They may be from the same country, but The Pogues and U2 are worlds apart. Where Shane MacGowan worked with the muddy realism and Celtic rock tones, the Bono-fronted band found themselves operating on a pop-appreciating plane. Both are excellent at what they did, and the limited crossovers between the two make it all the more surprising to hear U2 tackle Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. A cover for the 20th Century Paddy album that has so far seen the likes of Bruce Springsteen and The Libertines tackle his rich discography. The band’s first charting US single is adapted away from the simpler rock structure of the original, and the big band appeal is removed. Instead, we get U2 and Bono throwing their heart into adapting the song a little further along from a plain tribute. 20th Century Paddy is no doubt filled of good-intentioned adaptations of MacGowan’s work, but the best will be those that find a new meaning or focus on a lesser-loved angle. U2 does that here.
A song of clear lust and want sounds just right with the charm MacGowan had with his gruff vocals. It’s a song that still stands tall despite the simplicity. That simplicity is the beauty of the original, with the refreshing instrumentals and saxophone breaks an utterly charmed development for The Pogues at the time. A tremendous, catchy track with all the rock and pop sensibilities of the 1980s and a charming way to start their US chart rise. U2’s cover, on the other hand, is a tinny-sounding overhaul where Bono and the band are convinced instrumental changes are what need to take place. It hasn’t got the punchiness of the original, nor should it. Bono is all about the soft touch now, the delicacy of what a lighter, flourishing instrumental can do. Or, rather, what a perceived lighter instrumental can do. He cannot stop The Edge from flowing through this song with a relatively wonderful guitar riff. It’s the standout of the song.
U2 aren’t trying to make Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah their own here. They’re all about anthems and stripping back their own material to a point of reflection. You can’t quite do that with The Pogues, not in the manner U2 attempts, anyway. It’s a nice piece of work in the sense that it harms nobody involved, not even the listener, which has been a rarity for U2 in the last five years. It just feels a touch too simplistic. That titular chant is a call to arms for The Pogues, but for Bono, it’s a piece of repetition that hardly conveys a different message or defining moment. A song that’s over before you can get into it, and that’s down to the instrumental changes. But it’s The Edge who brings out some much-needed context for the lighter structure.
Bono may have an interest in that pop side of life and has stood firm with it the last twenty years, but The Edge dug a little deeper into MacGowan for this one. He called him a musician of “contradictions”, and he’s right. This is a chance to hear a lighter side to the same song, a tone that is buried within The Pogues’ original but never tapped into to this extent. MacGowan was a man of multitudes but would focus on the harsher, Celtic rock style because it suited his voice. Bono is no longer suited to that sound but gives it an honest shot with the rest of U2 on Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah. Having artists of considerable calibre come together to keep the message alive, that’s as touching a tribute as there ever will be. U2 joins the call to do just that, and they do a solid job.
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