{"id":521342,"date":"2026-04-09T11:44:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T11:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/521342\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T11:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T11:44:13","slug":"the-song-bono-wishes-he-had-written-and-claimed-anyway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/521342\/","title":{"rendered":"The song Bono wishes he had written and claimed anyway"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bono<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ MUBI)<\/p>\n

Thu 9 April 2026 6:56, UK <\/p>\n

While they might be one of the biggest bands in history, it is also true that U2<\/a> aren\u2019t for everyone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They might have sold over 170million albums, but a similar number of folks think that the only way they could carry a tune is if you put a radio in a suitcase. That\u2019s maybe how rock \u2018n\u2019 roll is supposed to be. Maybe it is at its best when it ruffles feathers. After all, a fair few behemoths of the genre have done just that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In recent years, Noel Gallagher has become the leading fanboy of the Bono appreciation club. He has even recognised that, given the divisive nature of U2, many would actually title him a Bono apologist. \u201cIf you don\u2019t get it,\u201d the swaggering Manc songwriter proclaims, \u201cmore fool you.\u201d Technically, given Liam Gallagher\u2019s scathing remarks about the \u2018Beautiful Day\u2019 band, he\u2019s calling his brother a fool with that quip.<\/p>\n

Evidently, this love-in flows both ways. While Noel Gallagher might \u201cget a bit frustrated when people are like \u2018I don\u2019t like U2\u2019,\u201d his brother included, Bono has also purveyed the magnitude of Oasis that some dismiss as lacking depth. From the outside looking in, if there is one thing that truly bonds Bono and Noel beyond the boozy nights they now share, it is that they are old-school rock stars in the traditional, sun-glasses indoors definition of the term.<\/p>\n

Swagger and showmanship are never in short supply in either team\u2019s ranks. Inspired by the bravura of The Beatles and the Stones, both U2 and Oasis looked to bring some of the 1960s edgy sprightliness back to music when they broke onto the scene a few decades down the line. The working class groups looked to illuminate the joyous side of the human experience in a way that prompted white van radios to be turned up to maximum.<\/p>\n

\"Oasis<\/a>(Credits: Harriett Kbols)Which Oasis song did Bono wish he had written?<\/p>\n

This invigorating appeal to the proletariat is precisely why Bono wishes he wrote the Oasis classic \u2018Live Forever\u2019 \u2013 a song he says is about the thrills of life in a band. In an open letter to Noel Gallagher in which he wrote about the Britpop classic, Bono said: \u201cI think you\u2019re the same as me, we see things they\u2019ll never see\u2019 I don\u2019t know what this song is about.\u201d <\/p>\n

Before adding, \u201cI don\u2019t want to know. I know you wrote this song but it belongs to me\u2026 well, it doesn\u2019t really, it belongs to us\u2026 or anyone who was ever in a band.\u201d In his view, \u2018Live Forever\u2019 is about the bold immortality snatched by lucky lads who drink and drive around the land accidentally etching their name in history with resonant hits. <\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cCause whatever you say, this song is about being in a band. And it\u2019s us against the world\u2026a very different feeling from me against the world. The last gang in town versus the man alone. I love the singing and the playing and the lyric and Liam and Noel and Tony and the two Pauls\u2026 I love it all\u2026 and now I don\u2019t need to live forever as much.\u201d Concluding that it lies among the few classic tracks he\u2019s so envious of that he wishes he could claim it as his own.<\/p>\n

As for the mystery of what it is about, Bono is half-right in opining that it\u2019s about life in a band. Or rather it is about life in certain bands \u2013 those that make music with joie de vivre at the forefront. \u201cIt was written in the middle of grunge,\u201d Noel told NME. <\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cNirvana had a tune called \u2018I Hate Myself And I Want To Die\u2019. I was like, \u2018I\u2019m not f\u2013king having that,\u2019 Kids don\u2019t need to hear that nonsense. Here was a guy who had everything and was miserable about it. We had f\u2013k all, and I still thought getting up in the morning was the greatest f\u2013king ever.\u201d So, from his perch as a roadie for Inspiral Carpets, he set about capturing that joy and spreading it to the people with his own fledgling band.<\/p>\n

The band\u2019s best?<\/p>\n

It is also both Oasis brothers\u2019 favourite Oasis track. As Liam told Q in 2008: \u201cI think the words still mean something powerful. You talk about Oasis capturing a spirit, and I think that song is how a lot of people feel when they\u2019re down on their luck. I think I first heard it in the Boardwalk in Manchester when our kid (Noel Gallagher) was trying it out.\u201d <\/p>\n

An uncharacteristically sentimental Liam continues, \u201cEven when we\u2019re starting it now I always feel like we\u2019re going to perform our best version of it. It makes me think of me mam. And it\u2019s the song that makes me feel I have the best job in the band. I may not have written it but I get to sing it. It\u2019s weird cos it\u2019s outlasted other tunes<\/a>.\u201d As a firm fixture in their recent reunion tour, it\u2019s hard not to succumb to the painfully cheesy line that the song itself might live forever. Yuck.<\/p>\n

Yet, that\u2019s certainly what the band seem to think. Noel later gave his own testimony when he told Q in 2011 with no small degree of pride, \u201cWith every song that I write, I compare it to The Beatles. I\u2019ve got semi-close once or twice, with \u2018Live Forever,\u2019 for example\u2026 the solo on that is one of the greatest things in rock music.\u201d Bono clearly agrees, as do a few hundred thousand people who listen to it every week.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE \"\"\/ <\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ MUBI) Thu 9 April 2026 6:56, UK While they might be one of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[10864,96,128,1769,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-521342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-bono","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-oasis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}