Name: U2 Talks About The Beatles, The Early Years And More | Letterman
Uploaded: 2023-03-17T21:47:33.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'U2 Talks About The Beatles, The Early Years And More | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-03-17. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'U2 Talks About The Beatles, The Early Years And More | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-03-17. Transcript available.

now uh if you know anything at all then you know that uh u2 has been with us
all week and we we
didn't know what we were getting into and they turned out to be tremendous i
mean the music
every night it's just thrilling standing ovations and by the way i believe
tonight they're going to
be doing two songs one on the show here yeah and then an extra song for the
live audience
right am i right about that
so give me a favor now please welcome bono the edge larry mullen jr and adam
clayton you too ladies
welcome back
you too everybody
you guys uh know and and maybe you didn't know but at some point it became
aware you
became aware of the fact that the ed sullivan theater in the 60s all of the
great uh rock and
roll acts appeared here on the same stage the beatles for example we must have
been aware of
that right you have the beatles on your show yes wow looking good dave that's
right we have the
beatles right here oh dude but when you were kids we're one of their biggest
influences yeah
uh does but is uh is that fun to be on this uh venue where these guys were it's
an amazing theater
that you've got here your people the way you've treated us this week it's been
an amazing week and
and and yeah you know the beatles wrote the blueprint really for for any rock
and roll band they make
any kind of miserable band that says they don't want to be in a big band look
like liars everyone
wants to be in the beatles i think that's the first thing
the the the origin of the this group you started i guess when you guys were in
high school more or
less right and uh larry you started the band is that correct that's correct
yeah
he keeps reminding us of this about once every week but it makes the story even
more remarkable
that as kids you got together and and are still together now what were the
early days were the nascent
stages of this group like well dave i think it's important to point out that
you know when i put
that notice on the board i asked for three other good-looking guys who could
play and this is what i ended up with so
but were there other personnel in the original gathering yes there were another
two gentlemen
um edge's brother dick uh who actually built his own guitar and so he was
allowed in the band just
because of that made his made his own guitar yeah and there was another
gentleman as well and he had
a guitar because as i say i i the whole idea was that these guys would come
along they'd be really good
looking and they would have instruments of course they didn't have instruments
so i then had to find
other people who did have instruments who were good-looking of course when bono
came in they got
fired yeah and and i was relegated to being the drummer and hitting things and
the the original name
it was it was really the the larry mullen jr band originally yeah i think it
was for um for about
five minutes five minutes maybe six then what was it after that it was feedback
feedback oh feedback and
that was to do with they just made up guitar yeah there was a lot of squealing
and very loud kind
of distortion coming out of the amplifier now uh looking back on it and and
everybody who pursues
something as long as uh we all have you hope that you get better so looking
back on it how were your
skills when you first began pretty pretty bad really in fact uh one of our very
first
shows that we we had two guest singers two girls and um an hour before we were
due to go on stage
that they cornered me and said edge would you sing bono can't sing
no friends in new york now uh they said then would you sing and i said
what i can't sing had they given me two hours maybe one hour before the first
show now you guys
were uh appeared at the uh the mall for the inauguration and uh many other uh
monumental
historical appearances uh in in germany uh for the crumbling of the wall 20
years ago this year 20
20 years ago and uh yeah
i i mean that alone just to have that in your scrapbook to have that on your
resume that's a
tremendous thing to be a part of we recorded an album in berlin uh actually at
this time uh called
actung baby and we were the last uh thank you we we were the last plane to land
in in the old berlin
and it was a british airways flight and we were landing in berlin and and he he
had this guy to
himself and he was it was kind of very british he was going you know on the
left you'll see the
blandenberg gate we're going round on the right now he was just flying around
for hours and when we got on
the ground we were a little wow this is kind of history isn't it and we went to
find the party
because we're in a rock and roll band we do that type of thing and so he went
out on the streets this
is this is for real and we got into this party just people marching on the
streets and they were
looking really sad and kind of dour and and then we said wow these germans
really they really don't
know how to party do they but we were in the the wrong parade we were in fact
we were marching
with stalinists against the wall coming down this is the truth that is the
truth ouch
we never we never quite got the rock and roll thing down over the last 30 years
we can't do it
adam is there anything you want to add to this before we wrap it up i know you're
on the end that
doesn't mean we're excluding you there's obviously been a clear case of
instrument envy and sting and
myself have four thick long strings and he's got six girly ones
what that means but anyway again uh and i can't say it enough thank you very
much for your generosity
and great talent here all this week you too we'll be right back
you