The one song that changed the way Bono wrote: “Essential”
There’s no definition for how someone should write a rock and roll song. John Lennon and Paul McCartney may be seen as the blueprint for what the genre should be, but even they weren’t doing anything that they didn’t see people like Chuck Berry or Buddy Holly doing before them. And while Bono has developed his own musical language whenever he plays with U2, there are often moments where he realises where he took pieces of his musical upbringing from.
Because considering their omnipresence in the music world today, it’s impossible to think back to the days when the Irish legends were a punk outfit. The whole point of their music was to be expansive compared to everyone else, but they still had a healthy respect for bands like The Clash for breaking down doors and making rock and roll feel like it meant something greater than music.
For Bono, the message behind the music was everything half the time, and listening to his records, he was willing to practice what he preached. The Joshua Tree might come off as someone trying to sound self-righteous half the time, but there was never a moment throughout his performance of ‘Where the Streets Have No Name’ where he didn’t seem 100% convinced that his music could change the world.
But that only came from him looking through Pete Townshend’s lens when first hearing The Who’s ‘Behind Blue Eyes’, saying, “‘No one knows what it’s like behind blue eyes’. The beginnings of what I would discover is one of the essential aspects for me – and why I’m drawn to a piece of music – which has something to do with the quest. The sense that there’s another world to be explored. I got that from Pete Townshend.”
Let’s get one thing straight, though: U2 are by no means as powerful as The Who could be. The Edge’s sonic effects and Bono’s ability to move a crowd of people might be second to none, but when Townshend struck his power chords and Keith Moon came barrelling in on every one of their songs, there was no doubt that they were one of the greatest bands to ever take a stage in their prime. But there is some connective tissue to how Bono approaches lyrics in their signature ballad.
Townshend was always wary of getting too introspective in his music and usually draped many of his songs in a narrative concept. But while ‘Behind Blue Eyes’ may have been intended for the Lifehouse project, there was always some degree of truth whenever he sang it on his own compared to Roger Daltrey. Daltrey wanted to find an outlet for anger, but Townshend was coming from a position of love.
And that combination of love and rage has been fuelling U2 since they started. Bono knew there was no way to stir people up better than anger on ‘Bullet the Blue Sky’, but once they leave the Earth scorched with their vicious political songs, tracks like ‘One’ help put things in perspective. They want to see change in the world, but they know that they can’t live without love and compassion at any cost.
So, really, Townshend taught Bono about something more than the world that can be gained when listening to music. He helped teach everyone who listened to him how to be human, and whenever fans bothered to dig deeper, they saw the frail human being hiding underneath those layers of Marshall stacks.
