The song Bono said was truly evil: “Flogging the soul to Satan”
For a rock star who has based their entire life and career on the principles of love, peace, hope, and justice, it’s not often that you might hear Bono describe one of his own songs as “evil”. He has dealt with dark subject matters in his time, perhaps put a foot wrong in saying or doing the wrong thing on occasion, for sure, but it’s hard to conceive of the U2 frontman dancing a dalliance with the dark arts.
But when you consider this seemingly bizarre possibility in the context of Bono’s musical tenure, there are some salient, sinister aspects which come out to play. It was the early 1990s when the sonic landscape was on the cusp of the Britpop boom, and perhaps stadium anthems of the 1970s and ‘80s didn’t ring true quite as heartily as they once did. In short, U2 needed to make an impact. They did this first through Achtung Baby in 1991, but then followed this up with Zooropa two years later, which saw them delve into even murkier depths.
One of the most prominent contenders when it comes to U2’s exploration of more disturbing content is ‘Daddy’s Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car’, as the sixth track on the latter aforementioned album. Rooted in a sonic space between industrial blues and Russian folk, the song not only presented an unnerving combination of styles but also depicted a dark side of life ultimately exposed in quiet truth, unlike any of the blazing sentiments Bono had proudly paraded before.
To this end, when reflecting on the song in an interview with Q: “There’s certainly an evil feel to things like ‘Daddy’s Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car’. That song could be about dependency or something more sinister. It’s an electronic blues, my Robert Johnson thing. Flogging the soul to Satan.” While admittedly that all sounds quite abstract, it is befitting to the theme of dependency that the frontman flaunts, in all its morphing, ugly forms.
While, of course, the darkest recesses of the notion of dependency evoke ideas of drug use or other kinds of substance addiction, this is perhaps not solely what the song hints at through its warped imagery. Bono did, at various points, suggest that its subject matter was linked to heroin, but other members of the band could also put their own satanic twist on this concept.
Take The Edge, for example, who countered his bandmate’s point in another previous interview by reasoning, “It doesn’t have to be illegal substances. You can be addicted to applause, you can be addicted to being on the road. I mean, being in U2 can be its own addiction. We have to recognise that.” As such, the song’s titular figure twists its way into an omniscient, terrifyingly all-knowing being, encompassing every notion of bleak human thought, much like the master of the underworld.
As such, ‘Daddy’ may be a father figure, Satan, addiction, and everything in between—it’s that mind-boggling. Yet, in a way, although the song dedicated to the forces of the dark side was certainly a departure from U2’s usual self, it represented a time in society when change was afoot, when the clouds seemed heavier, when protest was needed more than ever. Perhaps Bono realised that by dancing with the devil, he would soon reach the stars.
