My guess is that U2 themselves stopped being pompous and learned to use irony thanks to this Negativland parody. I.e. Achtung Baby was in part born out of the Negativland ban scandal. Of course they will never admit this.
I imagine U2 fans buying this, running home and cranking it, only to have Casey Kasem trash the band with a kazoo parody, of their favorite band, as a backing track. 😭😭 Negativland must have tickled for a second, until the lawyers found them.
Heard it at bucks off the old highway with my greaser buddies Johnny Cade , Pony boy Curtis & Dallas Winston . A night that changed all our lives . Stay gold America , Don't let the bastards get you down .
I would have loved to be at some lame dinner party in the 90's where the host is like "hey, i just got the new U2 record, let's peel the plastic off this baby and give it a spin"
I took a bottle of Jack Daniels to a wedding that my uncle was at and he looks at me and asked me to do you know what's at the bottom of that bottle and he says the devil
I heard about this while listening to Jim Ruland’s book CORPORATE ROCK SUCKS the rise & fall of SST RECORDS and I am not disappointed!!! Can’t wait to hear more Negativeland!!!
U2 destroyed Negativland for this song, suing them and costing them a fortune in legal fees. I remember an article where The Edge was talking to one of the guys from Negativland and the guy was begging him to call off the [legal] dogs, it was bankrupting them. And The Edge came up with some excuse that it was beyond their control, the label was in charge. Absolute utter bullshit. Fuck U2 and their sanctimonious bullshit forever. They would be nothing if Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno hadn't created their sound for them.
Bongo once told Factory Records boss Tony Wilson that he (Bongo) would keep the spirit of Ian Curtis alive. Curtis and Wilson would have loved any Negativland version of their songs. U2 were just a bunch of chancers and corporate lick-spittals
I was exposed to old rock and country (the good stuff) from an early age so I remember back in the early 90s I was about 3yo watching my parents doing a silly slow dance and laughing like hyenas while this song blared from that old record player. They had spent the evening getting lit up on Budweiser and homegrown lol. Good memories.