U2 frontman Bono has included two songs by Canadian acts in a list of 60 songs “that saved my life.”
The singer, who celebrated his 60th on May 10, compiled the list for Rolling Stone. Bono explained he chose songs “I couldn’t have lived without… the ones that got me from there to here, zero to 60… through all the scrapes, all manner of nuisance, from the serious to the silly… and the joy, mostly joy.”
For each selection, Bono penned a “fan letter.” His list includes tracks by everyone from Nirvana and Pearl Jam to Madonna and Lady Gaga.
Among the songs that saved Bono’s life are 2004’s “Wake Up” by Montreal’s Arcade Fire and 1989’s “The Maker” by Gatineau, Quebec native Daniel Lanois.
Bono called “Wake Up” an “extraordinary composition” that makes him “want to take a p**s” every time he hears it. “U2 walked on to this song 131 times on the Vertigo Tour,” he explained. “But I have walked out of countless rooms where it was just on in the back ground and for the same reason, it’s like a siren beckoning me to be better than I am… telling the band they can go everywhere tonight… telling the world to WAKE UP.”
Bono praised Lanois (a frequent U2 collaborator) as “a priest of music.” He wrote: “You marshal the chaos, and turn it not exactly into order… but something beautiful. The beauty of truth, as the man said.”
Click here to see all of Bono's picks and read his full notes on each.