New York (U2 song)
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| “New York” | |||||
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| Song by U2 | |||||
| Album | All That You Can't Leave Behind | ||||
| Released | 30 October 2000 | ||||
| Genre | Rock | ||||
| Length | 5:31 | ||||
| Label | Island Records / Interscope Records | ||||
| Producer | Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois | ||||
| All That You Can't Leave Behind track listing | |||||
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"New York" is the tenth track from U2's 2000 album, All That You Can't Leave Behind. It is notable as the subject matter is a picturesque description of New York City and of the people who live there, and was later altered following the events of September 11, 2001. The song's lyrics were written by lead singer Bono, who has a residence in New York City. Bono has stated that the song is a tribute of sorts to both Frank Sinatra and Lou Reed. "There was a verse about Lou Reed, that didn't make it, and a verse about Frank Sinatra (that also didn't make it). And Lou has an album called New York, and he mentions my name on one of the tracks, "Beginning of a Great Adventure". And I just think he is to New York what James Joyce was to Dublin."[1]
In another interview, Bono elaborated further on the song's theme of "mid-life crisis": "There used to be a verse at the end about Frank Sinatra, because if I was going to be singing about New York, New York, I felt like I should. It went "When I'm down on my luck / I sometimes think of Frank Sinatra / I met him once / He was more than generous / At dinner one evening he found a blue paper napkin ... and he stared at it and said to no one in particular, I remember when my eyes were this blue." Which is how the song ended. ... But I took out that scene because I didn't want people to think the song was autobiographical -- you know, I did that song with him and everything (on Duets)."[2]
While the song was popular during the Elevation Tour, it was later altered due to the events of September 11, 2001 attacks on New York City. As New York was the subject of both the song and the attacks, the lyrics were likely altered in order to be sensitive to those who lost loved ones from the attacks. The lines that were later altered included "Voices on a cell phone - voices from home / Voices of the hard sell - voices down a stairwell" as well as "Religious nuts, political fanatics in the stew / Happily not like me and you / That's where I lost you / New York - New York". Among the revised lyrics were lines such as "In New York you can forget, forget how to sit still / But in New York, you can't break the city's will."[3]
U2 has played the song "New York" live 120 times.[4] The song was first debuted live on October 19, 2000 at the ManRay club in Paris, as part of a promotional concert for the October 30 release of All That You Can't Leave Behind.[5] The last performance of the song with lyrics as featured on the album was on August 27, 2001 in Glasgow, Scotland.[6] The song then reappeared for the first time since September 11th, on October 10, 2001 in South Bend, Indiana with new lyrics such as "I lost my balance / you lost your wife".[7] Following the Elevation Tour, the song was dropped from U2's regular set list and has not been played live since December 2, 2001.[8]
[edit] References
- ^ U2: Biting Pop's Arse - MTV.com feature, January 2001
- ^ A Sort of Homecoming - All That You Can't Leave Behind Feature from Amazon.co.uk
- ^ "U2 rocks JACC" - review by Tim Collins, Notre Dame Observer, Oct. 11, 2001
- ^ U2 Vertigo Tour - "New York" statistics
- ^ U2 All That You Can't Leave Behind Promo Tour - setlist from Oct. 19, 2000
- ^ U2Tours.com - setlist from Aug. 27, 2001
- ^ U2Tours.com - setlist from Oct. 10, 2001
- ^ U2 Vertigo Tour - setlist from Dec. 2, 2001
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