(Credits: Apple TV+)
According to Bono, the reason why U2 became such an “easy target” was that he purposefully opted to be more literal in their lyrics than fictional or figurative.
It’s a choice that comes up in most music interviews. Some opt for a more abstract approach, blending personal experience with fictionalised viewpoints to give their songs and words a more folklorish feel. Something like Rosalía’s Lux or Florence and the Machine’s Everbody Scream is a prime example of this, of coasting the line between the things that are real and personal – the feminine experience – and how that coalesces with spirituality and oftentimes occultish or taboo themes.
On the other hand, some artists prefer to be more literal or biographical, as Olivia Dean does in her latest album, The Art of Loving, which navigates her own experiences in love and self-discovery. There’s no wrong answer when it comes to specific artistic approaches, but there are different flavourings added to each end of the spectrum, with people generally praising the more conceptual executions and how music can be just as thought-provoking as other art forms when it comes to the actual storytelling element.
According to Bono, U2 never gained as much respect because they weren’t like that at all. After all, being more direct doesn’t mean the art isn’t as good; Joni Mitchell might have dabbled in different ways of storytelling throughout her career, but she’s mainly regarded as one of the greatest, self-referential “confessional” artists in history. Talking from the individualistic perspective doesn’t simplify musical art; it’s just another way of telling a story.
However, some criticise U2 for being generic or stagnating with a one-dimensional approach to art. Obviously, there are countless songs and records that disprove this theory, along with the records that show that U2 progressed past the simplistic rock-type ballad feel you come across with most of their hits. Their development from The Joshua Tree through Achtung Baby, for one, shows that, even when things got tough, they always aimed for a higher quality of artistic expression.
Within that, however, Bono remained committed to lyrical and thematic authenticity. In fact, in his mind, this was one of the main reasons why people either loved or hated U2 – because he was always speaking from the heart, a craft that most critics didn’t realise was actually the highest form of artistic expression, more so than people who wrote from the perspective of others.
As he once explained with regard to Rattle and Hum criticisms, “What’s uninteresting about that is that we are such an easy target, from the word go, because we perform from our own point of view. I sing about the way I see things. Some people write songs about the way characters see things. Some artists perform with a wink. That’s just not the way with U2.”
He also pointed to John Lennon as an example, saying, “When people perform from their gut, when John Lennon sang a song called ‘Mother’, that was not a hip thing to do. He was exposing himself. It’s performers like that I admire. If you’re going to spend your whole life worrying about dropping your guard and exposing yourself, worrying that working with a gospel choir might look like imperialism, that would be dumb.”
Most people hadn’t really realised how much about Lennon they didn’t understand until John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, with songs like ‘Mother’ revealing more about the depths of his soul than any songs in the Beatles did. In fact, even George Harrison said he hadn’t realised how “screwed up” he was until that record, and that’s someone who was close to him. For artists on the outside, like Bono, it was a masterclass in laying yourself bare, or, as he saw it, the purest form of authentic art.
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