Is this rock & roll??

When I wrote in a previous post about John Hannah being ugly cute or summat, I knew I stole that from somewhere. It occured to me where and I chased down the quote within 525 give/take page book that is the funniest, most intriguing, engaging and insightful book about rock music ever written - U2 At The End Of The World, by Bill Flanagan.

I probably have read this book cover to cover 2 or 3 times and anecdotally countless times. It's just so much fun to read, it makes you feel like you're on tour, living every moment in real time. It's a fascinating insight and as Paul McGuinness pointed out, the band are unusual in that they prefer each other's company to that of others. And it shows in the way they relate to each other.

The quote in question comes from an exchange inside a limo going somewhere. Bono and The Edge are having a difficult time figuring out why the limo TV keeps switching back to a self-help ad. Turns out Larry is playing the classic sophomoric joke of hiding the remote and switching it back and never lets them know. They leave the channel as-is mystery unsolved and then this exchange ensues:
Larry: Too bad you can't get cable in a car...Have you ever seen the Fishing Channel? Lots of talk about rods and hooks and the one that go away."
Bono: I prefer 'Rides bikes, like boats, and lives with girlfriend for twelve years channel.'"
[discussion about a Vogue magazine interview where the journo went on for pages about Bono, a few 'parables' from Edge, and then condensed all of Larry and Adam into a baseball card type description, with the bike/boat/girlfriend snapshot]
Bono: She painted Larry in bold strokes.
Adam: At least your not the one she called 'handsome in an ugly way.'"

That really isn't funny if you don't know anything about U2, but the exchange is freaking hysterical if you do. But if that's a problem - get yer own bloody blog.

I am going to go back and read more of it. I lose myself in this book completely, and it's written so vividly that it's like having your own memoirs. No other book can take you so quickly to Miami, New Orleans, London, Belfast and Berlin....

Even if you don't like U2 but are interested in the full life cycle of a band (recording, promotion, rehearsal, tour, breaks at home, more recording, touring and just hanging out at the pub, back stage and strip clubs), this is a great book for it. Each of the members of U2 are fascinating characters in and of themselves and Flanagan really created story arcs out of each of them where you can almost predict what they are going to do as "characters" before they actually do it.

Awesome awesome book and is a nice stray out of self-help books and pining for the fjords.

Oh, and I'm very perplexed at why the Kennedy Space Center always sends me two of the same emails whenever they send one. It's annoying.