One of the strangest album covers in rock history was 2009's No Line On The Horizon by U2. The sleeve's picture was actually a direct contradiction of the album's title, as it showed very clearly a line on the horizon. In fact, it didn't show much else!!!
Taken by famed Japanese photographic artist Hiroshi Sugimoto, the image immediately appealed to Bono because of the rare medical condition he has suffered from for many years egoinflatocitis maxima. This means that the diminutive Irish singer and world-famous tax evader suffers from what is commonly called a massive inflated ego. Bono's case is particularly severe and manifests itself as an irrational longing for larger and larger spaces in which his 'god-like' ego will not feel cramped and confined.
This is the main reason why U2 switched from being a pub band to playing exclusively in roofless stadiums, where Bono's limitless ego can feel at one with the stars. It also explains his hankering after deserts and large empty airports, two other visual themes explored on earlier U2 album covers.
But it was the Sugimoto picture that struck the deepest chord with the name-changing musical leprechaun with a penchant for moral posturing. Showing a vast empty ocean under an enormous empty sky, the picture almost caused Bono to grow a second aquatic ego almost as large as his sky-borne one.
For the latest U2 album, due out laterthis next year, Bono is working on the concept of an interstellar ego spanning all the known galaxies in creation and limitless eons of time. This also explains why he didn't bother to put his name forward for the recent papal election, as he now believes that he is one step up from the Pope.
The Fly
The Revenge of Riff Raff
4th May, 2013
Taken by famed Japanese photographic artist Hiroshi Sugimoto, the image immediately appealed to Bono because of the rare medical condition he has suffered from for many years egoinflatocitis maxima. This means that the diminutive Irish singer and world-famous tax evader suffers from what is commonly called a massive inflated ego. Bono's case is particularly severe and manifests itself as an irrational longing for larger and larger spaces in which his 'god-like' ego will not feel cramped and confined.
This is the main reason why U2 switched from being a pub band to playing exclusively in roofless stadiums, where Bono's limitless ego can feel at one with the stars. It also explains his hankering after deserts and large empty airports, two other visual themes explored on earlier U2 album covers.
But it was the Sugimoto picture that struck the deepest chord with the name-changing musical leprechaun with a penchant for moral posturing. Showing a vast empty ocean under an enormous empty sky, the picture almost caused Bono to grow a second aquatic ego almost as large as his sky-borne one.
For the latest U2 album, due out later
The Fly
The Revenge of Riff Raff
4th May, 2013
I agree wholeheartedly. The devil is a tax-evading philanthropist who gets everybody else to donate money to his bandwagons while he rakes in all the free PR, glory, honours, and tax-breaks. A complete fraud! And that's just his public life. Signed, Katherine Boyes.
ReplyDelete