The one singer Bono said did the impossible: “Brilliance”
The greatest singers of all time tend to feel like superheroes walking the Earth. Even though they are flesh and blood as much as you or I are, there’s something about seeing them sing their deepest emotions that resonates in people’s souls the minute they hear one of their songs on the radio or hear them bare it all on the stage. And while that kind of magic isn’t lost on Bono, he has felt that musical spirit move him in ways beyond traditional rock and roll as well.
Because, really, Bono always looked at music as a form of religion in some ways. The religious connotations with U2 may be as clear as day, but the kind of messiah complex that he has is enough to make him look like the rock and roll discount version of Jesus Christ in some way, clad in shades of black rather than a crown of thorns whenever he inhabited his ‘Fly’ persona during the Achtung Baby tour.
But in the pop world of yesteryear, one only needed to carry themselves in a certain way to be authentic. There’s nothing wrong with having a gimmick like Screamin’ Jay Hawkins or the thousands of shock rockers that came afterwards, but Chuck Berry and Little Richard got to the top by simply being themselves rather than trying to be a cartoon character onstage.
And before The Beatles ever transformed the rock and roll world, the definition of cool could be found in every move Frank Sinatra made. He may have been a more refined version of pop music than what the riff raff of rock and roll were looking like, but Sinatra’s voice was about as strong as the liquor that he drank whenever he sang one of his ballads. Bono may have a great deal of respect for him, but he was also given an education the minute he heard his updated version of ‘My Way’.
The original is still one of the most iconic pop songs ever, but the updated version was a musical miracle for Bono, telling his daughter Nancy, “Frank taught me the meaning of interpretive singing. I heard a version of ‘My Way’ recorded in his later years that took the unrepentant boast of the original ’69 recording and made it an apology. The same arrangement, the same words, but now a mea culpa …IMPOSSIBLE. But that was his brilliance. I think he grew away from the song.”
Then again, isn’t that what any great song is supposed to be about? If we forget about rock and roll for a second, the entire premise of a good song is to hear someone’s take on life through their performance, and even if Sinatra was boisterous once upon a time, hearing him in his older age apologising for that kind of boisterousness gives us a glimpse into the man that had done those years of hard living.
And when Bono eventually teamed up with him for ‘Under My Skin’, he at least understood the sentiment he was going for. The ‘Fly’ glasses may have been a bit much for the video, but since this was the era when the band were getting people like Johnny Cash to appear on their records, Bono was turning his post-ironic character into a love letter to the pop music of days gone by.
The ZooTV tour was already supposed to be about making things larger than life, but it was never about forgetting the power of music. It was a parody of some of the most lavish performances of all time, but even if no one else was on the stage with Sinatra in his prime, he could still hold the audience’s attention with only a wave of his finger.
