‘One’: the song that saved U2
By the time U2 reached the 1990s, it seemed like they had said all they wanted to say. After becoming one of the most militant forces in rock music thanks to records like War, The Joshua Tree exposed them to a completely different level of fandom, becoming one of the biggest bands in the world with songs about hoping for a brighter future. Which begs the question: what happens when a group earns everything they thought they wanted?
After spending time playing the stadium circuit in the documentary Rattle and Hum, U2 ventured to Berlin to begin work on their next album, Achtung Baby. Although they may have had the beginnings of songs with producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, nothing came together like they thought it would, leading to prolonged sessions where the group was barely getting along. While The Edge was looking to disassemble everything and build themselves back up from scratch, the feeling of an organic band playing in the room became lost…until ‘One’.
Amid some of the dark glitches of noise on the final album, like ‘Mysterious Ways’ and ‘Zoo Station’, this is about as cut and dry as a U2 song can get. Dominated by acoustic guitars, Bono sings about a relationship that has gone sour and wanting to do everything he can to make amends and still have some companion through the years.
While this reads as a jaded breakup song on the page, most of the energy could also be directed toward the band members, as Bono takes inventory of his hubris as a frontman and tries to reconcile that with his mates. In their biography U2 by U2, the band credits ‘One’ with revitalising the sessions, reminding them that their way of writing songs still worked.
The Edge would later tell Q Magazine that that song would mean much more to them on the final record, stating that it “was a pivotal song in the recording of the album, the first breakthrough in what was an extremely difficult set of sessions”. For all of the good vibes made at the sessions, the song is not necessarily all about coming together and living as one.
When discussing the origins of the lyrics, Bono was a bit cagey with the idea of oneness. He said: “It is not the old hippie idea of ‘Let’s all live together.’ It is a much more punk rock concept. It’s anti-romantic: ‘We are one, but we’re not the same. We get to carry each other.’ It’s a reminder that we have no choice. It’s not: ‘Come on, everybody, let’s vault over the wall.’ Like it or not, the only way out of here is if I give you a leg up the wall and you pull me after you”.
That same emotionally calloused tone reverberates through the rest of the record. As Bono puts on the persona of ‘The Fly’, his songs take on a more dour tone than before. Gone were the days of the hopeful Irish lad that would lead fans into the future. In his place was a cold and calculated rock star slowly losing touch with his humanity.
For all of the ironic affectations U2 were putting into their songs by this point, there isn’t an ounce of cynicism in ‘One’. After the long road that it took to make the song a reality, the lyrics are practically a hymn of perseverance. Bono might not be that optimistic in the song, but after donning the rock star persona for the first time, this song shows a man desperate to find some connection beyond the surface level again.
