The U2 songs without Bono as lead singer
Whatever your opinions of U2, they are undeniably one of the biggest rock bands to come out of Ireland. With a career spanning nearly five decades, the band have become a household name since their modest beginnings. As the face of the group, lead singer Bono has become a notable presence in the music industry. However, there are a handful of U2 tracks in which Bono takes a back seat for the vocals.
Formed in a Dublin secondary school in 1976, at the height of early punk rock, the childhood friends became popular worldwide with the release of their 1980 debut album, Boy. With 15 studio albums to their name and a 40-date residency at the newly-opened MSG Sphere in Las Vegas, U2 remain on top of their game, although they still tend to divide opinions among rock fans.
Over the years, U2 have released a handful of tracks without Bono as the lead vocalist. The first of these songs comes in the form of ‘Seconds’, from their seminal 1983 album War. The track, with lyrics covering the possibility of nuclear war, features The Edge as the lead vocalist as opposed to Bono. However, it is not the most notable track on the record, which opens with their defining track ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’, ‘Seconds’ is noted for its early use of The Edge as lead vocalist.
As U2’s career progressed, seemingly going from strength to strength, the band experimented with using The Edge as a temporary replacement for Bono’s vocals. Bono is not the most original voice in rock music, with a fairly standard vocal range and performance, yet it does feel odd to hear a U2 song without him at the helm. Achieving a number one record with 1993’s Zooropa, the band once again called upon their guitarist to take the helm on the track ‘Numb’.
The first single released from the album, ‘Numb’ arose from the studio sessions of Achtung Baby, and it is heavily influenced by industrial music. Featuring a strange mix of samples ranging from a cassette rewinding to a Hitler Youth propaganda video, the track failed to chart in the UK or US, though it has since been viewed favourably among fans of the band. Elsewhere on the album, U2 recruited legendary country musician Johnny Cash to provide the vocals for ‘The Wanderer’. Cash’s aged, somewhat haggard voice contrasted with the electronic influences of the track.
The Edge once again came to the forefront on tracks like ‘Van Diemen’s Land’ from Rattle and Hum, but the most obvious instance of U2 using other vocalists comes in the form of Original Soundtracks 1. Released under the pseudonym Passengers, the record is classed as a side-project between U2 and their long-time collaborator Brian Eno. Across the album, The Edge sings lead on the track ‘Corpse’ whilst Eno takes the helm on ‘A Different Kind of Blue’. The album even featured a collaboration between Bono and Pavarotti on ‘Miss Sarajevo’. Despite its inclusion of various well-respected artists, the Passengers album failed to make much of an impact commercially and it is easy to see why, musically it is pretty below par even for U2.
Although none of U2’s experiments with excluding Bono from certain tracks have ever led to huge successes, the tracks still provide an interesting look at what the band would look and sound like without their frontman to lead them.
