5 things you learned about U2 from the Disney+ documentary

Directed by American Morgan Neville during the end of Bono and The Edge’s work on the new album Songs of Surrender, which reinvents 40 songs from U2’s repertoire, this documentary is not only centered on this record. Although the program will be released on Disney+ on the same day as the album, this Friday March 17, 2023 (the day of Saint Patrick dear to the Irish), it is just as much a return to the origins of the group and to the friendship that has bound Bono and The Edge since adolescence.

The hour-and-a-half long film deftly mixes intimate interviews at various informal locations in Bono and The Edge by American star host David Letterman, 75, with a selective tour of Dublin and the Irish band’s memorials. All interspersed with live sequences where the new stripped versions of a large handful of songs are presented in a modest venue in Dublin, the Ambassador, in December 2022. Here are five points of what we have learned from it.

1 Dublin kept U2 grounded

The Irish capital, where U2 formed at college in 1976, is at the heart of this documentary. “Dublin is an integral part of our history“, emphasizes Bono, whose memories are not necessarily ecstatic. “Growing up on an island, it was as if the future was always somewhere else. In Dublin, it felt like there was no present. So the past or the future…” Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming invites us to discover Dublin through the eyes of David Letterman. The American animator, who is going there for the first time, also brings his deadpan sense of humor, which Bono was particularly fond of for the film.

We walk in the busy streets in his company, we take a commuter train, we chat in a relaxed way with musicians close to U2, and we visit the city through the small end of the telescope, from the cheesemonger to the seller of caps, without forget the ads. We also go to Forty Foot, a promontory in Dublin Bay where the Irish have bathed every day of the year, whether it’s windy or freezing, for 250 years. A trip that will inspire Bono and The Edge to write a song about David Letterman, The Forty Foot Manboth funny and moving (We came across this Forty Foot Man / A colossus on our tiny island / We nearly lost him on Sandymount Strand / Being swept away was part of his plan…)

“What Dublin has given us is a connection with our daily lives. We have the same friends as when we were 15 or 16“, salutes Bono towards the end of the documentary.”All band members have been protected from the worst excesses of rock ‘n’ roll fame by staying here in Dublin“, confirms The Edge.

2 The strong spiritual dimension of U2

For those who weren’t aware of it, this documentary will reveal the strong spiritual dimension of U2. Bono and The Edge return, with archival footage, to their early days in the midst of the Northern Irish conflict. “They wanted to entertain, but not only“, underlines the American producer Jimmy Iovine, who has known them since the beginning of the 80s. “They wanted to do something that affects listeners on a spiritual level.” “We wanted to express our faith“, confirm Bono and The Edge, who were then part of Shalom, a Christian prayer group with which they studied the Bible.

They remember how tensions between Catholics and Protestants inspired one of their most famous hymns, Sunday Bloody Sunday, composed (music and lyrics) by The Edge. “One day in particular, that rage came out. This frustration of not being able to write, of not knowing if I should be in a rock’n’roll band, what the future might hold“, says The Edge, who, at 21, felt like he had to choose between his faith and music. The pastor of Shalom believed that rock music was not healthy for young believers, which led The Edge and Bono to deviate from it.

From this episode, Bono, who places Jesus above all else, concluded that “religion can also be an obstacle on the way“, as he wrote in his autobiography 40 songs, One Story. Thus, in its new version of Sunday Bloody Sunday now points the criticism, as we learn from the documentary. He sings nowIs religion now the enemy of holy spirit guide? /(…) / Where is the victory Jesus won?” (Has religion become the enemy of the guide of the holy spirit? / (…) / Where is the victory that Jesus won?) (in place of We eat and drink while tomorrow they die / (…) / To claim the victory Jesus won). However, whether they’re from the 80s or 2022, his lyrics continue to “to suggest that there is a transcendental place we can go“.

3 The crucial role of The Edge

It’s probably not intended, but this documentary makes us feel the fundamental importance of The Edge within U2. Rather discreet, set back behind the charismatic Bono who has always attracted the limelight, the man in the woolen hat is not just a guitarist known for his harmonies and his crystalline effects. He is also an accomplished pianist, composer, arranger, author and performer. On the new album Songs of Surrenderhe is entirely at the helm, from the idea to the arrangements, from the instrumentation to the production.

“The thing I don’t like about The Edge is that he doesn’t need me“, exposes Bono on the microphone during the concert at the Ambassador in Dublin, a tease in the form of a tribute to his old accomplice. “He could do it all, write, sing, act, produce, all on his own. But he doesn’t.” “It would be less funny“replies The Edge, who we learn has 6000 voice notes in his phone and that ideas regularly pull him out of bed in the middle of the night.

At one point, David Letterman wants to know how they compose a song. “Chords are the foundation of the melody, so find the right chord first“, replies The Edge, while Bono pretends to yawn and disputes the claim. On the new version of One “it’s the same melody and the same lyrics and you just changed the chord“, he protests. To which The Edge responds calmly, without a hint of annoyance, “we didn’t change the chords, we changed the key…“. Because in addition to never bringing her back, The Edge rarely says “I”. It is the “we” that dominates, even when it is alone concerned. Listen up in the documentary…

4 Bono ’embarrasses’ other U2s

In a rare exercise in self-criticism, Bono admits during an interview with David Letterman that he has put his associates to the end. Asked if he embarrasses U2, he replies “Yes” without hesitation. Often mocked for his megalomania, his good feelings and his activism, the singer takes a lot of space and liberties, even against the advice of The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr.

To achieve his ends, in the fight against AIDS in particular, he did not hesitate to join forces with elected American Republicans such as Jesse Helms, for whom AIDS was a punishment from God for homosexuals. He even invited him to a concert when The Edge had begged him not to do it. “This created a lot of tension“, acknowledges Bono.”It’s like I squandered the value of what we created together“, he adds. “I tested their patience.”

While the band has been through some strains and all have considered jumping ship at one point or another, the band is still holding on after 45 years and they are grateful for that. “Friendship is a big part of who we are, but we could lose it along the way. We are working on it“, lights Bono. “We are not in competition. We respect each other,” complete The Edge, comprehensive.

5 What we gleaned about the new album

The Edge and Bono have therefore spent the past two years, punctuated by confinement, secretly revisiting 40 songs from the U2 repertoire, from classics to more obscure titles. A job started without pressure, just to see (while Larry Mullen Jr was recovering and Adam Clayton was shooting a documentary), which quickly convinced them that he “something was going on“. The Edge eventually rearranged the 40 songs chosen for the album (divided into 4 volumes each bearing the name of one of the four musicians of U2) and Bono changed the lyrics of some of them, which he considered never really finished.

“We wanted to be able to listen to our songs almost as if it were the first time“, they explain to David Letterman. “We wanted to rid them of all artifice. (…) During the pandemic, the question was: what remains when we remove the superfluous?“. The singer assures that “something has changed in my voice and in the way I sing“and that he loved to rewrite certain songs, and register them”in the present“.

If this documentary and the album that accompanies it prove anything, it’s that U2 have composed all-terrain songs that hold up just as well played by a full orchestra or with an acoustic guitar by the fire or in a pub. Finally, that the fans of U2 reassure themselves, this small breakaway in duo does not call into question the U2 collective with Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr, who moreover took part in certain sessions of Songs of Surrender. At the end of the documentary, we can read:Big thanks to Adam and Larry for letting us play it solo on this one.“The kind of affectionate wink that dispels all ambiguity.

Bono & The Edge: A sort of Homecoming with Dave Letterman (1h25) on Disney+ Friday March 17, 2023