“Biblical proportions”: The singer The Edge called the voice of America
From the moment that U2 started becoming famous, Bono and The Edge always had a fascination they had with all forms of American music.
Sure, all rock and rollers are going to reminisce about the days when the genre first got started with people like Chuck Berry and Little Richard, but by the time that the Irish legends released Rattle and Hum, they practically made it their mission to make a pilgrimage to the places that they had only heard about when they were kids. This was going straight to the source of all great rock and roll, but some of the greatest musicians they met transcended the genre altogether.
But whereas Bono was the one doing most of the sweet talking when it came to all great American music, The Edge was always looking to listen to the lessons they had to teach. Even when making the movie It Might Get Loud years after becoming famous, you could tell that he was just as interested in hearing what Jack White had to say about the origins of the blues, despite the fact that he had Jimmy goddamn Page right next to him, teaching the subtle nuances of ‘Kashmir’.
No one else would have cared with that kind of legend in the room, but all of the band’s greatest influences were steeped in American culture. David Bowie had a love affair with New York City throughout most of his life, and even if The Clash lit a fire under The Edge when he first embraced punk rock, the Ramones were truly where everything originated when they first began counting off their punk masterpieces.
If you really get down to the nitty-gritty of rock and roll, though, it goes far beyond songs like ‘Johnny B Goode’ that kicked it off. The whole thing began as an extension of the blues, and while the band were reverent of artists like BB King when they worked with him, there was no way of quantifying the kind of impact that someone like Johnny Cash had on the entire cultural landscape.
Country music was never considered necessarily cool in rock and roll circles, but ‘The Man in Black’ was the closest thing to a rock star that the genre ever had. He was willing to be a little bit crass and stick up for the underdogs of the world that couldn’t stand up for themselves, and so to have that voice be transposed onto the song ‘The Wanderer’ was like getting a piece of history on one of U2’s records.
And even after Cash covered some of their songs, The Edge felt that there were strains of America echoing throughout his voice, saying, “I’m proud to say that I worked with Johnny Cash, and when he came through the studio for the first time it was like Moses himself had arrived. He is a character of truly biblical proportions, with a voice, all wailing freight trains and thundering prairies, like the landscape of his beloved America. He has a soul as big as a continent, full of righteous anger mixed with human compassion.”
But beyond being a phenomenal singer, The Edge was more interested in the man behind all of those songs. He may not have lived out every single scenario that he sang about in those outlaw songs, but he definitely had the darkness of someone that had struggled through many hardships in life and came out on the other side as a changed man devoted to serving his higher power.
It wasn’t easy for Cash to see the other side of his life, but if he taught the Irish lads anything, it was about making the most of every moment that they have on this planet, whether that’s through playing music or otherwise. There’s a lot of struggle and heartache that goes into every band that has staying power, but the legacy that someone like Cash left behind is enough to make anyone realise that it’s all worth it.
