User:Melicans/Sandbox

Writing and recording

"Cedars of Lebanon" was written from the perspective of a journalist covering a war overseas.^[3] The song's melody was based on a sample of "Against the Sky", a track Eno and Lanois had collaborated on with Harold Budd for the 1984 album The Pearl, with the band noting that the ambience of the song was "like a direct throwback to the early 80s".^[4][5] The final verse is a condemnation of the Iraq War.^[6]

Composition

Appearances in other media

Reception

External links

• U2.com

Writing and recording

U2's approach to recording Achtung Baby had been to "throw out" all that they knew, to work with music they didn't know, in a place (Berlin) that they didn't know, and to re-arrange roles and responsibilities within the band. This was an alienating experience for long-time collaborator and producer Daniel Lanois, particularly on recording "Acrobat". Bono described him as trying get the band to play to their strengths while Bono was trying to experiment and play to their weaknesses.^[7]

Composition

It features 12⁄8 time signature and has The Edge playing a heavily distorted tremolo.

Lyrically, it is one of the most personal on Achtung Baby with Bono acknowledging personal weakness, contradictions, and inadequacy.^[7] Bono's long standing friend, artist Gavin Friday, suggests its chorus "Don't let the bastards grind you down" is aimed at the press.^[7]

The theme of moral confusion was later used in U2's song "Zooropa" from the 1993 album of the same name.^[8] The coda in "Zooropa" features the lyric "dream out loud", which Bono included as a reference to "Acrobat".^[9] The phrase "dream out loud" was first used by Bono during the Lovetown Tour in 1989,^[10] and has appeared several times in U2's work since then, including the song "Always"^[11] — a B-side to the "Beautiful Day" single released in 2000^[12]  — and being spoken by Bono in the PopMart: Live from Mexico City concert release.^[13]

Reception

The Kitchener Record felt that the song added to the band's "tremendous presence", saying that it showed the band's commitment to each individual song and that it "indicates a very clear evolution in Bono's lyricism and the band's clear artistic focus."^[14]

During the fifth episode of the fifteenth series of Top Gear, presentor Jeremy Clarkson used "Acrobat" in his film commemorating the life of the late Formula One champion Ayrton Senna. The piece was set against a montage of Senna duelling with Nigel Mansell, including their close battle in the final laps of the 1992 Monaco Grand Prix.^[15]

In the book Reading Rock and Roll, Robyn Brothers compared the song to "Zooropa", stating that both reference a response to uncertainty and an unavoidable feeling of alienation.^[16]

See also

• List of covers of U2 songs - Acrobat

==Notes== {{Reflist|2}} ==References== *{{cite book |last=Brothers |first=Robyn |editor=Kevin J. H. Dettmar and William Richey |title=Reading Rock and Roll: Authenticity, Appropriation, Aesthetics |year=1999 |location=New York |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |isbn=0-231-11399-4 |chapter=Time to Heal, 'Desire' Time}} *{{cite book |last=de la Parra |first=Pimm Jal |title=U2 Live: A Concert Documentary |publisher=[[Omnibus Press]] |location=New York |year=2003 |edition=second |isbn=978-0-71199-198-9}} *{{cite book |last=Stokes |first=Niall |authorlink=Niall Stokes |title=Into The Heart: The Stories Behind Every U2 Song |publisher=Harper Collins Publishers |year=1996 |isbn=0-7322-6036-1}} {{1990s-rock-song-stub}} {{Achtung Baby}} {{U2}} [[:Category:U2 songs]] [[:Category:1991 songs]] [[it:Acrobat (U2)]] [[pl:Acrobat (utwór U2)]]

Writing and recording

U2 and producer Brian Eno formed Passengers as a side-project during the preliminary recording sessions for U2's 1997 album, Pop. Their intention was to record a soundtrack for Peter Greenaway's 1996 film The Pillow Book as a warm-up before the Pop sessions proper.^[17] Though the plan did not come to fruition, Eno suggested that they continue recording for imaginary films. U2 were unsure of the idea at first, but agreed after Eno told them that producing radio hits was not the goal of the collaboration.^[17]

U2 had frequently improvised in the past, and during the Original Soundtracks 1 sessions they engaged in free-form jamming to video clips from various films.^[17] Eno stated, "Listening to the original improvisations as they came off the floor, you feel the excitement of the process ... You have to be careful not to disturb the organic flow of the thing."^[18] The group brought in producer Howie B to record and mix some of the tracks after several hours of jam sessions had been recorded.^[17]

Part of the group's intent in creating Original Soundtracks 1 had been to make a "night-time" record.^[7] Lead vocalist Bono said, "It feels like it's been set on the bullet train in Tokyo. Every record has a location, a place where you enjoy listening to it, whether that be a bedroom or a club, well this record location is a fast train. It's slo-mo music though. But it has an odd sense of speed in the background."^[19] He also noted that when creating works for soundtracks, the visual suggestion from the music is more important than the story told by the lyrics. With this in mind, the band had tried to create "visual music" when recording, continuing a trend that began with their 1993 song "Zooropa".^[20][21]

Reception

===Notes=== {{Reflist|2}} {{Original Soundtracks 1}} {{U2}} {{Brian Eno}} [[:Category:1995 songs]] [[:Category:Songs written by Brian Eno]] [[:Category:U2 songs]]

Writing and recording

Composition

Live performances

Appearances in other media

Reception

External links

• U2.com

Pop

• MTV reflection

Rose Bowl

• Reuters/Hollywood Reporter