The U2 song Bono said blended The Clash and Marvin Gaye: “The sound of sitting on a stoop in New York”
U2 have always been open about their influences, and drawing from a wide range of sources has been one of the fundamental pillars of their career, ensuring that they mostly keep up with the times. While the quality of their output certainly tailed off after 1987, not many bands manage to hold such a status as theirs for so long. They have fans baying for new music, refusing to accept that they are not the band they once were in their pomp. Regardless, Bono and the rest of the quartet have continued mining their vast pool of favourite music for inspiration.
When considering their extensive career, it’s clear that U2 have ventured into more musical styles than most bands. Initially emerging as a post-punk group with grandiose tendencies, they later explored ambient sounds and art rock, largely due to the influence of genre mastermind Brian Eno as producer. Over time, U2 delved into various genres, from country to dance music. However, their attempts with the latter, particularly on the critically panned Pop, stand out as some of their weakest, as they struggled to adapt to the evolving zeitgeist and shifting listener preferences.
That being said, in U2’s later moments, where they have excelled, or at least done reasonably well for a band of their stature – they inhabit a strange space of being a commercial juggernaut but one of the most hated bands out there – they’ve rolled back the years and drawn upon the music that inspired them when young.
Picture the scene. It was the early 2000s, and unlike many bands of their era, U2 had survived the turn of the millennium. After their flopped experiments with the contemporary popular forms of dance and electronic, the group returned to what they did best: expansive rock music. In 2000, they released All That You Can’t Leave Behind, a tremendous return to form. Four years later, it was followed by How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, another major success, which, despite its increased aspects of the ridiculous, such as typically Bono moments such as the inexplicable ‘Vertigo’ opening lines, “Unos, dos, tres, catorce / Turn it up loud, captain”, saw the quartet continue their winning streak.
When speaking to Q in November 2004, the same month the album arrived, Bono revealed that the funky, sunny essence of ‘A Man and A Woman’, one of the catchiest moments on the record, was achieved by the band trying to roll The Clash and Marvin Gaye “into one”.
He said: “The sound of sitting on a stoop in New York in the summer. I wanted a song that rolled up the Clash and Marvin Gaye into one.”
It’s one of the most authentic tracks on the record, and unsurprisingly, this effect was found by not only drawing upon the work of two of the band’s favourite artists but by Bono exploring the “flirtatious and romantic love” that people experience when young, a period when love takes them in many different directions. In the biography U2 by U2, he explained: “Men and women seem to want to trample that mysterious distance that lies between us. I’m intrigued by it. It keeps me interested.”
Considering he’s been married to Ali Stewart since 1982, Bono clearly knows what it takes to keep the flame alive. It’s not just the grooving ‘A Man and A Woman’ that’s brimming with passionate fidelity from the 2004 record, either; other cuts such as ‘Sometimes You Can’t Make It on Your Own’ and ‘All Because of You’ are too. That must have been an excellent time for his marriage; no wonder he was taking the music back to his roots.
