“The other ones make me cringe”: The only U2 song Bono could bear relistening to
Being the frontman of a group doesn’t come without a few drawbacks. Every single member of the band might be important to getting the right sound, but when everyone focuses on the person at the front, it’s easy for every one of your bandmates to grow a little bit resentful that they’re not getting the same kind of accolades as you are every single night. While Bono has the reputation of having one of the biggest messiah complexes in rock and roll, he has moments when he can’t stand the sound of his own voice.
Granted, there’s a good chance that anyone with a rap sheet as big as U2’s would have some cringy moments to look back on. The entire rollout for Songs of Innocence was bound to be extremely hit or miss with fans and nonfans when they partnered with Apple, and no matter how many times people have flocked to their 1980s material, Rattle and Hum is still one of the biggest mixed bags that any band has ever released.
However, the core part of Bono’s personality was never about philanthropy or the dramatic sunglasses he liked to wear. It all came from the fact that he seemed genuinely moved by the power of rock and roll and looking through every one of U2’s records, there are at least a few moments where he feels genuinely empowered from the energy that he’s getting from The Edge and Larry Mullen Jr.
For someone who has always kept himself in the public eye, though, Bono had made it no secret about how much he hates his own voice. Despite being the most powerful instrument within the group, Bono has made it perfectly clear that he would rather do anything else than listen to the playback, especially if it means picking out the pieces that weren’t quite in tune or didn’t have the same fire in them as they should have.
In the case of ‘Miss Sarajevo’, though, even he knew there was little room for him to fail. This was them stepping into the big leagues of composition, and no matter how many times someone has turned the lyrics over in their head trying to remember everything, singing next to a vocalist like Pavarotti would have been enough to leave Freddie Mercury shaking in his boots if he were given the opportunity.
“The one that I can listen to the most is ‘Miss Sarajevo’ with Luciano Pavarotti. Genuine, most of the other ones make me cringe a little bit.”
bono
While their dip into the classical world was far from their most famous tune, Bono felt that his performance alongside the famous tenor was one of the only performances he liked, saying, “I’ve been in the car when one of our songs has come on the radio, and I’ve been the colour of, as we say in Dublin, scarlet. I’m just so embarrassed. The one that I can listen to the most is ‘Miss Sarajevo’ with Luciano Pavarotti. Genuine, most of the other ones make me cringe a little bit.”
But listening to the other takes in his discography, there are a handful of his screaming sections that manage to surpass what he did with Pavarotti. While a tune like ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’ doesn’t have quite the same flowing melody as ‘Miss Sarajevo’, hearing him take those vocal leaps and hit them pitch-perfectly is a combination of passion, vocal strength, and some superhuman factor that scientists have yet to discover.
So while Bono does seem to have the kind of ego big enough to level a small city at times, there are moments where he can be a little too hard on himself. Because if the only U2 song anyone ever heard was their flirtation with the sophisticated side of music, they were selling themselves criminally short.
