If Bono, the face of award-winning Irish iconic band U2, was stranded in a desert island, he said he’d take with him one 1981 track that “just connects me to the eternal”.
During his revealing 2022 appearance on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs – programme in which guests pick their eight favourite songs ever – the rocker named a Bob Dylan track – not one of the famous protest anthems, not the ones shouted through loudspeakers at rallies – but a quiet, spiritual ballad as his ultimate favourite.
‘Every Grain of Sand’ was recorded during one of Dylan’s most controversial and least commercially successful periods: his born-again Christian era. Released on Shot of Love, ‘Every Grain of Sand’ stands in stark contrast to the fire-and-brimstone evangelism of the rest of the album. Instead, it’s a meditative, almost whispered reflection about mortality, failure, and the search for grace.
In the episode, Bono recalled walking to Piccadilly earlier that day, passing a small church designed by Christopher Wren, and spotting a plaque noting that William Blake was baptised there.
Bono made the connection instantly: Blake’s words — “To see a world in a grain of sand…” – must have been echoing in Dylan’s mind as he wrote the song. “This must have been, in Bob Dylan, the back of his mind,” he said.
Bono isn’t alone in recognising its power. Dylan biographer Clinton Heylin has called it “one of his most intensely personal songs, it also remains one of his most universal” And even Dylan himself reportedly held it in high regard, frequently including it in his live sets during the ’80s and again in the. early 2000s.
‘Every Grain of Sand’ has since become something of a cult favourite, a hidden spiritual gem buried in Dylan’s expansive catalogue. To make it, Dylan had reportedly been reading the works of theologian Hal Lindsey at the time and was reflecting deeply on sin and redemption.
Since then, it never became a hit in the charts, but it has grown steadily in reputation – frequently appearing in critical lists of Dylan’s best deep cuts. Rolling Stone included it in their ranking of his top 100 songs, while fans have long traded stories of how the song offered comfort during loss or direction in moments of doubt.
“We’re on an island” Bono said during the programme. “And this song, this very song, it just anchors me to something bigger.”
Across his eight selected tracks, the U2 frontman offered glimpses into his musical journey. Peter Frampton’s ‘Show Me the Way’ took Bono straight back to his high school gym: “We were crap” he admitted, recalling his early attempts at singing rock music. “A teenage boy turned this song into a prayer.”
Emeli Sandé and The Fron Choir’s ‘Abide With Me’ was an exmaple of Bono’s love for choirs: “I love the Anglican hymns, you know, I just do. And I love choral singing. […] And [Emily Santé] is a sacred talent.”
Noel Gallagher’s ‘Dead in the Water’ may not seem like the type of song one would want to take to a desert island – for obvious reasons – but while Bono admitted the choice would be “a litle bleak”, he added: “There’s some defiance in the song, and defiance is the essence of romance.”
Inhaler’s ‘Ice Cream Sundae’, from his son Elijah’s band, made the list too. “They’re very good. My son happens to be the singer. This is, I think, the first song he wrote, and it’s got this mad opening line.”
Angélique Kidjo’s ‘Agolo’ was chosen for its unfiltered joy. “I think joy is one of the key elements of music that keeps me there. You know, it’s almost impossible to contrive. Happy, you can’t contrive. Melancholy is easy for artists. Even anger is kind of easy in a way. But joy, you can’t contrive.”
Verdi’s ‘La Traviata – Prelude to Act 1’ struck a more personal note. Bono’s late father, Bob, loved opera – especially Verdi. “This one used to bring my father to wherever he went”, Bono shared. The opera, he explained, is partly about a love affair but also about a son and a father.
And finally, Simple Minds’ ‘Someone Somewhere in Summertime’, which Bono described as a beacon of hope: “Very few people get to own a sound. And I think in U2, we’ve gotten to own certain colours of the spectrum that we own or certain feelings that I think are ours” he said. “Some of them are from Simple Minds. We learned from them.”