Bono

U2 released ‘Songs of Experience’ before Christmas as a companion piece to 2014’s Songs of Innocence. Thematically, ‘Songs of Innocence’ was inspired by the band’s memories of their youth in Dublin in the 1970s with Bono describing it as “the most personal album we’ve written”. ‘Songs of Innocence’ touched upon these memories as perceived four decades on. The chances are slim that U2 will ever release the music they actually recorded in the 1970s – which also explored these themes – but at a time when they were raw and painful. A collection of primitive U2 demos – all recorded before their first official release in September 1979 – has been largely consigned to the vaults. Much to the dismay of avid fans, the black market bootleggers never managed to get their grubby hands on more than a few of them. While they are no astonishing gems in the vaults, the tapes do at least provide a few insights into how the U2 sound evolved. U2’s first demo session was the prize for winning a talent contest in Limerick in March 1978. While snippets from it have been broadcast during radio interviews with the band, the session has remained virtually out of bounds to the bootleggers; and even avid U2 websites profess ignorance about what was recorded. After four decades, Village will now finally – and exclusively – review U2’s first ever recording.     The CBS Sessions: ‘They Were Extremely Nervous And No One Was Expecting Miracles’ One of the judges at the Limerick talent contest was Jackie Hayden of CBS Ireland who became a critical figure in U2’s early success. The band’s bass player Adam Clayton felt Hayden “had a bit of flair and he wanted to sign Irish bands. The rest of the companies weren’t interested but he offered the best he could. He actually talked CBS into paying for our first demo tape”. The session took place in April 1978 at Keystone Studios in Dublin. According to Adam, “It was our first time in the studio and I think his first time as producer. He told us to set up as we would for a live show and play the set. It was all done in two-track. He thought that was a good way to do a demo. Then he took the tapes off to London to try to talk them into signing us and they just laughed. The tapes were awful. We didn’t know at the time, we had nothing to compare them with”. Hayden didn’t disagree. “After all”, he has said, “it was their first recording date, they were extremely nervous and no one was expecting miracles”. HANG UP The first song on the CBS session was called Hang Up. Like most of the original compositions, the lyrics evoke teenage angst. On this one Bono pleads on the phone to a soon-to-be ex-girlfriend not to “hang up/time is a cure/time can be found”. UNKNOWN TITLE (possibly SHE’S MY GIRL) The next track is also about teenage yearning but is far more interesting for a hint at how the U2 sound evolved. U2’s guitar player, The Edge, has explained that, “Adam is a very ostentatious sort of person, you know, very extravagant, so when he started playing bass he wasn’t interested in taking the bottom end of the sound spectrum at all. He wanted to be right up there in the mid ranges…In order to give the group any sort of clarity, therefore, I had to stay away from the bottom end of the guitar as much as I could. So, I tended to work around those ringing sounds”. This track displays one of Clayton’s early midspectrum forays. It also features an unremarkable Edge solo in the typical do-it-yourself garage-pub rock style of the time. STREET MISSIONS Another version of this song was eventually released by the bootleggers. This version is not as polished as the later version and the Edge’s contribution is far more restrained here. CONCENTRATION CAMP This song grew to become one of the highlights of U2’s live set in 1979 as they edged closer to a recording contract. It contains a solo courtesy of the Edge and is propelled by a strong bass but is distinguished by Bono’s rapid-fire vocal delivery which is quite unlike any of the other numbers they recorded during the session. The theme is elusive. However, references to “schooldays” suggest that Bono was venting his anger against the educational system. During an interview 1979 he revealed that as a pupil he had reacted against excessive demands for “intelligence in school – everything that it seemed you were not was pushed at you and I had a bit of a heavy reaction against that’. Instead, as he states in this track, he wanted to “live his life tonight”. UNKNOWN TITLE The fourth song is a slow number with vague echoes of Shadows and Tall Trees which appeared on their debut album Boy in 1980. The theme is also dominated by descriptions of life on the streets of Dublin city. INSIDE OUT This forgotten composition, written in 1978, captures U2’s continuing evolution and innovation. It sways on Clayton’s ropey bass. Meanwhile, Bono sings about his feeling that he is “inside out” in the “modern world”. The bootleggers did manage to get a hold of it from tapes of an early radio interview with Bono during which it was afforded an airing. BORN IN THE BACK IN THE STREETS U2 just about stumbles to the end of this track with Bono making excuses: “Doesn’t matter if we make a mess of it, does it?”. They didn’t run through it again so this incomplete version may well be all that remains of this arrangement. Aside from references to being born in the back streets, the lyrics make little sense. Bono admitted in 1979 that: “I never write lyrics until the last minute because they are constantly building as we work out the song. They build subconsciously because I find that