While Bono grabs a lot of the spotlight, it’s not a stretch to say that The Edge’s guitar work is the defining sonic characteristic of the music of U2. Born David Evans, he stands as one of the most iconic rock guitarists of his time. But did you know that Edge is also a pretty prolific songwriter as well?
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Obviously, he’s been helping compose smashes for U2 ever since the band burst onto the scene. But there have also been times when he’s stepped outside the group, with Bono as his co-writer, and penned important songs for others. Take a look at five of the most famous examples.
1. “When Love Comes to Town” by U2 with B.B. King
Written by Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr.
B.B. King’s reputation among blues fans never wavered. But in the MTV-dominated ‘80s, many younger rock and pop fans had little idea who he was. U2, via a song featuring lyrics by Bono and music by the Edge and the rest of the band (Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr.) helped to rectify that. “When Love Comes to Town” was featured in Rattle and Hum (1998), the band’s somewhat muddled mixture of live album and studio record that was intended to honor the American music that they loved. While their efforts on that latter front might have come up short elsewhere on the record, there’s no denying that they delivered a powerhouse when they hooked up with King. The band sounds at their hardest-rocking best, with The Edge playing more of a rhythmic role so that King could wail away on lead. As for King himself, “When Love Comes to Town,” which did great at radio and featured a video that played in heavy rotation on MTV, gave him a huge boost in popularity with younger audience members.
2. ”She’s A Mystery to Me” by Roy Orbison
Written by Bono and the Edge
When word got out in the mid-‘80s that Roy Orbison was making a new album intended as a kind of comeback record, the cream of the crop of rock songwriters got involved. Jeff Lynne, who would join Orbison in the Traveling Wilburys, co-wrote and produced three of the songs, Tom Petty (another Wilbury) helped out on two, and Elvis Costello contributed “The Comedians.” But it was Bono and the Edge who wrote the song that would give the album its title (Mystery Girl.) Bono started writing “She’s a Mystery to Me” one morning after waking up to a tape playing Orbison’s “In Dreams.” After playing it for the band early in the day, he was stunned when Orbison visited U2 after a concert that same night looking for material. Before the next time they met, Bono enlisted the Edge’s help to complete the track. The end result was a song that managed to throw back to Orbison’s classic weepers while keeping a modern edge.
3. “The Wanderer” by U2 starring Johnny Cash
Written by Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr.
The entire band received a composing credit for this track, with Bono composing the lyrics. It appears as the closing track to Zooropa (1993), which found U2 continuing with the sense of experimentation that had characterized Achtung Baby, their smash from two years earlier. While the results were mixed, “The Wanderer” proved to be a haunting closing song. U2 reached out to Johnny Cash to perform the song, while Bono did his own version of the vocal as well. Apparently, there was serious discussion among the band and producers Flood and Brian Eno about which version should be used. But Bono insisted that Cash could be the only choice to play a lonely man on a journey into a world where the fact that there’s been an apocalypse seems to be the least of its problems. Like they did with Roy Orbison and “She’s a Mystery Girl,” the Edge and company manage to update Cash’s signature sound without losing its essence. U2 played it live at a 2005 tribute concert to Cash and hasn’t played it since.
4. “Goldeneye” by Tina Turner
Written by Bona and the Edge
With U2 in between albums in the mid-‘90s, Bono and the Edge decided to take on some extracurricular activities. Writing the theme song to a James Bond film would turn out to be one of the more high-profile projects they took on after Zooropa and before Pop. They chose not to perform the song but got the chance to author it when Depeche Mode, the producers’ first choice, backed out. And what better artist to get to sing the song than the legendary Tina Turner? Unfortunately, the story goes that, in a haste to get Turner something to check out, Bono and the Edge threw together a shabbily produced demo that didn’t do justice to what they had in their heads. When Turner heard it, she very nearly walked away from the project. Luckily, Bono pleaded with her to give the pair another chance and to trust that their vision would be realized. She agreed, and once he and the Edge gave it a polish and Turner found her way into it, the finished version of “Goldeneye” became one of the most beloved Bond theme songs of all time.
5. “Rise Above 1” by Reeve Carney featuring Bono & the Edge
Written by Bono and the Edge
Who knew that the Irishmen in U2 were such huge fans of American superheroes? The band delivered an outstanding theme song to the 1995 film Batman Forever (“Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me.”) About a decade later, Bono and the Edge would embark on an even more ambitious undertaking by composing the music and lyrics for Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, a musical adaptation of the famous comic-book webslinger’s exploits. Unfortunately, the musical is now known today as a classic Broadway folly, as the project was hampered by delays, cost overruns, and even technical issues that proved a bit dangerous for those performing the on-stage stunts. But one thing that tended to get good reviews when all was said and done was the music. “Rise Above 1,” a song from the show performed by Reeve Carney, who played Spider-Man in the original cast, along with appearances from the U2 members, even snuck into the Top 100 when it was released as a single in 2011.
Photo by Jo Hale/Redferns
