“Their finest”: the lyrics that rendered Bono speechless
It’s a fairly well-established fact that, despite their increasing propensity for playing things safe, the longer their career has gone on, U2 were a band formed on a broad range of influences.
Given the variety of things external to the band that they’ve shown an interest in, it shouldn’t be surprising that Bono is more than capable of picking out what makes a song stand out. While his output might not be to everyone’s tastes, alienating a lot of early fans, the fact that U2 still command massive audiences and continue to have success evidently means he knows what aspects of songwriting appeal to him the most.
However, a large amount of the music that Bono considers himself to be a fan of tends to all hold one particular feature in common, especially regarding a message that is close to his heart and has played a significant role in the evolution of his own personal identity.
One element of his work that he’s always been proud of and continues to try to work into the band’s output is social and political commentary, twinned with his humanitarian ventures, and the Irish vocalist doesn’t shy away from making his opinions loud and clear.
Therefore, when a song makes a major statement about the state of the world and then couples it with something musically engaging or unique, it’s naturally going to pique his interest at the very least.
One song that he claimed he was blessed to have worked on happened to be alongside one of his idols, and someone who had always been able to deliver on all the aforementioned fronts. On the final song that former Clash frontman Joe Strummer released, Bono was recruited to be a part of the recording alongside the Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart, and it ended up having an even greater emotional impact on him than he could have possibly imagined.
‘48864’, named so after former South African president and anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela’s prison number, was written and recorded specifically for a 2002 AIDS benefit concert to raise money to support the crisis in Mandela’s home country. While Strummer was going to perform at the show alongside Bono and Stewart, his sudden death meant that Bono would have to assume the lead vocal duties that Strummer was originally meant to handle.
Completely enthralled by this work, but clearly intimidated by the prospect of performing this song that had been bestowed upon him by an icon, Bono reflected on his experience of recording and then performing it during a 2002 interview with Hotpress. “Joe sent me in some lyrics, and they were great, really honest, just like The Clash at their finest. That’s how I ended up doing a version of it in New York as Joe Strummer. He’s a town crier of a voice; I couldn’t speak after it, but I had a laugh.”
It’s a haunting final song from an icon of punk rock, and for Bono, while the circumstances that led to him performing it weren’t ideal, it was perhaps the greatest final gift Strummer could have given to him and the world.
