Time and time again, hindsight proves to be a funny old thing. Today, U2's With or Without You and Where the Streets Have No Name are two of the biggest rock songs in the world – the former’s one billion Spotify streams will attest to that – but both songs were due to be left on the cutting room floor, if it weren’t for The Edge’s electric guitar parts.
The revelation has come from a recent interview with author and U2 superfan Aaron J. Sams, who has penned the book U2: Song by Song, detailing the backstories of the band’s discography.
Speaking to Booked On Rock, Sams explained how With or Without You was saved, in part, by an extremely rare Fender.
“At one point, they talked about walking away from that song,” he says (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar). “The breakthrough came when the Edge was given a prototype [Fender] Infinite Guitar.
“When the band was ready to abandon the song, [Irish songwriter] Gavin Friday convinced Bono to take it away and work on it a little bit further, but in the meantime, Edge was noodling around with this Infinite Guitar.
“There were only two or three of those guitars created. A Canadian [Michael Brook] came up with that invention. And somewhere along the way, Bono brought back what he had been working on, Edge brought back what he had been working on, and they smushed it all together and out came With or Without You. I don't think you could go anywhere in 1987 and not hear that song on the radio.”
The Infinite Guitar was condemned to a less-than-infinite fate, but its role in shaping the song represents its biggest contribution to the music world. The Edge’s shimmering leads helped the song ascend to new heights, saving it from the band’s graveyard of failed songs.
Similarly, Where the Streets Have No Name – another U2 classic – may not have enjoyed the success it has had if producer Brian Eno, who had little faith in the track, had gotten his way. Instead, engineer Pat McCarthy was the song’s savior.
“Brian Eno was getting ready to throw that one into the garbage, and one of the engineers rescued it that day and said, 'No, no. We're going to pull that aside,'” Sams details.
He adds that the band “thought they had something special there, but they couldn't get to the finish line”, and so, buoyed by McCarthy’s passion, they took it back to the drawing board.
“I'm so glad they did because if there's a moment in their live show that I never want to do without,” Sams smiles. “It is being able to turn around when the lights come up during Where the Streets Have No Name and looking at the faces behind you. It's pure joy in the audience when that song is being performed.”
Once more, the Irish guitarist, who has become one of the most high-profile converts to digital amps in recent years, and his crafty employment of the delay effect revitalized the track.
It’s hard to imagine what the band’s seismic 1987 LP, The Joshua Tree, would have been like without the two songs. Fate, though, so often intervenes and, like it was for U2, turns those fleeting ideas into chart-destroying mega jams.
The Edge recently put one of his signature Stratocasters up for auction, raising an estimated $75,000 for Venice Family Clinic's mission to fund critical healthcare services in LA.
Speaking to Guitar World in 2016 about the creation of the signature guitar, he said: “I wasn't slavishly trying to recreate a ’70s instrument. I just knew the aspects that I loved and wanted to preserve, and then I wanted to see if I could improve them. I was really delving into the nuance of why a guitar sounds the way it does.”
