Over in the Sinead thread, Dave said this of Larry's seeming disconnect from the rest of U2:
There aren’t “Larry songs” in the way that the Beatles had “George songs” or “Ringo songs”.
This got me thinking: Ever wonder if all this is the inevitable outcome for any band like U2 whose musical success is more the result of "magic" or "the spirit" than of actual talent on a technical level?
Bono has said countless times that nothing happens in the studio until "God walks through the room." When
that happens, as it did for U2 the majority of the time during the first couple decades of their career, the result is sheer beauty. But the other side of this double-edged sword is a greater-than-usual drop-off in the quality of the output if or when God stays home.
If U2 were more like Radiohead, my guess is that their earlier material would have suffered a bit from the lack of spellbinding magic, but they'd still be able to rely upon their honed talent and technical skill (even to this day). But given the band's internal dynamic, the writing was always on the wall, for as the Good Book says, "Like the wind that blows where it wants to, so with the Spirit."
There's a sense in which this struggle between relying on the Spirit rather than using the crutch of technical and acquired skill is the whole theme of the song Discotheque:
It's not a trick,
'Cause you can't learn it;
It's the way you don't pay, that's OK,
'Cause you can't earn it.You can reach, but you can't grab it
You can't hold it, control it
You can't bag it.
You can push, but you can't direct it
Circulate, regulate, oh no
You cannot connect it.
Jesus said that if you live by the sword you will also die by the sword. Perhaps the same is true with the Holy Spirit?
He moves in mysterious ways.