Saturday, May 25, 2013

Yu Yes, U No


Massive and repeated U2 talk on The Hardline lately.

I'd like less of it.

Much less.

Zero, actually.

Especially Corby's messianic browbeating.

Having said that, I'm with Mike R on U2.

Actually, I may go a little further than Mike R.



I recognize the tunefulness and unique sound, but it's a sound I tired of shortly after being introduced to it all those years ago. Production is too often bombastic, and so many of the songs sound labored, as though it's really, really hard for them to perform them. (I have the same issue with Springsteen's music and band.)

Exception: The Daniel-Lanois-produced-and-Brian-Eno-influenced "Achtung Baby," very striking, still sounds fresh two decades later.

So yes, I "like" U2, I "get" U2, but they're not even in my top 20 acts to put on the record player when I have some free music-listening time.

Having unburdened myself of this review, I am declaring a Hardline and Muser moratorium on U2 talk.

They breach it at their peril. 


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Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

27 comments:

  1. Always thought U2 was part of the Musers bit , they had maybe 2 good songs - otherwise I never got into them . U2 is proving not to be a transcendent band .
    Did you know Corby got a set of Pings ! ( Horrible segment ) .

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  2. Well now you've gone and done it. You haven't been more wrong about something since you claimed Josh had ALS.

    As for GJW... 2 good songs? Not transcendent? Insane.

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  3. "U2 is proving not to be a transcendent band?"

    they have been around for 37 years? they are top 10 in music history in records sold, won more grammys than any other band (22) and made the RNR HOF in their first year of eligibility.

    not to mention flat out changing the world for the better by raising multiple millions of dollars for charities around the world and changing the policies of nations through their activism.

    either you dont know what the definition of the word transcendent is, or you haven't been paying attention.

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  4. I have been paying attention , U2 fans are passionate , outspoken and very loyal , U2 has posted some stellar awards.
    I do not see them capturing a new generation of listeners , ( transcendent ) , just maintaining their current fan base .
    The RaR HoF is in Cleveland and has more spares in it than a Dan McDowell bowling scorecard .
    Changing the World ? I applaud Bono at his humanitarian efforts , he should funnel his energy into fixing the ongoing injustices his own country -
    All I said was , I never got into them And I see where MR is coming from .
    I should have known better than to post any comments about U2 , Whatever the case , We do need more good and conscientious efforts on everyone's part to resolve hunger and suffering in our world .
    Be Cool , No need to start a U2 controversy .

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  5. Not fixing injustices in his own country? Yeah, you're not paying attention.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/events/northern_ireland/latest_news/97031.stm

    They absolutely have multiple generations of fans.

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  6. Plainsman - Do tell who is the fetching lass?

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  7. Did you know that RaGE failed because it was forced to engage in excessive positive Cowboy talk?

    http://greggosgiganticblogandcafe.com/2013/05/jerry-jason-and-a-roster-of-jags/

    The most gigantic things about Greg's blog are his paragraphs.

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  8. I've been waiting until I had a decent sample size of Greggo's blog before I made a judgment.

    It's awful.

    And to be frank, I'm not sure if I believe anything he claims.

    I say that because at this point, I think the guy would do or say just about anything to get people other than his sycophants (more on them in a second) on his side, and for another shot at the DFW market--whatever that might mean. When someone keeps saying "I know I'm done around here" "I truly believe that I will never get another chance," they're actually saying "I'll be back." At least that's what they believe in their gut.

    The way in which he blames others for his failure at The FAN is amazing. The way in which he now extols his years at The Ticket, along with his ex-co workers is amazing. Finally, the way in which he's basically rewritten his own history and his role in the greater picture of things is amazing.

    What's most disturbing are his self-deprecating qualifiers used to erect a fortress around him before he launches into a libelous personal attack on others. It's quite ugly. It's quite transparent.

    His "contributors" (rather enablers) do him no favors. They all try to emulate their hero. So much so, that at times you wonder if it really isn't Greggo under a pseudonym. Regardless, these contributors are silly, childish, and, going on the tripe that comes out of their brains, I must say that they all appear to be rather unintelligent, thoughtless. The latest one to appear, "Sweet October," oh my word. You'd think Gordon was behind this one. It's Fake Greggo come to life. Then there's Riggs. I'm not sure who is using whom here. Riggs, Greggo; Greggo, Riggs. Probably a bit of both.

    From the misuse of words, misspellings, rambling, paragraph-less style. . . . To the childish "these are my real true blue friends" posts. . . . To the libelous ad hominem screeds, to the utter inconsistencies, to the rewriting of personal history, to the failure to recognize certain shortcomings that lead to his latest firing (oh I don't know, like ratings), to the weird self portrait fashion photos, to the materialistic "look at my stuff" fixation, to the allowing for friends to fire shots for him, to the latest meme of being a victim of Jerry Jones/CBS and mandatory Cowboy talk. . . . The whole shebang is a childish, poorly written, ill-conceived, vanity mirror for a confused and from all appearances narcissistic individual who has surrounded himself with enablers who do him no favors. Oh yes, and it's not been a month yet, and the blog has already become a snooze.

    I don't like being so negative, but there isn't anything positive to say about Greggo's blog. The (extremely) few and very far between thoughtful and interesting things he's said are quickly negated by the rest. When you spew poison, you most always contaminate the ground around you. Unfortunately, Greggo doesn't seem to learn from his mistakes. I've no idea what went on behind the scenes at The FAN, but from his own words, he was an asshole to work with (he apologized to Richie in the 3rd part of his Why I Was Fired entry). We know at least some of what went down while at The Ticket and ESPN. It seems to me that he's doing it again. But this time to his own "station," his own "show."

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  9. So U2 raises your hackles, but incessant Stones talk is AOK? Whatevs.

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  10. Birdie, I don't remember that handle from the past, so an MTC welcome to you.

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  11. Cirque plus Donnie Doo was gold today.

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  12. birdie , a well written blog entry , did you major in English at TCU ?
    Donnie was on a roll today , radio gold , could there be some new found chemistry amongst these guys ?
    Please take time to reflect upon our freedoms and those who sacrificed their lives for our Freedoms ! Happy Memorial Day !
    Semper Fi .

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  13. @Birdie
    Well said, man. Well said indeed.

    I scratch my head and wonder who the commenters are on his site? No matter what he says these people think he's absolutely right. It's like he has Papal infallibility or something amongst his fans. The level of conversation is just plain terrible. You have trolls saying the worst things imaginable about Greggo or his real or perceived enemies, atta boys keep speaking the truths galore, a frightening amount of people who seem to honestly think Greggo has a good shot at getting back on The Ticket, and on THL too boot, and then you have a handful of good comments-both positive and negative. As Skin Tweeted the day of Greggo's B&S rant, that thing is a cesspool. It is.

    Birdie you nailed it when you said Greggo's confused. Man, he goes from playing the wounded tiger to the man eating Great White in a nanosecond. The humble thing he likes to put on has the same vibe. It's like he's humble one minute and bragging like Chris Chris the next.

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  14. CDS with Donovan was very good, but as a weekend show I did not expect much. I listened to the first hour at the gym, so I did not hear the entire show*.

    Donnie Doo seems to be their "utility infielder"; the on-air personality willing to work wherever and whenever. It may also assist that he and Twiggy do not have children. Then if he has the free time to get paid to do a promo with a restaurant, then more power to him. Heck, he parlayed his inability to swim into a news story. Bravo!


    Whenever they hold White Elephant Day, or whenever there is an issue in which Donovan is not on a BaD Radio shift, there is a disconnect between sports radio hosts and people of color, as it often becomes, "Ask a Black Guy...". And this is a national disconnect, not just one which exists in the Metroplex or within The Ticket staff. No matter their age, it appears as if when a white host was in college, they have had little to no interaction with people of color (Black/Latino/Asian) until they entered the workforce.

    As an African-American, is little minority representation on the major market local stations, and if there is a host, they generally are a former African-American athlete. Some can do well, while most cannot work in radio. And honestly, the minority-laced drops stop being funny a while ago. I was surprised that "stupid b!tch" was used this week after the Dallas mayor visited both The Musers and THL to talk about his anti-violence campaign.


    *- As I have stated before, I live on the west coast listened to the "Men In Blazers" podcast during the last hour or so of The Orphanage.

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  15. @DA
    Men in Blazers is the best! I listened to the Orphanage today. Danny's waxing on what happens when nostalgia meets reality where one's youthful music tastes are concerned (Ratt in his case) was interesting. Not particularly enlightening or thought provoking, but interesting enough. I did notice how he stated several times that if someone does still like Ratt or hair metal in general, that there's nothing wrong with it, but his tastes have decidedly moved on. There was a time not so long ago when he wouldn't have been so sensitive to others musical tastes. I did find it funny that he commented on Ratt's silly lyrics, only to fawn a bit over a Daft Punk (sp?) tune that repeated, over and again, something along the lines of "have a good time" (very reminiscent of the "Friday" song that The Musers play at the end of their Friday show). I know Plainsman and others disagree, but I think The Orphanage has had it beyond had it. The show works best when the segment consists of two middle aged guys admitting they're middle aged and realizing the reality of certain things; seeing them for what they are rather than what they thought they were when viewed through a younger man's eyes. But, that makes for depressing radio; and radio that only a particular demo would want to hear regularly. And to be honest, I'm not sure they would. Who wants to be hit over the head with such things for 2 hours straight? Specially on the weekend. The rest of the time, most of the time that is, you get the 2 middle aged guys desperately clinging on to their youth. You can hear them wrestle with this as they plod along. You can almost hear Danny wince after some of the things he says. And for Pete's sake, how many times can one listen to Davy drone on about the "genius" of some horrible metrosexual Brit band or wannabe Brit band from Brooklyn? Every single one of them sounds exactly the same; sings in the same affected voice; plays the same cruddy droning, monotonous, overly effected (effect pedals) stuff.

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  16. @Anon 9:18

    I do need to add to the original post. I am so-so on U@, but my brother who is the age of Corby is probably the biggest African-American U2 fanboy who had his parents buy him an electric bass but never learned to play it.

    My brother loves U2 as much as Craig, Jub, Gordo, and Corby do and will defend them forever. I did appreciate them from 1986-2002, but not after that. I moved on in my musical likes. When Corby was volatile concerning U2, he sounded just like my brother.

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  17. I have not checked out Greggos blog. Don't care to, but seems alot of people have. Was Greggo really THAT bad on RaGE? He held it together for about 98% of their 3 year run. Thats not too bad. The BOTTON LINE is, Greggo is intertaining to a large amount of people. Take Corby for instance, do you honestly think there would be this much interest if Corby quit or got fired? Greggo needs a gig, a "focus" if you will, or it could get ugly. I blame Richie for the failure of RaGE.

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  18. How did you come by that percentile, Slinky? Greggo took many day, short term, and long term absences from RaGE. And when he was there, dang near half the time his voice was so ravaged you could barely make out what he was saying.

    There are a several reasons that RaGE failed. When your supposed star talent decides for one reason or another to not show up for work for one, several, many days at a time (and when he does his voice is more often than not a wreck), what do you think is eventually going to happen?

    Slinky, you say you haven't been to Greggo's blog yet. I'll take you at your word. But I have to say that you sound like a lot of the commenters on his blog.

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  19. I have learned to accept other people's musical tastes. U2 is just..ok? The Doors seem to be another band that has its own set of dedicated followers that will tolerate no criticism. Neither one moves my needle very much.

    Davy's gay band choices are a punch out for me. Get back to me when you are talking about Heloise again. I still listen to that award-winning background noise on Saturdays. Some days are better than others.

    I gave up on Greggo's blog a week or so back. I left after the Boy's Life entry and haven't been back since. I see the postings on my FB feed but the motivation to read them is severely lacking.

    On Donnie Do and the otherness of the black man on the Ticket. I think he does a valuable service by instructing those that have little to no experience with the community. It shines a light on some of the soft prejudices that we grow up with and are blithely unaware of. That exchange between Norm and Donnie about chitlins is example 1. They have managed to work together on the Cowboys post game show for several years and put out a quality product for us. I greatly appreciate Donnie's forbearance with the crap he has to put up with at times.

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  20. Slinky , I am of the opionon that GWs employers and listeners expected more from him at both gigs post KTCK .
    There appears to have been a large contingent of listeners that wanted him to succeed and followed him around the dial accordingly . Failure was the inability to dust off and stay in the game with wonderfull opportunities , then try to create a sense of being a mayrter .
    I just ain't buying what he's selling anymore -

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  21. Does anybody buy Danny's comments that he basically makes a minimal producer/board op type salary? I dont. I would bet he makes six figures albeit not the multiples of Corby and Rhynes. He also has a complimentary Volvo based on Hardline banter and his ads.

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  22. I went over and checked out Greggo's blog. It was pretty much what I thot it would be. A waste of time. Look, Greggo gold comes from his "on air". Would THL be armed with as many Greggo drops from a "blog"? It won't work. Greggo, given right vehicle, could be the old Hammer. I'm gonna say something here, and the TRUE p1 will know what I'm talking about. Remember how everyone referred to Rhyner as "Rhyner" or "Rhynes"? Well, Greggo would call him Rhyner alot of times on the air. Oneday Rhyner called him out, and somewhat chastized him for calling him Rhyner. Greggo didn't know how to take it. Was he joking? This happened about the time Hardline was at it's pinnacle. It seemed that Rhyner's cockiness, with the addition of over-Corby took it's toll on the greatness of the real Hardline.

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  23. Greggo's coke habits and lying took a toll on the real Hardline. Case closed.

    I believe Danny when he throws out the 32.5 line of humor.

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  25. Danny doesn't make anywhere near 6 figures. He earns ballpark what Tom and Fernando earn. He's not a host. While we may think of him as one, and while he may at times act like one, he's not.

    I really wish that slinky and others would get over Greggo. He's the cause of his own ruin. He is never coming back to The Ticket, much less The Hardline. And whatever talent he once had (which is debatable, unless you count being the butt of jokes and saying asinine and at times racist and sexist things as a talent) he, like John Fogerty, used it all up.

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  26. @Birdie
    Good post.
    You know, after hearing Rhett Miller on one of the Ticket promos yesterday, it finally hit me. The Hardline plays partly to put content out to some of the people they know are listening, i.e., musicians. Now, you and I can punch out when music talk comes on, but this is a great avenue to open up conversation by let's say, the 97's if they run into each other. One of them can reference a THL conversation about whatever band and boom, they have something to talk about together. I don't really care, I punch out at that point and try my luck again in 15-20.

    In reference to Greggo's blog--I've read every entry and tried to hold judgement until now, and my judgement is that he is delusional. I can't even put into words the mess that this guy is. He bashes the guys that replace him, just drags them through mud, and then tries to drag the station through mud, and all the while saying the gig at the Ticket was the best he ever had and he'd walk 5k miles to get that gig again. I'm sure we all have a family member that's gotten into drugs and finally you just had to say "I'm done." I realize I'm done with Greggo, his integrity is to be questioned and who the hell are all these contributors on his blog?? If you have a blog with your name on it and you're too half ass to do 95% of the content, then I'm out.

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