Originally posted by kezman:I always recognise the Innocence as the really early years,what about War and TUF,do you consider these Innocence tracks? They done 2 hearts of course in 2015,but Pride and Bad,do you consider these for the Experience parts of the tour.
Where do you think the border of U2's Innocence ends and Experience begins?
Originally posted by bushido529:I always thought the Innocence ended at Rattle and hum and Then Experience is Achtung Baby , zooropa, Pop even Passengers. I've see a pattern for the next 2000s albums. ATYCLB = Innocence HTDAAB = Experience NLOTH = Experience and back to Innocence with SOI. SOE is back Experience
Originally posted by bpt3:Interesting question...reflecting on their "Innocence and Experience" phase right now, I've tended to look back and see their whole career arc in terms of the Book of Psalms. I hope people don't mind if I share this here...(bearing in mind that much of this is based on what I've gathered from books like "Religious Nuts, Political Fanatics: U2 in Theological Perspective" by Robert Vagacs and "Get Up Off Your Knees: Preaching the U2 Catalogue.")
As a Bible teacher, I've benefited from the writings of an Old Testament scholar named Walter Brueggemann, who has noted that there are basically three kinds of psalms in the Bible = psalms of "orientation", when one is fixated on God and things make sense; "disorientation," when one feels like God is distant and experiences the brokenness of the self and of the world; and "re-orientation," when we realize God has shown us grace and put us back on the right track through grace. (In a behind-the-scenes look at the video of Bono and Eugene Peterson discussing the Psalms from this past spring, Bono actually mentions this three-fold categorization! http://www.atu2.com/news/behind-the-scenes-more-from-bono--friends-on-the-psalms.html)
In this light, and from others who have noticed a similar pattern, I see U2's career as:
1980s = orientation
1990s = disorientation
2000-present = reorientation
Of course, this pattern does not hold entirely. Certain songs from the 80s - like Drowning Man, ISHFWILF or Love Rescue Me, just to name a few - clearly seem to be "disorientation," for example. A song like "40", based on Psalm 40 itself, seems more "reorientation," giving thanks to God for "lifting me out of the pit."
But overall I find this compelling, going from the youthful idealism of the 80s (ending with "All I Want is You") to the self-reflective irony of the 90s (ending in the darkness of "Wake Up Dead Man") to the emergence of hope and clarity 2000 and beyond (currently ending with "The Troubles", where Bono sings "I'm naked and I'm not afraid, my body's sacred and I'm not ashamed (!)").
Originally posted by Welsh_Edge:[..]
I always thought HTDAAB was innocence. They did revisit a number of old songs on the Vertigo tour too.
I guess it could be considered to be experience in certain aspects but that's what I thought, going back to their roots, why they wanted to be in a band in the first place...
Originally posted by mofothethird:[..]
I rather see it a yearning to want innocence back.
"The place i started out from, I wan't back inside" seems to reffer to it? Altough its all in a matter of speaking.
Originally posted by CMIPalaeo:Well, the Elevation Tour and Atomic Bomb had a hard time avoiding some element of experience, being overshadowed by Bob Hewson passing away. So with songs like Kite, Sometimes You Can't Make It, and One Step Closer, the 'experience' is quite inescapable - I like the observation that Atomic Bomb is about wanting innocence back, that makes a lot of sense to me, as it's clearly an element of certain songs, but on others the experience and darkness of life and loss overpowers any such desire. I know SOI has Iris, which has similar themes, but it deals with them in a way I think is more 'innocent' than how SYCMIOYO does. Even ATYCLB, which predated Bob's death, is really a pretty dour record in its own right - Wild Honey, Beautiful Day (depending on your reading of it - I actually think it's a rather bittersweet song), and Elevation are the only songs on it that aren't downers, while Peace On Earth, When I Look At the World, and New York are some of their absolute most disorientated songs ever.