The one song Bono never sang the same way again: “Something I like”
Part of the joy of every U2 show is seeing what Bono is going to do every single night.
Even though there’s always the danger of him going on a political rant and spending half the show virtue-signalling as he plays, it’s usually forgivable as long as the music is good. But whereas most people would prefer the band to stick to the recorded versions of their songs a little bit, the frontman knew that it was always more fun for him to look for opportunities to switch things up every now and again.
After all, there’s no joy in going to a stadium show and watching a band play exactly like the record. If it managed to sound like that, what’s the point of spending extravagant amounts of money on a decent seat when you could stay at home and listen to the same thing? The live performance always gives people an opportunity to switch things up, and U2 were no strangers to stretching themselves out whenever they put their stage show together.
The ZooTV already had some of the most lavish setpieces anyone had seen at a live show, but even with all of the bells and whistles, the fact that Bono still sounded fantastic was practically a miracle. He hadn’t lost an ounce of shine on those pipes since the early 1980s, and while it took them a while to get to some of their tunes, the fact that any of his vocals were good enough to be featured on a proper album is a testament to how much he took care of his voice.
But when making their records, the band always needed to get out of their own way half the time. There’s a common joke amongst the band and their production crew that none of their albums are officially finished once they come out, and judging by how they play tunes like ‘Where the Streets Have No Name’ sound much more organic when they come to life onstage compared to the record.
The recorded version already feels like stepping into the future, but at the risk of getting to Bono levels of pretentiousness, the song is a living entity whenever those opening cascading guitar parts come on. Bono still at least has a road map for how that tune should go, but he knew that songs like ‘Bad’ were a lot more malleable than everything else the band played live.
Everyone has fond memories of when the band made their mark on Live Aid when they played the tune, but as opposed to the version that ended up on the record, Bono claimed that he never managed to stick to singing the tune the same way, saying, “We never went over it, because it was felt the recording was a moment and should be left that way. I don’t think I’ve ever sung the exact lyric that is on the record. I play with it every night, which is something I like.”
That kind of approach could be one of the biggest headaches in the world if you don’t know what you’re doing, but for the Irish legends, it was a great opportunity for them to experiment every time they performed. There’s a lot of uncertainty that comes with starting off a song and not knowing where it will be going, but what Bono does with it makes it sound like he’s internalising every single word he’s singing as the song plays out.
It will probably piss off purists to no end whenever the band kicks off the song these days, but since when were U2 making music for purists? They were always considered punk rock, but they knew when it was better for them to make the music they wanted to make rather than feeding the crowd the same songs they’ve always played.
