(Credits: Far Out / Spotify)
It’s easy for many artists to fall into a specific category of music after a couple of albums. Anyone might like the opportunity to stretch a little bit throughout their career, but no one was going to be buying a Black Sabbath album expecting Ozzy Osbourne to start singing about clean living and walking through roses.
That signature sound can become both a blessing and a curse, but Bono preferred approaching projects where nothing was ever off the table. After all, U2 began in the punk scene, and the whole point was that there weren’t supposed to be any rules. There were obviously some people who were seen as the enemy back in the day from the prog world, but when listening to Boy, you can tell that the band were coming into the studio with a blank canvas and wasn’t going to rest until a piece of their soul made it onto the final product.
And while some of their heartfelt songs could get more than a little bit overwrought for some fans during their 1980s run, it wasn’t like they were ever insincere about it. Bono meant every word that he said, and even if not everyone agreed with the self-righteous figure that he presented himself to be half the time, there was no one in one of their arena shows that didn’t feel like their lives were changed when they were singing tracks like ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’.
Sure, Bono could get preachy a handful of times, but that was only because he learned from the best. He followed in the footsteps of rock and roll saviours like Bob Dylan and Joe Strummer, and even when the music was coming from halfway across the world, he understood when someone like Bob Marley was making music in a far different way than anyone had before. It was definitely the first rumblings of reggae in the mainstream, but what really struck Bono was what he used his platform for.
There were certainly songs that celebrated his love for ganja, but anyone who only associates Marley with just that is missing the point. He truly wanted to make the world a better place, and when listening to everything from ‘I Shot the Sheriff’ to ‘Redemption Song’, he was never afraid to go into more serious topics if it meant getting his point across in the way that he wanted to.
But where most people saw a musical prophet being birthed before their eyes, Bono saw a teacher, saying, “Bob could sing about anything he wanted to. He’d sing to God, he’d sing to his lovers, he’d sing to the people on the street. There were no rules for Bob Marley – so that was exactly the right influence for us, because that’s where we wanted to go.” And while it was miles different from reggae, it’s not like Bono didn’t deliver.
The religious undertones of their music could get a little bit heavy-handed, but everything about an album like Achtung Baby was about trying to break the barriers that were put around U2 at the time. They had become a band that felt like an arena rock act, but they were willing to sacrifice their entire career if it meant following their muse and putting something like ‘Until the End of the World’ out.
Marley’s music might only creep into U2’s catalogue in short bursts, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t appreciate it from afar. The musical languages may have been different, but every musician in the world has the ability to connect with others if they’re willing to show everyone the shape of their heart.
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