Achtung Baby
is the seventh studio album by Irish rock band U2, released on 19 November 1991. Stung by criticism of their previous album, Rattle and Hum
, the album was a calculated change in musical and thematic direction with the incorporation of alternative rock, electronic dance music, and industrial influences. It was the band's most dramatic change since The Unforgettable Fire
album.
Seeking renewal and inspiration on the eve of German reunification, the band began work on Achtung Baby
in Berlin's Hansa Studios in October 1990 with producers Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno. Conflict arose within the band over the quality of the material and their musical direction. Weeks of slow progress, arguments, and tension subsided when the band quickly improvised the song "One", which was a breakthrough for the album sessions. The band was more productive in the studio after recording sessions moved to Dublin in 1991.
Sonically, the band referred to the album as the sound of "four men chopping down the Joshua Tree". Thematically, it was a more inward-looking and personal record; it was darker, yet more playful than the band's previous work. Commercially and critically, Achtung Baby
has been one of the band's most successful albums. It produced several hit singles in "One", "Mysterious Ways", and "The Fly", has sold 18 million copies worldwide, and won a Grammy Award. The album and the subsequent multimedia-intensive Zoo TV Tour were a crucial part of the band's 1990s reinvention. In 2003, the album was ranked number 62 on Rolling Stone
magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
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ACHTUNG BABY TICKETS
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Background
U2's 1987 album,
The Joshua Tree
brought the band critical acclaim, great commercial success and high exposure, but it was also the beginning of a backlash against the band. They were accused of grandiosity and self-righteousness, a criticism which intensified with the release of
Rattle and Hum
the following year.
[1] Their over-earnestness and pomposity of the period became targets of caricature.
[2] U2 were stung by the negative press and critical reaction to
Rattle and Hum
, reviews of which included accusations of being "misguided and bombastic".
[3] [4] [5] The album’s intended homage to American music legends resulted in the band being accused of self-importance and placing themselves as equals with the likes of
Bob Dylan and
The Beatles. In his review of
Rattle and Hum
, Jon Pareles of the
The New York Times
said that the band were bombastic and pretentious, and that they were trying to steal from American music rather than develop from it.
Despite the level of their success, the band themselves felt dissatisfied with their live performances. Drummer
Larry Mullen, Jr. commented that "We were the biggest, but we weren't the best".
[6] There was a sense within the band that
Rattle and Hum
was the end of something for the band.
[7] This was compounded by the sense that the
blues collaboration with
BB King and band on the 1989
Lovetown Tour was "like an excursion down a dead-end street", one that audiences did not quite get.
[8] However, according to
Bono, listening to black music had helped the band "get the groove ready for
Achtung Baby"
and listening to folk music had helped him develop as a lyricist.
Towards the end of 1989's
Lovetown Tour, Bono said onstage in
Dublin that "this is just the end of something for U2" and that "we have to go away and ... and dream it all up again."
Pre-recording
In the first half of 1990, U2 had its longest break since their first record deal in 1978, and the two year break from public performances between the end of the Lovetown Tour and the beginning of the Zoo TV Tour was at the time, the band's longest.
[9]
The band's shift in direction on
Achtung Baby
was not only a reaction to criticism of
Rattle and Hum
, but a reaction against their own stereotypes and a search for new musical ground.
[10] It began during
Rattle and Hum
sessions with the track "
God Part II", which came out of a late realisation that they had pursued
roots rock too much. With a more contemporary feel, Bono later said that the song was more in line with the musical direction taken on
Achtung Baby
.
[11] More hints of a direction change came with two 1990 recordings on which the band used
electronic dance beats and
hip-hop elements for the first time. The band recorded "
Night and Day" for an album of
Cole Porter covers, the first of the
Red Hot + Blue
releases in aid of AIDS charities. Bono and
The Edge contributed to the original score for the
Royal Shakespeare Company's theatrical version of
A Clockwork Orange
. This was combined into the piece "Alex Descends into Hell for a Bottle of Milk". Bono later said that this early experimentation was "preparing the ground for
Achtung Baby
".
[12] Ideas, such as guitar riffs and keyboard parts, that weren't deemed appropriate for the play were put aside for the band.
At the time, Edge was listening to a lot of dance music and
industrial bands, such as
Nine Inch Nails, the
Young Gods, and
KMFDM. Mullen, Jr. was listening to
Blind Faith,
Cream, and
Jimi Hendrix records.
Not only had there been a divergence over the music the band members were being influenced by, but Edge and Bono's close working relationship also left Mullen, Jr. and bassist
Adam Clayton feeling separated from their fellow members, with a sense that the band's songwriting process was changing.
During subsequent album recording, Edge and Bono would be the band's advocates for experimenting with dance and alternative music trends and would be at odds with Mullen, Jr. and Clayton.
At the same time, band members had also been interested in
Roy Orbison,
Scott Walker, and
Jacques Brel and The Edge had wanted to go towards a more personal style of writing.
[13]
Bono had written material during the Lovetown Tour of Australia and spent mid-1990 sorting through it. The band recorded demos at STS studios in Dublin that would eventually evolve into "
Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses", "
Until the End of the World", "
Even Better Than the Real Thing", and "
Mysterious Ways"; these undeveloped tracks were taken into the studio for the
Achtung Baby
sessions.
[14] The band had a general idea that they wanted the new album to be "forward-looking" and a "complete about turn", but they had no idea about how to achieve that.
The beginning of the
Madchester movement in the UK left U2 confused about how they fit into any particular musical scene.
Recording and production
Buzzwords on this record were trashy, throwaway, dark, sexy,
and industrial
(all good) and earnest, polite, sweet, righteous, rockist
and linear
(all bad). It was good if a song took you on a journey or made you think your hifi was broken, bad if it reminded you of recording studios or U2...Sly Stone, T. Rex, Scott Walker, My Bloody Valentine, KMFDM, the Young Gods, Alan Vega, Al Green, and Insekt were all in favour...And Berlin became a conceptual backdrop for the record. The Berlin of the Thirties—decadent, sexual and dark—resonating against the Berlin of the Nineties—reborn, chaotic and optimistic... — Brian Eno on the recording of Achtung Baby
The band returned to the production team of
Daniel Lanois and
Brian Eno who had supported their previously most audacious shift in style on 1984's
The Unforgettable Fire
.
Lanois, who had become recognised in his own right having worked with Bob Dylan and Peter Gabriel, was principal producer, alongside engineer
Flood.
Eno took on an assisting producing role at various intervals.
Steve Lillywhite, whose credits included producer on U2's first three albums and several tracks on
The Joshua Tree
, mixed several
Achtung Baby
tracks.
The "oblique" strategies of the Lanois-Eno team contrasted with producer
Jimmy Iovine's direct and retro style on the previous
Rattle and Hum
album.
The band saw "domesticity as the enemy of rock 'n' roll" and that to commence work on the new album, they had to get away from their normal family-orientated routines. A new Europe was emerging and
Berlin, at the heart of the reuniting continent, was proposed as a source of inspiration and renewal to move towards a more European aesthetic.
, chosen by the band as their recording location, was located near the recently opened
Berlin Wall. It was where Eno and
David Bowie had recorded albums in the so-called "
Berlin Trilogy" in the late 1970s, and where Bowie and Bono's idol
Iggy Pop had recorded
The Idiot
.
The band arrived in Berlin on 3 October 1990 on what was the last flight into
East Berlin the day before
German reunification.
Expecting to be inspired, the band instead found the mood in Berlin "depressing", "dark and gloomy".
[17] The collapse of the Berlin Wall resulted in a state of malaise in Germany, and the band's dilapidated hotel and the Hansa Studios' location in a former
SS Ballroom added to the "bad vibe".
Friction within the band over the quality of material and musical direction added to the tense atmosphere. Inspired by
alternative rock and European electronic dance music of the time, Edge and Bono had a clear idea about where they wanted the band's sound to go. Clayton and Mullen, Jr., on the other hand, did not understand the new direction, and were more comfortable with a sound similar to U2's previous work.
Mullen, Jr. was listening to music by drummers
Ginger Baker of
Cream and
John Bonham of
Led Zeppelin for drumming inspirations, yet The Edge was delving into dance club mixes and advocating drum boxes, leading Mullen, Jr. to feel that "his input was being diminished".
Lanois was expecting the "textural, emotional, and cinematic" U2 of the
The Unforgettable Fire
and
The Joshua Tree
and found it difficult to understand the intent of the more "throwaway and trashy things" the band was working on.
At the instant we were recording it, I got a very strong sense of its power. We were all playing together in the big recording room, a huge, eerie ballroom full of ghosts of the war, and everything fell into place. It was a reassuring moment, when everyone finally went, 'oh great, this album has started.' It's the reason you're in a band - when the spirit descends upon you and you create something truly affecting. 'One' is an incredibly moving piece. It hits straight into the heart. — The Edge on the recording of "One" [18]
The band came to Berlin hoping their existing ideas would become completed songs, but they found they were "under-rehearsed and under-prepared" and that the ideas were not evolving into "fully-fledged songs".
Moreover, the band members' roles and responsibilities were being redefined. The close songwriting relationship between Bono and The Edge, which began during
Rattle and Hum
and tended to exclude Clayton and Mullen, Jr., became a source of confrontation in Berlin.
For the first time, the band could not find consensus during their disagreements and felt that they weren't making progress. Mullen thought it "might be the end".
A breakthrough was achieved with the writing of the song, "
One".
After Edge combined two chord progressions that he was playing, the band, inspired by what they heard, quickly improvised most of the song at Lanois' encouragement. It provided a much needed re-assurance for the band and validated their "blank page" approach to writing and recording.
The band left Berlin at the end of 1990 to continue working on the album in Dublin. Although the band had delivered just two songs in three months in Berlin, The Edge said in retrospect that working in Berlin was more productive and more inspirational than the output had suggested. The band had been removed from a familiar environment, providing a certain "texture and cinematic location", and many of the musical ideas that band had recorded in Berlin would be revisited with success in Dublin.
U2 completed the majority of the album's work in 1991 in Dublin at the seaside mansion "Elsinore" in
Dalkey, which was within walking distance of Bono and The Edge's homes.
[21] Writing and recording there proved to be much more productive than in Berlin. One song, "Lady With the Spinning Head", later released as a B-side, proved troublesome, but it inspired three separate songs, "
The Fly", "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" and "
Zoo Station".
Final remixing was done by
Flood and
Steve Lillywhite at
Windmill Lane Studios.
[22]
The band found the mixing process difficult and rushed to complete songs. With work on the album concluding in August, additional recording and mixing was undertaken in the last few days, including last minute additions to "The Fly" and "One".
[23] Once the lyrics and the mixes were finalised, the album had come closer to a more traditional U2 sound.
The band spent the final night devising a sequence order for the album.
The following day, Edge traveled to
Los Angeles with the album's tapes for
mastering over five days.
In April 1991, tapes from the album session's earlier improvisations were leaked and bootlegged. Most of the ideas were under-developed, about which Bono said, "There were no undiscovered works of genius, unfortunately, it was more just gobbledy-gook."
[24]
Composition
Bono referred to the completed album as the sound of "four men chopping down the Joshua Tree".
[25] Upon its completion, the band saw it as a "watershed" album that ensured their creative future as a group.
While Bono's vocals were centre-stage in melody and mix during the band's 1980s work, his voice on
Achtung Baby
was more elusive and featured him singing in different characters.
[26] Edge's guitar moved from the bright and echoing trademark sound to a muddier and, at times, industrial sound. The rhythm section is given a far more prominent role in the mix,
and hip-hop-derived beats were applied to about half the album's tracks. The guitar-heavy songs mix harder textures and new effects, along with dance music influences akin to young English bands of the time, including the
Happy Mondays and
Jesus Jones.
[27] The work of singer-songwriter
Gavin Friday, Bono's friend since childhood, is cited as an influence on the "new U2".
[28]
Thematically, U2 deliberately "stepped off their soapbox" of political and social critique of their previous work, and the new album was a more introspective record, with a number of songs exuding confusion and loneliness.
[29] Compared to the youthful exuberance on much of their 1980's work,
Achtung Baby
was a more direct and complex examination of pain in personal relationships, and covered love, sexuality, spirituality, and faith, in addition to betrayal.
[30] While darker, at times it was more flippant and overtly sexual than the band's previous work.
[31] Achtung Baby
sought to recover some of the
Dadaist characters and stage antics that the teenage U2 had dabbled with in the late 1970s but had been pushed aside for more literal themes over the course of the 1980s.
[32] While the band had been outwardly opposed to the materialism of the 1980s,
Achtung Baby
and the Zoo TV Tour examined and flirted with those values.
[33]
In 1990, Edge separated from his wife since 1984 and mother of his three children. The pain of the separation strongly influenced the album, particularly evident in Bono's lyrical contributions.
Bono cites the enjoyment of his first child born in 1989 as a major influence on the album, as was his wife's second pregnancy during the album's 1991 recording. Where previously no U2 song had used the word "baby", it appears 27 times on
Achtung Baby
and is one of the reasons for the album title. Bono says babies are also behind the line of the opening track "Zoo Station":
I'm ready, to say I'm glad to be alive/I'm ready, I'm ready for the push…"
"
Zoo Station" is one of the tracks that most dramatically represents the band's reinvention. With distorted vocal tracks, and
industrial percussion, the lyrics of the album's opening track are a statement of intent and suggest new appetites and anticipations.
[34] The song's introduction of distorted guitars and crashing percussion was intended to sound like the record or hi-fi was broken, or that mistakenly it wasn't the new U2 album.
Similarly, "
The Fly" was chosen as the album's first single because it sounded nothing like the U2 that had come before it. It features hip-hop beats, distorted vocals, an elaborate guitar solo, and hard industrial edge.
[35] Bono described the guitar part as if "a fly had broken into your brain and was buzzing around."
Bono wrote the lyrics in character as "The Fly", stating the song "was like a crank call from Hell... but [the caller] likes it there."
[36]
Distinct guitar effects characterize many of the album's other songs. "
Mysterious Ways" features a prominent guitar riff on which a
wah-wah effect is used. The music video was filmed in
Fez, Morocco, which would also be the site of filming for the music video for "
Magnificent", the second single from the band's 2009 album
No Line on the Horizon
. "
Acrobat" played in a
12/8 time signature, features The Edge playing a distorted
tremolo. Lyrically, is one of the most personal on
Achtung Baby
with Bono acknowledging personal weakness, contradictions, and inadequacy.
Bono cites the track as one of his favourite U2 songs, although he was not satisfied with the recording.
[37] "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" features U2's 1980's "repeato-riff" guitar. Thematically, it is another song about a relationship under strain, with unease over obligations.
[38]
At least two of the album's tracks originated from sessions for the band's previous album,
Rattle and Hum
. "
Even Better Than the Real Thing" developed from an idea during these sessions,
[39] while the album's closing track, "
Love Is Blindness", was written during the sessions and in Australia during the 1989 Lovetown Tour.
[40] Bono had struck up an acquaintance with
Frank Sinatra and "Love is Blindness" shows
cabaret influences.
The song was played as the last or second-to-last song during concerts on the Zoo TV tour. Another song that demonstrated cabaret influences is "So Cruel", which was largely written by Bono, who cited
Scott Walker as an influence. Written acoustically and comparatively quickly by U2 standards, "So Cruel" originally sounded more traditional than what the band had in mind for the album. Engineer Flood keyed Clayton's bass part off Mullen's playing of an Irish
bodhran, which combined with overdubs gave it a more unusual sound.
[41] Thematically, it deals with unrequited love, jealousy, obsession, and possessiveness.
[42]
"Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World" is lyrically one of the least serious songs on the album. Dedicated to the Los Angeles bar The Flaming Colossus, the song describes a drunken stagger home.
[43]
Release
Island Records and the band refused to make advance copies of
Achtung Baby
available to the press until just a few days before the release date, preferring instead to have fans listen to the album before reading reviews. The decision came amongst rumors of tensions with the band, and it was compared to the
Hollywood practice of withholding review copies of films from the media prior to release whenever a movie has received poor word-of-mouth press.
[44] On 19 November 1991, U2 released
Achtung Baby
, its first album in three years, and the first of all new material in over four years.
Upon the album's release, the band maintained a low profile, avoiding interviews and letting critics and the public make their own assessments.
The album's title, "Achtung, Baby!" in German means "Attention, baby!" or "Watch out, baby!" was used by the band's sound engineer Joe O'Herlihy during the making of the album.
He reportedly took the phrase from the
Mel Brooks film
The Producers
.
Although the phrase actually said in the film is, "Auf Wiedersehen, Baby". According to Bono, it was ideal title, as it was "attention-grabbing", referenced Germany, and hinted at either romance or birth, both of which were themes on the album.
Alternative titles considered included
Man
(as opposed to the group's debut album
Boy
), and
Adam
, for which (Adam) Clayton was photographed naked.
The album sleeve is a 4x4 squared montage of 16 images by the band's long-time photographer,
Anton Corbijn, devised since the band couldn't decide on a single image to use. It includes the photo of a naked Clayton and photos of band members in drag, all of which were part of a desire to confound expectations of U2.
On the U.S. CD and cassette sleeves, Clayton's private parts are censored with a black "X" or a
four-leaf clover. In 2006, Bono commented that it was still his favourite U2 sleeve artwork.
[45]
Singles
The first single, "
The Fly", was released on 21 October 1991, a month prior to the album's release. Selected as the first single well in advance of the album's release, the song's danceable, industrial sounds signaled to fans that the band were moving away from their traditional sound. The song and its music video were a showcase for Bono's new persona, The Fly, known for his leather-clad fashion and dark, wraparound sunglasses. The song became U2's second #1 single in the U.K.
The danceable "
Mysterious Ways" was released as the album's second single on 24 November 1991, days after the album's release. The song reached #9 on the
Hot 100, making it the band's fourth highest charting single.
The third single, "
One", was released in March 1992. It reached #7 in the UK charts, #10 in the US charts, and #1 on the US Mainstream Rock Tracks and the US Modern Rock Tracks charts. The song has since become regarded as one of the greatest songs of all-time, ranking #36 on
Rolling Stone
's "
The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" and #1
Q
's "1001 Greatest Songs of All-Time".
[46] In a 2007
VH1 countdown, "One" was #2 on its list of "Songs of the 1990s".
[47]
The fourth single, "
Even Better Than the Real Thing" was released on 8 June 1992. The fifth and final single, "
Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" was released in August 1992.
Reception
Reviews and commercial performance
Upon its release,
Achtung Baby
received strong reviews from critics.
Rolling Stone
magazine, in its 4.5/5 star review said that U2 had "proven that the same penchant for epic musical and verbal gestures that leads many artists to self-parody can, in more inspired hands, fuel the unforgettable fire that defines great rock & roll." The review said that the album, like its predecessor
Rattle and Hum
, was an attempt by the band to "broaden its musical palette, but this time its ambitions are realized".
[48] Entertainment Weekly
gave the album an "A" and called the album a "pristinely produced and surprisingly unpretentious return by one of the most impressive bands in the world".
[49] In its five-star review of the album,
Q
called
Achtung Baby
the band's "heaviest album to date. And best." The review praised the band and its production team for making "music of drama, depth, intensity and, believe it, funkiness".
[50]
On the North American
Billboard Music Charts,
Achtung Baby
topped the Billboard 200 chart, selling 295,000 copies in its first week. The album went to #1 on the UK album chart, while peaking at #2 on the US album chart.
[51] It sold 7 million copies in its first 3 months,
[52] and subsequently, 18 million copies worldwide.
Awards and accolades
At the
Grammy Awards of 1993,
Achtung Baby
won a Grammy Award for "
Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal", while also earning Lanois and Eno the award for "
Producer of the Year.
It was also nominated for the "
Album of the Year" award.
The album is frequently cited as one of the greatest in rock history. In 1998,
Q
magazine readers voted
Achtung Baby
the 15th greatest album of all time;
[53] in 2001 the
TV network VH1 placed it at #65 in its list of the "100 Greatest Albums of Rock & Roll".
[54] In 2003, the album was ranked #62 on
Rolling Stone
magazine's list of
the 500 greatest albums of all time. It was voted #11 on ''
Spins "100 Greatest Albums, 1985-2005" list. [55] In 2008,
Entertainment Weekly'' named
Achtung Baby
the #3 album of the last 25 years.
[56]
Zoo TV Tour
In support of the album, U2 launched the Zoo TV Tour on 29 February 1992. Lasting almost two years and spanning five legs and 157 shows, the tour was an elaborately-staged multimedia event, designed to instill a feeling of "sensory overload" in its audience.
[57] The stage design featured vidi walls, 36 video monitors, numerous television cameras, 176 speakers, and 11 elaborately painted
Trabant cars, several of which were suspended over the stage with spotlights inserted into headlights. Songs were complemented by a myriad of bewildering visual effects. The tour marked a shift from the earnest performances that typified the band in the 1980s to ones that were intentionally ironic and self-mocking. During a break in the tour, the band recorded and released their next studio album,
Zooropa
, in 1993. In 2002,
Q
magazine called the Zoo TV Tour "still the most spectacular rock tour staged by any band."
[58]
Track listing
All songs written and composed by U2, with lyrics by Bono and The Edge.
Chart positions and sales
Album
| Country
| Peak position
| Certification
| Sales
|
| Australia
| 1
| 5x Platinum [59]
| 350,000+
|
| Austria
| 2
| Platinum [60]
| 30,000+
|
| Brazil
|
| Gold
| 50,000+ [61]
|
| Canada
|
| Diamond [62]
| 1,000,000+
|
| Finland
|
| Gold [63]
| 34,938+
|
| France
| 37
| Platinum [64]
| 300,000+
|
| Germany
|
| Platinum [65]
| 200,000+
|
| Netherlands
|
| Platinum [66]
| 80,000+
|
| Switzerland
| 3
| Gold [67]
| 25,000+
|
| United Kingdom
| 2
| 4x Platinum [68]
| 1,200,000+
|
| United States
| 1
| 8x Platinum [69]
| 8,000,000+
|
- United States: #1 for 1 week
- United Kingdom: #2 for 1 week, 87 weeks on chart
- Switzerland: #3 for 2 weeks
- Austria: #2 for 2 weeks
- Australia: #1 for 1 week
Singles
| Year
| Song
| Chart
| Position
|
| 1991
| "The Fly"
| UK Official Singles Top 75
| 1
|
| 1991
| "The Fly"
| The Billboard Hot 100
| 61
|
| 1991
| "The Fly"
| Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks
| 2
|
| 1991
| "The Fly"
| Billboard Modern Rock Tracks
| 1
|
| 1991
| "The Fly"
| Billboard Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales
| 44
|
| 1991
| "Mysterious Ways"
| UK Official Singles Top 75
| 13
|
| 1991
| "Mysterious Ways"
| The Billboard Hot 100
| 9
|
| 1991
| "Mysterious Ways"
| Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks
| 1
|
| 1992
| "Mysterious Ways"
| Billboard Modern Rock Tracks
| 1
|
| 1992
| "Mysterious Ways"
| Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play
| 42
|
| 1992
| "One"
| UK Official Singles Top 75
| 8
|
| 1992
| "One"
| Billboard Adult Contemporary
| 24
|
| 1992
| "One"
| Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks
| 1
|
| 1992
| "One"
| Billboard Modern Rock Tracks
| 1
|
| 1992
| "One"
| The Billboard Hot 100
| 10
|
| 1992
| "One"
| Billboard Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales
| 44
|
| 1992
| "Even Better Than the Real Thing"
| The Billboard Hot 100
| 32
|
| 1992
| "Even Better Than the Real Thing"
| Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks
| 1
|
| 1992
| "Even Better Than the Real Thing"
| Billboard Modern Rock Tracks
| 5
|
| 1992
| "Even Better Than the Real Thing"
| Billboard Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales
| 35
|
| 1992
| "Even Better Than the Real Thing"
| Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play
| 27
|
| 1992
| "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses"
| The Billboard Hot 100
| 35
|
| 1992
| "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses"
| Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks
| 2
|
| 1992
| "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses"
| Billboard Modern Rock Tracks
| 7
|
| 1992
| "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses"
| Billboard Top 40 Mainstream
| 28
|
| 1992
| "Until the End of the World"
| Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks
| 5
|
| 1992
| "Until the End of the World"
| Billboard Modern Rock Tracks
| 4
|
| 1997
| "One"
| Canadian Singles Chart
| 19
|
Personnel
;U2
- Bono – lead vocals, additional guitar
- The Edge – guitar, synthesizers, backing vocals
- Adam Clayton – bass guitar
- Larry Mullen Jr. – drums, percussion
;Additional personnel
- Brian Eno – keyboards (on tracks 3, 9 and 12)
- Daniel Lanois – additional guitar (on tracks 1, 3 and 9), percussion (on tracks 4 and 8)
Video
In May 1992,
U2 released
Achtung Baby: The Videos, The Cameos, and a Whole Lot of Interference from Zoo TV
, a
VHS compilation of nine
music videos from the album. These included three videos each for "One" and "Even Better than the Real Thing." In between the videos were clips of so-called "interference" comprising documentary footage, media clips, and other images, similar to what was shown at shows during the
Zoo TV Tour. The videos for "
Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" and "
Love Is Blindness" were not included as they were not released until after the compilation's release.
#INTERFERENCE
#"
Even Better Than the Real Thing" – directed by
Kevin Godley
#INTERFERENCE
#"
Mysterious Ways" – directed by
Stéphane Sednaoui
#"
One" (Version 1) – directed by
Anton Corbijn
#"
The Fly" – directed by Ritchie Smyth and Jon Klein
#INTERFERENCE
#"Even Better Than the Real Thing" (Dance Mix) – directed by Ritchie Smyth
#"One" (Version 2) – directed by
Mark Pellington
#"Even Better Than the Real Thing" – directed by
Armando Gallo and Kampah
#"One" (Version 3) – directed by Phil Joanou
#"Until the End of the World" – directed by Ritchie Smyth
See also
References
- Gardner (1994)
- Fricke (1993).
- McCormick (2006), p. 211.
- Gardner (1994), pp. xxiii-xxv.
- Fricke (1993)
- Gardner (1994), p. xxiv.
- McCormick (2006), p. 213.
- de la Parra (1994), pp. 138-149.
- Eno (1991)
- McCormick (2006), p. 207
- McCormick (2006), p. 215.
- Stokes (1996), p. 108.
- McCormick (2006), pp. 216, 221.
- Gardner (1994), p. xxv.
- Flanagan (1995), p. 7.
- McCormick (2006), p. 221.
- McCormick (2006), p. 221, 224.
- Flanagan (1995), pp. 6–11
- Stokes (1996), p. 98.
- McCormick (2006), pp. 224-225.
- Graham (2004), p. 45.
- McCormick (2006), p. 232.
- The Origins and History of Salome
- Deep Cuts: U2: Part I
- Graham (2004), p. 44.
- Gardner (1991)
- Graham (2004), p. 54.
- de la Primm (1994), p. 139; Gardner (1992)
- Graham (2004), p. 46, Stokes (1996), p. 100.
- Light (1993)
- Stokes (1996), p. 95.
- Graham (2004), p. 46.
- Graham (2004), p. 47; Stokes (1996), p. 95.
- Flanagan (1995), p. 30; Graham (2004), p. 49; Stokes (1996), p. 102.
- McCormick, Neil (ed), (2006). U2 by U2. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0-00-719668-7. p. 224-5, 232.
- McCormick (2006), p. 228.
- Graham (2004), p. 50.
- Stokes (1996), p. 96.
- Graham (2004), p. 44., Triple J November 1993.
- Graham (2004), p. 45; McCormick (2006), p. 228; Achtung Baby: The Videos, The Cameos, and a Whole Lot of Interference from Zoo TV (Video May 1992).
- Graham (2004), p. 49.
- Graham (2004), p. 50; Stokes (1996), p. 106.
- U2s "Achtung Baby" reaches record stores
- McCormick (2006), p. 234.
- U2's One named 'greatest record'
- 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s
- U2, Achtung, Baby
- Achtung Baby: music review
- U2 - Achtung Baby
- U2.com - Achtung Baby
- de la Primm (1994), p. 139.
- A Selection Of Lists From Q Magazine
- VH1's '100 Greatest Albums of Rock & Roll' Ranks the Beatles' 'Revolver' at #1 In All-New Special, Premiering January 15-19 at 10:00 P.M. (ET/PT)
- Spin 100 Greatest Albums, 1985-2005
- Gift Guide: 25 Classic CDs
- Hot Press, "Closer to the Edge (pt. 1)", 4 December 4 2002. Edge says: "... we got the idea of taking images, taking TV as an idea, and putting screens on stage. That started us down that road ..."
- Q Magazine, "10 Years of Turmoil Inside U2", 10 October 2002.
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