THE CUTTING EDGE
OVER THE PAST four decades, the Edge has influenced generations of music lovers to go that extra step and pick up a guitar. For many of those music lovers, October and Achtung Baby played important roles in their introduction to U2. Below, a host of guitar greats discuss the influence of the Edge, through an October and Achtung Baby lens.
TOM MORELLO
The Edge has challenged conceptions of what an electric guitar should sound like — and constantly pushed the boundaries of what an electric guitar can sound like. One of my favorite Edge moments is on “Love Is Blindness” on Achtung Baby. Apparently recorded in the midst of a rending divorce, Edge’s playing is deeply emotional and sonically confrontational. The song has two very different solo sections. When I first heard it, I was blown away by the second solo, a passionate machine-gun flamenco assault. The first solo, on the other hand, sounded like someone had made a horrible mistake and left the tape running while Edge absentmindedly played a few disjointed notes (maybe left-handed?) and then kinda stopped and dribbled another couple notes awkwardly across the remaining bars. I later realized this was the genius solo on the track, capturing the artist’s broken emotional state in a way no traditional solo could.
JOE BONAMASSA
There are few guitarists who can identify themselves with chords alone. The Edge can — with a single strum and inflection. Following in the footsteps of Link Wray and Pete Townshend, the Edge and U2 created
