U2 and the Boss Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame
一星期之前舉行的2005年搖滾名人堂引薦儀式，U2正式加入了名
人堂的會員。
引薦他們的是Bruce Springsteen，他的演說充滿了幽默、慧詰、
寬容的胸襟與至高的推崇。講到iPod那段讓人噴飯捧腹，講到第
一次看見U2表演的時刻讓人熱血澎湃。他給了每個U2成員最高的
禮讚，這些推崇的話從他的口中講來，你一點也不會覺得有哪個
字過譽了。
至於U2。Well，他們現在確實非常【商業】了，Bono不再年輕，
你可以愛他們也可以恨他們，因為他們是跟Rolling Stones並列
目前仍存活在地球上最【偉大】的搖滾樂隊。每個人都有喜歡他
們的理由，每個人也都有不喜歡他們的理由。
但每個人至少都會有一首自己最喜愛的U2歌曲不是？能有這等能
耐的樂隊，難道不值得這種等級的對待。
U2的致詞是近年來我聽過最感動人心的致詞。不論是Bono或是其
他三名成員，每個人的每一句話、每一個字都值得細細品味。這
是走過二十五年搖滾人生的閱歷才得出的體驗，這是走過大風大
浪才能領悟出的道理。尤其Bono講到Adam替他擋子彈那段，天啊
，還有什麼比這更感人了嗎？
不論是The Boss或U2的講稿都值得大家花些時間仔細讀讀。如果
誰有空能全文翻譯更是非常感激。別忘了複製一份在自己的硬碟
裡好好保存，它佔不了你從網路上下載的MP3太多空間，但它的
內容，我想比很多歌曲都更有能量。
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame : Induction speech for U2
By Bruce 'The Boss' Springsteen
Uno, dos, tres, catorce. That translates as one, two, three, fourteen.
That is the correct math for a rock and roll band. For in art and love
and rock and roll, the whole had better equal much more than the sum
of its parts, or else you're just rubbing two sticks together searching
for fire. A great rock band searches for the same kind of combustible
force that fueled the expansion of the universe after the big bang. You
want the earth to shake and spit fire, you want the sky to split apart
and for God to pour out. It’s embarrassing to want so much and to
expect so much from music, except sometimes it happens: the Sun
Sessions, Highway 61, Sgt. Peppers, the Band, Robert Johnson, Exile
on Main Street, Born to Run... whoops, I meant to leave that one out...
uh... the Sex Pistols, Aretha Franklin, the Clash, James Brown; the
proud and public enemies it takes a nation of millions to hold back.
This is music meant to take on not only the powers that be but on a
good day, the universe and God himself, if he was listening. It's man's
accountability, and U2 belongs on this list.
It was the early '80s. I went with Pete Townshend, who always wanted
to catch the first whiff of those about to unseat us, to a club in London.
There they were: a young Bono (single-handedly pioneering the Irish
mullet), the Edge (what kind of name was that?), Adam and Larry -- I
was listening to the last band of whom I would be able to name all of
its members. They had an exciting show and a big, beautiful sound.
They lifted the roof. We met afterwards and they were nice young
men. They were Irish. Irish. Now, this would play an enormous part in
their success in the States. For what the English occasionally have the
refined sensibilities to overcome, we Irish and Italians have no such
problem. We come through the door fists and hearts first. U2, with the
dark, chiming sound of heaven at their command which, of course, is
the sound of unrequited love and longing -- their greatest theme. Their
search for God intact, this was a band that wanted to lay claim to not
only this world but had their eyes on the next one, too. Now, they’re a
real band; each member plays a vital part. I believe they actually
practice some form of democracy -- toxic poison in a bands head. In
Iraq, maybe. In rock, no. Yet, they survive. They have harnessed the
time bomb that exists in the heart of every great rock and roll band
that usually explodes, as we see regularly from this stage. But they
seemed to have innately understood the primary rule of rock band job
security: “Hey, asshole, the other guy is more important than you
think he is!” They are both a step forward and direct descendants of
the great bands who believed rock music could shake things up in the
world, dared to have faith in their audience, who believed if they
played their best it would bring out the best in you. They believed in
pop stardom and the big time. Now this requires foolishness and a
calculating mind. It also requires a deeply held faith in the work you're
doing and in its powers to transform. U2 hungered for it all and built a
sound, and they wrote the songs that demanded it. They’re keepers of
some of the most beautiful sonic architecture in rock and roll.
The Edge, the Edge, the Edge, the Edge. He is a rare and true guitar
original and one of the subtlest guitar heroes of all time. He's
dedicated to ensemble playing and he subsumes his guitar ego in the
group. But do not be fooled. Take Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Neil
Young, Pete Townshend -- guitarists who defined the sound of their
band and their times. If you play like them, you sound like them. If
you are playing those rhythmic two-note sustained fourths, drenched
in echo, you are going to sound like the Edge, my son. Go back to the
drawing board and chances are you won’t have much luck. There are
only a handful of guitar stylists who can create a world with their
instruments, and he's one of them. The Edge's guitar playing creates
enormous space and vast landscapes. It is a thrilling and a
heartbreaking sound that hangs over you like the unsettled sky. In the
turf it stakes out, it is inherently spiritual, it is grace and it is a gift.
Now, all of this has to be held down by something. The deep sureness
of Adam Clayton's bass and the rhythms of Larry Mullen's elegant
drumming hold the band down while propelling it forward. It's in U2's
great rhythm section that the band finds its sexuality and its
dangerousness. Listen to "Desire," she moves in "Mysterious Ways,"
the pulse of "With or Without You." Together Larry and Adam create
the element that suggests the ecstatic possibilities of that other
kingdom -- the one below the earth and below the belt -- that no great
rock band can lay claim to the title without. Now, Adam always strikes
me as the professorial one, the sophisticated member. He creates not
only the musical but physical stability on his side of the stage. The tone
and depth of his bass playing has allowed the band to move from rock
to dance music and beyond. One of the first things I noticed about U2
was that underneath the guitar and the bass, they have these very
modern rhythms going on. Rather than a straight 2 and 4, Larry often
plays with a lot of syncopation, and that connects the band to modern
dance textures. The drums often sounded high and tight and he was
swinging down there, and this gave the band a unique profile and
allowed their rock textures to soar above on a bed of his rhythm. Now
Larry, of course, besides being an incredible drummer, bears the
burden of being the band's requisite "good-looking member,"
something we somehow overlooked in the E Street Band. We have to
settle for "charismatic." Girls love on Larry Mullen. I have a female
assistant that would like to sit on Larry’s drum stool. A male one, too.
We all have our crosses to bear.
Bono, where do I begin? Jeans designer, soon-to-be World Bank
operator, just plain operator, seller of the Brooklyn Bridge -- oh hold
up, he played under the Brooklyn Bridge, that's right. Soon-to-be
mastermind operator of the Bono Burger franchise, where more than
one million stories will be told by a crazy Irishman. Now I realize that
it’s a dirty job and somebody has to do it. But don't quit your day job
yet, my friend, you're pretty good at it. And a sound this big needs
somebody to ride herd over it, and ride herd over it he does. His voice,
big-hearted and open, thoroughly decent no matter how hard he tries.
Now he's a great frontman. Against the odds, he is not your mom's
standard skinny, ex-junkie archetype. He has the physique of a rugby
player... well, an ex-rugby player. Shamen, shyster, one of the
greatest and most endearingly naked messianic complexes in rock and
roll. God bless you, man! It takes one to know one, of course. You see,
every good Irish and Italian-Irish front-man knows that before James
Brown there was Jesus. So hold the McDonald arches on the stage set,
boys, we are not ironists. We are creations of the heart and of the
earth and of the stations of the cross. There's no getting out of it. He is
gifted with an operatic voice and a beautiful falsetto rare among strong
rock singers. But most important, his is a voice shot through with self-
doubt. That's what makes that big sound work. It is this element of
Bono's talent, along with his beautiful lyric writing, that gives the
often-celestial music of U2 its fragility and its realness. It is the
questioning, the constant questioning in Bono's voice, where the band
stakes its claim to its humanity and declares its commonality with us.
Now Bono’s voice often sounds like it's shouting not over top of the
band but from deep within it: "Here we are, Lord, this mess, in your
image." He delivers all of this with great drama and an occasional
smirk that says, “Kiss me, I’m Irish.” He’s one of the great front-men
of the past 20 years. He is also one of the only musicians to devote his
personal faith and the ideals of his band into the real world in a way
that remains true to rock's earliest implications of freedom and
connection and the possibility of something better.
Now the band's beautiful songwriting -- "Pride (In The Name of Love),"
"Sunday Bloody Sunday," "I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,"
"One," "Where the Streets Have No Name," "Beautiful Day" -- reminds
us of the stakes that the band always plays for. It's an incredible
songbook. In their music, you hear the spirituality as home and as
quest. How do you find God unless he's in your heart, in your desire, in
your feet? I believe this is a big part of what's kept their band together
all of these years. See, bands get formed by accident, but they don’t
survive by accident. It takes will, intent, a sense of shared purpose and
a tolerance for your friends' fallibilities and they of yours. And that only
evens the odds. U2 has not only evened the odds but they've beaten
them by continuing to do their finest work and remaining at the top of
their game and the charts for 25 years. I feel a great affinity for these
guys as people as well as musicians.
Well, there I was sitting down on the couch in my pyjamas with my
oldest son. He was watching TV. I was doing one of my favorite things
: I was tallying up all the money I passed up in endorsements over the
years and thinking of all the fun I could have had with it. Suddenly I
hear "Uno, dos, tres, catorce!" I look up. But instead of the silhouettes
of the hippie-wannabes bouncing around in the iPod commercial, I see
my boys! Oh my God! They sold out! Now, what I know about the iPod
is this: it is a device that plays music. Of course, their new song
sounded great, my guys are doing great, but methinks I hear the
footsteps of my old tape operator of Jimmy Iovine somewhere. Wily,
smart. Now, personally, I live an insanely expensive lifestyle that my
wife barely tolerates. I burn money, and that calls for huge amounts of
cash flow. But, I also have a ludicrous image of myself that keeps me
from truly cashing in. You can see my problem. Woe is me. So the next
morning, I call up Jon Landau (or as I refer to him, "the American Paul
McGuinness"), and I say, "Did you see that iPod thing?" and he says,
"Yes." And he says, "And I hear they didn’t take any money." And I
said, "They didn’t take any money?" and he says, "No." I said, "Smart,
wily Irish guys. Anybody – anybody – can do an ad and take the
money. But to do the ad and not take the money... that’s smart. That’s
wily." I say, "Jon, I want you to call up Bill Gates or whoever is behind
this thing and float this: a red, white and blue iPod signed by Bruce
'The Boss' Springsteen. Now remember, no matter how much money
he offers, don’t take it!" At any rate, after that evening for the next
month or so, I hear emanating from my lovely 14-year-old son's room,
day after day, down the hall calling out in a voice that has recently
dropped very low: uno, dos, tres, catorce. The correct math for rock
and roll. Thank you, boys.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame : Band Speeches
Bono: Born in the USA, my arse. That man was born on the north side
of Dublin. Irish. His mother was Irish. The poetry, the gift of the gab,
isn't it obvious? In fact, I think he's tall for an Irishman.
It's an Irish occasion this evening. Paddy Sledge, the O'Jays -- they're
a tribe from the west of Ireland. This is a bit of an Irish wedding. The
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is a bit of an Irish wedding -- beautiful girls,
beautiful frocks, fights in the bathrooms, managers and clients again,
lawyers with bloody noses. It's an Irish wedding. It's a great occasion.
I even like it when it gets dirty. I've seen it get really dirty over the
years here - that's what rock and roll is, the sound of revenge. So
make your enemies interesting, I would say, ladies and gentleman. But
not tonight. When I, when we look out we don't see any enemies, we
just see friends. And this country has taken this band into its bosom all
the way. (applause) It's an amazing thing.
Frank Barselona early on, he's a great friend. Chris Blackwell, what an
incredible man he was to have looking after you. Can you imagine your
second album -- the difficult second album -- it's about God? Everyone
is tearing their hair out and Chris Blackwell says, "It's okay. There's
Bob Marley and Marvin Gaye, Bob Dylan, it's a tradition. We can get
through it. And I think about what Frank Barselona said earlier about
long-term vision because you know without the long term vision of
Frank Barselona, Barbara Skydell and Chris Blackwell, there would be
no U2 after that second album. It would have been cut. No "Sunday
Bloody Sunday," no "Unforgettable Fire," no "One," no "Where the
Streets Have No Name," no "With or Without You."
That's what I'd like you to take away from tonight. I would like to ask
the music business to look at itself and ask itself some hard questions.
Because there would be no U2 the way things are right now. That's a
fact. Only friends out here. But still Rolling Stone puts us on the cover,
thank you very much. MTV, VH1 still play our videos. College radio still
believes in our band and makes our band believe in ourselves. It's an
amazing place to be inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, feeling
like this -- feeling like you've just made your first album. It's a great
feeling, a very special feeling.
And I see around friends and people that we've worked with for a very
long time -- and generally I don't do big Thank You speeches because
they're boring and why stop a tradition of a lifetime? It's too many
people in the room to thank, but I'd like to thank the really gorgeous
women that work for us. Because they're fun to thank. Beautiful,
gorgeous women of Principle Management. Ellen Darst, thank you very
much. Sheila Roche, thank you very much. Anne Louise Kelly, thank
you very much. Keryn Kaplan, thank you very much. Beautiful, sexy,
sometimes Irish, sometimes American women, thank you. And lots of
bodyguards around here. No bigger bodyguards than Jimmy and Doug.
Jimmy Iovine and Doug Morris continue in the tradition of Chris
Blackwell, which is pretty much letting us get away with anything we
want. So I want to thank them very much. I'm trying to think of what
else.... The biggest bodyguard of all has to be our manager, Paul
McGuinness. You see him right there. The reason no one in this band
has slave scrawled across their forehead, thank you very much.
I'm going to go on and list three Kodak moments over twenty-five
years I'd like to share with you. One - it's 1976 - Larry Mullen's
kitchen. About the size of the drum riser he uses now. It's a bright red
scarlet, really -- Japanese kit and he's sitting behind it in his kitchen.
And he's playing and the ground shakes and the sky opens upand it
still does, but now I know why. Cause Larry Mullen can't tell a lie. His
brutal honesty is something that we need in this band.
Second Kodak moment. It is 1982. New Haven, I believe. Things are
not going very well. There's a punk rock band onstage trying to play
Bach. A fight breaks out. It's between the band. It's very very messy.
Now you look at this guitar genius, you look at this Zen-like master
that is the Edge, and you hear those brittle icy notes and you might be
forgiven for forgetting that you cannot play like that unless you have a
rage inside you. In fact, I had forgotten that on that particular night,
and he tried to break my nose. And I learned a great, great lesson that
night. You do not pick a fight with someone who for a living lives off
hand-eye coordination. Dangerous, dangerous man, the Edge.
Third Kodak moment. 1987. Somewhere in the south. We'd been
campaigning for Dr. King, for his birthday to become a national
holiday. In Arizona, they are saying no. We're campaigning very hard
for Dr. King. Some people don't like it. Some people get very annoyed.
Some people want to kill us. Some people are taken very seriously by
the FBI. They tell the singer that he shouldn't play the gig because
tonight his life is at risk, and he must not go on stage. And the singer
laughs. Of course we're playing the gig. Of course we go onstage, and
I'm singing "Pride (In the Name of Love)" -- the third verse -- and I
close my eyes. And you know, I'm excited about meeting my maker,
but maybe not tonight. I don't really want to meet my maker tonight. I
close my eyes and when I look up I see Adam Clayton standing in front
of me, holding his bass as only Adam Clayton can hold his bass. There
are people in this room who'd tell you they'd take a bullet for you, but
Adam Clayton would have taken a bullet for me. I guess that's what its
like to be in a truly great rock and roll band.
Edge: I am, in the end, the technology guy of U2. Which really, all it
means is I can fix the printer. You turn it on. I don't tell them that.
Above all else what U2 have tried to avoid over the last twenty years is
not being completely crap. But next on the list down from that was to
avoid being typical and predictable and ordinary. Because it's so very
hard to avoid the cliche?s. Everyone else's of course, but more than
that your own. It's hard to keep things fresh and not become a parody
of yourself. And if you've ever seen that movie Spinal Tap, you'll know
how easy it is. It's a parody of what we all do. The first time I ever saw
it, I didn't laugh. I wept. I wept because I recognized so much in so
many of those scenes. I don't think I'm alone amongst all of us here in
that.
You know, we're all guilty of taking ourselves and our work way too
seriously. And we've all gone to hang out in a hotel lobby like we were
doing something really important. But the reason we're all here tonight
is that in spite of all the cliche?s which do exist, you know, rock and
roll, when it is great, it's amazing. It changes your life. It changed our
lives. Witness, for instance, tonight. The O'Jays, Percy Sledge, Bo
Diddley, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, the Pretenders. I mean,
Amazing. Really magic stuff.
People break it down. You can study it all you want but you can't just
dial it up. It doesn't work like that. And as far as U2 goes, I've stopped
trying to figure out how, or more importantly when our best moments
are going to come along. But I think that's why we're still awake. And
that's why we're still paying attention. We know in the end, see ... we
know that it is magic. And so we end up waiting around. Like we all do
sometimes. Like actors in some Beckett play, just like they did in that
movie, in the lobby, waiting around for some magic to happen. And
we've done a lot of that over the years. I have to say.... I've done a lot
of waiting with Bono, with Adam and Larry and Paul for those moments
to come along.
And we've had some great people with us during those times those
times. (muffled) Brian Eno, Steve Lillywhite, Danny Lanois, Jimmy
Iovine, Nellee Hooper, our great engineers, Principle Management. The
team that was talked about. Flood. Our show collaborators -- Willie
Williams and all his team. A crew of fantastic people. Joe O'Herlihy.
Bucky, Jake, Dallas, Frasier who isn't here, Stuart. Incredible people
that we couldn't have come through the last twenty-five years without.
And tonight it feels like it's just about half the room has been along
with us on that journey. So I just wanted to say thank you to my
family for being so patient. The main guy for showing me how. The
rest of the band particularly, and tonight, you know, all of you for this
evening and most of all, I guess, for making space for me as we
always do together for something magic to happen. Thank you.
Larry: I promise I'll be brief. Thanks for this tonight. We really
appreciate it. It's very special. I feel like we've cut the line or jumped
the queue along the way, someplace along the way. And we never
would have got out of my kitchen in our town in Dublin had it not been
for people like the Sex Pistols, Television, Roxy Music, Patti Smith.
These people are in our rock and roll hall of fame. Thank you.
Adam: The bass player approaches the microphone. What's he gonna
say? I feel bassless. Okay, yesterday, it was my 45th birthday. That's a
fine age to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That
means twenty-five years ago we released our first recording. That
means twenty-nine years ago we all met and formed our band. Thirty
years ago I got my first bass guitar, or as I thought, a guitar with only
four strings. I had no idea what bass was. I had not heard of James
Jameson, Doug Dunn, Jack Bruce, John Entwhistle, or Bootsy Collins. I
just needed a weapon and a shield to take on the world.
When we all got together in Larry's kitchen we didn't know about the
great traditions of American music. We didn't know the blues or soul or
R&B or country but we did know that together we had a chance to
change the world by making a noise. This was punk and it saved my
ass. We needed someone to get us gigs and to pay for demos. We met
Paul McGuinness and he became our manager. Next we needed a
record deal. We were turned down by many people until Nick Stewart
offered us a deal at Island Records. This was the start of a long
relationship with Island. Many people along the way helped us develop
and grow. Rob Partridge and of course Chris Blackwell. We made three
records with Steve Lillywhite, came to America and Frank Barselona
and Barbara Skydell were our U.S. agents. They introduced us to a
network of promoters. Ellen Darst and Keryn Kaplan ran our U.S.
office, and they taught us how radio and promotion worked.
As we were learning all this about the music business, we were also
learning about American music and the kind of artists that are honored
her by the Hall of Fame. John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, Hank Williams,
Ray Charles, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan. Now our generation is being
inducted and our time has come to join those we did not know 25
years ago. I hope that in 25 years when this room is full of hip-hop and
pop artists that they will enjoy joining the diverse list of talents that
the Hall of Fame recognizes.
It took many people to get this band here tonight and I'd like to thank
some of them personally. Paul McGuinness and Kathy, Anne-Louise
Kelly, Ellen Darst, Sheila Roche, Keryn Kaplan, Regine Moylette,
Barbara Galvin, Susan Hunter, Trevor Bowen, Gavin Friday, Chris
Blackwell, Anton Corbjin, Steve Lillywhite, Danny Lanois, Brian Eno,
Jimmy Iovine, Doug Morris, Arthur Fogel and Michael Cole, Denny
Sheehan, Joe O'Herlihy, Willie Williams, Dallas, Sammy, Stuart and
Terry.
But in the end the people who really got me here tonight and who I
must thank for everything I have, are Ali, Ann, Morleigh, Suzie, Larry,
Edge and Bono. And I'd really like to thank Bruce for what he said, and
I fortunately can remember the names of everybody in the band as
well.
--
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