“I disagree”: the U2 song that divided Bono and The Edge
For the most part, Bono and The Edge have had a remarkably smooth-sailing relationship. They can easily put Mick Jagger and Keith Richards to shame.
Apart from one bust-up in 1976 when the frontman got frustrated with drummer Larry Mullen Jr at a gig and The Edge had to intervene, subsequently punching him in the face, they claim they have never come to blows with each other at any other time in their storied career. It’s either a complete rock and roll miracle or total bullshit.
Regardless, the point remains that whenever the rare occurrence rears itself, Bono and The Edge have polarised positions on something, they are able to work through it in a most civilised manner. No fights and blazing arguments to see here: they can just talk it out and be done. It’s almost as if they’ve been to couples therapy.
Despite all this, however, it would be remiss to say that every turn in the making of U2 has been all sunshine and roses, and there are some areas where they don’t see eye to eye on the process of their songs. When it comes to ‘Love Rescue Me’, the ill fate perhaps began in the fact that Bono didn’t even think it was his own tune.
The year was 1985, and the band were in the midst of their tour for The Joshua Tree… It was a constant stream of screaming fans and hedonism, and in the eye of the storm, Bono woke up one morning with a hangover – a melody and lyric floated into his head, but in his haze, he genuinely believed it belonged to Bob Dylan.
Verifying with The Edge that he was not, in fact, about to get sued by a global megastar, the pair set about rounding out the track that would become ‘Love Rescue Me’. But even the phrase ‘rounding out’ might be generous, because the whole point of the song is that it is rather obsolete. In short, that element conflicted the two of them.
“I really like the song, but I regret that we didn’t make it more our own sonically,” The Edge reasoned in 1993. “At the time, we were exploring folk and blues and these different musical traditions, and we didn’t want to tamper with them.” Yet this riled a little piece of consternation in Bono, precious over his process as he is, as he inherently felt that the mix was just right.
“I disagree. I think the fact that the track is so musically spare suits it,” he retorted, not giving much in the way of justification other than that simple statement. Yet even still, there was no point in splitting hairs over it – the track was long gone by that stage, and if there’s one thing which U2 have never done, it’s to wallow too much in the past.
It may have represented a rare minor moment of tussle between Bono and The Edge, but in a lot of ways, it’s their unanimous harmony that has kept them strong as a unit for more than the past half a century. They may not have to come to blows over it, and the arguments may be rare, but they cannot be rock stars without being able to speak their own mind.
