The one songwriter Bono called a musical “treasure”
Bono had no problem doing lip service to anyone in the music industry.
Some would argue that the gift of gab is all that he has in this industry, but even when you look outside of the elongated speeches that he has made over the years, the U2 frontman was never afraid to talk about what made rock and roll seem larger than life whenever his idols started singing. And while there are many artists who have earned every bit of praise they have received, there are still a few who managed to fly under the radar for many.
Then again, it’s hard to think that Bono was still going to be listening to the greatest underground bands in the world at this stage in his life. Every single part about U2 has been about evolution of some kind, and when you look through a lot of their records, you can see them blending in with whatever new trends are out at the time, whether that was working in post-modern irony on Achtung Baby or trying out hip-hop production on No Line on the Horizon.
Not all of it worked, but as long as they were getting a message through, that was all that really mattered. The number-one rule for every member of the band, every time they played, centred around emotion, and there wasn’t much that they were playing that didn’t seem to have a little bit of heart behind it. But while Bono could express himself however he wanted, he had a long list of lyricists to pull from.
He had already become interested in being a singer, watching punk bands like Ramones back in the day, but the lyric was something that he held in the highest regard. Everyone from John Lennon to Patti Smith to Bob Dylan had a unique approach to songcraft that made life feel a little bit brighter whenever they sang, but there were also more than a few people coming from his homeland as well.
Van Morrison was already one of his biggest inspirations from the minute that he heard records like Astral Weeks, but in the grand tradition of Irish songsmiths, Phil Lynott tends to get forgotten along the way. Thin Lizzy was definitely one of the best hard rock bands of their day, but for those who stopped after listening to tunes like ‘The Boys Are Back in Town’ and ‘Jailbreak’, they missed out on some of the greatest poetry that rock and roll had ever conceived of.
Lynott was a natural storyteller whenever he sang, and Bono felt that no one could take that away from him whenever he came up with a new angle for a song, saying, “I think he was a treasure chest. And I remember a lot of people would listen to Shades of an Orphanage and say, ‘You know, that sounds an awful lot like Bruce Springsteen. Do you think Bruce Springsteen ripped him off?’ They both came out around the same time and they both expressed their love for Van Morrison.”
But whereas Morrison was one to improvise many of his lines and try to piece together the song later, Lynott was almost clinical in getting every single piece of his songs right. Every one of his tunes felt like little vignettes, and even though he may have passed away in the early 1980s, his way with words would have been absolutely perfect had they been able to get the music video treatment a few years later.
And since everyone from Joe Elliott from Def Leppard to James Hetfield has shouted the praises of Lynott, Bono is just one example of someone who seemed genuinely moved by what he had to say. Thin Lizzy might not have been one of the all-time greats in terms of record sales by any stretch, but if we’re breaking down purely songcrafting, Lynott deserved to be up there with the greatest to ever put pen to paper.
