Writing in character - should Bono keep doing this ?

[LyricalDrug]

This album contains some of Bono's best writing ever (Moment of Surrender), but it also still has its share of cringe-inducing clunkers ("stop helping God across the road like a little old lady"), repetitive lines ("the songs are in our eyes," kicking the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight, etc.).

Bono's character sketches are interesting. Unlike, say, Bruce Springsteen's characters, Bono doesn't fully become the characters: he steps in and out of their point of view. For example, NLOTH contains a huge rhythm change / break right as Bono sings "I'm a traffic cop / rue du Marais", near the end of the song.

Shirley Manson asked Bono the other day if Unknown Caller's ambiguous lyrics opened the song to many interpretations. Bono said no -- that the narrator is the same one as in Moment of Surrender. It was such an unusual comment for Bono to make, because usually he backs away from requests for explanations of his lyrics.

 

[U2girl]

the metaphor of betrayal in a relationship to the betrayal of Christ by Judas is the starting point of the song
White as Snow and Cedars .... have the character of a dying soldier and war correspondent as a starting point

the result is the same
but there must be some reason Bono reckons this is the first time he's been writing in character

 

[Scorpionac]

repetitive lines ("the songs are in our eyes," kicking the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight, etc.).

You know Bono didn't write that second one, right?

 

[rihannsu]

Bono doesn't consider Achtung Baby as written as characters because he had the point of view that the album was like overheard conversations. The characters actually came into being after the fact. Bono has always talked about the transition of the songs from studio to live performance in terms of finding out who is singing the songs. The characters on AB were created by the songs. On NLOTH Bono developed characters first and then wrote from their perspective. But he is already saying in interviews that rather than getting away from himself he actually went deeper into his own emotions. He's referencing the "mask reveals the man" quote again. Previously characters came into play for the performance of the songs, not at the writing stage but he reversed that process here. The closest he has come before to writing in character is when he writes songs for others to sing, like the songs for Roy Orbison, Willie Nelson, Frank Sinatra and even The Wanderer which he said he always heard in Cash's voice in his head even though he wasn't really writing it for Cash.

Dana

 

[LemonMelon]

This argument is a bit frustrating because it's impossible to determine what Bono considers a metaphor for some greater overarching point, or a story being told in character. To the naked eye, it's pretty obvious that he's done it multiple times in the past (Exit, Until The End Of The World, The Fly, Babyface, Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car, etc.); Bono has often utilized multiple personalities within his writing, and has spoken in the past about having to get "in character" for songs like Exit. Personally, I don't notice a lick of difference between the characters of NLOTH and the abstract personifications used to illustrate Bono's topic of choice on previous albums, but to each his own.

 

[powerhour24]

This album contains some of Bono's best writing ever (Moment of Surrender), but it also still has its share of cringe-inducing clunkers ("stop helping God across the road like a little old lady"), repetitive lines ("the songs are in our eyes," kicking the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight, etc.).

Bono's character sketches are interesting. Unlike, say, Bruce Springsteen's characters, Bono doesn't fully become the characters: he steps in and out of their point of view. For example, NLOTH contains a huge rhythm change / break right as Bono sings "I'm a traffic cop / rue du Marais", near the end of the song.

Shirley Manson asked Bono the other day if Unknown Caller's ambiguous lyrics opened the song to many interpretations. Bono said no -- that the narrator is the same one as in Moment of Surrender. It was such an unusual comment for Bono to make, because usually he backs away from requests for explanations of his lyrics.

I liked most of your post, but I love the little old lady line, and completely agree with its message.

 

[sue4u2]

I think the songwriting on this album is Bono's best since Pop.

I'm thinking of the first verse of Breathe, for example, or for the lines in the title track: "She says, 'Time is irrelevant, it's not linear' / Then she put her tongue in my ear"

If Bono needs characters to write this specifically, then I think he should keep using them. There's a complexity to his lyrics here that there hasn't been in a long time, and I'm glad to see it return.

I agree. I love the complexity. I stop and pause and feel the music a great deal more on this album.
I did this with TUF, AB, Zooropa and POP.

Bono's character sketches are interesting. Unlike, say, Bruce Springsteen's characters, Bono doesn't fully become the characters: he steps in and out of their point of view. For example, NLOTH contains a huge rhythm change / break right as Bono sings "I'm a traffic cop / rue du Marais", near the end of the song.

Shirley Manson asked Bono the other day if Unknown Caller's ambiguous lyrics opened the song to many interpretations. Bono said no -- that the narrator is the same one as in Moment of Surrender. It was such an unusual comment for Bono to make, because usually he backs away from requests for explanations of his lyrics.

I've been studying the relationship between these tracks from the beginning. I always felt there was a connection.

Which is what I love so much about this album, and U2, this album is a study in progress.

Personally, I don't notice a lick of difference between the characters of NLOTH and the abstract personifications used to illustrate Bono's topic of choice on previous albums, but to each his own.

This surprises me. I've read your comment's along the way and you have had some incredible insights.
It's just not happening for you, I suppose.

 

[Saracene]

To me, Cedars of Lebanon does have a different feel to anything else Bono has written, though it's hard to articulate why. Maybe because it's got the kind of "mundane" observations that I don't think pop up in his lyrics all too often. Lines like, I have your face here in an old Polaroid tidying the children’s clothes and toys.

 

[indra]

You know Bono didn't write that second one, right?

You know that because you live in Canada.

 

[zooperson]

I think the songwriting on this album is Bono's best since Pop. On both ATYCLB and HTDAAB he slipped into generalizations too much, which made a lot of the songs feel very generic to me after awhile. But he does a pretty brilliant job on NLOH of balancing specifics and generalities or abstractions.

I'm thinking of the first verse of Breathe, for example, or for the lines in the title track: "She says, 'Time is irrelevant, it's not linear' / Then she put her tongue in my ear"

If Bono needs characters to write this specifically, then I think he should keep using them. There's a complexity to his lyrics here that there hasn't been in a long time, and I'm glad to see it return.

I agree totally.

 

[cmaly]

Bono's lyrics on the last two albums are lacking. And the lyrics for Unknown Caller and Stand Up could take my vote for U2's worst. Million Dollar Hotel did not do service to U2 lyrics: his false sense of "characther" is, at times, laughable. He's not an actor. He cannot write dialogue. One and Until worked because it was not obvious he was writing in character. It fit and it sounded like a U2 song. Atomic Bomb and Horizon are not U2's best. "Sexy Boots"... please.

 

[Earnie Shavers]

the result is the same
but there must be some reason Bono reckons this is the first time he's been writing in character

I think the difference is that previously Bono would try and express a feeling or thought or experience of his own through the voice of a character. But on these songs, he’s wholly writing someone else’s fictional biography. e.g. the journalist in Cedars has nothing to do with him, whereas, obviously, ‘Johnny’ in Mysterious Ways is a very different story.

 

[coolian2]

That's one interpretation only.

 

[GibsonExplorer]

I don't think there's ever been a U2 album where he would openly say before the release, "I'm writing in character, because I'm sick of Bono".

U2girl, honestly, Bono's written in the 3rd person POV or in character many times in the past. Whether he proclaimed that before each album release or not doesn't make it any less true. Why would this even be a big deal? EVERYONE writes songs like these on occasion.

 

[phillyfan26]

I don't know how much more obvious Bono could be about the fact that Until the End of the World is in character. He said he woke up one day and had the idea of a song about a conversation between Judas and Jesus.

But Bono's interpretation is just one interpretation, after all.

 

[phillyfan26]

Bad - drug addict
Running to Stand Still - drug addict
Red Hill Mining Town - worker in a town where the coal industry has shut down
Exit - suicidal guy
UTEOTW - Judas Iscariot
The Fly - a character he created

Just as a couple of examples. Openly talked about by Bono.

 

[U2DMfan]

I see slapnutz already mentioned these two but they were pretty good examples.

Silver and Gold is a first-person character.
Bono even explains the story of the song in/on Rattle and Hum.
"This song was written about a man in a shanty town in Johannesburg...."
Singing in first person narrative. "...praying hands hold me down."

The Wanderer was written as a 'western' piece, was it not?
"I went out walking with a Bible and a gun" That narrator is not Bono.

He's got a lot of them, most songwriters do.

 

[U2DMfan]

I think the difference is that previously Bono would try and express a feeling or thought or experience of his own through the voice of a character. But on these songs, he’s wholly writing someone else’s fictional biography. e.g. the journalist in Cedars has nothing to do with him, whereas, obviously, ‘Johnny’ in Mysterious Ways is a very different story.

Ah...I now see the disagreement more clearly.
Is he writing as a character that mirrors his own feelings or is he just writing as the character?

It's an interesting question.
Any writer bleeds onto the page in some shape or form.

And if that writer is Bono, then I'd almost guarantee it was personal, althought it does seem to be vague enough this time around.

That said, the final 'stanza' in Cedars sounds like something he said himself, in an interview in the last few years. It would be a hell of a lot more interesting if these characters had a big disagreement with Bono's worldview.

 

[last unicorn]

Of course every writer writes about him/herself in the end, no matter which character's perspective he/she is taking. Writing in character doesn't mean that you totally abandon yourself as a person. It means you get out of yourself, that you become empathic, still you can only write out of your own emotions and thoughts. Literature is always based on autobiographical and fictious moments. If the lyrics are good, you normally don't ask about where they come from, if they are based on someone's own experience or totally made up. Personally, I find the concept of writing in character (first person, but different character) interesting, but in the end it's the way the lyrics appeal to me on an emotional level that I am most interested in.

 

[U2girl]

Bad - drug addict
Running to Stand Still - drug addict
Red Hill Mining Town - worker in a town where the coal industry has shut down
Exit - suicidal guy
UTEOTW - Judas Iscariot
The Fly - a character he created

The Fly was invented in the months after the album came out, to fit in with the tour ... it all came together once he actually put on the clothes and the goggles.

The difference is this time he invented characters to write, as opposed to using people he knew (Bad, for one), or known events in the UK (the miners strike) or worldwide (Silver and gold), or using the famous story of betrayal as a backdrop on the album that is all about betrayal in a relationship (UTEOTW) or events in his home town (RTSS) or using biiblical themes (Wanderer). U2 was influenced by Norman Mailer while they were making JT - the working title for Exit was Executioner's song. Wire is about suicide but he never specified anything further. Love rescue me was written with Dylan in mind, Bono thought of the lines and he thought it was an Dylan song.

 

[phillyfan26]

The Fly was invented in the months after the album came out, to fit in with the tour ... it all came together once he actually put on the clothes and the goggles.

The difference is this time he invented characters to write, as opposed to using people he knew (Bad, for one), or known events in the UK (the miners strike) or worldwide (Silver and gold), or using the famous story of betrayal as a backdrop on the album that is all about betrayal in a relationship (UTEOTW) or events in his home town (RTSS) or using biiblical themes (Wanderer). U2 was influenced by Norman Mailer while they were making JT - the working title for Exit was Executioner's song. Wire is about suicide but he never specified anything further. Love rescue me was written with Dylan in mind, Bono thought of the lines and he thought it was an Dylan song.

That's not true. The Fly was invented while in studio, when he was given the goggles by a wardrobe guy. Have you read U2 by U2? The character came first, Bono used him simply to make the band laugh. He described him as a "barstool philosopher." The song came from that character.

It's not black-and-white, though. He's had many songs where he's written in character, some of them as in character as those on No Line on the Horizon, some a little less so. I'd argue that UTEOTW is easily as in character as the NLOTH tracks, as well as some other older songs.

 

[cobl04]

I think the difference is that previously Bono would try and express a feeling or thought or experience of his own through the voice of a character. But on these songs, he’s wholly writing someone else’s fictional biography. e.g. the journalist in Cedars has nothing to do with him, whereas, obviously, ‘Johnny’ in Mysterious Ways is a very different story.

this.

two peas in a pod, man.

 

[fren]

Girlfriends, please! Bono ALWAYS writes only about his relationships with his wife!
"All our kids are screaming"
"Get on your boots, yeah "-about her hideous shoes she always wears.
" have your face here in an old Polaroid
Tidying the children’s clothes and toys
You’re smiling back at me, I took the photo from the fridge
Can’t remember what then we did"

 

[U2girl]

That's not true. The Fly was invented while in studio, when he was given the goggles by a wardrobe guy. Have you read U2 by U2? The character came first, Bono used him simply to make the band laugh. He described him as a "barstool philosopher." The song came from that character.

It's not black-and-white, though. He's had many songs where he's written in character, some of them as in character as those on No Line on the Horizon, some a little less so. I'd argue that UTEOTW is easily as in character as the NLOTH tracks, as well as some other older songs.

I did read it, and I guess I got a different impression.