Originally posted by Blue_Room:[..]
Actually he had not learned how to sing. That is why he kept losing his voice on this tour. He had to see a vocal doctor during Lovetown (which it is rumored the soundboard recordings from Dublin came from) who told him he needed to change the way he sang because he was hitting notes 4 or 5 times in a song that opera stars like Pavarotti hit 1 time per show. He basically was destroying his vocal chords on this tour. Listen to God Part II Amsterdam 1989. Ouch it makes my throat hurt just hearing it!
It was a great tour and there are great bootlegs as a result. But Bono could not sustain singing like that.
It's why I love his ZooTV vocals so much. It's controlled, the passion is still there, but it took a different shape. It's more of a conversation filled with emotion and less of a proclamation every time he opens his mouth
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I will say that songs that REQUIRED that "80s passion" did suffer a bit. Bad was never the same, for example. I do still love performances of it that feature a more restrained vocal, though. Santiago 1998 comes to mind, as do the performances on the ZooTV tour. I'd say 2001-on it was a pretty healthy balance, at least based on what Bono is capable of now.