{"id":2039,"date":"2009-03-05T08:40:27","date_gmt":"2009-03-05T12:40:27","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-12-28T18:09:43","modified_gmt":"2010-12-28T22:09:43","slug":"relative-to-bandmates-who-s-the-hardest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/relative-to-bandmates-who-s-the-hardest\/","title":{"rendered":"<em>Relative to Bandmates<\/em>, Who&#8217;s the Hardest Working Man (or Woman) in Rock Today?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZiZ7gSCu8oU?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nA few years ago after, the night after the Grammys or some such awards show, my Mom came over for dinner and struck up a conversation about <strong>U2<\/strong>, who had been a featured performer. &#8220;What do you think of that band?&#8221; she asked me, &#8220;Aren&#8217;t they really popular?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>My Mom is pretty hip and never hesitant to form and share an opinion. I told her what I thought of them, which wouldn&#8217;t surprise you, then she gave me her analysis.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Their music was only OK, but the singer was a real showman. He had a lot of energy, really got the crowd worked up! Does he always carry the band like that? It seemed to me they would be nothing without him.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I saw U2 on Letterman again last night, playing another new song that featured The Edge playing one of his standard, digitally delayed riffs; Larry Mullen playing yet another variation on the beat from &#8220;Sunday Bloody Sunday&#8221;; and Adam Clayton massaging steady root notes out of his bass. Although the song had one musical innovation it&#8217;s taken U2 nearly 30 years to implement &#8211; an actual middle eighth (check it out, beginning at the <strong>2:50<\/strong> mark) &#8211; I couldn&#8217;t help but think about my Mom&#8217;s take on Bono and the band. They&#8217;d be nothing without him.<\/p>\n<p>My Mom couldn&#8217;t have appreciated the role that The Edge&#8217;s little guitar trick plays in U2&#8217;s popularity and slightly &#8220;cutting-edge&#8221; status (no pun intended), but I think she was spot-on regarding Bono&#8217;s energy and showmanship. Love him, hate him, or not really give a hoot, an argument can be made that&#8212;<em>relative to his bandmates<\/em>&#8212;Bono is the hardest working man (or woman) in rock today. Can you identify a <strong>band member<\/strong> (ie, not a solo artist with a faceless backing band) who carries a heavier load within his or her band?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few years ago after, the night after the Grammys or some such awards show, my Mom came over for dinner and struck up a conversation about U2, who had been a featured performer. &#8220;What do you think of that band?&#8221; she asked me, &#8220;Aren&#8217;t they really popular?&#8221; My Mom is pretty hip and never <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/relative-to-bandmates-who-s-the-hardest\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[111],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}