Mysterious Days

An Essay from Chuck Klosterman IV

Chuck Klosterman

• Publisher: Scribner
• Year: 2010
• eBook ISBN: 9781451624663
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music Theory & Appreciation

Originally collected in Chuck Klosterman IV and now available both as a stand-alone essay and in the ebook collection Chuck Klosterman on Pop, this essay is about U2.

(THIS HAPPENED IN)
OCTOBER

U2 is the most self-aware rock band in history. This generally works to their advantage.

There are myriad reasons why U2 has been successful, but the quality I found most relevant was the depth of their inwardly focused consciousness. They are not an inauthentic band, but they are also not an organic band; nothing about U2 is accidental. ABC sports broadcaster Al Michaels likes to tell an anecdote about howard Cosell: Michaels claims he once watched Cosell break up a fistfight between a couple of anonymous thugs. After it was over, Michaels asked Cosell how he found the guts to get involved in a random street brawl between two hyperaggressive maniacs, both of whom could have killed him. “I know who I am,” Cosell said in response. Bono is the same way; Bono knows who he is.

What Bono can see (and what so many other groups tend to miss) is the relationship between capitalism and freedom. U2 never had to worry about Island Records interfering with their musical vision because the band understands a very basic equation: as long as they make everyone money, they will be allowed to do whatever they want. It’s assumed that any time an entity becomes corporate, that entity loses its autonomy; this was not the case with U2. As U2 grew larger and larger, they actually became more free. When I met them in fall of 2004, they had a limitless kind of autonomy that surpassed any indie band on any independent label. I’ve never met a rock group more satisfied with the condition of their career.

Because Bono always behaves like he’s being filmed for a documentary, he gave me bushels of material. I think I was able to type this entire piece in less than an hour. However, the rest of the experience sucked. Dublin was cold and wet, and the pubs were filled with American tourists who didn’t understand how to be drunk in public. All my friends at SPIN told me that I would love Ireland and that complete strangers would want to make conversation at every bar I stumbled into; this only happened once, and the guy turned out to be a Norwegian white supremacist. I had one good meal, and it was at a Hard Rock Cafe. I should never go anywhere.

MYSTERIOUS DAYS
(DECEMBER 2004)

“The job of art is to chase away ugliness,” Bono tells me as he twists the ignition key of his Maserati Quattroporte. “So let’s start with the roads. Cars are so ugly. America is supposedly the country that brought us the love of the automobile, yet they haven’t produced a beautiful car in decades. Americans used to make feminine cars with a sense of humor, but now it’s all SUVs. The Germans kind of picked up the slack for a while, but the Italians ultimately were the ones that took them on. But the Italians pick such arrogant names. Do you know what Quattroporte means? Four-door. It means four-door.”

Bono laughs, and I pretend to understand why this is funny. I’m not sure why an expository word like quattro-porte would seem pretentious, but I certainly can’t disagree with his core argument: thi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Mysterious Days
• More by Chuck Klosterman