The artist Bono called “the great instrumental genius”
For a genre that’s as larger than life as rock and roll has been, no one quite knows the importance of the music better than Bono. Although his work with U2 is what made him reviled by many rock fans over the years, there’s no doubt that he was usually sincere in his work, even if it was only for trying something that was in service to a bad idea like the Songs of Innocence iTunes fiasco. He might make decisions with his heart before his brain some of the time, but that’s only because he wants to follow in the footsteps of the artists who changed his world as a kid.
Because when U2 were first coming together, Bono had started to know the power that came with the right song. Not everyone had to have the greatest chops to pull off a great tune, and when listening to bands like The Clash using their guitars as weapons whenever they released new records, the frontman had found his calling as the almighty preacher of the band every time they took to the stage.
Many of the band’s gigs could be incredibly captivating during the early 1980s, but there’s a fine line between groundbreaking and pretentious as well. The Joshua Tree has earned a firm place in rock history, but the idea for the band to superimpose Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have A Dream’ speech over their performance of ‘MLK’ in Rattle and Hum is slightly uncomfortable. But that’s only because Bono saw his own heroes taking those same risks.
In fact, what U2 were doing was almost a callback to the 1960s in many respects. The Summer of Love was all about the idea of bringing people together and trying their best to make the world a better place, and whereas Bono was the one keeping it all together at the front of the stage, people like Jimi Hendrix only needed to let their music do the talking to prove their point whenever they were onstage.
Even compared to the heavyhitters of the day like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, Hendrix could channel every part of the emotional spectrum into his guitar. He could be wistful on ‘The Wind Cries Mary’, loving on ‘Little Wing’, and unleashing pure anger in the solo to ‘Machine Gun’, and that was worth more than anything that Bono had in his arsenal when he was bantering with the crowd.
“I really relate to that side of rock ‘n’ roll and Jimi Hendrix. Again, he had this role of exorcist. He put Vietnam into that amplifier and just put so much into that guitar.”
Bono
Beyond all of the grand guitar solos, it was the emotional resonance in Hendrix’s songs that Bono related to the most, saying, “I really relate to that side of rock ‘n’ roll and Jimi Hendrix. Again, he had this role of exorcist. He put Vietnam into that amplifier and just put so much into that guitar. So much came out of him. He’s the great instrumental genius of rock ‘n’ roll.”
And listening to any of U2’s albums, it’s not like wearing one’s emotions on their sleeves was ever a bad thing. When they doused themselves in irony on Achtung Baby, they were still incredibly sincere when writing love songs like ‘One’, and while the band had been considered sell-outs for years by some snobby fans, anyone who writes a song like ‘Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own’ were in the business for all the right reasons.
Because when you look at both Hendrix and U2, they want to channel some energy in their songs rather than showboat for the hell of it. That was reserved for the prog-rock technicians of the world, and while both artists could wow the crowds when they wanted to, they knew that quoting their own heart was a better way to go about it. Fans can be impressed by a band, but musicians who make them feel something is the kind of feeling they will never forget.
