Achtung Baby Packs a Punch

To call 1991 a busy year would be a gross understatement. While the nation was still transitioning from the not-so-subtle 1980s, news of great significance was being made every day around the globe.

For instance, the Persian Gulf War came to an exhaustive end, South African Parliament abolished Apartheid laws and Russia elected its first president, Boris Yeltsin. And if that weren’t enough, out of the entire decade 1991 was quite possibly the best year for music, as well. It saw the release of monumental records such as Metallica’s self-named Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Pearl Jam’s Ten and of course, Nirvana’s revolutionary release Nevermind. Oh, I almost forgot, there was one other particularly good release that year. What was it again?…It was something foreign sounding…German maybe…oh yeah! It was U2’s Achtung Baby!

U2 may have just chosen the worst possible year to release a stellar album. With a nation already transfixed by the otherworldly funkiness of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the entirely new grunge assault of Nirvana, there was no more room for greatness. The grunge movement had drained all musical curiosity from music fans dry to the last drop. So when Achtung Baby was released in November of that year, U2 found themselves bewildered by weak sales and little hype for an album they thought be to nothing short of spectacular. They were right.

Frustrated by harsh criticism for Achtung Baby’s predecessor Rattle and Hum, the band was not in a good state: sales were low and moral was even worse. Determined to get themselves out of this depressing slump, they took a drastic detour out of their comfort zone.

Seeking musical inspiration that would electrify their souls and reignite the musical creativity inside of them, they set out for Berlin, Germany, a nation thriving on a new found and long overdue personal and political freedom. The trip was successful, and U2 created an album surging with electricity. European influences of industrial, electronic and techno flood the entire album. Distorted guitar riffs and dynamic percussion assault your ears while Bono’s voice takes on a raw and intimate aspect never before heard. U2 was suddenly transformed from earnest rockers to post-modern art-pop stars. Achtung Baby redefined the band and as Rolling Stone put it, “quite simply put them back in the running for the greatest rock band in the world.”

Even though a lengthy 20 years has gone by since its initial release, Achtung Baby hasn’t aged a bit. It still surges with that energy and authority it found in Berlin.

Luckily, U2 decided to reissue this album. Working alongside Universal Records, the album will be released in five very different packages, ranging from a reissue of the original album with no bonus material to the Uber Deluxe Edition, which features (take a deep breath) six CDs, five Vinyls, four DVDs, 16 art prints, an 84 page hardcover booklet, a magazine, four badges, a sticker sheet and a pair of sunglasses worn by Bono. College students beware: to have this mammoth set, be prepared to fork over a hefty $500. I’d leave that one to the wealthy and die-hard fans.

Back in 1991, U2 was robbed of the praise and acclaim they deserved for their innovative masterpiece. Its release was greatly overshadowed by new and more popular acts that brought a different and original sound to the musical landscape.

Luckily, with the 20th anniversary reissue set to hit shelves, fans and new listeners alike can listen to Achtung Baby in a new light, a light all its own and will finally discover the innovation that fans 20 years ago failed to recogniz

And Love is

is not the only thing you leave behind. Sometimes life gives you a chance to review and look over some of your walk in’s and walk outs.  Bono made reference to death during a Rolling Stone interview in 2001. 

“If you’ve ever had a fright in your life, someone close to you dies, or whatever, things come into sharp focus and you just…suddenly some people become more important to you than others. Some ideas become more important to you than others. I think the Dalai Lama says, ‘Begin with death, start from there, and you won’t go far wrong.’ I don’t think he was just having a bad day. Christ says, I think, in the sermon on the mount, ‘If you love your life too much, you’ve already lost it.’ Which is an interesting one. As a younger man I remember I didn’t understand what he meant, because I loved life. You’re holding on so tight to it that you’re incapable of doing anything with it. It’s about fear.” - Bono, Rolling Stone 2001

The song was written about and dedicated to Aung San Suu Kyi. It is written in the form of a supporting, uplifting anthem, praising her for her activism and fighting for freedom in Burma. She had been intermittently under house arrest since 1989 for her efforts. Due to the political message of the album, those attempting to import the album, All That You Can’t Leave Behind, into Burma could face a prison sentence lasting between three and twenty years.

The title of All That You Can’t Leave Behind come from the lyrics of this song: The only baggage you can bring / is all that you can’t leave behind. “Walk On” was originally two different songs that, according to Adam Clayton, had great riffs but sounded terrible separately. The band combined them, and ended up with one of their most critically praised songs.

The fear sometimes keeps you from doing anything of meaning. The fear that holds you back can be viewed as your prision. Letting go and opening yourself to the possiblity of lifes little joys.  We hold our self back often because of the unknowen yet its the future we beleve in. The future that that we always reference as something we want.

So what does “Walk On” mean to you?  Could it be about heaven ?  Could it be about just leting go and becoming free to enjoy all of your life. I would believe that “God only gives you what you can handle” So the reference you can only take so much can be a looked upon as just that your awarness of what you can handle is just in line with God.

Whatever meaning the song takes for you. One thing is very clear. You

U2 and My Faith

Living faith doesn’t stop asking living questions, and that’s one reason why it’s living faith. And that’s also why U2 works as a group that produces Christian music without having to be labeled an officially Christian band. They’ve pegged the genre of rock-n-roll like no one since the Beatles have. The fact is, there’s no better medium to talk about the hidden God and his theodicy than the art form whose specialty is alienation, loneliness and longing. Even in, especially in, its doubts, rock-n-roll music can give glory to the Lord

U2's Hidden Gem

By Dre  

Often I find myself listening to U2 lyrics to find that hidden gem. I find that listening to U2 gives me hope, faith and renewed sense that people are good.  Often I reminded that U2 music is more than words on a sheet that some deep thought has gone into the lyric.   As I was traveling the other day, I had a chance to read an article by Brett Warner that was just refreshing and full of possibility.  The team has been writing for weeks about Achtung Baby and how you really should pick up your own copy, small plug for us. Every time you make a purchase on Amazon from our links, you are helping fund this project. So thank you for your continued support.   Now back to Brett and his article.  He dusted off a gem that I had forgotten about. “The First Time” We all know the story that Achtung Baby was the successor to Zooropra was to be the EP that promotes the fourth leg of the massive production Zoo TV.

I had to revisit the song and as Brett states this is song is pure amazing, deep dark, insightful and in control. The Edge opens softly and the song builds slowing and gracefully. This was the work of Brian Eno and Bono. The song is simple clean and as you will find a soulful lyric reference to God and “keys to the kingdom” I have to agree with Brett this was and maybe still one of the best songs of the 90’s and while I have my first love “New Years Day” my heart does fill with love for the first time.

The First Time

I have a lover
A lover like no other
She got soul, soul, soul, sweet soul
And she teach me how to sing

Shows me colours when there’s none to see
Gives me hope when I can’t believe
That for the first time
I feel love

I have a brother
When I’m a brother in need
I spend my whole time running
He spends his running after me

When I feel myself going down
I just call and he comes around
But for the first time
I feel love

My father is a rich man
He wears a rich man’s cloak
Gave me the keys to his kingdom coming
Gave me a cup of gold

He said I have many mansions
And there are many rooms to see
But I left by the back door
And I threw away the key
And I threw away the key
Yeah, I threw away the key
Yeah, I threw away the key

For the first time
For the first time
For the first time

I feel love

Lyrics/ Songs U2/Island Records

McGuinness Ends Speculation !

Bono / Canada / U2 / U2TOURFANS 2011If Paul McGuinness states its not over, well its not over. Paul last night in an interview with Belfast Telegraph flatly denied the reports that U2 was planning on going their separate ways. 35 years of great music, school boy friends and suggestions of ending all now are completely not true.

To fans Paul has been labeled as the fifth member of U2, he has guided the boys career from a local bar band to a global machine. When Paul was asked is this the end ? ” No, and I think I would have heard. Not at all. They are always working on the next record.”

Ok, so how did this rumor start ?  Bono gave an interview to Rolling Stone where he hinted that they may part company. “Its quite likely you might hear from us next year but it’s equally possible that you won’t. The band may have finally run its course.

Ether Paul or Bono have it right. In the end it will come down to the creative power of the band to choose to return. Lets face it 360 Tour was longer then anyone expected and the idea of taking a break may be just what they need to come back stronger and ready to take on another large tour. One thing is for sure. Right now its all about Actung Baby !

One Looking for Inspiration

“One” is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the third track from their 1991 album Achtung Baby, and it was released as the record’s third single in March 1992. It was recorded at three recording studios, Hansa Ton Studios, Elsinore, and Windmill Lane Studios. During the album’s recording, conflict arose between the band members over the direction of U2’s sound and the quality of their material. Tensions almost prompted the band to break up, until guitarist The Edge composed a chord progression that inspired the group to improvise the song, which was written as a ballad. The band worked on the mix for “One” throughout the remainder of the album’s sessions. The lyrics, written by lead singer Bono, describe fracturing interpersonal relationships, but they have been interpreted in other ways.

“One” was released as a benefit single, with proceeds going towards AIDS research. The song reached number seven on the UK Singles Chart and number ten on the Billboard Hot 100, and it topped the US Billboard Album Rock Tracks and Modern Rock Tracks charts. In promotion of the song, the band had several music videos filmed, although they were not pleased until the third video was created.

The song has since been acclaimed as one of the greatest songs of all time, and it is consistently featured in listener and critic polls. The song has been played by U2 at every one of their tour concerts since the song’s live debut in 1992, and it has appeared in many of the band’s concert films. In a live setting, “One” is often used by the band to promote human rights or social justice causes, and the song lends its namesake to Bono’s charitable organization, the ONE Campaign. In 2006, U2 re-recorded the song as part of a duet with contemporary R&B singer Mary J. Blige.

Looking for some new inspiration, the guys wrapped up their tour, spent several months at home and headed to Berlin in October 1990, flying into town the day Germany officially reunited.

The city was joyous. While the Wall between East and West Berlin was falling down, though, new barriers were being built between U2’s four members. Bono and the Edge wanted to explore new sounds, with hip-hop, Madchester and club music serving as good places to start. Adam Clayton, the only one with any real nightclub experience, told the others they didn’t know the first thing about dance music. Meanwhile, Mullen balked at the drum machines that producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois had pulled into the studio. Wasn’t he supposed to be the band’s percussionist?

With U2’s future in doubt, “One” literally brought the band back together. Working one evening at Hansa Studios – ground zero for David Bowie’s groundbreaking work with Eno in the 1970s – the Edge began composing a bridge for the song that later became “Ultraviolet (Light My Way).” He banged out some minor chords on piano, then came up with a major-key resolution. When he switched over to acoustic guitar and starting playing the sections back-to-back, a new song was born. The other bandmates joined in, with Bono improvising some lyrics inspired by a recent invitation from the Dalai Lama, who’d invited the group to attend a festival called Oneness. Within minutes, the framework for “One” was complete.

On an album filled with irony, sex and self-deprecation, “One” cuts through to the heart of a relationship. Each verse poses new questions – Is it getting better? Did I disappoint you? Have you come here for forgiveness? – without offering any answers in return. Keeping things deliberately vague, Bono lobs his inquiries into thin air, aiming them at his band, his spouse, the Edge’s estranged wife, or maybe even none of the above. The addressees don’t matter. “One” isn’t about love, after all; it’s about resignation.

“The song is a bit twisted,” Bono explained in Neil McCormick’s U2 By U2, “which is why I could never figure out why people want it at their weddings. I have certainly met a hundred people who’ve had it at their weddings. I tell them, ‘Are you mad? It’s about splitting up!’”

But U2 didn’t split up. They tied up some loose ends in Berlin, flew back to Dublin and finished Achtung Baby, which reinvented the band’s sound, image and audience. The God-fearing boys who’d appeared so earnest, so unapologetically self-righteous during the Rattle And Hum days had grown into clever, comfortable men who could laugh at their own success. Bono even began hamming it up onstage in leather jackets and oversized sunglasses, finally embracing the “rockstar” persona that his job afforded. The rest of the band followed suit.

Still, “One” is Achtung Baby’s most vulnerable moment, the human heart that beats between the glitzy, industrial gloss of “Even Better Than The Real Thing” and “Until The End Of The World.” Bono sings the lyrics in a half-broken voice, sounding worn out and dejected until the last 30 seconds, where he flips into a gorgeous falsetto. The Edge, who ended “With Or Without You” with a simple guitar pattern instead of a traditional solo, does the same thing here, chiming his way around Bono’s vocals with ringing, slightly delayed quarter notes. The two parts support one another, perhaps taking their cues from the song’s own words (“We’re one, but we’re not the same / We get to carry each other”).

It may have been cooked up in a frenzied half-hour of inspiration, but “One” has enjoyed a long shelf life. Every U2 concert since 1992 has featured the song. Johnny Cash covered it on 2000’s American III: Solitary Man, and Mary J. Blige scored a hit six years later with her own version, which turned the tune’s fragility into an anthem of unity. Recently, “One” has also been linked to Bono’s work as a social activist, even lending its name to the ONE Campaign.

People tend to attribute U2’s success to an ability to adapt, change and reinvent, often one step ahead of the mainstream. “One” was the group’s first major transformation, the song that blasted through a decade’s worth of self-serious rock and roll and signaled something different. Other transformations followed, including an eventual return to the anthems that kicked off U2’s career. But without “One,” there’d be no Achtung Baby … and without Achtung Baby, there’d be no U2.

U2 record three new albums with RedOne

They have no plans on releasing any of the amazing tracks any time soon. U2 stepped into the recording studio with producer RedOne for three new albums in the future. 

Bono and the boys wanting to take their music in a new direction have been working with RedOne and Bono said, “It seems to have worked.“

“We have recorded a load of new tracks,” he said. “We’ve done some amazing work with RedOne. It’s shocking. I just played the tracks to Michael Stipe and he was like, “What? It doesn’t even sound like U2.

Bass player Adam Clayton also seemed enthusiastic about the new material, as he has been surprised that the new material is so fresh and not in line with the band’s 2009 album, No Line on The Horizon.

So the only question now, when can we expect to see the release of these new songs? They would want to get them out soon before someone drops them illegally.

U2's Best 15 Songs ?

This months Slate magazine has a story U2 The Paradox, which takes a deeper look into the band and the history behind the band. One the interesting comments was the selection of the best 15 songs. Its seems to be a hit list with all of the songs making the charts. However we are sure that U2 has a deeper list to select from. The question, do you agree with the list or can you remove and add a few more songs that define U2 beyond a hit chart? Post your thoughts and comments on facebook or twitter.

The 15 Best U2 Songs

“With or Without You”

“One”

“I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”

“Pride (In the Name of Love)”

“Sunday Bloody Sunday”

“All I Want Is You”

“Lemon”

“Bad”

“Where the Streets Have No Name”

“I Will Follow”

“The Wanderer”

“New Year’s Day”

“Desire”

“Miss Sarajevo”

“Gloria”