Ultraviolet

[U2Fan16]

Does anyone other than me like this song? I presonally listen to this song all the time. It is one of my top 5 favorites. Also, what does this song mean to you? I know I like to listen to it when I'm in a rotten mood. SOmething about the lyrics and the way Bono does them is just mesmerizing.

 

[pr0digy]

If you like this song.

Then check out a ZooTV live bootleg of the song.

It leaves the album version for dead.

 

[Lilly]

I like this song a lot actually. Do I know what it's about? Sort of. Sort of is always the answer with U2 lyrics, because it's oddly vague yet in-your-face personal. Ahhhh...the genious of U2...

------------------
Proud owner, maker and baker of THE U2 cookies.

 

[RidesWildHorses]

I am a HUGE fan of this song. I too am not quite sure what it means though. My take is it's about a longing to find someone who really brings out the best in you. I also love to listen to it when I'm feeling down. I'll have to check out that ZooTV bootleg.

------------------
You're dangerous, 'cos you're honest.
You're dangerous, you don't know what you want

 

[MixingBliss]

I think it's likable because it's a double-edged song. In some ways, it has simple pop song appeal with a solid guitar hook and a short repeatable chorus. However, it's more poetic and meaningful than its surface suggests.
Unlike U2's many songs about forms of "love," this one seems to truly lean toward the romantic love between two intimate partners (husband-wife, etc.)
But it's not a typical, sappy love song. "Ultraviolet" suggests that there's a value to a love that's perhaps seen better days. The characters in the song seem to have struggled through thier own love and other loves. One character wants to "check out" while the other one is crying. "There's a silence that comes to a house where no one can sleep": there's a tension between these two that prevents them from being at peace. But one needs the other "to be strong." Despite being in a relationship that's gone sour, the singer confesses that he needs the other. When he is tormented and "all messed up" by the tumult (opera) in his head, her love is the "lightbulb," the goodness, the clarity, the guidance.
There's all kinds of sex imagery in the song that makes it very personal and real, as revealed through the imagery of sleeping and beds. At one time the lovers could "sleep on stones." They could sleep together despite the lumps in their love life, the imperfections, whatever. But now they lie (two meanings) in whispers and moans (more sex).
There's a lot of significance even in the title.
The thing about ultraviolet light is that you can't see it * even though it's definitely there. The song "Ultraviolet" describes a love that can't easily be seen, appears to be invisiable, but is still there, lighting the way.

*(unless you're a chicken. Chickens can see into the ultraviolet spectrum)

[This message has been edited by MixingBliss (edited 04-06-2002).]

 

[MixingBliss]

I might add one other thing to say that "Ultraviolet" falls in line with a few other Achtung Baby songs that examine the tarnishing of love and relationships: So Cruel, Wild Horses, One, and, to some degree, Until the End of the World.

It is widely believed those songs were largely inspired by the collapse of The Edge's marriage. I've often wondered if Bono, in witnessing The Edge's divorce, questioned his own marriage. My theory is that "Ultraviolet" is Bono's answer to that reflection: that a true love, even at it's most naked and bruised moments, can still radiate a redeeming and much-needed energy.

 

[wertsie]

Originally posted by MixingBliss:
I might add one other thing to say that "Ultraviolet" falls in line with a few other Achtung Baby songs that examine the tarnishing of love and relationships: So Cruel, Wild Horses, One, and, to some degree, Until the End of the World.

It is widely believed those songs were largely inspired by the collapse of The Edge's marriage. I've often wondered if Bono, in witnessing The Edge's divorce, questioned his own marriage. My theory is that "Ultraviolet" is Bono's answer to that reflection: that a true love, even at it's most naked and bruised moments, can still radiate a redeeming and much-needed energy.

I'd never thought about it that way before. Seems logical enough!

AB is my all-time favorite album and I LOVE Ultraviolet. I see it as being about love, about finding your way through it...This world is crazy, but the love is constant:

"When I was all messed up up, and I heard opera in my head/Your love was a light bulb hanging over my bed."


------------------
"We're one, but we're not the same..."

http://U2Baby.com

 

[Lilly]

Originally posted by MixingBliss:
I think it's likable because it's a double-edged song.

Two Edges?!

------------------
"Why do you have to be such a smart ass?" -my mom

 

[wertsie]

Originally posted by Lilly:

Two Edges?!

hehehe...


------------------
"We're one, but we're not the same..."

http://U2Baby.com

 

[adamswildhoney]

This song is one of my faves. I wish they would have played it during the Elevation shows that would have been so cool.

 

[RickFly]

i absolutly love this song. wish they would play it more live. it would have been great to hear this song or even acrobat on the last tour.

 

[dizzy]

Wow

There's a lot of significance even in the title.
The thing about ultraviolet light is that you can't see it * even though it's definitely there. The song "Ultraviolet" describes a love that can't easily be seen, appears to be invisiable, but is still there, lighting the way.

*(unless you're a chicken. Chickens can see into the ultraviolet spectrum)

Thanks for the info, Mixing Bliss. That was really interesting. Damn, the AB songs have so many levels, it kills me! In a nice way, ofcourse.

 

[pax]

I particularly love the guitar intro in this song...

Here are some significant lyrics:

Sometimes I feel like I don't know
Sometimes I feel like checking out...
I want to get it wrong
Can't always be strong
And love, it won't be long...


This almost sounds like a death wish. It fits perfectly with other interpretations of this song as being a song about the saving power of love.

There is a silence that comes to a house
Where no one can sleep
I guess that's the price of love
I know it's not cheap...


And here's that "double edge"--even though love has the potential to be saving, it's still a difficult and painful thing. I really wish this song had ended Achtung Baby--it wouldn't seem like such a dark album. It seems that way because of ending with "Acrobat" and "Love is Blindness," I think, and it's such a "double-edged album," really, that ending with something as unequivocally depressing as "Love is Blindness" never seemed right to me. Although the last time I suggested here at Interference that Achtung Baby was "in the wrong order," I took a lot of shit.

 

[dizzy]

AB

And here's that "double edge"--even though love has the potential to be saving, it's still a difficult and painful thing. I really wish this song had ended Achtung Baby--it wouldn't seem like such a dark album. It seems that way because of ending with "Acrobat" and "Love is Blindness," I think, and it's such a "double-edged album," really, that ending with something as unequivocally depressing as "Love is Blindness" never seemed right to me. Although the last time I suggested here at Interference that Achtung Baby was "in the wrong order," I took a lot of shit.

I know what you mean. Actually, AB could've ended with "One". Look at the War album. There was still a redeeming song in the form of "40".

 

[adamswildhoney]

My Band does a cover of this song and I think it sounds great. We also do a covers of So Cruel, WOWY and All I want is U!

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

There is a silence that comes to a house
Where no one can sleep

this part was used earlier in a demo for the album called "laughing in the face of love/so cruel." i love the song ultraviolet as well and when i heard that very same line in that demo, i was like . several lines from later U2 songs were used in ab demos, it's really weird.

 

[rooftop to the basement]

I particularly love the guitar intro in this song...

Me too. I love blasting it in the car

 

[adamswildhoney]

Me too. I love blasting it in the car

Its awesome to hear in my car because it sounds like u are @ concert!

 

[ouizy]

I love this song.

I thought they might blow the dust off of it for Elevation as well, but too bad - it was so great live at ZOOTV...

Kind of a melodic drawnn out song, but live - it kicks ass...

 

[Carmanah]

This is probably my favourite song on Achtung Baby, and Achtung Baby's my favourite album (however, Bad is my favourite U2 song if I had to choose one)

Saying that, back in 93 I remember Much Music's "The New Music" followed U2 to Japan for the Zoo TV (or was it Zooropa by then?) tour. They were able to film several shots of that song live... it sent chills down my spine, like I was actually there. I still have that taped on video somewhere...

Trivial info - I guess everyone knows by now, but Enigma sampled that atmopsheric echo-like "music" looped during the beginning of Ultraviolet (the part where he sings, "Sometimes I feel like I don't know..."). Unfortunately I forget the title of that Enigma song.

More trivial info - One reason why I like the B-side "Lady With the Spinning Head" so much is because, basically, it's Ultraviolet combined with The Fly.

 

[dougal55]

Yeah I love the song too! And yeah I quite agree the live version sounds much more powerful than the album verision....

I want to share this story which I have told once or twice before here in this forum.....

I have a special reason for liking that particular song....If any of you went to a Zoo TV show in Europe back in 1992 or to a Zooropa show the following year and that song was played, you must have recalled watching a huge video screen showing a deaf woman using sign language to "sing" the lyrics of the song. That woman was a friend of mine, Rachel Bastikar (she is credited on the Zoo TV European tour programme!) who used to be a TV presenter for a deaf programme in the UK. Anyway she didnt tell me at all till I saw her right there on the video screen so imagine the shock and disbelief that a band as big as U2 would use someone to "sing" in sign language and someone I knew too! You see, Im also deaf too but can hear very well thanks to my hearing aid on my right ear and use sign language very extensively.

Anyway I was very proud of what Rachel did and I felt that watching it made the experience of listening to Ultra Violet add a bit of an emotional edge to it, imo. I dunno if any of you who were there could remember it but Id appreciate if you could and tell me what you thought of it.

I also had the chance to have met Bono during Zooropa tour where I personally thanked him for the gesture of showing sign language on the show....

dougal

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

Yeah I love the song too! And yeah I quite agree the live version sounds much more powerful than the album verision....

I want to share this story which I have told once or twice before here in this forum.....

I have a special reason for liking that particular song....If any of you went to a Zoo TV show in Europe back in 1992 or to a Zooropa show the following year and that song was played, you must have recalled watching a huge video screen showing a deaf woman using sign language to "sing" the lyrics of the song. That woman was a friend of mine, Rachel Bastikar (she is credited on the Zoo TV European tour programme!) who used to be a TV presenter for a deaf programme in the UK. Anyway she didnt tell me at all till I saw her right there on the video screen so imagine the shock and disbelief that a band as big as U2 would use someone to "sing" in sign language and someone I knew too! You see, Im also deaf too but can hear very well thanks to my hearing aid on my right ear and use sign language very extensively.

Anyway I was very proud of what Rachel did and I felt that watching it made the experience of listening to Ultra Violet add a bit of an emotional edge to it, imo. I dunno if any of you who were there could remember it but Id appreciate if you could and tell me what you thought of it.

I also had the chance to have met Bono during Zooropa tour where I personally thanked him for the gesture of showing sign language on the show....

dougal

Oh, wow, that is so cool!

I don't even know your friend and I'm proud of her, too. .

As for the song...that song rocks. Definitely one of my favorites off of "Achtung Baby".

Angela

 

[MiniFly]

I love this song, too. Hehe, funny story. I came up with a really cool progression, and later figured out I'd ripped off a few riffs off this song. It's so cool how the elemental sound of this song can express emotion in such passionate nakedness.

The boot is god's gift to mp3 pirates:
"When I was all fucked up, and heard opera in my head..."
I like that lyric better than the one on AB. Edge's voice has such a desperate, wailing sound. It is magic.

 

[AJT123]

I absolutely love Ultraviolet. I can relate to it very much. I love the lyrics, the guitar, everything about it. And I love blasting it in the car as well...I get so into it....Definately one of my favorites...BTW, what should I type in on Kazza for that live version?