A wise person once said: “Opinions are like bellybuttons, everybody’s got one.” (Actually, they didn’t say “bellybuttons,” but as this is a Sunday I thought it best to keep matters clean). U2 lead singer Bono, however, has more opinions than most, which is presumably one of the reasons he decided to start writing columns for the New York Times opinion page. Another possibly reason? The fact that U2’s new album No Line on the Horizon is out on February 27. Anyway, the singer’s first effort is in today’s paper. Entitled "Notes from the Chairman," the piece starts with Bono recalling a recent drinking session in a Dublin pub at which he happened to hear Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” come out of the speakers. The U2 frontman once duetted with Ol’ Blue Eyes on a version of “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” and Bono spends the rest of the article reminiscing about the Chairman of the Board — who, apparently, was given to uttering such pearls as “Miles Davis never wasted a note, kid, or a word on a fool” and “I don’t usually hang with men who wear earrings.” The result is rather flowery ("Malt joy and ginger despair are all in the queue to be served on this, the quarter-of-a-millennium mark since Arthur Guinness first put velvety blackness in a pint glass"). Yet it does make a change from both the singer’s usual well meant, though rather unsubtle, public pronouncements and the rest of today’s op-ed pieces which predictably lean towards the political (Maureen Dowd’s column begins with the sentence, “In the past week, I’ve twice been close enough to Dick Cheney to kick him in the shins.”)
So, Popwatchers, what other music stars would you like to see contributing to the Times? Bruce Springsteen? Courtney Love? That guy who used to dance around next to Howard Jones? Let’s hear your opinion.
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That was painful. PAINFUL. Shut up, Bono. I’ve loved your music since the second I heard “Boy” in 1981 but you what a prententious self-important prat* you have become.
This is a family magazine so I won’t say what he really is but it’s a 4 letter word beginning and ending with “t” and with a “wa” in the middle.
i like when people are very loud and left field with their opinions, though usually i don’t agree with them. the reason is that i like to see what other people have on their minds, not that they’ll influence my opinion either way. I’d love to see Kanye West write an opinion collumn in the times!!!!
I believe any citizen should have the right to speak up about subjects that concern them, even if they are rich or famous. However, giving Bono space in the NYT and treating his twaddle like an op/ed piece is too much. The fact that he is not retired from performing and is probably going to use this as a platform for promoting U2’s next album makes this doubly nauseating.
Springsteen!
If Bono wants to write for the NY Times, let him write. Nobody is forcing any of you to read it.
But what I really want to know is….when does that man sleep?
Boring, pompous, self-important, cliche-ridden, badly-written and irrelevant.
Beyond bad (not to mention pretentious). Worst and most painful line in the piece: ‘Plenty of miles, though, Miles Davis.’ Did he actually think this was clever?
Actually, Barbra Streisand is well-informed, a good writer, and would have interesting things to say.
So, it’s still cool to hate on Bono? Yeah, screw him and his using his time, money and celebrity to further humanitarian causes. Wouldn’t it be much better if he didn’t have an opinion? In fact, he would be a much better person if he didn’t think or talk about anything that he feels strongly about. Yeah, people like that are so pretentious.
**The fact that he is not retired from performing**
Bono is all of 48. Is he supposed to be checking himself into a nursing home by now? Should he bring Madonna (age 50) with him?
Bono’s op-ed was a little pretentious and a little … well … dull. Kinda like the last couple of U2 albums …
Thanks, Phil. Bono haters tend to boggle my mind, because they’re usually picking on his extracurricular (non-music) activities when he does it. Like, say, starting an organization to help lobby for the elimination of third world debt and poverty. Using his political clout to help double and triple US aid to Africa. When other people do it, they’re called great humanitarians and leaders. But because his day job is a musician and not, say, a plumber, he’s called “pretentious.”
If I were famous, I’d sure as heck hope that I’d use that influence to do something good, instead of sitting on my a$$ counting my money.
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