BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME (BONO & THE EDGE: A SORT OF HOMECOMING WITH DAVID LETTERMAN)

 

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Sometimes it's easy to forget just how important U2 once were to Ireland.

In the early 1980s, Ireland was a nation impaired by social conservativism and economic disadvantage.

It was a fractured country that exported its young to the UK, US and Australia. It was beset by high unemployment, a society in the grip of the Catholic Church and the ripple effects of violence north of the border.

Long before the Intranet, social media and streaming destroyed music television, the notion that an Irish band could base themselves in Dublin and become the biggest on the planet seemed fanciful.

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Yet through sheer determination and dedication, U2 followed a path mapped by Van Morrison and Them, Thin Lizzy, the Boomtown Rats, the Undertones and Stiff Little Fingers and forced their way to the very top.

In the early days of U2, every step forward internationally felt like a bit of a victory.

Seeing them graduate from the first appearance on RTE to making 'Top of the Pops,' 'The Old Grey Whistle Test' and 'The Tube' felt like a huge achievement.

Then came 'Live at Red Rocks,' 'The Unforgettable Fire,' Band Aid, that breakthrough performance at Live Aid and then, 'The Joshua Tree'.

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Suddenly U2 were the biggest band in the world, with a movie and album 'Rattle and Hum' inspired by America and featuring collaborations with Bob Dylan and BB King.

This was pre-Celtic Tiger.

Just when it looked like they had peaked, the band went to Berlin and dreamt it all up again, embracing a new sound, creating different stage personas and embracing a European aesthetic with their greatest album 'Achtung Baby.'

This begat the stunning ZooTV tour, which begat Zooropa, which begat Passengers which begat Pop.

Looking back on it now, this was U2 at their peak.

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They were creative. They were daring.

They were willing to change their sound and send themselves and the whole music industry up.

Then came 'All That You Can Leave Behind,' their remarkable contribution to the 9/11 tribute, their Super Bowl performance, opening Live 8 with Sir Paul McCartney and a series of albums that never quite captured the magic of before.

A more prosperous, socially progressive Ireland became more cynical like the rest of the world - particularly about Bono's activism.

And then came the release of 'Songs of Innocence' in 2014 and the decision to have it downloaded for free on every Apple device in the world.

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For a band that had always played the game shrewdly, it was a huge miscalculation.

What was intended as a generous act was interpreted as an arrogant statement of just how big U2 had become and there was a huge negative reaction. 

In some quarters, there was an overreaction.

In a world gripped by social media, where snark and cynicism had become the order of the day, U2's partnership with Apple provided cannon fodder for those who just wanted to Bono bash.

Keyboard warriors reacted as if every member of U2 had personally come into their houses and taken a dump in their kitchen.

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It was a serious misstep by a band keen to hold on to their reputation for innovation and desperate to keep pretenders to their crown at bay.

With each album, the criticism directed at U2 hasn't abated.

The band has yet to recover.

In their homeland, particularly among younger generations, they're not regarded as the rock n'roll prophets their parents thought they were.

This loss of credibility isn't new in their industry. It's happened to other hugely popular rock and pop acts.

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David Bowie, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, ABBA, Prince and Madonna have all fallen victim at various stages of their careers to critics and audiences complaining they have somehow lost their mojo.

However at some stage, those artists' careers go full circle and people start to appreciate their greatness again and they come back into vogue.

In 2023, it's probably too early to declare that the U2 renaissance has started but there are some hopeful signs.

In recent months, Bono's memoir 'Surrender,' his promotional chat show appearances and his accompanying one man shows have been well received in the US and elsewhere.

U2 recently received a Kennedy Centre Honours induction in the US, with the band being roasted by Borat, Sean Penn delivering a more sober tribute, Eddie Vedder singing 'Elevation' and 'One,' Hozier, Brandi Carlile and Jamala performing 'Walk On,' and Beyonce, Harry Stiles, Finneas and Billie Eilish reciting some of the band's best known lyrics.

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Just this week, the band released 'Songs of Surrender' in which they have radically reworked 40 songs from their career.

And if that isn't enough, Bono and the Edge have been given permission by bandmates Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr to break ranks and team up with former US chat show king David Letterman for a Disney+ film.

'Bono and the Edge: A Sort of Homecoming with David Letterman' finds the two friends reflecting on their careers while entertaining Letterman on his first ever visit to the Irish capital.

Part musical extravaganza and travel show, it mixes interviews with and about the band with live performances of reworked songs in the city's Ambassador Theatre.

A who's who of Irish recording industry giants gather for a session in McDaid's pub off Dublin's Grafton Street - Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, Dermot Kennedy, Imelda May and Fontaines DC frontman Grian Chatten.

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Hansard is interviewed by Letterman on Dublin's urban rail system, the DART about his memories of U2 and their cultural impact.

Irish Times columnist Fintan O'Toole gives his tuppence worth, along with the Co Mayo born drag artist Panti Bliss and U2 collaborator Jimmy Iovine.

When the interviewees are not weighing up the band's cultural significance or dissecting their songs, Letterman is wandering the streets of Dublin on a U2 walking tour, buying a cheese wheel and tweed caps, visiting a reggae record store or contemplating a dip in the Irish Sea at the Forty Foot.

Director Morgan Neville and Letterman revel in the sights and sounds and the art of conversation in the city.

And while Letterman brings his trademark deadpan, he spends a lot of his time expressing his awe of U2 and new found love for their hometown.

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During the course of the documentary, Bono and the Edge reveal Larry Mullen Jr and Adam Clayton's nicknames from their youth that somehow didn't stick.

They speak frankly about tensions in the band over Bono's activism and his propensity to cosy up to right wing politicians like President George W Bush and Senator Jesse Helms.

In one of the most revealing conversations, Bono explains the dynamics behind the writing of 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' and how it was born out of the Edge's frustrations with being told by their Christian faith community to abandon rock n'roll.

The result is a film that is handsomely shot by Nicola Marsh and Graham Willoughby and skilfully edited by Mark Harrison, Alan Lowe, Oscar Vazquez and Jason Zeldes.

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While some diehard U2 fans may miss the sonic power of the originals in the stripped back, reworked versions of songs like 'One,' 'Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of' and 'Every Breaking Wave,' the Disney+ special serves as a reminder of just how special U2's back catalogue is.

Over the decades, the band has assembled an arsenal of great songs that few of their rivals over the years could match.

The Edge and Bono even write a song during the film in Letterman's honour - 'Forty Foot Man' which plays over the end credits.

However it is the reclaiming of U2's importance to their hometown and home nation that is the most striking thing about Neville's film.

The innocent idealism of U2 may have gone but so has the repressive Dublin and Ireland out of which they emerged.

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As the country has changed to a more progressive society - the first into the world to vote for equal marriage - the documentary makes the case that U2 spearheaded Ireland's move to modernity and inclusivity.

Panti Bliss eloquently observes in conversation with Letterman: "I grew up in a country that would absolutely repress any hint of sexuality.

"Dublin, all through the Eighties, was this grey, aggressively normal kind of place. Homosexuality wasn't even heard of.

"I unfairly maligned U2 because to me,t at that time, they were part and parcel of that culture, this sort of straight boy rock culture that I felt absolutely rejected by.

"So I left and went to Japan to live and work and do [drag]. While I was living there, U2 came to perform [the ZooTV tour] and I started to see 'Oh, actually, this U2 is not the U2 I unfairly maligned'.

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"What I saw onstage in Tokyo was outward-looking, you know? It was sexy and fun.

"Maybe I'm overselling it but they were part of the reason then in the end that I ended up coming back eventually.

"U2 was part of what allowed Ireland to stand on its own two feet and have our own thing. I appreciated that at the time and I still do now." 

Whether it is U2 finding their mojo or Ireland carving out its own niche as a beacon of progress and hope, the film confirms the band were right all along.

Sometimes you can't make it on your own.

('Bono and the Edge: A Sort of Homecoming with David Letterman' was made available for streaming on Disney- on March 17, 2023)