The singer Bono called the best to ever exist: “The greatest on Earth”
It’s hard to really be objective when talking about everything that Bono sings.
Even though U2 is still one of the greatest rock and roll bands on the planet, the fact that Bono still holds on to his role as the evangelist of rock and roll can get more than a little bit grating for people who just want to hear ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ without him preaching a musical sermon in the middle of everything. But even if Bono does know how to get the most out of every single minute that he has onstage, there are more than a few times where he’s felt like he needed to shut the hell up next to someone who knows what they’re doing.
Because on those first U2 records, Bono needed a few years to truly come into his own. He wasn’t bad by any means on those first few records, but when you listen to what he could do when he got onstage, he was naturally gifted whenever it came time to belt. Every one of their albums saw him getting better and better, but their performance at Live Aid was the moment where everyone started to see what the band truly were.
Bono was someone who could move mountains with the right words and melody in his hands, and that’s half the reason why U2 crossed over to so many people. He genuinely believed in what music could do to people if they were willing to push themselves, and in the context of the band, that meant switching things up at all times. There was nothing with him breaking down his old persona to turn into ‘The Fly’ or start hanging out with people like Frank Sinatra, but not every rock and roll band usually gets a call from the classical world.
At least, not at that time. There were plenty of bands that had tried their hand at making more gargantuan music like Deep Purple did when working with an orchestra, but being able to sing next to classical singers was a whole different ballpark. Bono wasn’t even remotely ready to cross over into that world, but the birth of ‘Miss Sarajevo’ came from his being relentlessly called by Pavarotti.
And, really, how the hell do you say ‘no’ to a voice like that? There are plenty of musicians who would have killed to ask the tenor questions about proper vocal technique and whether they were singing with the right kinds of vocal inflexions, so for Bono to get the call was like getting to meet one of the almighty gods of music.
It wasn’t going to be easy, but after being called for the umpteenth time in a row, Bono knew that the opportunity was too good for anyone to pass up, saying, “You have Pavarotti, probably the greatest singer on Earth that ever existed, calling you on the phone asking for you to write a song for him. My housekeeper, Theresa, he got to know her. His technique is one of humility, but also very mischievous. He had turned my housekeeper into his consigliere. At breakfast, noon and tea she would say, ‘Have you got that song for him?’”
Those kinds of shoes would have been impossible to fill, but Bono was the last one to back down from a challenge. He liked the idea of working outside of the band’s usual framework, and when you listen to the version that he sang with the singing legend as well as his version of ‘Ave Maria’, it’s easier to realise why so many people saw the U2 frontman as one of the greatest musicians who ever lived.
Sure, he had a massive god complex, and he definitely had some moments where he was well over his head about certain ideas, but when it paid off, there was no one else that could touch anything that the Irish legends could. And when you have that sense of conviction given to you by the greatest singer in the world, there’s hardly anyone who can say a word against you afterwards.
