Pressure to look macho led a young Bono to hide his love of Abba, the U2 singer has said.
He said he lacked the courage to own up to liking the Swedish pop group at a time when his contemporaries were listening to punk, but was now able to see that he had, in fact, been thankful for the music all along.
Bono spoke alongside the U2 lead guitarist, The Edge, 61, during an hour-long special for BBC Radio 2’s Piano Room, where they played songs from their new album, Songs of Surrender.
Citing examples of musicians who would not necessarily have been considered cool by people with whom he associated in his youth, the singer said he had always appreciated the Bee Gees.
He said John Lennon had been vocal about his own love of that group, before adding: “But there’s a bit of a macho: ‘I don’t want to own up to Abba’. But I’ll tell you what, they’re just better songs. You can’t be empirical about everything in art.”
Bono said the music of Abba was like “the national anthem for young mothers” when they were growing up around Dublin in the 1970s. “Certainly, at closing time at our local pub, often young women would sing Thank You for the Music, and I would sing it and I was very thankful for the music.
“But I was like, what is this phenomenon? This is before their musicals and all that. What is going on with Abba?”
The Edge said: “We’re big fans of this Scandinavian band, appreciators of their work in a way that grew over years. We are fans of the Bee Gees, which people wouldn’t have imagined.
“We’re fans of lots of great songwriters who aren’t necessarily seen as very hip, and I guess we’re just appreciators of their work.”
Bono said he had told one of their current recording band “that I didn’t have the courage to own up to this next band when I was 16 in the middle of punk rock”.
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He added: “But I did get to the Bee Gees and I was ready to own up to [the songs] Massachusetts and Tragedy – I mean these are just crazy good.”
Bono also recalled inviting the Abba co-songwriter Benny Andersson on stage with U2 during a show in Stockholm in 1992, joking that they had “murdered” the track Dancing Queen with their cover.
