The Ethereal Connection re-launches website...

We know, we know.. you didn't know it was gone! But seriously, The Ethereal Connection is a fascinating site that takes a look at the parallels between U2 and the Beatles. We happened to stumble across the site and thought that you might find it interesting as well. The Ethereal Connection dissects the histories of both bands and compares them album by album. Was the cover of 'Pop' deliberately setup similarly to 'Let it Be'? The similarities (if you want to see them) are uncanny. We all know that the Beatles have inspired many bands. But have U2 consciously or subconsciously imitated the Fab Four's 'formula'? We'll let you decide.

A couple of excerpts from the site:

The Ethereal Connection is a synthesis of U2 and The Beatles. It derives from an experience that took place in 1994 when my friend Juan Raydan and myself, sat down to relate to each other the histories of both our favorite bands, his The Beatles, mine U2. Juan was born in the early fifties and I was born in the early seventies, so both of us became die-hard teenager fans during the blooming years of The Beatles and U2. We had a heartfelt meeting with the intention of transmitting to each other the experience of our two different generations. We did it by chronologically arranging the album covers of both bands passing one by one while the stories of each album were told; first Juan with The Beatles, and second me with U2. As it soon turned out, it seemed that the generations were not so different after all. When he started talking about Sergeant Pepper I was impressed. He was describing the same experience I had with Achtung Baby. The ironic characters, the color explosion, the sonic surprise.

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The element that links How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb with Let It Be is the fact that both are "returning home" albums. Writer Devin McKinney comments in his book Magic Circles: "They spent all of January rehearsing and recording songs for their next album, an album advertised with the tagline -The Beatles as Nature Intended- Get Back was its symbolic title: the songs would be rock n' roll primitive, free of overdubs and post psychedelic fairy dust…And basic meant basic. Even the White Album songs hadn't gotten far enough" . In the same manner, with All That You Can't Leave Behind U2 went back to basics, but with How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb they went even further into their origins.
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And the connection between these two albums goes deeper having to do with the Atomic Bomb and all that its creation implies. In 1992, U2 joined Greenpeace in the known assault on The Sellafield Nuclear Plant, to denounce radioactive contamination and plans for the construction of a new nuclear facility. To ask for "HELP" concerning this matter they emulated The Beatles HELP cover. This strengthens the connection between these two albums because of the fact that "The Unforgettable Fire" is strongly linked with the nuclear theme: "The Unforgettable Fire" was the title of a drawings exhibition by survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bombings. After attending it U2 was greatly affected and decided to use that title to name the new album (and song).

Intrigued? We thought so. Take a few minutes by yourself and take a journey through The Ethereal Connection (cue Twilight Zone music)...