Bono shares the story behind U2's 'Beautiful Day' in an excerpt from his new memoir, Surrender
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Bono has spent four decades telegraphing messages of love, longing, and activism to the masses, fronting one of the most successful acts in the world. But until now, he's channeled his faith and fury only through music. With his new memoir, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, the rock star and social justice champion (real name: Paul David Hewson) unveils the origins and meaning behind some of U2's most enduring tracks. Ushering fans from the '70s to the present, the singer sheds light on his fraught upbringing (born in Dublin to a Catholic father and Protestant mother, he grew up amid rising sectarian violence in Ireland); his lasting romance with his wife, Ali (whom he began courting soon after the band formed); and the secrets to keeping his lauded (22 Grammys and counting) group together despite creative differences and personal turmoil.
A soaring anthem of loss and redemption, 2000's "Beautiful Day" was released as the lead single from U2's 10th studio album, All That You Can't Behind. It would go on to win three Grammy Awards (Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group) and has become a staple at their concerts since they first performed it live on their Elevation Tour in 2001. In the book, Bono recalls his initial hesitation with moving forward with the track, afraid it revisited terrain the group had already crossed in their early-'80s work. Guitarist the Edge pushed back; its unabashed uplift was too electrifying to ignore.
Below, read an exclusive excerpt (or listen to Bono read the excerpt above) about the genesis of "Beautiful Day" and the strong ties it had to Bono's family.
Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story (Knopf) will be published Nov. 1.
Knopf Bono's 'Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story'
"Beautiful Day"
The conversations you can't not have, the pictures you must take with you when you leave, our interpersonal relationships. I'm thinking about my da and that polyp in my throat, the lingering thought that I could have cancer too. The ol' man is dying and now his young fella is no longer young. No longer indestructible, how inconvenient. I'm thinking about Ali and our kids. About age and mortality, about friendship and family. I knew we could write songs like that, but the trick would be not to give in to melancholy, to write with defiance as well as honesty.
The first time I thought we might have pulled it off was recording the song that would become "Beautiful Day." It wasn't "I Love You," but it was as innocuous and joyous a phrase. We were looking for some ecstatic quality. To sing a chorus like "It's a beautiful day," we'd need some clouds parting, the sun coming out, some kind of road rising. Edge found it with that repeating echo of his that he made famous in the 1980s, but stumbling on the part this time, he was immediately embarrassed. We all were.
"Oh my God, that sounds like U2."
"The problem is," I ventured, cautiously, "it sounds like the Edge in U2." To which Edge offered the perfect response.
"I am the Edge in U2. I can sound like this if I want."
I think we might all have stood up and whistled. Edge's modesty is part of the construction of his music, and occasionally I remember he is the most influential guitar player of not just his generation. Ask any guitar players.
The song had liftoff and lifted us out of wherever we were in our lives, brought us into orbit and back to earth in four minutes and five seconds. Because what's the use of liftoff if, being that high above yourselves, you don't get the advantage of perspective?
The middle section of the song is a play on astronaut Neil Armstrong's line from Apollo's mission to the moon: "It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth." Everything and everyone that mattered to him he could cover with one thumb.
Anton Corbijn Bono (right) with his father, Brendan Robert "Bob" Hewson
All that you could leave behind. All that we are leaving behind. If we don't 2x the climate crisis.
See the world in green and blue
See China right in front of you
See the canyons broken by cloud
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out
See the Bedouin fires at night
See the oil fields at first light.
Then Noah's release from quarantine after 40 days of rising sea levels.
See the bird with a leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colours came out.
And yes, after the confusion of everyone speaking in their own tongue in the story of the Tower of Babel comes "the rainbow" that is still the motif for how we might embrace our diversity and not just ecologically.
It's a beautiful day.
The world will wake up to its beauty. It's not just the natural or even the supernatural world. It's us.
But Edge brought us back to earth too. Our man can build sonic landscapes that we haven't heard before, like the chewing gum sounds of "Elevation," but he can also revel in the non-extraordinary.
Like his guitar part for "In a Little While." This bluesy accompaniment will never get old because it's never felt new. The chords are classic gospel from Brian Eno. I sang it in a few takes after a big night out. The big head I had on me was ready for bed, but still…
Man dreams one day to fly
A man takes a rocket ship into the sky
He lives on a star that's dying in the night
And follows in the trail the scatter of light.
"When I Look at the World" has a similar perspective.
I'm in the waiting room
I can't see for the smoke
I think of you and your holy book
While the rest of us choke.
I always think that last verse was courtesy of my da.
Excerpted from Surrender by Bono, narrated by the author. Copyright © 2022 by Bono; production copyright ℗ 2022 Penguin Random House, LLC. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf and Penguin Random House Audio, divisions of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
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