Van Diemen's Land (song)
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For other articles of the same same, see Van Diemen (disambiguisation)
| "Van Diemen's Land" | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Song by U2 | ||
| from the album Rattle and Hum | ||
| Released | 10 October 1988 | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Length | 3:05 | |
| Label | Island | |
| Producer(s) | Jimmy Iovine | |
| Rattle and Hum track listing | ||
| "Helter Skelter" (Live) (1) |
"Van Diemen's Land" (2) |
"Desire" (3) |
"Van Diemen's Land" is the second track from U2's 1988 album, Rattle and Hum. A quiet song, in a folk style, it is one of only four songs with lead vocals by The Edge (the other three being "Seconds", "Numb" and "Corpse").
There is one additional verse of the song on the cassette version of Rattle and Hum. It is sung after the last chorus and the lyrics of that verse are as follows:
Still the gunman rules and the widows pay
A scarlet coat now a black beret
They thought that blood and sacrifice
Could out of death bring forth a life
The reason it does not appear on the other versions of the album is that the cassette was the only format with enough space to be able to hold the extra data.
Van Diemen's Land is the former name for the island of Tasmania when the British used Australia as a penal colony. Many Irishmen were amongst those sent to Australia. The song is dedicated to Irish poet John Boyle O'Reilly.
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