Memoir and music collide as Bono faces mortality and finds renewed purpose
NEVER before in the history of humankind has one small man so largely self-promoted his life.
That's the theory, anyway, as U2's frontman Bono prepares to unleash yet another chapter of his life at the end of this month.
'I was born with my fists up. Surrender does not come easy to me. This is my story. I'm stuck with it.'
So says the man who manages to mix self-deprecation with self-aggrandisement all too well.
We will see examples of this in the forthcoming Apple TV+ original documentary Bono: Stories of Surrender, which debuts on the streaming platform on Friday, May 30th.
In fairness, Paul Hewson's flagrant self-promotion has some depth to it. We can safely guess that this virtually solo proactivity began with the brace of U2's most personal and confessional albums: Songs of Innocence (2014) and Songs of Experience (2017).
Bono Stories of Surrender airs on Apple TV+ this month
The first album revisits the band members' early days in Ireland of the 1970s, referencing childhood memories, personal loves and losses, all the while tipping a hat to their first musical inspirations of glam rock, David Bowie, and various pop, rock, and punk groups.
Bono once described the album as the most personal the band had written. Subsequently, in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, he said the album was about trying to figure out 'why we wanted to be in a band, the relationships around the band, our friendships, our lovers, our family.
The whole album is first journeys - first journeys geographically, spiritually, sexually…'
Songs of Experience, meanwhile, was even more personal to Bono. In December 2016, as the album was being worked on, he had a near-death experience.
At the time, what occurred wasn't identified, but the Edge referred to it as a 'brush with mortality.'
Bono later revealed in his 2022 memoir Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, that he had undergone open-heart surgery, an eight-hour operation. After some time recuperating, a fully recovered Bono decided to rework lyrics on some of the album's new songs.
He subsequently admitted that death was already going to be a theme on the album, as he thought the subject had been infrequently addressed in rock music, and felt it was logically fitting for an album with the title of Songs of Experience. Inevitably, the incident influenced the general theme and atmosphere of the album.
It made him realise, he said, that not 'surrendering to melancholy is the most important thing if you are going to fight your way out of whatever corner you are in.'
Cue Covid-19, and the time available to dig deep not only into what happened to him a few years previously but also to finally drill down into his life story.
Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story was the result of such drilling.
To say it surprised people is an understatement. To say it most surprised people whose antipathy towards Bono bordered on irrationality was an even greater understatement.
How did he change minds, then? A review of the memoir in the New Statesman gets it right. 'The only thing anyone else really has to say about U2 is that they don't like Bono, the band's frontman, because he is smug and evangelical.
Bono addresses this charge early in his memoir: there is no criticism anyone could make of him that is worse than the criticism he gives himself, up there on stage, every night.
On stage, he has a devil on his shoulder, he says. But while he may have a devil, he also has faith and God on his side. Thus insulated, Bono can begin his story.'
Similarly, Irish writer Colm Tóibín's review in the Irish Times outlines why some people are irked by Bono: he gets carried away. ('This is what I do,' explains the singer.
'This is the me you wouldn't want to be in a band with.') Tóibín gets to the heart of the subject when he writes that what makes the memoir so intriguing is that the singer's overarching melancholy 'is overwhelmed by a desperate, frenzied desire to use life more richly since it has proved to be so fragile.
Sadness is replaced here by an extraordinary and breathless zeal for friendship, but also for love.' Which is all well and good, but what does the documentary Bono: Stories of Surrender tell us?
In tandem with the publication of his memoir in the closing months of 2022, something odd occurred in the world of U2. Announcing theatre shows with the title of Stories of Surrender: An Evening of Words, Music and Some Mischief, Bono announced that these shows would be the first time he would sing U2 songs without the other three band members.
There was no problem with this, he soothingly remarked, perhaps keen to downplay (if not completely sabotage) any thoughts of discord within the band.
The 'solo' tour dates were few and far between, but as the shows were to be held in theatres (the capacity of which ranged from anywhere between 1,000-3,000), the demand for tickets was stratospheric.
Curiosity, however, was also central to the demand. In the end, the wait in the online ticket queue was worth it. Reviews of the show were unanimously positive.
'One of rock's biggest voices laid himself bare', said Variety, and 'unquestionable professionalism' noted The Times. The Irish Times, meanwhile, viewed Dublin's 3Olympia Theatre show as a 'musical photo album, the singer flicking through memories of his life with songs. It gives him the chance to flex his talents as a singer, a storyteller, a mimic, a comic and, ultimately, the tenor his father said he never was.
This is 'my quarter-of-a-band' show, he says. But what a quarter.'
You can expect the Apple TV+ documentary to deliver a view of the show (actually, two shows, both filmed at New York's famed Beacon Theatre) that not many in the stalls witnessed.
Directed in sharp, stylish monochrome by Andrew Dominik, the documentary had its world premiere at this year's Cannes Film Festival and received suitably enthusiastic reviews.
Previously unseen footage from the Beacon shows presents a very confessional Bono in a way you might have previously been unaware of, while numerous U2 songs are performed in a subtle, stripped-down and textured manner that places them in entirely new light (and shade).
The Irish musicians on stage (cellist Kate Ellis, multi-instrumentalist Gemma Doherty, and jack-of-all-music-trades Jacknife Lee) reshape the songs that will more than likely influence forthcoming U2 material.
The visual aspects, meanwhile, are softened versions of the usual blitz of U2's arena/Sphere shows, with supremely eye-catching lighting design that never makes you turn your head away.
Is the film yet another self-promotion device, another look-at-me tool? Of course it is, but even the most toughened anti-U2/Bono detractor will surely admit there is a sincere heart beating throughout it that neuters the obvious hard sell.
'The Story of a Showman' is how the trailer for the documentary starts.
It now looks likely that until Bono hangs up his boots, or until his boots are hung up for him, the story of this particular showman will continue.
A revised edition of Stories of Surrender is published on May 27. The documentary of the same name premieres on Apple TV+ on May 30.
See More: Apple TV+, Bono, Bono: Stories Of Surrender
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