Bono on the show that changed the world forever: “About to boil over”
Many claim several pivotal moments in music history as the most definitive—like The Beatles’ performance on The Ed Sullivan Show, David Bowie’s release of ‘Space Oddity’, the “day the music died”, or Live Aid in 1985.
The point is, everyone has their own version of music’s ultimate fireworks moment, including Bono.
While most of the biggest moments in music history, particularly if you’re applying a rock ‘n’ roll lens, happened through the 1950s, it’s perhaps no surprise that most people regard the definitive era as the 1960s. Not only was this the year that saw acts like The Beatles and the Rolling Stones lead a little movement called the British invasion, it was also the time when innovation reached a new pinnacle, not just overseas but also with how others responded to the cultural zeitgeist.
At the same time, however, it wasn’t just about moving past those seminal ’50s heroes – often, it was actually about taking all of these moments a step further, revolutionising the work that had already been done with something fresher and more exciting. Often, it was about taking the energy established by rock ‘n’ roll pioneers like Little Richard and Elvis Presley and turning that into something that had even more bite.
Presley, for many, was where it all started. While this is a point of contention in most discussions, especially considering the ways Presley also borrowed sensibilities from elsewhere and framed them as if they were his own, there’s no denying the ways he brought a different kind of fervour to the stage, performing in a way that reinvented what it meant to be a sole rock star in spaces that seemed entirely shaped around him, and him only.
In other words, Presley was the blueprint, one that no doubt continued to set the tone throughout the ’60s and culminated in one specific moment Bono once described as a “new world about to boil over”. Many corners started to wane at the tail-end of the era, but in 1968, Presley’s comeback show brought back everything that set off the beginning of it in flames, with the singer reigniting the very soul of traditional rock ‘n’ roll in ways that set minds racing once again.
“I was eight years old when I saw the ’68 comeback special, which was probably an advantage,” Bono explained for Rolling Stone. “I hadn’t the critical faculties to divide the different Elvises into different categories or sort through the contradictions”.
Adding, “But it’s that elastic dance that is the most difficult to explain — hips that swivel from Europe to Africa, which is the whole point of America, I guess. For an Irish boy, the voice might have explained the sexiness of the USA, but the dance explained the energy of this new world about to boil over and scald the rest of us with new ideas on race, religion, fashion, love and peace.”
For music lovers like Bono, the special actually said a lot about the climate at the time, particularly when things across the board outside of music and into politics and other cultural developments made everything suddenly seem uneasy, with artists scrambling for the right message and tone in their work. But Presley, with his raw energy and expert guidance, reminded many that above all, it would be the sheer power of feeling that led the way into the new era.
