U2 Wore Masks

I was in my first year of seminary when Achtung Baby was released.  That meant no cable to catch the new video.  The first few times I heard The Fly on the radio, I was not quite sure.  Since ‘poverty’ had not set in yet, I bought the CD upon release.  The first song was… shocking.  It was NOTHING like The Joshua Tree or Rattle and Hum.  This was yet another shift in sound, but more radical than ever before (check my earlier posts on their Missional Beginnings and their Struggle with the Church).  You can buy Walk On here.

Bono and the boys were feeling the weight of superstardom, and they were not liking it one bit.  Personal attacks were coming from numerous directions now.  More than that, they could feel their own self-identity slipping away.  Bono, in particular, felt the need to do something.  That this coincided with a deep felt need for a musical reinvention made everything even more shocking for many fans.

Lengthy discussions with old performance art/rocker friends from Dublin offered a solution.  Bono took a page from David Bowie’s playbook and created personnas to hide behind.  Using these characters, U2 would critique modernity, and I think, postmodernity.  To the uninformed it sounded like they had finally succumbed to the temptations of the road, as if the embraced the lifestyle and attitudes Bono spoke about through his personnas.

I listened to Achtung Baby enough to embrace the music.  But then was the Zoo TV Tour and the release of Zooropa.  At the time I didn’t know, or have the time to figure out, they were putting words into other people’s mouths.  The words of the prodigal walking away from it all sounded too much like a man leaving his faith.  Then to see Bono dressed up like the Devil on stage.  This was alot to take in, and many fans were confused.

At the time I enjoyed Live from Sydney, because of the music (I love live music).  Now I also enjoy the art and philosophy that drove Zoo TV.  They were exposing the emptiness of western culture, which bowed down to technology, science, entertainment and consumerism.

Bono began to utlitize the language of love to communicate on multiple levels.  The Edge’s marriage had ended, but Bono was still married to his high school sweetheart.  But in the Bible marriage is used as a metaphor for God’s relationship with His people.  So Bono was singing about love & marriage, and more.

Bono played The Fly- a hedonistic rock star- and McPhisto, who was a combination of the devil, a rock star and a televangelist of sorts.  Taking additional inspiriation from C.S. Lewis’ short but excellent book The Screwtape Letters, they sought to expose the modern culture through these personnas.

For those not familiar with The Screwtape Letters, Screwtape is a lower level demon who receives letters from his uncle Wormwood about how best to do his job in deceiving humanity.  U2 was telling us how fame and power were shrinking our souls.

By the time Pop came out I was not listening to new music on the radio much.  Grunge (teen angst) didn’t really capture my interest.  I caught some of the publicity around the beginning of the Pop Mart Tour, and sensed that many were very disappointed with the new release.  Prior commitments meant that Pop came out before they were really ready to tour behind it.  The idea was worthwhile, but it just needed some more time to bake in the oven.

Pop Mart focused on the dangers of consumerism and entertainment.  In the words of Mofo, which kicked off the shows, we’re “looking for the Baby Jesus under the trash.”  All this crap we buy can’t fill the hole in our hearts.  For an album that sounded superficial and trendy (influenced by club music), it had some serious stuff going on.

The incredible amount of energy put into such spectacles obviously took alot out of the boys.  They only released 3 albums in the 90’s, and the middle album was recorded between legs of the Zoo TV tour.  Serious thinking will do that too you.  Oddly it was a decade in which they gained the world- continuing to be the biggest band in the world even if sales weren’t as huge as The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby– and many thought they lost their soul.  In the new millennium they would remove their masks and show their true faces once again.  And once again they would rule the pop music world.