The U2 song that references Bob Dylan
For a band that formed in Dublin, U2 have always had a fascination not just with America but with the very idea of Americana. The iconography, the mysticism, the culture, it all inspired them. So much so that when it became clear that not only could U2 become a big deal but one of the biggest deals in the history of rock music, their idea of becoming a global concern was to, essentially, become American. At its best, this resulted in some of the most compelling music of the 1980s. The Joshua Tree, after all, holds up like Atlas himself. At its worst, you get Rattle and Hum. “OK, Edge, play the blues!” indeed.
For all the bluster (and this is U2; bluster is actually their collective middle name), the band have always been a little hamstrung by their influences. When they’re on point, that mix of post-punk, classic rock, and their own brand of total, blinding sincerity can make for some incredible moments. I maintain that a non-believer can watch Under a Blood Red Sky and be captivated by it. The rest of the time, though, it just seems like a jumbled mess of elements from other bands. “Elements of the past and future, combining to make something not quite as good as either,” to quote a wise man.
It’s the kind of balance one can only effectively strike with time and, while talking about late period U2 is about as cool as sepsis, their recent records have seen them deploy their influences with more tact. Even if their release methods have done the opposite. In an interview with Rolling Stone promoting their record Songs of Experience in 2017, Bono illustrated this exactly with the song ‘Lights of Home’.
In the interview, he talks specifically about the lyric, “Hey, now, do you know my name? Where I’m going? If I can’t get an answer in your eyes, I see it, the lights of home.”
In the same conversation, he says it’s a call back to “one of my favourite Dylan songs, ‘Señor Señor’. In that song, he meets an angel, and he, like, goes on this ride with him. I have always imagined it is the angel of death.” Dylan’s music has always had an outsized influence, not just on the band but on Bono in particular.
He’s always been the lyricist of the band, and you can hear the same attempts to elevate the medium of pop lyrics to poetry from both artists. In fact, in his book Surrender, Bono says that Dylan “occupied the same space to me in poetry as Yeats or Kavanagh or Keats”. Before going on to talk about how the first time he and Dylan actually met, Dylan asked him for his autograph.
Perhaps it comes back to having something to prove. One of the more insufferable things about U2 in their ’80s pomp was their desperate need to prove themselves. What else was Rattle and Hum but an extended plea to the audience to take them seriously? “Look, look, there’s BB King playing a song with us! Please respect us!” Those days of relevancy may be behind them, but with it, too, the need to impress. The band knows exactly who they are and what they’re capable of, and, whisper it, it may have even made their craft better, too.
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