Credit: Far Out / Spotify

“Collision”: The two artists Bono said created an entire galaxy

Tue 22 October 2024 15:00, UK

Every artist usually has the hope that their music will live on for a while after they have left this Earth. Most people can only hope to capture that essence on one song, but to continue that on for an entire album or sustain it through an entire career is what separates the flashes in the pan from the true masters of their craft. Bono usually didn’t have a problem shouting the praises of bands from the post-punk movement or even the successes of U2, but he thought that without two major figures of history, rock and roll would have looked very different.

When Bono was growing up, though, the term ‘classic rock’ was becoming a bit of a nasty word. People were still happy to go along with the punk ethos of playing simple music with a lot of heart, but no one really believed in the era of Flower Power and hippies telling everyone that things would be okay.

No, this was the new generation, and it was about time someone spoke up about the problems going on. Although Bono did consider himself a fan of acts like Sex Pistols and Ramones, his music wasn’t meant to be as cynical. He wanted to talk about healing the world, and that came from looking at the old guard who wanted to make the world a better place.

Whereas Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry proved that rock and roll could be about having fun, The Beatles took that concept and applied it to the pop song format. The term ‘pop’ had a very specific meaning during the 1950s, but once people heard what John Lennon and Paul McCartney could do with a song on Sgt Peppers and Abbey Road, many started expanding the concept of what their music could be outside of a standard love song.

If The Beatles expanded everyone’s taste for what people could do musically, then Bob Dylan would have done the same thing from a lyrical perspective. Despite Lennon and McCartney laying the groundwork for pop rock, even Lennon was a bit envious of what Dylan was doing, always making the most poignant lyrics that he could that dealt with hard issues that many didn’t want to face but were now being forced to.

While Bono would end up taking cues from both bands during his tenure, he admitted that what they did was about something that every rock act would follow going forward, saying, “I find [Dylan] to be the least obtuse person in the world, except where there’s more than a few people in the room. The collision of The Beatles and Bob Dylan gave us the galaxy that our planet is in.”

Then again, the magic of both acts wasn’t about them making the best music that anyone had ever heard. It was their fearlessness when it came to creating whatever they wanted. As much as people didn’t care for ‘Revolution 9’ or at least 75% of Self Portrait, it was all about the honest expression of their voice that they wanted to give to their fans.

Because that kind of authenticity is something that can’t be taught. Most can try to make their signature rock star moves in the mirror and fake their way to success, but if there isn’t something genuine underneath it all, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and start from scratch again.