He may have lost his luggage when the back hatch of his private jet came open over Germany, but neither that nor his “very punk rock” bicycling injury were enough to dampen Bono’s memories of 2014.
In a long and emotional blog post, the U2 lead singer — long known for his advocacy of social causes off-stage — summed up the past year for him, and announced that he may never be playing guitar again.
The post, which he said was an attempt to learn from his mistakes, concluded that the year had had on balance “more highs than lows,” even if the lows were enough to make headlines several times.
The news which has gotten the biggest reaction from U2 fans is his announcement that he might never play guitar again. This is thanks to a bicycling accident he sustained last year in New York’s Central Park. As Bono put it, “I have no memory” of how he ended up with a bone sticking through his jacket. “Very punk rock as injuries go.”
Nevertheless, he noted, “Recovery has been more difficult than I thought.” It’s not clear that he will ever appear on stage with his Gretsch or Irish Falcon, though he’s made light of his misfortune. “The band reminded me neither they — nor western civilisation — are depending on this.” This is if not good then at least promising news for fans who picked up U2 tickets here or elsewhere, as all evidence points to the upcoming U2 tour still going ahead.
The 6000 word post covered a broad range of topics, including his deep respect for Kanye West and his thoughts on the digital music industry.
On Kanye, Bono noted that the basis of his respect for the rapper was his broad range of interests. “Like a lot of artists I respect,” he wrote, Kanye is “interested in everything” and in turn wants to include “everything in his art,” from words to fashion to religion to design to racism to stardom.
At the same time — in between musings on the morality of capitalism, photos of handwritten song lyrics, and an X-ray of his new titanium elbow — Bono went off into praise of companies like Apple and Spotify for making it easier for musicians to earn money for downloads. Songwriters, on the other hand, he said still get a “poor deal” online.
iTunes is something of a hot button topic for U2 fans, thanks to the controversial giveaway of the latest Songs of Innocence album, where free copies were delivered to every iTunes user whether they wanted it or not. Bono touched on this too, saying he empathised with those who genuinely felt a touch violated by the move, while at the same time saying he had little sympathy for those who complained because they simply “like being annoyed.”
The U2 lead said that it’s great how the Internet is “mostly flattening” what was once an uneven playing field in the music industry, except when “some technologists” decide that creative content like music is only valuable for the way it can show off technical devices and software.
Apple, as the backer of the iTunes giveaway, won special praise for their willingness to pay Universal for the Songs of Innocence album and then give it away free to all their users, the “people who still believe music is worth paying for.” Neither Apple nor U2 have revealed what the company paid for the rights to distribute the album.
