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U2, Mass Marketing and the Moulin Metamorphosis by Bob Lefsetz I was sitting in a booth at Kate Mantilini discussing the five albums I wanted to own on DVD-Audio. My friend Marc Reiter said he'd been at this free-flowing dinner in New York. After a few bottles of wine, he proffered the above question to Butch Vig. And the second or third album Butch mentioned was Achtung Baby. Marc figured he'd bonded, they were having a good enough time. So he expressed his inner feeling. He was INCREDULOUS! To him, Achtung Baby was one of the WORST U2 albums ever. After Marc talked himself out, I told him that although it wasn't one of my top five, I basically agreed with Butch. At this point, Achtung Baby was my favorite U2 album. And Marc started going off. It was an incomprehensible stew of all the elements and influences up to that point. He just didn't buy it. I said I didn't at first, either. That first single, "The Fly." If that was the best track on the CD, they were in TROUBLE! But about the same time Achtung Baby was released, the soundtrack to Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World came out. Basically, I'm down on Wim. But being into him before ANYBODY else, back in the mid-'70s, I always keep up on him. So I can talk like an authority, if nothing else. And I played this soundtrack and got hooked on the title song by U2. Which also appeared on Achtung Baby. I loved the lyrical lines sung so melodiously by Bono. But what really turned me on was Edge's buzzsaw guitar at the end of each verse. Then I started to play Achtung Baby. And got hooked on "Mysterious Ways." And yup, I liked "One," Butch's favorite, but that wasn't the one track that knocked me out today. You see after playing the CD enough, I finally UNDERSTOOD "The Fly." Now it's my FAVORITE! Marc looked at me like I was from another planet. I asked him if he saw the live show. Indoors and out. No better show EVER! He said he had. In the hope of finally GETTING the album. But it didn't work. Then Marc said one of his top five CDs was a U2 album. I was licking my chops. I was ready. THE UNFORGETTABLE FIRE! The Unforgettable Fire. Too much Eno, not enough good tunes. Joshua Tree was better. But still, as great as SOME songs are (can you say "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"?), so many really aren't that memorable. But it all came TOGETHER on Achtung Baby. Good songs, with great Eno sounds, mixed with the darkness of Germany. Maybe later that same evening. Probably a night or two before. I was surfing the channels and I caught the "Elephant Love Medley" video from Moulin Rouge from the very beginning. Ewan MacGregor, looking nothing like he did in Trainspotting, and Nicole Kidman on an elephant. Ewan? He's not so good that I've got to see every movie he's in. Nicole? I used to have a thing for her. Back in the Dead Calm days. But now she projects this superiority/arrogance that turns me off. Baz Luhrmann? A high-quality eccentric whom I don't really have the time for. Actually, this whole Moulin Rouge thing has blown right by me, undetected by my radar. Just not my thing. And that remake of "Lady Marmalade"? I HATE those dialing-for-dollars multi-act remakes. The song is secondary to the pageantry. All the SOUL is drained and commerciality rules. But I'm watching this video. Maybe because it's got a certain look. Kind of like Prince's "Raspberry Beret" video. Something from Alice in Wonderland or Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Ewan is talking, with absolutely NO charisma. But then he starts to sing "All You Need Is Love." And then "I Was Made for Lovin' You" in the style of Tom Jones. Meanwhile, Nicole and he are trading lyrics. And THEN, after some schmaltzy swooning, 35 seconds in, Ewan sings: "In the name of love One night in the name of love." |
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