Zoo Station
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| “Zoo Station” | |||||
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| Song by U2 | |||||
| Album | Achtung Baby | ||||
| Released | 19 November 1991 | ||||
| Genre | Rock | ||||
| Length | 4:36 | ||||
| Label | Island Records | ||||
| Producer | Daniel Lanois with Brian Eno | ||||
| Achtung Baby track listing | |||||
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"Zoo Station" is the opening track from the 1991 U2 album Achtung Baby. It opened all concerts save one in the Zoo TV Tour. It is one of the first U2 songs with an electronic music feel, including distorted vocals and guitars. It refers to the Bahnhof Zoo (the official name is Berlin Zoologischer Garten) station in Berlin, which also happens to be on the U2 Line; subway lines in Berlin are assigned a letter and a number.
[edit] Composition
The lyrics use the station as a metaphor for time:
- Time is a train
- Makes the future the past
- Leaves you standing in the station
- Your face pressed up against the glass.
The song is optimistic and hopeful, reflecting the mood in Berlin (and around the world) in the early 1990s, after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Communist regimes in the Soviet bloc. Similar songs of the time are Jesus Jones' "Right Here, Right Now" and The Scorpions' "Wind of Change".
The song features several guitar layers courtesy of The Edge, opening with a strange marimba-like sound texture which was actually created on guitar, by picking the D string behind the bridge and the stopbar. There is a droning note throughout most of the song and a variety of riffs entering and leaving which indicate Edge's fascination with combining sounds. The song also features a simple, effective bass hook and industrial percussion. Bono's voice was recorded with distortion and several layers of vocals all appear on the track.
"Zoo Station" was not released as a single, yet became a radio success in the United States, reaching the top spot on the mainstream rock charts and No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The song was featured in the 2002 film About a Boy.
[edit] Live
On the Zoo TV Tour, "Zoo Station" opened every concert except for the first show of the 3rd Leg in Hershey, Pennsylvania, on August 7, 1992. After an introduction created by the Emergency Broadcast Network, Bono's silhouette would appear in front of a screen with the European flag, and he would come out from in front of the screen and dance around during the song's intro, before going down to the stage to perform the song with the rest of the band as his character, The Fly.
"Zoo Station" was not played during the PopMart and Elevation Tours. However, it made a return during the Vertigo Tour, where it often opened the (first) encore, usually paired with its Zoo TV partner The Fly. It also contained the silhouette, though this time over a black and white distorted screen. Bono and The Edge played the song on the B-stages, with Edge using a facial microphone for backing vocals.
The Edge has always played the song on his cream Gibson Les Paul Custom.
It appears on the video releases Zoo TV: Live from Sydney and Vertigo 2005: Live from Chicago. A live version of "Zoo Station" from the Vertigo Tour also appears as a b-side on the maxi single for "Window in the Skies."
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