The artist Bono called “the greatest” at bittersweet love songs
There are only a few rock stars who understand the weight of heartache quite like Bono.
While many prefer to see him as the self-righteous asshole that likes to talk about the overarching power of rock and roll, there’s no way to listen to any of U2’s records and not see the absolute reverence that Bono treats every love song with. He might be overly dramatic in some spots, but the euphoria he packs into his voice can only come from someone who’s seen a lot of that heartache firsthand,
Looking through Bono’s track record, it’s not like all of the lyrics he ever wrote were about the happiest subjects in the world. No one is turning on a track like ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ and looking to hear the most upbeat tune known to man, but when listening to how Bono sings every line, you can tell that there’s a part of his soul laced throughout those words. He wanted to make the people move, and that starts with the heart before their ears most of the time.
Of course it’s not like they didn’t have years of training listening to the best singers in rock history. The Beatles already knew their way around a rock and roll love song, and even before that, Elvis Presley had taken the bones of what a rock and roll tune is supposed to be and slowed it down for cuts like ‘Love Me Tender’. But there was always a difference between those who sang those songs and those who lived through them.
While there’s no doubt the Fab Four packed a lot of meaning behind their classic tunes, they weren’t shy about calling some of them complete work-jobs to finish off. Some of them simply don’t cut the mustard all the time, but when the band landed their first major tour around the world, seeing someone like Roy Orbison perform every single night was bound to be an educational experience.
From the first few notes of his tunes, Orbison was the one person who could pack every single breakup anyone has ever been through into a single song. There had been many people who tried to ape his style, like John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen, but whenever that operatic voice would shake throughout tunes like ‘Crying’ and ‘Only the Lonely’, half time it felt like there was an unearthly presence in the room.
Orbison was writing from the heart and sang his feelings out into the world, and it didn’t take long for Bono to pick up on what he was doing, saying, “People are desperately trying to hold on to each other in a time when it’s very hard to do that. And the bittersweet love song is something I think we do very well. It’s in a tradition, and Roy Orbison was probably the greatest in that tradition.”
Orbison never lost his step, either. Sure, his music wasn’t going to be in style in the same way that U2’s was when they hit it big, but the true legacy of his work comes from him being able to close out his career on a record like Mystery Girl and working among the Traveling Wilburys.
If there’s anything that Orbison deserved during the twilight of his life, it was that picture-perfect happy ending. He had spent years singing about heartache, and looking at those final days before his demise, he seemed to be finally happy with his place in the world and finally going out on top.
