“We did a really bad thing”: Bono on the worst decision U2 ever made
Some of the best acts in rock and roll usually come down to making the right decisions. The whole thing still operates like a business at the end of the day, and even though not everyone is an astute businessman behind the scenes, there’s normally a good attorney at the centre of everything trying to keep the biggest acts in the world afloat. Although U2 have earned the right to be up there with their fellow legends of rock and roll, that’s not to say that they haven’t made some incredibly stupid decisions throughout their career.
Even though there have been moments when their music has sounded absolutely transcendent, the Irish legends did have problems that rubbed people the wrong way as far back as the 1980s. Outside of their political leanings, which put them in contention with some people, the first major misstep feels like it started when they made their concert film Rattle and Hum.
The live footage of some of the album is fantastic, but when they aren’t focusing on the performance, seeing them being filmed like they are some gods among men doesn’t really sit well. Bono has spent his entire life talking about how rock and roll is important, but hearing him sing about the tragedy of Martin Luther King’s life with footage of the civil rights hero plastered over his face is still one of the most punchable moves that any rock star has ever done.
And let’s not forget their complicated relationship with Apple as well. The entire point of U2 was about pushing their music forward, but whereas the inclusion of songs like ‘Vertigo’ in commercials may have been fun for the time, seeing them try their hand at forcing an album down every iPhone customer’s throat was bound to get them a few dirty looks from people who never asked for it in the first place.
If there’s one thing that the band excel at over anything else, it’s the live show. Even if they aren’t the most intimate gigs in the world, seeing them perform in stadiums in their prime still feels like a borderline religious experience for everyone involved, especially Bono crying out to the heavens in songs like ‘Where the Streets Have No Name’. When someone started to promote a tour before Pop was even released, things started going a little haywire.
The whole point of Pop was to make something new for the moment, but listening to Bono talk about it now, it’s clear that there were some pieces that turned the album into a complete wreck, saying, “With Pop, I always think if we’d just had another month, we could have finished it. But we did a really bad thing. We let the manager book the tour, known in this camp as the worst decision U2 ever made, and we had to wrap up the album sooner than we wanted. You don’t need an album to communicate for you to enjoy it, but for me to enjoy it, I need it to do that.”
As it turns out, most of the fans ended up agreeing with Bono as well. Even if some tracks are far from the worst thing in rock and roll, hearing them take on electronic textures feels like everything on Achtung Baby done horribly wrong, with many of the songs sounding like The Chemical Brothers with none of the creative spark behind them.
But that should be a lesson to everyone who prioritises their songcraft before the business side of things. Anyone can hope that get their tour schedule exactly right every time they make something new, but something has usually gone horribly wrong when it feels like the album is meant to promote the tour rather than the other way around.
