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“I like to start a song halfway through a conversation,” Bono says. “As with a lot of dialogue, you very often find yourself talking around the subject rather than through it.” The first lines came quickly: “Is it getting better or do you feel the same?/ Is it any easier on you now that you’ve got someone to blame?” The chorus emerged from an exchange between Bono and the Dalai Lama, who had invited U2 to contribute to a benefit concert called Oneness. Bono politely declined, signing the letter: “Lovely to correspond. One but not the same, Bono.”
The J Files also share more on Achtung Baby and the change that it brought.
‘Zoo Station’, right at the very beginning of the record, is a statement in itself. You listen to it and you think ‘It shouldn’t sound like that’.
You hear an industrial band playing. You hear distorted rhythms. You listen to Larry’s drumming and you go ‘This is wrong! It shouldn’t sound like this!’
This is what people were thinking when they heard Achtung Baby for the first time. ‘This isn’t a U2 record!’.
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