“Whatever he was searching for”: The writer Bono followed in the footsteps of
More than most bands, U2 are the sum of their influences. On the surface, so are all bands. With Bono, The Edge and co, I feel it runs a little deeper than that. Most other artists strive to hide the music that inspires them, so terrified are they of being labled copyists or knock-offs. U2 were, for lack of a better way of putting it, fanboys.
Their entire way of being as a band, from the music to the image and everything in between, was informed by their influences, and they were not afraid of shouting about them. To me, that’s one of the things that makes U2 so beloved by their fanbase and so repellent to others. They take being a rock band, from its business, to its art, to its look, deadly serious.
When you buy it, it’s intoxicating. They view rock ‘n’ roll with the same, almost religious level of vital importance as you do. The music saved their souls, thus, they feel they can save souls with their music and treat it with the same reverance. If you don’t? Oh dear. Credit to them, they’ve long since grown past the point where ridicule is an issue to them.
This is, after all, a band that dressed up as the Village People for a music video (with choreographed dance to match), then spent the tour promoting that record emerging from a giant mechanical lemon. They’ve toned down the zaniness in middle age, at least since the great “sexy boots” catastrophe of 2009’s single ‘Get On Your Boots’, and done something a little more honest. Embracing the corniness that comes with sincerity.
How does Bono display that fandom today?
When the band, Bono especially, talks about their influences and what is inspiring them, they do so with a total sincerity that borders on preaching. Something that Bono and co. have been accused multiple times of doing for very good reason. Sometimes it can come off as out of touch, like when Bono decides to weigh in on the subject of hip-hop, but most of the time, he’s absolutely bang on the money in his analysis.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in an interview he gave to The Face in 1988, when he was talking about the music that first moved him as a kid. In that interview, he gives a description of what makes The Who one of the great bands in rock history that hits the nail on the head so hard it almost inspires professional jealousy.
In the interview, Bono says: “When you’re young, you’ve got all this violence in you, and that music released it for me. You hate everything, then, right? But you’ve also a real love inside you that you won’t own up to.” The Who epitomise that peculiarly masculine mix of sadness becoming violence becoming sadness again in their music. In fact, it’s arguably the core tenet of what The Who and songwriter Pete Townshend in particular are trying to explore.
Bono, for all his faults, has this completely right and shouts him out by name as if to cite his sources. He goes on to say, “I liked Pete Townshend too; whatever it was he was searching for, I’m looking for it now.” In a band that wear influences like Joy Division, Bruce Springsteen, The Clash and The Beatles on their sleeve, The Who don’t seem on the surface like much of a factor in U2’s music. However, that doesn’t mean they don’t understand them deeply.
