Am I bugging' you? I don't mean to bug ya. Okay, Edge, play the blues!

I don't mean to bump SSR's own post off the top so quickly, so go read it, but I couldn't restrain myself from posting this story...

Back in September 2005, when Gillette announced a 5-bladed razor, literally one-upping the Schick Quattro, people pointed to The Onion's Feburary 2004 op-ed, F*ck Everything, We're Doing Five Blades, attributed, in fact, to the CEO and President of The Gillette Company.

A couple of weeks ago, when Time announced Bono and the Gateses as People of the Year for their efforts against global poverty, I discovered a brilliant Onion article called, Rest Of U2 Perfectly Fine With Africans Starving, which had choice quotes like:

"Yeah, that Africa stuff is Bono's thing," The Edge said. "I don't mind if he pursues other interests, but I really try to focus on the guitar riffs that give U2 its characteristic sound."

Also:

"When Bono starts telling the audience how messed up the world can be and how we should work together to make things better, I usually just zone out," Mullen said.

:) Well, it seems that the Onion was once again close to the mark. From my friend Vinod, Bono told BBC Radio about tensions with his band:

"They (the band) are hugely supportive spiritually and financially of the work I do, but they are in a rock 'n 'roll band, and the first job of a rock 'n 'roll band is not to be dull," Bono told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Also:

"When I do my rant on making poverty history, I have got Larry Mullen, our drummer, behind me looking at his watch, timing me."

:D

I think this pretty relevant to SSR's recent activism thread. :)

On the live version of Silver and Gold from U2's 1990 Rattle and Hum album, Bono goes off on the following rant toward the end of the song, while the rest of the band plays on in the background:

Yep, silver and gold. This song was written in a hotel room in New York City, 'round about the time a friend or ours, Little Steven, was putting together a record of artists against apartheid! This is a song written about a man in a shanty town outside of Johannesburg, a man who's sick of looking down the barrel of white South Africa, a man who is at the point where he is ready to take up arms against his oppressor, a man who has lost faith in the peacemakers of the West, while they argue, and while they fail to support a man like Bishop Tutu and his request for economic sanctions against South Africa.

Am I buggin' you? I don't mean to bug ya.

Okay, Edge, play the blues!

And Edge plays the blues.