“We never saw it that way”: The classic song U2 called a musical “throwaway”
U2 never wanted to half-ass anything when they got into the studio.
They had studied under some of the greatest names in punk rock, and that meant making the kind of music that had a lot of heart behind it every time they went in a new creative direction. But even for a band that took themselves as seriously as the Irish legends, Bono always had a clear vision of which albums were the classics and which ones should be treated as a musical detour between the mainline records.
Then again, not even the proper studio albums have knocked it out of the park, either. Pop is still considered a huge misfire by the band and their audience, and even though October had the potential of being a great record, the lyrics dealing with religion as one’s crisis of faith were always going to be a turn-off for non-religious fans. However, the end of Live Aid made everything feel a bit different.
They had been rockstars before, but this one gig helped turn them into one of the biggest fucking bands in the world. Queen may have been the victor that day, but Bono’s performance made everyone truly feel like rock and roll had the potential to change the goddamn world, and when The Joshua Tree came out, they could rightfully stake their claim as one of the biggest groups to ever walk the Earth.
While most artists would use all that attention to turn up their voices, the band had a different idea for their next move. All their heroes had done movies by this point, and while they may have been doing their colossal tour through the US, Rattle and Hum was a strange combination of great performances, random cut-away interviews, and a few unintentionally hilarious moments on the same level as This is Spinal Tap.
It’s no secret that the band thought they were making important music in their prime, but seeing them rub elbows with BB King, visit Graceland, and hearing Bono go on political tirades in the middle of their sets was either going to be awe-inspiring or unbelievably pretentious, depending on how you already viewed the band.
Bono always stood by the movie, but he even admitted that the accompanying soundtrack was never meant to be any kind of sweeping statement, saying, “The whole thing was just throwaway to us, in the best sense of the word – not the movie, but the record. We genuinely believed that it was a record about being fans of rock & roll. It was so obvious to us. Maybe we didn’t understand how successful we were, and that it looked like we were hanging out with these guys, so, by association, that we were one of the greats. We never saw it that way.”
It’s a lot easier to hear what Bono’s getting at when listening to some of the covers, but even then, their renditions of their favourite songs are more than a little bit rough. No one was arguing with them about being one of the biggest names in music at the time, but did Bono really have to claim that they were “stealing” The Beatles’ ‘Helter Skelter’ back from Charles Manson or spend the middle of ‘Silver and Gold’ chastising the audience for not being as politically engaged as he is?
Still, you can’t really fault them for swinging for the fences like this, either. Rattle and Hum was the sound of them trying to loosen up and get back in touch with what made them fans of music back in the day, but judging by how they came off on record, it’s no surprise that they completely renovated their sound on Achtung Baby.
