Do you remember how last week I wept all over the place about the magnificent development in the middle bridge of U2's "Mysterious Ways"?
What's funny is that, in the full-throttle effort to complete that song, the band nearly broke up, doubting their very ability to write good music anymore. They were in completely uncharted territory and had no idea what to trust anymore. It turns out they were just giving birth to some of the greatest songwriting to ever come about. Understandable, I guess, if they just assumed they were falling apart.
What's mind-blowing is that at one point, the middle bridge of "Mysterious Ways" was possibly going to be what became the verse of another momentous song - "One." They had both options, couldn't decide. These guys, clawing for belief in themselves while on the clock recording an album, were actually sitting on two of the best musical sequences they ever put together, and had merely to pick one for the bridge of "Mysterious Ways" and bump the other out to be the germ of another unmitigated classic. It was staring them in the face, but they nearly missed it and let it all slip away. Breakthroughs are so very often waiting on the outskirts of breakdowns.
The disunity of the band at this stage contributed to the ideas in the lyrics. But there are greater resonances: The band was recording in Germany in 1990, just as West and East Germany were reunifying into the country we know today. Say what you will about 9/11; the end of the Cold War and the reunification of Germany are THE historical events defining our age and all of our lives every day.
But rather than writing some saccharine ballad about how everything was going to be hunky dory utopian from that point on, Bono decided to look at the more practical way most unities tend to function at any level: nation, band, marriage. It's not about perfect harmony, some blissful "oneness." It's about having a mature acknowledgement of differences, and a will to work beyond them to help each other.
"We're one, but we're not the same
We get to carry each other, carry each other"
Not "We GOT to carry each other," as some people mis-hear.
"We GET to carry each other." We are thrown into this world together. We will sink or swim together. This is what we get - it's not a question about our will to do it or not. Necessity tops will.
Like Al Green's "Let's Stay Together," this is not a "love" song. It's a "staying together" song. And I think there is a greater strength in the realism of this than in any heady momentary rushes you get latching onto the highs and dizzy flashes of infatuation. This song often gets played at weddings for very innocent reasons. But this song gains all its depth as the anniversaries pass by. It's a song of endurance, acknowledging that expecting perfection is not ideal - and loving the resolute, profound survival of your "one."
U2 simply stayed together through this creative process. This was no honeymoon for anyone. And look, they did their best work, something they can look back on and say they survived to create together. Now you can see them in concert for $25,000 a ticket. They win.