When U2 closed the chapter dedicated to America

The 1980s were coming to an end. The U2 they closed them with a series of four concerts at Point Depot Dublinthe last of these on the last day of the year, December 31, 1989. The nineties were upon us and promised to offer music different from that which had prevailed in the previous decade, Good he had smelled it in the air so much so that at the last concert held at the Point he said “we have to reinvent everything from scratch”.

The Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989. Berlin was all buzzing and the atmosphere was new. In October 1990 the U2 they thought it best to go to the Hansa Studios sites in the German capital to begin recording what would become “Achtung Baby”. The idea that animated the Irish group was to close the chapter dedicated to America of the two previous albums: “The Joshua Tree” (read the review here) And “Rattle and Hum”.

Good And The Edge they had in mind to refresh the band’s sound by working on dance and industrial sounds, as opposed to Adam Clayton And Larry Mullen Jr. who were not entirely convinced. In the 2011 documentary “From the Sky Down”Mullen is heard declaring, “Before we even started, you could sense something was wrong. When we got there, we had completely different ideas.” Even Clayton didn’t hide some doubts about what they were doing: “We went into the rehearsal room and played non-stop for hours and hours, we listened back and we didn’t like anything we were doing. We were going down a lot of dead ends. There was a lot of friction, a lot of tension. Nobody was particularly happy.”

The band was at a standstill. Then it happened that they were testing a preliminary version of what it would become “Mysterious Ways” – then titled “Sick Puppy” – The Edge he found himself playing chords that amazed the group. Also in the 2011 documentary the guitarist said: “I played them with an acoustic guitar and everyone tried to understand if they were good. Then Danny (the producer Daniel Lanoised.) said: ‘Why don’t you play these two ideas in sequence, one after the other?’. So I did and everyone agreed: ‘It sounds really good.’ Then we all went into the great hall. I shouted out the chords and we started playing them. Bono took the microphone and suddenly something very powerful happened in the room. It was one of those thrilling moments.”

In just 15 minutes, a new song was miraculously born. “It was a pivotal moment,” he explains
The Edge
. “We were going through a difficult time and it seemed like nothing was going right. Suddenly we were given this gift, it came like magic. It calmed everyone’s nerves in the studio enormously.” For the lyrics, Bono decided to write about what was happening around him and the divisions within the band. One of the many ironies of
“One”
it’s that it took a song about the end of a relationship to bring the group together.

“There was melancholy, but also strength,” he reported
Good
in the 2006 book
“U2 By U2”
. “‘One’ isn’t about unity, it’s about diversity. It’s not the old hippie idea of ‘we all live together’. It’s a much more punk rock concept. It’s anti-romantic: ‘We are one, but not the same. We have to support each other.’ It’s a reminder that we have no choice. I still feel bad when people hear the refrain as ‘we must’ instead of ‘we must support each other.’ Whether we like it or not, the only way out of here is for me to give you a hand to climb the wall and you to pull me along”.

The Berlin recording sessions concluded by Christmas 1990, and
“One”
it was – as he reports
Beth Simpson on MusicRadar
the only shining fruit of that period. “At that point we just had to commit, work out the ideas and refine them,” he commented
Adam Clayton
.

In the new year, the band moved to a seaside house in Elsinore, along the coast south of Dublin, where they set up a studio and made the majority of the album there.
“Achtung Baby”
.
“One”
was further elaborated with overdubs and the addition of strings. Feeling that the song was “too good”,
The Edge
he added a gritty guitar solo.

“Achtung Baby”
was released on November 18, 1991. Reviews of the album were generally positive and there was much talk about how the sound was different from that of the older ones
U2
in particular for the use of electronic sounds and dance rhythms in some songs.
“One”
went somewhat unnoticed. It was released as the third single in February 1992 and all proceeds – including royalties from
U2
– were donated to AIDS organizations in every country where it was published. Then came the ‘Zoo TV tour’,
“One”
it was played every night and hit the mark.

There have been numerous covers of
“One”
which have followed one another over the years. The first to record her own version was the British singer
Not Paris
in 1995.
Johnny Cash
included it on his 2000 covers album
“American III”
(
read the review here
). He returned to the charts in 2006 with the version of
Mary J. Blige
together with them

U2
. Since then, other artists have reinterpreted it, they can be mentioned
Eddie Vedder, Lighthouse Family, Joe Cocker, R.E.M
And
Fontaines DC
.