster in my household"
Just play some of the (many) Death Metal tracks where lyrics are unintelligible then nobody will know if the subject matter is offensive or not.
Though to be fair. some metal has appropriate lyrics (IMHO) e.g. lyrics of Sabbath classic "War Pigs" still as relevant as ever (unfortunately). But probably wouldn't play Maiden "Charlotte the Harlot" or stronger in a family environment.
Apart from the Debussy tapped out by Arrau his musical selection was all Greek to me.
Being christened Jony Ive and its obvious permutations and embellishments I can see why Sir J might wish to even the score with the world but the curse of the mobile "smart" phone has inflicted on the planet smacks of Trumpian retribution.
P G Wodehouse not a bad choice but the complete works as I wouldn't want to leave Psmith behind. The luxury item would obviously be a seagoing yacht. :)
I mean fine. It’s for the radio. You don’t want people turning off. There are some legit bangers on there (I’m about the same age as Mr. Ive, so I have a similar pop cultural background). I’m probably have chucked in some Cure, Pixies, Cult, L7, Babes in Toyland… - or, at least, I’d like to think I would. But perhaps if I did I’d have people turning off in droves?
I only catch DID every now and again, and then only because I often listen to R4 when pootling about in the kitchen, ... but it has long been my impression that the more outre the musical selection, the shorter the clip they play. This might not actually be the case, though.
Guy Garvey included Talk Talk's New Grass in his list…
Of an age with Sir Ive of Jony but I'm missing the Floyd, the Underground, the Fall, some punk (Buzzcocks, Undertones), and more out there new romance and Britpop stuff) and some comfort stuff thrown in, maybe even some Robert Wyatt. It's obvious he never listened to John Peel, which tells us probably all we need to know.
And, for all the dross, there's always some good stuff coming out.
U2 have made some great choons, and while they became a travesty, I think we often expect too much of our pop idols. Let them enjoy their stardom, just don't expect me to want to listen to anything after Achtung Baby!
I thought I did too - but then I thought I'd double check the date on Wikipedia, and it doesn't line up. I thought I was at the Wasps vs. 'Quins match at the Causeway, but it seems that was over a week later. So I can only suppose that I was talking about it with my friends - because I could have sworn that was when I found out too. And I can't believe that I wouldn't have spotted the announcement in the news, or discussed it with my wife, we were both big fans.
I think I was out of the country at the time, but by then he'd be shuffled off Radio 1 by the sinister mandarins but he was still listening to and discovering new bands all the time. The list of bands that got their breakthrough because he was prepared to listen to everyone is astonishing. He even let Blodwyn Pig stay at the farm for a few months! Hoping against hope they'd become good (they didn't have to become great).
A Peel show in the 1980s could include some death metal, hip-hop (he was early fan and the first to play Public Enemy IIRC), but also Zimbabwean Jit, The Jesus and Mary Chain and some classic funk or soul. He loved it all and, while he didn't expect everyone else to, he did expect everyone to keep discovering something new.
Mine's the one with the signed photo of Clare Grogan in the pocket…
John Peel was on Radio 1 right until his death, with a quick search indicating that his final Radio 1 broadcast was on the 14th of October 2004.
On the one hand, 2004 feels more recent than I'd have guessed, but on the other I used to record his broadcasts to Minidisc and try to cut out the particularly-good songs later. So that dates it, and me, somewhat.
Peel's taste in music was amazingly wide. I even remember being totally gobsmacked one evening hearing him play Sheena Easton's 9-To-5 on his Radio 1 show in between things like the Fall, Killing Joke and the Only Ones. He said that he had absolutely no idea why he liked 9-to-5 but he did and so he played it!
I also remember him playing a band that a friend of mine was in - Silent Noise - and, a little later on, he let them mime to it when he was doing a gig at the UEA!
U2 stands as one of the most boring, annoying, whiny bands in this commentard's mind
They were good(ish) around the late eighties. But somewhere along the way they sold out massively - surely nobody has forgotten when Apple gifted their latest album to everybody.
As for boring, annoying and whiny, the list of those bands is ridiculously long.
"Don't You Forget About Me" made me think of the Twelve Monkeys TV show and Jennifer Goines' singing Pink... (NSFW on multiple levels, especially if you are in Germany...)
But, yeah I'm ambient these days. I've been working through some Anjunadeep sets on Youtube. And Deep Space One is sounding good so far.
Blimey! I'm amazed nobody has yet mentioned the time when Apple, in its C-suite wisdom, plonked an unrequested U2 album into every iTunes account that existed in 2014. The digital equivalent of bleach wouldn't shift it, until they hastily provided a way to delete it.
I did indeed forget to mention it, though after writing the article recalled that I was thoroughly annoyed when it happened because U2 would never have a spot in my library otherwise. I wonder if Sir Jony had anything to do with it. Then again, if U2 is the go-to for the C-suite, we have to find out if they are Tim Apple's favorite band too.
I went to see the War tour at the Edinburgh Playhouse, and Bono put on a nice show. They then got too big for their boots and forgot their roots.
Oh, and Really Saying Something is about the blandest Fun Boy Three track, and my juvenile mind is forever imprinted with Bananarama's navels in Venus.
Having a taste for metal is not incompatible with having a young family. You have to teach the little ones to appreciate it - gradually. What you do is find out what shit they're obliged to say they like as a result of peer pressure at school, then plot a route to steer them away.
For example, when my daughter was little at the turn of the century, she was obliged to "like" the Spice Girls. So over time I bought her CDs by girl bands with an increasingly rougher edge (and better songs). I think we started with B*Witched, then Pink, and so on. As she entered her tweens we moved her on to Linkin Park, then Korn, and she took over from that point.
For my son, it was easier. I started with easy-listening stuff such as Queen, then AC/DC, and then took him to a Wolfmother concert, after which he was away on his own journey.
Best wishes to my friends on the Reg, BTW.
They're certainly exposed to it in various forms. They constantly ask for Hypa Hypa by Electric Callboy, for example, and my eldest recently expressed enjoyment of Skeletal Remains' new album. It's more that I don't have the mental bandwidth for raucous noise like I did in my 20s, when I would spend most nights staying up late mainlining obscure black metal. I still do on occasion, but I reckon I "have a life" now. My other half says I "grew up."
Some Manowar texts should be good lesson for modern kids, for example Defender
Now, your mission lies ahead of you as it did mine so long ago, to help the helpless ones who all look up to you, and to defend them to the end
Or "Run to the hills" from Iron Maiden, "Winter Nights" from Accept ... there is no shame in listening to heavy Metal. Of course, "Countess Bathory" from Venom is not to be put in every-ones ears (shows the epoch were I come from)
as a metalhead at the furthest reaches of extremity
I'd be curious to know about those
For me and my son it was easy... I just had to let him hear it! When he was little he was into stuff like Hannah Montana, but now in his twenties he's a bigger metalhead than I am.
We picked up an inexpensive electric guitar for him when he was 11, and was taking him to guitar lessons. One of the first songs he learned was Heart's Barracuda.
I grew up on 70's and 80's rock; lots of hair bands and even a smattering of firstwave music. These days I find myself listening to the modern songs of the old bands, plus I've taken a liking to the synthwave music I find on Youtube. I'm also appreciating the new music that I catch on SiriusXM Octane and Liquid Metal. When the youngster visits he's always giving me a listen to the stuff he's enjoying, usually some excellent headbangers to be heard.
*raises horns to Mr. Dabbs* \m/ \m/
That was the end of it, so far as I was concerned. First time I heard New Year's Day on the radio it knocked me out, especially the guitar solo. Then there was some stuff about The Troubles that we could all nod along with. Then they sold out to the US Stadium rock circuit, and that was that.
Still, they gave us this gem:
Q. What's the difference between Bono and God?
A. God doesn't walk the streets of Dublin thinking he's Bono.
-A.
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