“Surrender” is the penultimate track on U2’s third album, “War”, from 1983. It is also the title of vocalist Paul David Hewson’s, better known as Bono’s, new autobiography. It consists of forty chapters, where each chapter has a title from one of the band’s many songs, and in addition a small extract from the same song. Almost a stroke of genius The songs are therefore the driving force behind the narrative. It makes it possible to structure the action according to something other than chronology. What is this other? Yes, it is to illuminate how unique music arises as a collective process, in the transition between punk and post-punk on the greenest of the British Isles as the seventies fade. To call this a stroke of genius is perhaps taking it a bit far. But there is no doubt that it is wise. THE GENIUSES: Bono on stage with guitarist The Edge (David Howell Evans), bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen jr. in the band’s initial phase. Photo: Cappelen Damm Created a “cathedral” sound In the chapter entitled “October” comes the answer to how U2 found their distinctive sound. Guitarist David Evans, called Edge, bought an echo pedal the size of a candy box, called Memory Man: The House of God is not a randomly chosen metaphor in this context. The big surprise for those of us who don’t know the band inside out is how incredibly Christian the guitarist, drummer and vocalist actually were. At one point early in his career, guitarist Edge was determined to leave the band on the advice of the leader of the free-church group Shalom. The ecstatic song from the revival meetings chimes with big hits such as “Where the Streets Have No Name”, “New Year’s Day” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” – says Bono himself. GOD AND THE DEVIL: Bono has written explanations for the pictures by hand. Here he has written “Paul David, er, Hewson, Dave Evans, Larry Mullen, Adam Clayton win our first studio recording U2 & The Virgin Prunes Glasnevin (arrow) Bill Graham”. “If U2 is God, then The Prunes are the devil,” he writes elsewhere in the book. Photo: Cappelen Damm Does he dictate the story of his life? But then we have also arrived at what is a bit potentially sloppy about this disposition of the material. Because how much weight should one really place on the artist’s own perspective on his own work? This religious interpretation is of course only one of several possible ones. The songs work excellently as catalysts in this life story. But what is the connection between the songs and the stories about his own life that Bono spins out of them? Bono has always liked to improvise. On stage in front of a hall full of Bob Dylan fans, he came up with a new text for the classic “Blowin’ in the Wind”. Perhaps that is precisely what Bono does in this book. With the songs as a starting point, he dictates the story of his own life. It is therefore a smart move, even if it is not always easy to see the connection. Live Aid and supermodels In some chapters it is not about the music, but about the various political issues Bono has been involved in. This involvement started for him, as for many musicians of his generation, with the musical charity Live Aid, where several musicians committed to the famine in Africa. TOGETHER AGAINST HUNGER: Live Aid concert at Wembley in London in 1985. From left: George Michael, Bob Geldof, Bono, Freddie Mercury, Andrew Ridgley and Howard Jones. Photo: Ap In “Surrender” we also clearly see all the dilemmas and paradoxes associated with the charitable commitment of this layer of political and cultural superstars. Because to what extent is it possible to fight for a fairer world when you yourself belong to the top class of the super-rich, a class that knows each other well and likes to meet and socialize? JETSETT-BONO: Surrounded by superstars, here Naomi Campbell, it is not only easy to appear as something else. Photo: ERIC GAILLARD / Ap What story is Bono really telling us when the supermodels Naomi Campbell and Helena Christensen appear on the private plane? Bono largely leaves that discussion to the reader, and then you also see the limitations of the genre. Valuable music history Autobiographies can bring us close to the person who writes their memoirs, but they are not necessarily a suitable medium for self-insight. As in Elton John’s memoirs from two years ago, parts of “Surrender” also suffer from myopia. MYOPIC: Due to a chronic eye disease, Bono is good at protecting his eyes, but the sunglasses do not help against myopia in his own life. Photo: Ross Stewart / Cappelen Damm But the rest is valuable music history. For example, we get to go to the castle where U2 recorded the album “The Joshua Tree” together with producer Brian Eno and guitarist Daniel Lanois. It becomes obvious how musical changes come about through crises when we follow the painful process that resulted in the recording of the album “Achtung Baby” in Berlin. Before we return to Dublin again, where Bono grew up with a singing father and a mother who died far too early. Happiness in a public transport bus At the back of the book we see pictures of the father, mother and brother, wife Ali and the children, as well as youth pictures of the band. This is the person Bono wants to show us. He peels off layer by layer of jet set life and the notions we might have of who he is. FATHER AND DAUGHTER: “Fathers & daughters are inseparable, especially when we’re together,” Bono writes about these good hugs. LIKE MUSIC TO THE EARS: “Elijah and I hear the same melody,” writes Bono, holding his son. HAIRY : “Hockeysveis in Madhattan is looking for and finds a girl who knows more about such things”, writes Bono about these pictures. GROUND CONTACT: “The ‘Lion King’ and his sandcastles godfather & godfather get a hug there is never a high tide”, writes Bono and showing his familial side. Happiness is, we are to believe Bono, sitting close together in a public transport bus in – the first tour car – in September 1980. According to Bono, the tour car was itself “the building block of the rock ‘n’ roll solar system”. It took them away from Dublin with all its gray poverty and harsh religious and political contradictions, and it’s nice to be a fly on the wall inside that bus. The main character is more of a fly in the ointment in this autobiography. In the chapter aptly called “The Fly”, he refers to himself as an “über-rock star”, “part Dada, part art attack, part Shakespearean fool”. Some of the creative madness that is a prerequisite for any creative process has survived the publishing machinery and shines through in the biography. “Surrender” is more of an improvised jazz song than a pop song with verse and chorus. Precisely for this reason, it has become an unusually well-planned music biography. news reviewer Photo: Cappelen Damm Title: “Surrender” Author: Paul David Hewson (Bono) Genre: Biography Translator: Gunnar Nyquist Publisher: Cappelen Damm Number of pages: 560 Date: Autumn 2022 Hi! I read and review literature in news. Please also read my review of “Kairos” by Jenny Erpenbeck, “Etterliv” by Abdulrazak Gurnah or Franz Kafka’s “The Process” translated by Jon Fosse.
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“Surrender” by Paul David Hewson (Bono) – Reviews and recommendations
