"... And when he smiles the sun comes out"

Happy Birthday, Larry!

The founder and "baby" of U2 turned 54 today
(Though he clearly hasn't aged a day since 18)

I have been very interested in the interactions and relationships of the members of U2. By the end of September 2016 they will have been together for 40 years. Most interesting to me is the way these men talk about one another. They joke and tease one another and no relationship seems more abrasive than that between Bono and Larry.  Truth be told, when you get them to be serious and speak from the heart the reality seems that they may be the closest two in the band.

We all know, particularly with this most recent album and the song 'Iris', that Bono lost his mother at the age of 14.  Perhaps less known is that two years later in that first year these four young men are together as a band, Larry's mother died in a car crash. The way Larry speaks of how Bono helped him through shows the strength of their friendship:

"He came around to my house and just said, "Look, I understand what's going on, because it happened to me, and maybe I can help you. And that was --you know, and he, he basically forced me to be in the band. When I say that, I mean, he, he wouldn't let me go.
And uh, during the early years, being on the road, I mean, I was eighteen and nineteen, and I was scared, you know? I really was scared. I-I knew nothing about what I was entering, I had no idea. And, and I don't think he did either, but he was just a lot more streetwise than I was. and at times it just got really hard and he was always there, he was always around, always just -- he wouldn't even have to say anything, just, I knew that he knew, he knew what was going on, and he understood what was going on. It's been a long relationship and it's based on very deep things, and Bono's probably the only person in the world who could really hurt me, and I would be able to stand back and go, It's fine, it's okay, I could deal with it."

Then, of course there's the quote I have on the photo above, Bono speaking of Larry: "Our quartermaster, our conscience, our thunder, our lightning, and when he smiles the sun comes out."  Bono was introducing the band on stage at the September 12th, 2009 stop of the 360 tour in Chicago.  That quote has captivated my attention, it doesn't even so much captivate me as a description of Larry but as something one friend would say about another. To add power to it Larry is often called "Sullen Mullen" he's not known for smiling too often. What I hear this one friend saying of the other is that while his job is to be this "thunder and lightning" and his power and energy behind that is amazing, the joy in his smile is even more powerful.

What is clear is that while the public are most familiar with Bono, or possibly even The Edge, Bono is very aware that U2 needs every member. They may joke or bicker, but at the end of the day they not only need one another for the music they need one another's friendship.  This knowledge sparks and interest in me to listen deeper.  How much attention do you pay to the backing vocals on U2's music? True story: The Edge's voice is clearer than Bono's, perhaps because he doesn't use it as much, but it is. That doesn't make Bono less necessary, his voice is different and causes a different effect. I'd love for The Edge to sing more on U2 albums, but it would be a different sound at a point it might be "too clean" and wouldn't have the same effect.  Larry sings backing vocals too, occasionally he plays a bit of keyboard.  I haven't spent enough time to really clearly hear Adam on base yet, but I intend to, decades back they had to do a show without him in Australia and said they never want to do that again. Fans might not have noticed, but they guys did and they didn't like it.

U2 fan or not there must be something to learn about the sort of partnership and friendship that lasts within a peer-relationship of 4 people for nearly 40 years (and counting).

An illustration of this, here are U2 performing Yahweh and 40 before leaving stage.  I love 40 as an ending song for the show with each one slowly dropping away and exiting the stage leaving Larry to carry out the end of the beat, moving into a drum solo and then exiting himself.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------

The quote from Larry is found in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUHpEhmz-2E
The quote from Bono is found in this video: https://youtu.be/FsHnbOiI7Qo