The 1990s band Bono would forever love to join: “They’re that good”
Anyone looking to be an all-star frontman could afford to take a few cues from what Bono has been doing.
Yes, he can come off as a little bit self-righteous, and there’s probably no shortage of fans who wanted to punch him in the face on more than a few occasions, but the whole point behind the U2 frontman’s elongated speeches is that he genuinely believes in everything he talks about. He knows that rock and roll can affect people the same way it affected him so many years ago, and he figured that he would do anything he could to help the next generation kick themselves into gear.
But it’s not like Bono has ever run short on things to say about what he has in mind for U2. They had slowly grown into one of the biggest names in music by the time that they reached The Joshua Tree, and even if not everything that they were making was to everyone’s taste, Achtung Baby was the first time everyone realised they were going to be around forever. No one could survive grunge that smoothly, and Bono was going to spend the rest of his days capitalising on what ‘The Fly’ brought him.
They were ahead of the grain even when being one of the biggest bands in the world, but there were still people willing to come for their mantle every now and again. Nirvana were becoming one of the biggest names in rock and roll only a few years after their album dropped, but even after grunge rose and fell, Radiohead felt like the next best band for people to follow after Kurt Cobain’s passing.
No one in their right mind would have said that about ‘the ‘Creep’ guys’ back in 1993, but OK Computer was the first time that they felt truly unstoppable. They had finally broken through and released a masterpiece, and while Kid A saw them draw a line in the sand, Bono was a little bit annoyed to see them becoming one of the biggest bands in the world and not getting any sort of radio play that often.
Then again, it’s hard to argue that they deserved more when Thom Yorke didn’t really want more. The idea of being one of the biggest-selling rock bands in the world didn’t appeal to him at all, and while Bono was happy to see them still doing great work in the 2000s, he would have gladly helped them out in any way they could on tour just to get anywhere close to what they were doing.
Their music was the sound of raw emotion being put on tape, and Bono felt that he needed to get as close to that muse as possible, saying, “I can’t blame Radiohead for pulling back from the fray. You have to have a stomach for it. It’s a lot to swallow, but not your pride and not your dignity. [But] whatever they want to do, I will work on their road crew. If they had a cellist, I’d carry the cello on my back. They can do whatever they want in my book, and it’s alright with me. They’re that good.”
And it’s not like Yorke hasn’t found time to work outside of the conventional norms when it came to making Radiohead records. In Rainbows may have been one of their most celebrated works, but the thought of them trying to give their record away for free and actually manage to turn over a profit was the kind of experimental move that only they could have thought of around that same time.
So while Bono could try his hand at doing the same thing by shoving an entire album into our song libraries, there’s a reason why it works in different ways when he does it. Giving away an album for free might be a power move, but whereas Bono seemed to want the world to hear how great U2 is, Radiohead are still making the music they want to make without giving a shit if anyone likes it or not.
