The Meaning Behind U2’s “Even Better Than the Real Thing”

Following the release of Rattle and Hum, U2 received a backlash.

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Whatever punk rock origins or ethos they had come from had given way to a humorless and self-serious approach to rock music. Yes, The Joshua Tree was (and remains) a masterpiece but after too much exposure, the band needed to change.

The world had changed too. Germany had reunified following the collapse of the Berlin Wall. But U2, like a small country, was bogged down by internal conflict. Uncertain over their creative direction, the band struggled and risked breaking up entirely.

Instead of quitting, they persevered and made another masterpiece, Achtung Baby. The Irish band’s reimagined sound can be heard on “Even Better Than the Real Thing.” It’s driven by The Edge’s piercing guitar riff, which sounds almost like a warning. Maybe it was.

The Real Thing

U2 co-opted a Coca-Cola marketing slogan for a song about commercialism. Bono said the track reflected “the times we were living in when people were no longer looking for the truth, we are all looking for instant gratification.”

Well, my heart is where it’s always been
My head is somewhere in between
Give me one more chance
Let me be your lover tonight

He also hints at sex and the kind of carnal impulse “to have fun playing in the shallows.” In the band’s autobiography U2 by U2, Bono said, “There is a moment when you want to read a magazine, not a novel. It was nice to take some of the more fun bits of rock ’n’ roll. We really needed that playful thing to balance what was at the heart of the album and make the bitter pill a little sweeter to swallow.”

You’re honey, child, to a swarm of bees
Gonna blow right through you like a breeze
Give me one last dance
We’ll slide down the surface of things

The Edge Discovers a New Sound

The Edge’s iconic guitar riff dates back to the Rattle and Hum era. But it took on a new life when he purchased a Digitech Whammy Pedal. The pitch-shifting effect transformed the old riff into something cold and digital.

U2, working with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, reinvented their sound on Achtung Baby. And it created a blueprint for future rock bands to follow with experimental records of their own. (See Radiohead’s Kid A and Coldplay’s Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends.)

But U2 also drew inspiration from David Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy. They worked at Hansa Studios in Berlin, where Eno had worked with Bowie on Low, Heroes, and Lodger. (Iggy Pop also recorded Lust for Life at the same studio.)

The Berlin Wall finally came down in 1989, and a very different Europe emerged. The geopolitical events shaped U2, and their turn toward electronic and dance music reflected a Eurocentric sound. On Rattle and Hum, they explored the past and American blues and early rock and roll. But Achtung Baby finds U2 pushing the genre into the future.

Zoo TV

U2 used irony as an instrument to buoy their great reinvention. Bono absorbed the absurdity of the rock star and broadcast it onto giant video screens in stadiums around the world.

The lines blurred between whether he was poking fun at the absurdity or succumbing to it. “Even Better Than the Real Thing” and its Coca-Cola slogan distill the experiment in a single song.

Meanwhile, Bono reveled in the mythology. He used it to make his point. But it also made U2 the biggest rock band on the planet.

We’re free to fly the crimson sky
The sun won’t melt our wings tonight

Photo by Ari Mintz/ Newsday RM via Getty Images