“The most banal couplets in history”: Bono on the corniest lyric he ever wrote

Posted On January 9, 2025January 9, 2025

Rock and roll has never run short on some dodgy lyrics from time to time. Even though there have been certain lines or entire verses of songs that have stood the test of time, others feel either like a product of their time or absolute gibberish compared to what most people are working with now. And while Bono has been no stranger to some lacklustre moments in U2, he even felt that he was responsible for some of the corniest lines that he had ever heard.

Then again, it’s hard to really judge what is and isn’t corny when it comes to U2. There are still plenty of pieces of their discography that make people cringe, but if they really believe in what they’re singing about, it’s hard to be all that cynical when they believe their music has the power to change the world when singing ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’.

And it’s not like they didn’t have the lyrical power to back them up most of the time. Even though their first few albums weren’t nearly as refined as what would come later, hearing them stick their necks out on the line on ‘New Year’s Day’ or sing about the heroism of someone like Martin Luther King Jr is still one of the best examples of rock and roll being used as a tool for good for the world.

When making The Joshua Tree, though, the band knew they needed to aim big, and ‘Where the Streets Have No Name’ was them staking their claim as one of the biggest acts in the world. The pieces for a classic are there, but when listening back to The Edge’s guitar, it feels like stepping into the future before Bono comes screaming in on the first verse.

For someone who had never heard U2 before, this could easily be considered a gateway song into their sound. Aside from having all of the pieces of their signature 1980s period, hearing Bono shriek about wanting to find a new version of the world just on the horizon feels like something that could have easily come out of Bruce Springsteen had he been born in Dublin instead of New Jersey.

But if there was one thing that should have been fleshed out a little more, Bono thought that the opening line was far from his best work, saying, “I can look at it now and recognise that ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’ has one of the most banal couplets in the history of pop music. But it also contains some of the biggest ideas. In a curious way, that seems to work. If you get any way heavy about these things, you don’t communicate. But if you’re flip or throwaway about it, then you do. That’s one of the paradoxes I’ve had to come to terms with.”

While Bono would learn that over time, the rest of the 1990s would see him start to forget about that ideal. Even though he had earned the right to do whatever the hell he wanted, seeing him try his best to take pop music seriously on Pop toes the line between being sincere and absolutely hilarious, depending on which part of the song you’re listening to.

Still, it’s hard to really pick out too much wrong with ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’. Some parts don’t work, but if you remove all of the window dressing, there’s a band at the core of this tune still ready to take on the world.

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