“It wouldn’t get better”: The songwriting secret to U2, according to The Edge
Can a band that’s been the biggest in the world on at least three separate occasions really have “bad press”? I can’t help but think that U2 do have at least a little bit of that. To be clear, a lot of that bad press comes from their own doing. We should never, ever let Bono, The Edge and co sweep the whole Songs of Innocence thing under the rug the way they clearly want to.
However, is it really fair to the band that the first thing that most people think of when they hear the name U2 is Bono being a bit of a twat? I mean, sure, the man has an ego the size of a continent, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary in the world of rock ‘n’ roll. The main argument against their bad reputation, though, must come from the sheer amount of classic songs in their back catalogue.
A cursory glance at a compilation of U2 greatest hits serves up a veritable smorgasbord of completely undeniable classics. ‘Pride (In The Name Of Love)’, ‘The Fly’, ‘Mysterious Ways’, ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’, I could absolutely go on but we’d be here all month. The undeniable hits may have dried up by 2009 (‘Get On Your Boots’ anyone? Anyone?!), but in the 1980s and 1990s, there was barely anyone on their level.
So, what was their secret weapon? How did the band build such an impressive back catalogue of hits? In an interview with Guitar World magazine, The Edge talked about a few of the bands high points and identified one of the key aspects of what made them hit. The interviewer points out that a number of the bands best songs are based around very simple foundations and The Edge confirms that this is a feature, not a bug.
What makes U2 such great songwriters?
In the interview, he says, “Powerful ideas are usually the simplest. “One” is a two-chord progression with only the slightest variation. It’s an inarguable piece of work. If we put anything more into it, it would suffer; it wouldn’t get better. The same thing with “Bad”: I remember working with Brian Eno, and the idea was to keep this two-chord mantra going, keep it going, keep it going, as long as we could stand it, and then bam! We made this chord change, and it was dramatic. Songs like that fascinate me.”
Which is absolutely true. For as long as I can remember, U2 have been getting stuck for being simple. The Edge’s guitar playing especially gets a truckload of undeserved shit for being all effects and no skill. That Bill Bailey skit comes to mind. However, at their core, U2 are a band as influenced by The Ramones and the Sex Pistols as anyone else.
They’re not quite a punk band, but they’re absolutely a post-punk band, and their music should be taken as such. A band that learned from the best that sometimes the simplest songs can be the most effective and sought, nonetheless, to push the envelope with that fact. For all my talk of them getting bad press, they are still among the world’s biggest bands to this day. That’s always going to count for more than what some envious hack could snipe about online.
