All music comes from the water…
— Bono
I notice that I started the book almost a year ago. Surrendering myself to it and savoring it in small tastes was the right choice.
Bono covers a lot of turf in this 500+ page autobiography. The title gives you the skeleton Bono uses to flesh out his life. The first chapters are his childhood. One chapter is devoted to his mother, Iris, whom he lost early, but not before she had a chance to watch the band in its infancy play live. Another to his Da, who had to raise his two boys after Iris passed. Other chapters talk about neighbors and friends, and how the band got together. Other chapters show how the band began to be noticed and eventually started traveling outside of their neighborhood, to other parts of the UK, and then beyond.
The substantial middle section talks about global political action, detailing steps he and Ali have taken to get buy-ins from power players to support getting necessary medications to those with HIV+ status and AIDS, as well as those who are poverty-stricken and hungry. There are many, many anecdotes about rubbing elbows with celebrities, millionaires, and those so rich and mighty you’d never expect them to give millions to the causes. There are many anecdotes about rubbing elbows with those in the trenches doing the daily work to help those in need.
Ali is peppered throughout the book as the love of his life, the mother of his children, a steady presence in his world, and a helpmate through all seasons. I enjoyed having her along on the journey through the words. Bono talks some, but not a lot about his 4 kids. It feels like it is not because he couldn’t fill chapters on them, but more about respecting their privacy. Like Ali, Edge, Adam, and Larry are also interspersed throughout. They are band mates; they are brothers.
Bono does a lot of soul searching about “life, the universe, and everything.” [Douglas Adams] with and without religion in his contemplation. If you didn’t know he was a well-read, deep thinker before, you’ll know it after reading the book.
I loved this book for a lot of reasons, especially learning song origins of some of my favorite U2 songs. There is a lot of info about the production of the music and concert tours and the collaborators/engineers involved. There’s a good bit about U2’s long-time manager, Paul. Bono is also motivating me to seek out U2’s last 4 albums, which I haven’t heard yet. Bono is a good writer, way beyond writing lyrics. He has a knack for capturing in words things not easy to capture in words. Bono, if you see this, love you! It’s been a pleasure to walk beside you through your life through your book.
Some favorite quotes from the first 200 pages:
p75 Blind faith will not take you there, but it will get you started.
p.80 If you’re where you should be, you’ll meet whom you need to meet.
“Fail. Fail again. Fail better.” –Samuel Beckett
p111 In the shadow boy meets man.
p154 The World licks its lips in anticipation of high-minded failure, doesn’t it? Hubris. “They had it all but they lost it.”
p158 Rather than falling in love, we were climbing up toward it. We still are.
p158 As a power trio, The Police are challenged for supremacy only by Nirvana or Cream. Sting’s melodies are flawless, but like Paul Simon he allows the certainty of the melodies to recede in the lyrics. When he’s exploring themes of vulnerability, he’s invincible, and of course the irony is as painful as it is regal.
P179 To Brian (Eno) the lineage of ideas is more important than blood.
There are so many more throughout the 500+ pages! I do want to include this one on Paul McGuinness from p491 to end the post:
If he’d been written in fiction, his character would not have been believable, but fortunately for us, this magnificent man actually existed. And existed for our band.
Tao Talk 
I will add this to my list on audible. I don’t think I’ve ever read about U2 before.
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Awesome, Max.
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Wow, Lisa, I envy your persistence to read a book of more than 500 pages! While I can see why some folks may consider some of Bono’s statements as grandstanding, to me, he generally comes across as pretty thoughtful and well-spoken. His activism certainly has been remarkable. Based on my overall impression, I can well imagine Bono is a talented book writer.
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Christian, the text was 500 and another 60 or so pages of footnotes and photos. I don’t give a flying … what those folks think of him, he’s outrageously talented, he’s passionate about helping the less fortunate, he’s a faithful husband who loves his wife, his kids turned out OK afaik, and he’s been in a band with his same childhood chums for a long long time. The man walks the walk. He’s also humble enough to detail so many of what he considers his shortcomings in the book. He repeatedly says he’s hard to live with and hard to be around. Geniuses often are insufferable, but not all of them will admit it. Sorry to ramble on about him and the book but I admire the dude (can you tell?)
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Yep! :-)
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:)
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Lisa, this sounds like an extraordinary book; thank you for sharing some of your favourite bits. I think I will need to check it out!
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Steve, it is, and I hope you do. There are a plethora of quotes I pulled from it. I tried to add them to the quotes section at goodreads but there is a snafu there making it impossible to do without adding an unrelated podcast plug!
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I’m sold! 🙂
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Hi, Li, just popping back in here to say I picked up the book from the library a couple of weeks back and last night, finished the chapter on “I Will Follow.”
The book, its premise, and the way Bono writes about each song in the context of his life is truly remarkable. It will take me some time to finish, and I just received my return notice so will be on to renewal #1 of ??. I may just buy the book as I feel like it would be one to refer back to, often, and can see how you would be collecting many quotes from it. I’m grateful you shared about the book as you spurred my interest in it.
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Very happy to hear you’re making your way through it. Yes, I’m glad I bought it for that very reason. It’s the same reason why I bought George Harrison’s, “I Me Mine.”
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Sounds good, thank you for the recommendation!
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You’re welcome, Dana. It’s a project but worth the read.
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The lineage of ideas is more important than blood – that’s an interesting quote.
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Indeed, Graham. He’s an interesting guy.
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Graham, I decided to go back and find the context of the quote:
My father, Bob, worked in the postal service. So did Brian Eno’s. My da did not deliver the mail, but on his instructions I did, a holiday job in the winter of 1976. It’s not easy, what with the weather, the addresses, all the different kinds of post. Brian would tell us that he could trace his lineage back to Raphael, in the sixteenth century. I thought it amazing that Raphael had a postman in his line, but Brian wasn’t talking about postmen; he was talking about art school. To Brian the lineage of ideas is more important than blood. You’re owned by your ideas. Although U2 never went to art school, we did go to Brian.
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