The song Bono wishes he had written so much he decided to claim it anyway: “It belongs to me”
While they might be one of the biggest bands in history, it is also true that U2 aren’t for everyone.
They might have sold over 170million albums, but a similar number of folks think that the only way they could carry a tune is if you put a radio in a suitcase. That’s maybe how rock ‘n’ roll is supposed to be. Maybe it is at its best when it ruffles feathers. After all, a fair few behemoths of the genre have done just that.
In recent years, Noel Gallagher has become the leading fanboy of the Bono appreciation club. He has even recognised that, given the divisive nature of U2, many would actually title him a Bono apologist. “If you don’t get it,” the swaggering Manc songwriter proclaims, “more fool you.” Technically, given Liam Gallagher’s scathing remarks about the ‘Beautiful Day’ band, he’s calling his brother a fool with that quip.
Evidently, this love-in flows both ways. While Noel Gallagher might “get a bit frustrated when people are like ‘I don’t like U2’,” his brother included, Bono has also purveyed the magnitude of Oasis that some dismiss as lacking depth. From the outside looking in, if there is one thing that truly bonds Bono and Noel beyond the boozy nights they now share, it is that they are old-school rock stars in the traditional, sun-glasses indoors definition of the term.
Swagger and showmanship are never in short supply in either team’s ranks. Inspired by the bravura of The Beatles and the Stones, both U2 and Oasis looked to bring some of the 1960s edgy sprightliness back to music when they broke onto the scene a few decades down the line. The working class groups looked to illuminate the joyous side of the human experience in a way that prompted white van radios to be turned up to maximum.
Which Oasis song did Bono wish he had written?
This invigorating appeal to the proletariat is precisely why Bono wishes he wrote the Oasis classic ‘Live Forever’ – a song he says is about the thrills of life in a band. In an open letter to Noel Gallagher in which he wrote about the Britpop classic, Bono said: “I think you’re the same as me, we see things they’ll never see’ I don’t know what this song is about.”
Before adding, “I don’t want to know. I know you wrote this song but it belongs to me… well, it doesn’t really, it belongs to us… or anyone who was ever in a band.” In his view, ‘Live Forever’ is about the bold immortality snatched by lucky lads who drink and drive around the land accidentally etching their name in history with resonant hits.
He continued: “Cause whatever you say, this song is about being in a band. And it’s us against the world…a very different feeling from me against the world. The last gang in town versus the man alone. I love the singing and the playing and the lyric and Liam and Noel and Tony and the two Pauls… I love it all… and now I don’t need to live forever as much.” Concluding that it lies among the few classic tracks he’s so envious of that he wishes he could claim it as his own.
As for the mystery of what it is about, Bono is half-right in opining that it’s about life in a band. Or rather it is about life in certain bands – those that make music with joie de vivre at the forefront. “It was written in the middle of grunge,” Noel told NME.
He continued, “Nirvana had a tune called ‘I Hate Myself And I Want To Die’. I was like, ‘I’m not f–king having that,’ Kids don’t need to hear that nonsense. Here was a guy who had everything and was miserable about it. We had f–k all, and I still thought getting up in the morning was the greatest f–king ever.” So, from his perch as a roadie for Inspiral Carpets, he set about capturing that joy and spreading it to the people with his own fledgling band.
The band’s best?
It is also both Oasis brothers’ favourite Oasis track. As Liam told Q in 2008: “I think the words still mean something powerful. You talk about Oasis capturing a spirit, and I think that song is how a lot of people feel when they’re down on their luck. I think I first heard it in the Boardwalk in Manchester when our kid (Noel Gallagher) was trying it out.”
An uncharacteristically sentimental Liam continues, “Even when we’re starting it now I always feel like we’re going to perform our best version of it. It makes me think of me mam. And it’s the song that makes me feel I have the best job in the band. I may not have written it but I get to sing it. It’s weird cos it’s outlasted other tunes.” As a firm fixture in their recent reunion tour, it’s hard not to succumb to the painfully cheesy line that the song itself might live forever. Yuck.
Yet, that’s certainly what the band seem to think. Noel later gave his own testimony when he told Q in 2011 with no small degree of pride, “With every song that I write, I compare it to The Beatles. I’ve got semi-close once or twice, with ‘Live Forever,’ for example… the solo on that is one of the greatest things in rock music.” Bono clearly agrees, as do a few hundred thousand people who listen to it every week.
