Comments on: U2 3D

By: Sean Oliver

Sean Oliver — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 18:50:22 +0000

Back in 1980, U2’s “Edge” blatantly stole that droning, ringing guitar sound from a brilliant London guitar player, Keith Levene.
Levene played guitar for Public Image Ltd (PIL) from 1978-1982, and was the first player to use that distinctive chiming, droning sound which was imitated by half the guitar players of the 1980’s, the most well-known being U2’s The Edge (he has such an…edgy name)

Levene played in PIL along with brilliant bassist Jah Wobble. Levene and Wobble both eventually quit the band by 1983, and they appear on only two studio LPs:

The first s/t PIL LP (1978) w/ the tunes “Public Image” “Lowlife” “Annalisa” etc, clearly display Levene’s unique guitar style, and PIL’s masterpiece 2nd LP, ‘Metal Box’ (1979, also re-released as ‘Second Edition’ in 1980) has Levene expanding the guitar’s boundries far beyond the tiresome blues-based orthodoxy of 60’s-70’s rock without venturing into “solos” and the usual guitar-hero puffery. But he certainly didn’t play dumbed-down 3-chord punk, either.

These two records were enormously influential, and foreshadowed the direction that post-punk and indy rock would take 5, 10, 20 years later. Sonic Youth, Radiohead, and scores of other bands are directly influenced those two PIL records.

By: Mariva

Mariva — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 09:37:40 +0000

Robert Scoble responds: @mariva you were the rock star. Thanks for inviting me to the Kyte.tv night out at the movies. U2-3D rocked.

By: Mariva

Mariva — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 09:09:27 +0000

@Fred: Thanks for your compliments. Now you make me want to go to an actual concert, just to see the video wall. But why did you go to a U2 concert if you didn’t like them?

@Alison: Let’s go! It’s still playing. Also, I heard the Ramones movie was good.

By: Alison

Alison — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 05:49:19 +0000

I will HAVE to see this! I am not as into music as others but concert movies I love. I also recommend “End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones”.

By: Fred W

Fred W — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 23:22:20 +0000

Hi Mariva, I love the post about U2 3D - you have real talent to tell a story. A great read!

You almost had me wanting to go and watch the movie, but then I remembered that a) the IMAX in Vienna closed down last year b) I never really liked U2 all that much.

I have however seen them live in concert, and I was much awed by their video wall, which is still the biggest moving image I’ve seen outside the realm of nature itself.