U2
A story that began the moment four boys from Dublin, who could barely play their instruments, decided they would become the biggest band in the world.
At a glance 🔭💭
Some coordinates adapted from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0) · Pleiades (CC BY 3.0)
Members and colleagues ⏳🌊
- MemberBono (Paul Hewson)
As vocalist and lyricist, he has served as the voice of the band.
- MemberThe Edge (David Evans)
With his distinctive guitar tone, he has engineered the band's sound.
- MemberAdam Clayton
On bass, he carried himself from the very start as the most rock-star of them all.
- MemberLarry Mullen Jr.
The drummer who posted the notice-board ad that brought the band together.
- ManagerPaul McGuinness
The manager who guided the band for decades, from its earliest days.
- ProducerBrian Eno
A producer who helped shape the direction of the band's sound across several albums.
I. The boys of Dublin · 1960–1978
(Dublin) In the 1970s, Dublin, Ireland, was a poor and insular city. Unemployment and economic stagnation dragged on for years, and across the border in Northern Ireland, bloody conflict between Catholics and Protestants raged on. Mount Temple Comprehensive School, on Dublin's northern outskirts, was a rare school that took both Catholic and Protestant pupils, and the boys who would one day become U2 all met there. (Bono) Paul Hewson (stage name Bono), who would become the lead vocalist, was born in Dublin in 1960. His father was Catholic and his mother, Iris, Protestant — a rare match in the Dublin of the time. In 1974, when Bono was fourteen, his mother died suddenly. The loss became a shadow that would fall again and again across his lyrics. (Edge) David Evans (stage name the Edge), who would take up guitar, was born in 1961 into a family of Welsh descent and moved to Dublin as a young child. Introverted and good with his hands, he was a boy more absorbed in tinkering with guitars and experimenting with sound than in playing in school bands. (Larry) Drummer Larry Mullen Jr., born in 1961, began learning the drums as a child at his father's urging. In 1976 he pinned a note to the Mount Temple notice board looking for people to start a band — and that brief ad became the starting point of a band that would conquer the world. (Audition) Among those who answered were the Edge and his older brother Dik Evans, Adam Clayton, who had no idea how to play the bass, and Bono. Clayton was the only member who knew how to carry himself like a rock star, though he later admitted he was the weakest musician of the lot. The band first went by the name Feedback, then switched to The Hype, and in 1978, when Dik Evans left to form a band of his own, the remaining four settled on the name U2.
II. Faith and a first voice · 1978–1983
(Manager) In 1978, after seeing the band play, Paul McGuinness offered himself as their manager. He would remain U2's only manager for decades, building a deep bond of trust with the band, and he secured the deal with the British label Island Records that produced their 1980 debut album, Boy. (Faith) Around this time Bono, the Edge and Larry became deeply involved in a Christian community called the Shalom Fellowship. Some in the community regarded rock music as worldly, and for a while the three seriously considered quitting the band. The persuasion of Adam Clayton and manager McGuinness, along with their own conclusion that faith and music could coexist, kept the band together. (Producer) The debut Boy and its follow-up, October, were made with producer Steve Lillywhite. From this period on, the Edge began to make delay, an effect that layers sound into ringing echoes, the core of his guitar sound. (Conflict) On the 1983 album War, the band raised a clearly political voice for the first time. It included a song that confronted head-on the conflict raging across the border in Northern Ireland, in particular the 1972 incident in which British soldiers opened fire on unarmed protesters, killing many. With this album U2 achieved their first commercial success in both Britain and the United States.
Confronting the tragedy of the Northern Ireland conflict head-on, it is the song in which the band first raised a clearly political voice.
- In the intro, Larry Mullen Jr.'s marching, military-style snare drum rhythm forms the backbone of the whole song
- The Edge's guitar uses few chords, building tension with a restrained riff that repeats two or three notes
- In the chorus, Bono's voice climbs as if crying out, in a tone closer to sorrow than to rage
- A violin line running underneath adds an elegiac mood
- In concert, the song was often prefaced with words to the effect that this is not a rebel song
III. From The Unforgettable Fire to The Joshua Tree · 1984–1987
(Turn) In 1984 the band brought in producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois to make the album The Unforgettable Fire. It was a decision to embrace an atmospheric approach that emphasized space and texture over a crisp rock sound. Some within the band worried about its commercial prospects, but the experiment became the foundation of U2's sound from then on. (Tribute) The same album included a song dedicated to the African American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. Bono said on many occasions that in the movement's spirit of nonviolence he had found a point of contact with the band's own political voice. (Wilderness) The Joshua Tree, released in 1987, is regarded as the band's peak. Taking the deserts and wilderness of the American West as its symbols, the album portrayed both a fascination with and a disillusionment with the American Dream, and it went straight to number one on the charts in both the United States and Britain. (Cover) With the album's success the band made the cover of the American newsweekly Time and emerged as the biggest rock band in the world. Such rapid success soon brought new burdens — the members later recalled that it was around this time they began to feel they had become an overly earnest band.
A tribute to Martin Luther King Jr., it shows the band's political concerns widening to embrace the civil rights movement.
- In the intro, the Edge's clean-toned guitar, picked out one note at a time (arpeggio), sets the mood of the song
- The rising chord progression in the chorus creates a hopeful feeling
- Drums and bass hold up the background fairly simply, putting the vocal melody up front
- Brian Eno's production drapes the guitar and vocals in a wide resonance (reverb)
Portraying both a fascination with and a disillusionment with the American wilderness, it is regarded as the peak of the band's career.
- Across the album, synthesizers and guitars blend to create a vast, desert-like sense of space
- On the signature track “With or Without You,” the Edge used a prototype of the Infinite Guitar built by Michael Brook to sustain notes into a synthesizer-like tone
- Adam Clayton's low, simple bass line becomes the axis that drives the whole song
- Bono's vocal begins as a low whisper and builds as the song goes on, as if the emotion were bursting out
- Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno's production leaves wide spaces between the instruments, rendering vastness in sound
IV. A journey in search of America · 1987–1990
(Touring) The Joshua Tree tour of 1987, which shuttled between North America and Europe, took the band all over the United States. As stadium show followed stadium show, the band came face to face with the birthplace of the American roots music — blues, soul, country — they had long admired. (Collaboration) Along the way the band shared the stage with blues great B.B. King and recorded a song with him. This journey of young Irishmen in search of the roots of American music was preserved in 1988 in a documentary film and an album of the same name, Rattle and Hum. (Excess) Yet on its release the project was criticized for casting the band as heirs to the history of American music. Critics argued that the band was overstating its own place, and within the band, too, there were voices that doubted the direction of this period. (Fatigue) At a Dublin concert in December 1989, Bono said from the stage something to the effect that it was time to walk away and start all over again. Fatigue from years of success and endlessly repeated stadium tours, along with a sense of crisis that their sound had to be rebuilt from the ground up, became the point of departure for the next album.
Recorded with B.B. King, it is a cross-generational collaboration born of the band's journey in search of American roots music.
- Throughout the song, B.B. King's guitar is set against the Edge's as if the two were trading lines in conversation
- In the closing section, where Bono and B.B. King trade lines in a duet, the voices of two generations collide
- The rhythm section follows the lazy, limping rhythm typical of the blues (shuffle)
- In the live footage, B.B. King himself takes the stage to add an improvised solo
V. Reborn in Berlin · 1990–1993
(Berlin) In 1990 the band went to Berlin in West Germany (today's Germany), on the eve of reunification, and began recording a new album at Hansa Studios, where many famous musicians had worked. It was a choice made to feel the changes sweeping Europe with every fiber of their being, in the air of a city whose Wall had only just fallen. (Clash) The early sessions did not go smoothly. The four clashed fiercely over the direction of the songs, and the atmosphere grew so hostile that at one point there was talk that the band might simply end there. (One) In the midst of this conflict, a song was born when Bono set lyrics to a piece the Edge had improvised. A song of reconciliation and unity, it endured as a symbol of the band finding a way forward together despite their differences. (Transformation) Achtung Baby, released in 1991, was a turning point that cast off the band's earnest image and put irony, electronic sounds and harshly distorted guitar tones front and center. On the Zoo TV tour that followed, the band deployed giant video screens and multiple stage personas to satirize the media and consumerism. The 1993 album Zooropa pushed the experiment further still.
The song was born in the thick of the fierce conflict of the Berlin sessions, which brought the band to the brink of breaking up.
- In the intro, the Edge's bright yet wistful guitar phrase previews the emotion of the whole song
- The chorus's chord progression is simple but builds emotion layer by layer
- Bono's vocal begins as a low murmur and, as the song moves into its second half, turns into a restrained cry
- Because it is so often sung with other musicians at benefit concerts and similar events, many different arrangements exist
VI. Excess and the basics regained · 1993–2001
(Excess) The 1997 album Pop and the PopMart tour that followed pushed dance music and electronic experimentation to the limit. The giant yellow arch and supermarket-themed stage drew plenty of attention, but the album faltered commercially compared with its predecessors. (Reflection) The band itself admitted that the experiments of this period had gone too far. Amid verdicts that they had lost their way, the members agreed they needed to get back to basics. (Friendship) Around this time the band spent much of its time with old friends R.E.M., the American group. The two bands built their friendship by turning up as guests at each other's shows, and singers Bono and Michael Stipe went on to share the stage at a number of benefit concerts. (Return) The 2000 album All That You Can't Leave Behind stripped away the flashy apparatus and returned to the essentials of melody and guitar sound. With it, U2 were once again recognized as a band at the very top, both critically and commercially.
The song stands for a comeback that stripped away showy experiment and returned to the essence of melody.
- In the intro a spare synthesizer tone is laid down first, conveying a sunny mood before anything else
- The verse moves along on a restrained rhythm until, in the chorus, the Edge's guitar bursts in with a thick, clear tone
- Larry Mullen Jr.'s drumming returned from experimental rhythms to simple, straight-ahead beats
- Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois came back as producers, re-creating the sonic sensibility of the 1980s in a modern way
VII. Afterward and now · 2001–2026
(Bereavement) In 2001 Bono's father, Bob Hewson, died. The 2004 album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb included a song dealing directly with memories of his father. A father-son relationship tangled with love and resentment seeped deeply into the lyrics of this period. (Activism) During the same years Bono took the lead in international campaigns for African debt relief and the fight against AIDS. This work outside music became widely known alongside the band's name, making U2 something more than just a rock band. (Release) The 2014 album Songs of Innocence was distributed free to users around the world through iTunes. Because the tracks were placed automatically even on the devices of users who did not want them, the episode remains a contentious case in the music industry's debates over digital distribution. (Present) In the 2020s U2 continue to release new records and perform. Their residency at the Sphere, a spherical venue built in Las Vegas, was hailed as a new venture fusing cutting-edge technology with sound. That the four original members have stayed together for most of the band's activity over nearly half a century since its formation is regarded as a rarity even in rock history.
The lead single from an album made in the grief of losing a father, it carries the explosive energy peculiar to stadium rock.
- In the intro a riff of thick chords (power chords), played with the Edge's roughly distorted guitar tone (distortion), drives the song forcefully
- A short passage of counting in Spanish serves as a kind of signal that the song is starting
- In the chorus the whole band plays as a single mass, charging ahead and generating the energy peculiar to stadium rock
- The song is notable for its brevity — just over three minutes — and its lean, no-frills edit
Lesser-known stories
The Edge's older brother, Dik Evans, was a full member of the early band. In 1978, just before the four settled on the name U2, he left to form the Virgin Prunes, a more experimental, avant-garde band that later carved out a place of its own in the Irish underground scene. The fact that the brothers took different paths is seldom mentioned, overshadowed by U2's success. Various interpretations have arisen over the origin of the band's name. It was one of several candidates proposed by designer Steve Averill. That it could be read in several ways — calling to mind the Cold War Lockheed U-2 spy plane, and as a pun on 'you too' — was what made it the choice. While preparing the 1981 album October, Bono had a bag stolen during an American tour that held notebooks filled with lyric and melody ideas. He had to rewrite much of the material by improvising in the studio in the time that remained, and the mishap is credited with giving the album its distinctive rough, spontaneous texture. The story of how "One" came to be is often told as a moment of reconciliation, but the members later revealed in interviews that the band's conflicts were not fully resolved even as they were recording the song. There was, in other words, some distance between the tale that hardened into a symbol of reconciliation and the chilly air actually inside the studio.
Notes on terms 📚🔎
Delay
(Meaning) Delay is an English word meaning a lag or postponement. (In rock) It refers to an effect that makes a sound, such as a guitar or a voice, ring out once more after a short time lag. The sound seems to overlap with itself like an echo, giving the impression of a wider space. Think of a word shouted in a large room that bounces off the walls and comes back a moment later — with this effect the Edge created a sound in which a single performance seems to ring out as several overlapping notes. (Elsewhere) In everyday life it is also commonly used for a plane or bus running late.
Ambient
(Meaning) Ambient comes from the English adjective ambient, meaning surrounding. (In rock) It refers to a style of music designed to let you appreciate the texture and spatial quality of sound itself rather than distinct melody or rhythm. It could be called music that seeps in as atmosphere even when you are not listening closely. It is similar to the abstract paintings of art class that express a mood through color and texture alone, without clear forms. (Elsewhere) In photography and lighting it is also used for natural surrounding light that has not been artificially directed.
Power chord
(In rock) It refers to a chord that rings out thick and simple with only two or three notes pressed down. It gets its name because instead of a clear, complex harmony it produces a powerful, solid sound. Rather than a choir in which everyone sings a different note, it is like two people belting out just a perfectly matched low note and high note together to thicken the sound.
Shuffle
(Meaning) Shuffle comes from the English word for mixing cards. (In rock) It refers to a rhythmic technique characteristic of the blues, played not in even, clipped strokes but with a bouncing play of accent and space. If you count the beat with your foot, it feels not like one-two, one-two but slightly limping. (Elsewhere) It is commonly used in its original sense, for the act of mixing cards in a card game.
Arpeggio
(Meaning) Arpeggio comes from arpa, the Italian word for harp. It was named after the way a harpist plucks the strings one note at a time in order rather than all at once. (In rock) It refers to a technique of playing the notes that make up a chord not all together but one by one in sequence, as if plucking them. Picture a group of people who, instead of joining hands and raising them at once, raise their hands one person at a time in turn.
Reverb
(Meaning) Janhyang (殘響), the Korean term, means a sound (響) that remains (殘) and rings on after the sound itself has died away. (In rock) It refers to the resonance that carries on softly as a sound strikes walls or a space and is reflected many times over. In recording, this effect can be added deliberately to create the feeling of playing in a large concert hall or a cathedral. It is easy to grasp if you think of how unusually a sound rings out in a bathhouse or a gymnasium.