Trip Through Your Wires

20 Jan 202123

'A uniquely creative guitarist who has powered one of the world's biggest bands for 40 years and counting, let's trip through the wires to look at 20 guitar highlights from the strings and pedals of the man they call The Edge…'

From One to Desire and from Unknown Caller to The Fly, these are The Edge's '20 greatest guitar moments', according to Guitar.com.

'At the heart of their sound, U2's guitarist has undergone his own process of constant reinvention. But even as his gear stash has grown from a couple of guitars, a handful of pedals, a Vox and some gaffer tape to become a touring rig that looks like a Guitar Center warehouse, he's stayed a step ahead of his imitators, managing to refine but never jettison the simplicity and directness of his playing…'

Take a read of this great story and then tell us, in the comments below, your own favourite guitar moment by The Edge.

Comments
23
You must be a logged-in member to add comments.
lukemcgrath
The Fly
Spot on with the fly. My favourite U2 riff
Cristian72
Rattle and Hum
Great album, I remember how I played guitar listening Pride and Silver and Gold...ok Edge, rhythm and blues!
Si Rumble
Summer of Love
Guitar riff in this song gives me goose bumps every time. But for raw power has to be any number of Live ‘Bullet the blue sky’
fanourider
THE EDGE’S 20 GREATEST GUITAR MOMENTS, R
il y en a vraiment trop de très beau pour faire un classement cela dépend de l'humeur du jour et du souvenir qui va avec le titre . MAIS ne pas mettre: - EXIT -Acrobat -out of control Il y a un problème
Jstella72
Bullet The Blue Sky
Oh My God!!!. The Edge's guitar it's like a war between Sacred and Profane. In one word....Amazing!!!!
rodrigo_cousillas
The crystal ballroom
The sound of the guitar is like listen childs plays in the garden. Beautiful!
Bullet_The_Blue_Sky
Definitely Mysterious Ways
Edge's guitar solo in Mysterious Ways is one that ranks very high for me. If you close your eyes you can picture the belly dancer twirling around on stage from their live shows.
blueyedboy
New York
I’m not sure which song I’d swap out, but I’d have to fit New York in there somewhere.
veerle
Guitar riff from “bad”
There are more great riffs from Edge; he seems to feel exactly what small part to play to complete a song. He doesn’t need speed nor endless solo’s. It’s about the tone and how to sculpt that tone. The particulair thing in ‘bad’ is that he plays ‘against’ the delay. He play’s a different riff, but the delays make the riff sound differently. If you stop delay’s, you’ll hear him play something else. I think that’s amazing. Took me a while to figure out what went on, but in the end i learned to play the whole song. Awesome in all it’s simplicity, complex at the same time. Let the delay’s work for you, right Edge? Thx u2 for all the wonderfull tones and sounds.
dimitri van delsen
Vertigo
Where’s Vertigo....?
johannv
The Edge est un très grand musicien !
Pour moi, Edge est bien au dessus de la plupart des "grands" guitaristes. Il est un grand créateur, un grand musicien. Il fait de grands morceaux plutôt que de faire des soi-disant grands solos interminables comme les autres guitaristes qui, au final, ne sont pas toujours très harmonieux... Edge fait de la belle musique, toujours bien faite, soignée. Les gens qui le critiquent ne valent généralement pas la peine d'être écoutés. le groupe a fait de très grandes choses, des superbes morceaux que beaucoup auraient aimé être capables de faire...! The Edge est un grand artiste !
jeex
Bullet the blue sky
I think that the best guitar moment of The Edge, across his sparkling career, is the live version of "Bullet the blue sky" as played as during the Zoo TV/Zooropa tour in 92/93. That sound the recalls an anti-aircraft alarm (BTBS, as we all know, is related to Bono and his wife Ali travel to Nicaragua and El Salvador) plus the middle-song solo is one of the most epic moments of the song. Moreover, it's my favourite one too, being the zoo tv tour my first U2 concert ever! Bye Luigi
McMurrough
Best guitar bits...
•New Year’s Day •Fly •Wire •Boy Falls From The Sky (intro). •U2 360 — formative version of Every Breaking Wave (there is/was a version of it floating around on YouTube). •Some of the stuff on the trio match up with Edge, Jimmy Page, and the other guy were great!
Clator
When I Look At The World
One of the most passionate solos The Edge ever played was in "When I Look At The World." Surprised this didn't rank in his top 20.
SARDE
Unique Guitaring
The Edge is a guitarist like no other. He added a completely different colour palette to how guitars are played like what Jimmy Page and Jimmy Hendrix and Van Hallen brought to the table with their playing styles. To pick some of his best is tough. If I must I think his most stand out moments are 11 o’clock tick tock, Pride, Wire, Zoo Station, MoFo and Get on your boots to name a few. I think his best is yet to come. The Edge is razor sharp.
musicabona
Special guitar moments
This great story represents the outstanding complexity of guitar sounds The Edge has created over the years. In the article there are some amazing choices and even more examples come to mind. For me Acrobat, Surrender, All Because Of You, In God´s Country, The Miracle (of Joey Ramone) and more are special, too. My favourite guitar moment is Bullet The Blue Sky. When I heard it for the first time at the age of 15 I was fascinated by the dark atmosphere The Edge conjured up. He truly transformed the lyrics´ images like fighter planes into fierce sounds. The solo always gives me shivers and belongs to the most tremendous things I have ever heard. During concerts Bono constantly emphasised The Edge´s artistry by shining a light on him. Various live versions proved that this song is a timeless classic.
electricco
HOMECOMING .... Unknown Caller ... the F
Once again it is hard to choose a fav one .... A SORT OF HOMECOMING "The Edge’s Vox… it’s an underrated monument to the atmospheric sonic powers the guitarist can summon from his setup" Chris Martin is a fan, telling Rolling Stone: “The first song on The Unforgettable Fire, A Sort of Homecoming, I know backward and forward – it’s so rousing, brilliant and beautiful. It’s one of the first songs I played to my unborn baby” Unknown Caller “one of Edge’s major solos in his life – you won’t hear better than that on any other song”
Johnxxx
The Edge's '20 greatest guitar moments'
"Until the End of the World" was the first song I wanted to learn to play, so, great choice! And there are no duds in the list. But no mention of the iconic "Out of Control"? Those three opening licks , like lasers to the brainstem! I'm 20 again, everytime I hear it.
JACK1978
Moment Edge' s guitar
It's difficult to choose immediately I remember Zoostation , Hold me Thrill me Kiss me Kill me ,Vertigo and Elevation
chuckle.brothers
Great article
Great article by people who really know their stuff. Imagine having a list so strong that tracks like Electric co., Elevation, Vertigo and Blackout can’t get in! Incredible. The Edge - What a guy
Timo1966
Timo1966
Great list of Edge's moments One not to be forgotten would be Surrender from the War album- a real up and at em sound from all 4 band members especially Edge
baseballmansas
Guitar.com Out of Tune With The Edge
While I applaud Guitar.com for coming up with a diverse blend of The Edge's best moments, complete with fascinating backstories, there are several quintessential U2 songs that were inexcusably omitted including The Electric Co., Out of Control, All I Want is You, Walk On, and Vertigo. One could even argue God Part II should be in it too, but this is a top 20 list. So how do we make room for these iconic must-include tunes? The following songs should be removed: Unknown Caller, Even Better Than The Real Thing, Mysterious Ways, A Sort of Homecoming and Love is Blindness (even though it's such a beautiful song). As for the best example of The Edge's guitar style, my #1 is Pride (In The Name of Love) because it musically embodies their stripped-down past, atmospheric present and still teases at what could be yet to come from my favorite, understated guitar hero. the remainder of my list would be as follows: 1. Pride (In The Name of Love) 2. Where The Streets Have No Name 3. Bullet The Blue Sky 4. The Electric Co. 5. Sunday Bloody Sunday 6. All I Want is You 7. Out of Control 8. Desire 9. Walk On 10. New Year's Day 11. I Will Follow 12. The Fly 13. Until The End of The World 14. Vertigo 15. Beautiful Day 16. Gone 17. Bad 18. With or Without You 19. One 20. Zooropa
ains
I can’t disagree ... but
I would throw the following into the ring... The Electric Co, hard driven and monumental, The Unforgetable Fire, orchestral and layered, In Gods Country, because it’s Inauguration Day (and the reason I am watching R&H), screaming with a nice bass undertone (thanks Adam), Zoo Station beyond reinvention, angry persistent and new, Discotheque, simply unreal! Mofo (live) yes they did blast me and the rest of the audience away, Breathe, perfectly blended as an esoteric opener to parts of U2360, Crystal Ballroom, simply strumming to a tale of love!
Newer comments    1 - 23 of 23    Older comments

RECENT NEWS

15 Mar, 2024

Hear the final U2:UV show on U2 X-Radio this Sunday.

13 Mar, 2024

 Subscribers Special
This is 'One' at the Sphere. (Were you there?)

9
6 Mar, 2024

It was a Beautiful Day. All forty of them. Thank you Las Vegas.

24
5 Mar, 2024

'How long to sing this song?' 

Related Topic