“It’s one of the most banal couplets I’ve ever heard,” Bono says sheepishly about the words he wrote for one of U2’s best-known songs. ” ‘I want to run, I want to hide. …’ That’s not very interesting, but you know what? People don’t hear the couplets when we play the song.
“They hear something else in the music. They hear a band talking about a special place, a better place and asking if the audience wants to go there with them.”
Bono, who writes most of U2’s lyrics, is keenly aware that the music’s power often comes less from his pen than from the band’s sweeping sonic foundation.
“Feelings are stronger than ideas or words in a song,” he says, pacing the floor of his Central Park West apartment, offering a contrarian view of pop songwriting.
“You can have 1,000 ideas, but unless you capture an emotion, it’s an essay.”
The comments are surprising from a man who devotes so much of his time to ideas–from the spiritually tinged themes that underlie many U2 songs to his high-profile crusade to get wealthy nations to forgive Third World debt.
“Songwriting comes from a different place,” he says. “Music is the language of the spirit. I think ideas and words are our excuse as songwriters to allow our heart or our spirit to run free. That’s when magic happens.”
It happens so often for U2 that the group has come closer to matching the quality and mass appeal of The Beatles over the past 25 years than any other band.
It is pop music at its most ambitious–personal and independent enough to satisfy discerning listeners, yet open and accessible enough to pack stadiums. U2 has been able to remain current and relevant. They get airplay on college and alt-rock radio stations and find their “Beautiful Day” at John Kerry campaign rallies.
U2 collaborates to a degree that is rare–a process that depends on the singular chemistry of the four musicians.
Bono and guitarist the Edge bring ideas into the studio–a title, the trace of a melody or a catchy riff–then bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen join in the construction of the songs. The grueling give-and-take sometimes stretches for weeks as the musicians toss ideas back and forth, equal partners in the search for an emotion that seems fresh and deeply rooted.
When the marathon sessions are going well, Mullen says, the rehearsal studio feels like a playground. When they’re going badly, it feels like a boxing ring.
“We’re tough guys,” Clayton says. “We know we’ll get there eventually. A lot of it is perspiration. You just have to put in the hours and do your time.”
U2’s unorthodox songwriting style was born out of necessity.
When the band members came together in high school, they weren’t good enough at their instruments to play convincing versions of the hits of the day. To hide their inexperience, they came up with their own songs.
“From fairly early on, it became clear to us that we had no idea about songwriting technique,” the Edge says. “Our way into songwriting was to dream it up. … Instinct was everything for us, and it really still is.”
Stay tuned
U2’s next studio album is scheduled to drop Nov. 23 in the U.S., Billboard reports. The first single, “Vertigo,” will hit the radio in late September, to be followed by a video. A band spokesperson says the information is “broadly correct” but would not confirm specific details.
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and Kris Karnopp (kkarnopp@tribune.com)
