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Show OPINION ' litott--- '46 - t1a - ' "" ,its) e-- I 'You Canlit: 1.11 (7) 17,-7- II 117) ) 11-7- ) r-- UI' u ) 00 Professor reminisces, breaks down U2's "Achtung Baby" anthemic songs they'd been writing and recording for a decade. They wanted a new sound and .. turned for inspiration to d the rock ,' ) ,.. that was then flourishing in Western Europe, in ili'l' " particular the big beat industrial noise of German ....4 ,,.... i bands KMFDM, Pig and Einsttirzende Neubauten. !, In turn, the band elected ,.,,,, , , n0 ,:, to cut its next album in t4, Berlin in October 1990, 11 ''':,. 11 months after that just ' , ,,.''tr A ,' I city's notorious wall had '' ' t. ,'n 71, I come down. With little in i ,, I'' ' ,,.i' I terms of new material on '' 1 1 hand, Bono, Edge, Adam 1 and Larry set up in an old ballroom that had been 0,..i...,....,A converted into a recordgau, but also Allen Ginsing space, jamming and berg, the great American improvising as the tapes rolled. poet. Assisting them Also during this period, were producers Daniel critics routinely compared Lanois and Brian Eno. the band's guitarist, the The album that resulted for to Hendrix Jimi this labor, "Achtung from Edge, his reverb-heav- y approach Baby" (1991), stands out to playing as bassist today as probably the Adam Clayton and drumband's most profound an avant-gard- e mer Larry Mullen, Jr. party record drew plaudits for building worked up with pounding percussive patterns that percussion, bubblegum enhanced and synthesized hooks and guitar riffs that Bono's and the Edge's plow into your guts. melodies. The lead track, "Zoo soaring Yet as the '90s comStation," for instance, a starts with a series of menced, U2 faced creative block. The band's pinging notes tapped out on the guitar followed by four members had grown tired of the often somber, an onslaught of wrench P, 1 . t. ,'' k ' i .. .e 4 I )- -, e!:'-, -- -, I ,,,,-- ,,, , , ,... 1 ,,,, (- 3, ,,N-- ,,,. ,,- , ,,,, , 1"..: r-- - r' dance-oriente- - ,i., - ,,, - .,,- ' - -' , I;' ,:.-- '1 ,...- , .. ,,, ,, ; A, k ., 42V t' f , -- ,:,''' ',,,..V 4 1 - ,' N. ' : t , ': - aj,Tio . A . f .1 ':. 4.,, ..''''. , ......' t . .. ' ''' ..1,..-- BY STEPHEN B. Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll" t! .4" ' . ,'..- Y.':' 'I", ',.p''''.., nated popular radio upon their release and continue to this day to get airplay. U2's success wasn't simply commercial. Lead singer Bono, whose voice could shoot through the octaves like an opera singer's, was (and remains) the band's lyricist, and his readiness to take on politics, God and the problems of the human heart in his words not only won over demanding music writers like Kurt Loder and Robert Christ is a column by Stephen B. Armstrong, a professor of English at DSU who teaches in the Professional and Technical Writing emphasis. The series focuses on culturally significant rock 'n' roll albums released over the past 50 years. In the late '80s, U2 was the biggest band on k the planet. The releases of "The Joshua Tree" (1987) and "Rattle and Hum" (1988) back-to-bac- 1 ilitt': 1."40.0.(--..tt,- '' had yielded smashes like "With or Without You" and "When Loves Comes to Town," which domi- ARMSTRONG "You :; t:i ',7'.,,,,,,...:-.1- . ing power chords. Bono's inimitable voice eventually appears over a bed of drum beats and bass notesjust moans and sighs at firstbefore crying out: "I'm ready for the laughing gas I'm ready I Ready for what's next." Its title taken from a subway stop in Berlin, the song proceeds to hurl itself forward like a train that's running too fast; not yet out of control, but threatening all the same. g While beats and layers and layers of electronic distortion similarly distinguish "The Fly," "Mysterious Ways" and "Ultraviolet (Light my Way)," "Achtung Baby" includes block-rockin- several softer pieces, too. Most famously, there is "One," with Bono declaring to his loveror is it a sibling?that the two are "one but not the same" as the Edge's fuzzed-ou- t guitar flits about in the background, buzzing like hummingbird wings. p The influence of asserts itself in some of these quieter songs, too. scratching permeates "So Cruel." On "Throw Your Arms around the World," Bono coyly copies LL Cool I's gliding flow, dropping pretty rhymes like "You've been hip-ho- Old-scho- ol falling off the sidewalk Your lips move but you can't talk." "Achtung Baby", historically speaking, belongs to another era back when George H. W. Bush was president and the Cold War ended. But the album still sounds hip. Perhaps this is because Bono never wrote better lyrics than he did on these songs. And the serpentine melodies the Edge worked up for his guitar display a balance of technical deftness and melancholy that has often eluded him ever since. This is not to say, though, that U2 went into decline after "Achtung Baby": there are tracks on "Zooropa" (1993), "All That you Can't Leave Behind" (2000) and "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" (2004) that rival, even surpass, in terms of beauty and interest, many of the songs featured here. But of all the really great records U2 has released over the last forty years, it is "Achtung Baby," and only "Achtung Baby," that shreds from start to finish. Stephen B. Armstrong "Maximum Rock 'n' Roll with Katie 'n' Steve" Thursdays at noon on Radio Dixie 91.3. co-hos- ts LEAVE THE KIDS AT HOME WHEN GOING TO THE MOVIES i j BY LOGAN STOTT , Dixie Sun News Send letters to the editor to DixieSundixie. edu. Letters to the editor are accepted and may be published in the newspaper andor dixiesun news. corn. The guidelines for letters are as follows: near-comple- Submissions should be no longer than 250 words and must be well-writte- n. Writers must include name, phone number and email address. Students should also include year in school, hometown and major. Letters are subject to editing for length, style and grammar. Letters consisting of inaccurate, libelous or highly offensive content will not be published. Letters should be submitted to dixiesundixie. edu in the body of the email, not an attachment. Letters become property of Dixie Sun News and may be published in any format. Dixie Sun News en- courages The ideal movie theater experience involves sitting down, eating overpriced snacks, and watching a movie in silence, interrupted only by laughter, screams, and the occasional whisper of, "Is that the guy from 'Game of Thrones?' No? I really thought that was the guy from 'Game of Thrones." Lately, though, I've noticed that experience tainted by an overabundance of misbehaved children in our local movie theaters. Picture innocent a lively discus- sion on its website among its readers. Dixie Sun News does not edit comments. However, an editor will not post any comments that are libelous or vulgar. movie-goin- g , ; te , ' civilians, settled down in their chairs, with the largest tubs of popcorn imaginable, ready to zone out for 90 minutes and watch celebrities fight CGI monsters. Then enters a plethora of rambunctious children, barraging the backs of seats with their childish karate kicks, lounging on the stairs, running down the aisles, and having conversations with their parents or guardians about what is currently happening in the film. Throughout this mayhem, the innocent movie-goer- s are forced to sit in their chairs, in quiet, brooding frustration, knowing that if they did actually complain to the movie staff, the children would magically behave full-volu- , themselves until the movie theater employee who came to check on them was content there was no longer an issue. To be fair, this is not entirely a localized problem it can happen anywhere, at anytime, like the hiccups but it has or a dance-of- f happened enough in local theaters to be considered an epidemic of adolescent movie ruination. Now, this isn't to say kids can't go to kids' movies, and to a large extent, these rules don't apply to those films; when the movie's for them, a bit of this behavior can be tolerated. But when I see a PG-1- 3 movie at 9 p.m. or on a Wednesday, and some ed parents, practica ing superhuman neglect ed for the experience and lives of other adults in the theater, bring their kids and let them run wild, I quickly lose my patience. Parents who do this are not only teaching their kids poor behavior by neglecting to, well, parent them, but they are also ruining a movie for dozens of other people who just want to enjoy themselves. The great thing is, there are alternatives to bringing your kids with you, if they are unable to sit still, quietly, for the duration of an adult film: You could watch a movie at home, where there probably aren't rows of strangers expecting you to show them the minimum of human courtesy (eventu ally, the movie you want to see in theaters will also be available to watch from the comfort of your living room). You could hire a who, statistically-speakinwill probably put on a movie for your kids to watch at your home. Or you could teach your kids that empathy is valuable, and that there are cerlike libraries, tain places movie theaters and outer where being quiet space is just the right thing to do. r, baby-sitte- g, |