An Cat Dubh/Into the Heart
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| “An Cat Dubh / Into the Heart” | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||||
| Song by U2 | |||||
| Album | Boy | ||||
| Released | 20 October 1980 | ||||
| Genre | Post-punk | ||||
| Length | 8:14 | ||||
| Label | Island | ||||
| Producer | Steve Lillywhite | ||||
| Boy track listing | |||||
|
|||||
An Cat Dubh and Into the Heart are the third and fourth tracks, respectively, from U2's debut album, Boy.
The two songs are played together as one, both on the album, and during every live performance. On European pressings of Boy, "An Cat Dubh" runs at a track time of 4:47, and "Into the Heart" runs at 3:28. On North American pressings of the album, "An Cat Dubh" runs at 6:21, and "Into the Heart" runs at 1:58.[1] This can be easily noted by the visible difference between the two vinyls. However, the tracks together sound identical on both pressings, and also both have a total run time of 8:14. Early compact disc releases combined the two songs into a single track. Due to the track time differences, there is no official determination of where one song begins and where one ends. Therefore, both songs are usually considered as one. For example, U2's 1998 single "Sweetest Thing," features a live track of both songs, but is listed simply as a live version of "An Cat Dubh"[2] Although the two songs are separate tracks on Boy, live releases of the songs on the Live from Boston 1981 digital album and the Vertigo 2005: Live from Chicago DVD feature both songs on a single track, similar to the "Sweetest Thing" single.
The songs had been played at almost all shows on every U2 tour until The Unforgettable Fire Tour. After the first leg of that tour, it disappeared until the band's 2005 Vertigo Tour. It was featured at just over half of the concerts on the Vertigo Tour's first leg, and at one on the second leg, but was omitted from subsequent legs. It is featured in the Vertigo 2005: Live From Chicago DVD.
This song was covered by The Bravery as a B-side to "Fearless."
[edit] Song meaning
The title "An Cat Dubh" means "The Black Cat" in Irish. The song was reportedly written about a short relationship Bono had with a woman whilst split from his girlfriend (now wife) Ali Hewson.[citation needed]
Gavin Friday, a very close friend of Bono, claims that the song is undoubtedly about sex[citation needed], while Bono says that the song conjures the image of a cat and a bird, where the cat kills the bird and then plays with it before sleeping next to it.[citation needed] The song is layered with several guitar parts, a vibraphone and an infinite guitar, which was an instrument designed to sustain a note until another one is played. The affinity guitar is clearly heard at the beginning of "Into the Heart" and resembles a squealing synthesiser oriented sound. The instrument was also used again on 1987's "With or Without You". This song, like a lot of the songs on Boy, are part of the concept of youth which was the given message and the theme which recurred on the Vertigo Tour. Bono says a lot of the themes on Boy and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb are co-related.[citation needed]
[edit] External links
- An Cat Dubh Lyrics directly from U2.com
- An Cat Dubh's performance history from U2-Vertigo-Tour.com - Lists all known performances of "An Cat Dubh".
[edit] References
- ^ Boy. U2 Discography. U2 Wanderer. Retrieved on 2007-05-17.
- ^ (1998) Album notes for Sweetest Thing by U2 [back cover]. United Kingdom: Island Records (CID727 / 572 466-2).
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
