Zooropa Discussion (AKA We're Gonna Tweet Out Loud)

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"club"? "punk rock"? :lol:

what planet are you on B-man?

Uranus? :D
 
Maybe we're just misreading the lyrics. It's not a club song, but a song about a club. And it's not a punk song, but a song about a 'punk', a bouncer.

Bono has been out all night, he's coked to the hills, and he's trying to get into a day club, called 'The Sound'. He starts talking gibberish to the bouncer. Never seen a moon like this. Can you see it too? - but it's nine in the morning. Night is falling everywhere. Rockets at the fun fair. Satan loves a bomb scare. But he won’t scare you. - bouncer does not like this threatening tone. No entry for the flying leprechaun. Bono turns his attention to a girl in the line. Hey, sexy boots. Get on your boots, yeah. - Now he's just being a dick, but it's the Cote d'Azur, so... par for the course. He returns to the weird/slightly threatening gibberish. You free me from the dark dream. Candy floss ice cream. All our kids are screaming. But the ghosts aren’t real. - the bouncer again confirms that he is refusing his request for entry given the state he is clearly in. Bono tries to reconcile. Here’s where we gotta be. - ie 'The Sound'. Love and community. Laughter is eternity if joy is real. - typical coke talk. He turns his attentions to the hot girl again, using a less crude form of flattery this time, in the hope she can help him gain entry. Thinking he sounds smooth, but stumbling over himself, repeating himself. You don’t know how beautiful. You don’t know how beautiful you are. - She rolls his eyes, annoying him. You don’t get it, do you? - How could she not? He tries again. You don’t know how beautiful you are. - She continues to ignore him. It pisses him off. Bono has forever hated how the loaded locals of the region have never properly accepted or respected him simply because he is Irish. He spits out some incoherent threats referencing gasoline, blowing stuff up and the Book of Revelations. Really not good. The bouncer has had enough, and unleashes a string of expletives in French. Bono realises he needs to start over as there must have been a misunderstanding. He points towards the ocean, to prove that he is exceedingly wealthy, and thus must be obeyed. I got a submarine! Before restating what his simple purpose is, while also putting the club in its place. You got gasoline! - I am rich, and I want a drink, you have drinks, you will let me. Realising his earlier threats to bomb France were possibly offensive, he offers a sort of apology. I don’t want to talk about wars between nations. The bouncer is firm. Not right now. The sun is coming up. Bono is coming down. He's cranky and tired and just has a complete childish spoiled celebrity dummy spit. Let me in The Sound! Let me in The Sound! Let me in The Sound, Sound! Let me in The Sound, Sound! The coke comedown is starting to grind. He pleads. Let me in The Sound. Let me in The Sound, now. God, I’m going down. I don’t wanna drown now. Let me in The Sound. The bouncer has had enough, grabs him, and the other patrons watch as he is dragged kicking and screaming down the street. Hey hey hey!
 
so good isn't it?

not sure if anyone saw this one from last night:

YouTube - U2 Zooropa, São Paulo 2011-04-13

if anyone has a good quality mp3 of zooropa and/or even better than the real thing from this tour, please email it to me at beatricemilk at hotmail dot com

that would be greatly appreciated.

cheers
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zooropa_(song)

Not necessarily a spoiler of sorts, but rather, for the sake of saving space on the forum, I have tabbed within the most enjoyable description of this monster of a song:

"Zooropa" (pronounced /zuːˈroʊpə/, zoo-ROH-pə) is a song by the rock band U2. It is the opening track from their 1993 album Zooropa. The song was the result of combining two pieces of music, the first of which was conceived in the studio, and the second of which was discovered by guitarist The Edge while listening to soundchecks the band had done while on tour. The lyrics were written by vocalist Bono, describing two characters in a brightly-lit city in a futuristic version of European society. Lyrics in the song were based on advertising slogans, and also featured the phrase "dream out loud", which has appeared in other U2 media. Several themes were touched in the song, including moral confusion and European society.

Promotional recordings of the song were released in the United States and Mexico, and the song appeared on two record charts shortly after its release in 1993. The song was briefly performed at three shows on U2's Zoo TV Tour in 1992, where the band had difficulties performing it, and it was not played again until the U2 360° Tour in 2011. The track received mostly positive reception from critics, who praised it as the album's opening track.

Background and recording

During the Zoo TV Tour in 1992, U2 were trying to create a vision of an attractive future for Europe, as opposed to a negative, dystopian image that would be found in science fiction. With recent and ongoing events in Europe, such as the Revolutions of 1989, the enlargement of the European Union, and the Bosnian War, lead vocalist Bono created a surreal vision of a European location called "Zooropa".[1] This concept was first implemented into the fourth leg of the Zoo TV Tour, which was named "Zooropa",[2] and was later used as the name for the song and the album.[3] Bono has referred to Zooropa as being a concept album,[4] with a main theme of the exploration of interpellation within the European Union.[5] The place, "Zooropa", was also the setting for all the songs on the album.[6]

Bono and guitarist The Edge had been reading works by cyberpunk author William Gibson, who wrote about a futuristic urban environment known as "The Sprawl".[1] Gibson was an influence in the texture of the song, and Bono described his work as "fucked up sci-fi".[8] Bono wanted to use noise to create a visual setting for the song, similar to Gibson's futuristic world, filled with advertisements on LED displays and neon signs, as in the 1982 film Blade Runner.[7] With "Zooropa" as the album's opening song, Bono stated that he wanted the album's music to be like "legal drugs" that would create a trip where "you come out of the other end and you feel like you've been on some kind of a journey". The closing song on the album, "The Wanderer", features Johnny Cash on vocals, and was intended on being the "antidote" to the futuristic-sounding opener.[9]

The song was written during the album's sessions in Dublin, which took place from March to May 1993 between legs of the band's Zoo TV Tour.[10] "Zooropa" was first developed after The Edge listened to cassette recordings of the band's soundchecks from the Zoo TV Tour.[9] Along with the album's sound engineer Joe O'Herlihy, The Edge edited the best parts of the soundchecks together using Sound Tools to create a song arrangement, which served as a backing track.[1][7][11] The song's introduction was recorded separately from the remainder of the song. The band based the intro on a jam session in the studio, and producer Flood took parts of the jam and created an ambient mix.[1] The bass guitar during the intro was written and performed by drummer Larry Mullen, Jr., who came up with the piece during the recording sessions while The Edge was working on the album's guitar riffs.[12] The song pieces were then edited into a stereo mix, with the intro mixed in by Flood using a crossfade.[1] Synthesizer sounds were added by producer Brian Eno on a Yamaha DX7 keyboard, including a "squishy, mad-synth sound" that connected the different segments of the soundcheck. The Edge later added guitar tracks, as well as additional sounds to the song using an EMS Synthi A synthesizer.[7][11] At the last minute, the band had misgivings about the first segment of the soundcheck backing track. Having established an arrangement for the song, they performed it in the studio from start to finish; they used this replaying for the first part of the soundcheck backing track, while using portions of the new performance for the second segment.[1]

The band had originally intended on recording an EP during the sessions, but Zooropa eventually evolved into full-length album. "Zooropa" was one of five songs that were part of what would have become the band's EP, which also included "Babyface", "Numb", "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)", and "The Wanderer".[7] The original working title for the track was "Babble–Zooropa", as mentioned in a May 1993 issue of Hot Press, with the song composed of two parts—the two-minute introduction titled "Babble", and the remainder of the song titled "Zooropa".[8] A later working title was featured in a June 1993 issue of Billboard, which listed the song's title as "Zooropa I & II", also splitting the track into two parts.[13] When the album was released the following month, the track was simply titled "Zooropa".

Composition and themes

"Zooropa" begins with a two-minute-long introduction. As the song fades in, sustained chords are played, and a noisy collage of mainly indecipherable human voices from radio signals fades in at 0:19.[9][10][14] The voices from the background voices include a clip of George H. W. Bush saying "Peace talks", and are referenced in the album notes as "courtesy of the advertising world".[15] A quiet piano and bass guitar are heard above the voices, which get louder with each beat.[8] At 1:30, the volume of the voices raises suddenly and the bass part changes.[10] The introduction then begins to fade out fifteen seconds later, while a guitar riff played with a delay and wah-wah effect joins the mix. The riff is briefly played on its own before the bass guitar and drums join in at 2:03.[10] This is followed by background voices saying, "What do you want?" in both English and French ("Qu'est-ce que tu veux?"), and "De quoi as-tu peur?" (English: "What are you afraid of?").[16][15] In response to the questions, the lyrics in the first three verses of the song consist of various advertising slogans.[1][17] At 3:45, following the first three verses, a break in the song's instrumentation occurs, except for guitar, and the song returns to a state similar to the introduction's end.[10] A rapid rhythmic synthesiser fades in and at 4:03, the drums and bass re-enter and the song assumes an increased tempo.[10] The theme of moral confusion and uncertainty becomes present in the remaining lyrics.

The song describes two characters in a setting with a dull and grey appeal, who emerge from blinking neon signs into a brightly-lit modern city.[1] The radio sound effects in the introduction were intended to create a mood and setting for the song. DJ Carter Alan noted that the sounds seemed to draw a connection from Achtung Baby, but Bono stated that it was not intentional and that he didn't want it to have "anything to do with the past".[9] Several advertising slogans were implemented word-for-word in the song's lyrics, including "Vorsprung durch Technik" (English: "Advancement through technology") (Audi),[18] "Be all that you can be" (United States Army),[19] "Fly the friendly skies" (United Airlines),[20] and "The appliance of science" (Zanussi).[21] Other lyrics in the first three verses feature references to product slogans or phrases, such as Colgate's "Ring of confidence"[22] ("We've got that ring of confidence"), Daz's "Bluey white"[23] ("A bluer kind of white"), and Fairy's "Mild green Fairy liquid"[24] ("We're mild and green and squeaky clean"), the latter of which The Edge claimed to be his favourite line of the song.[25]

Following the first three verses of advertising slogans, the song continues with the lyrics, "I have no compass, and I have no map" and "No reason to get back", referring to the uncertainty of the new direction of U2's music at the time.[4] The following verse begins with, "And I have no religion", which was included in the lyrics because Bono stated that he "believe that religion is the enemy of God."[1] A review of the album in Melody Maker compared the lyric "Uncertainty can be a guiding light" towards the end of the song to the line "If you walk away, [...] I will follow" from U2's 1980 single "I Will Follow". The reviewer stated "The man (Bono) that once had so many answers now sounds simply confused."[26] The theme of moral confusion was first used in U2's song "Acrobat" from Achtung Baby.[8] The coda in "Zooropa" features the lyric "dream out loud", which Bono included as a reference to "Acrobat".[1] The phrase "dream out loud" was first used by Bono during the Lovetown Tour in 1989,[27] and has appeared several times in U2's work since then. The phrase was also used in the song "Always"[28] — a B-side to the "Beautiful Day" single released in 2000[29] — and was spoken by Bono in the PopMart: Live from Mexico City video.[30]
 
Zoomerang96 said:
so good isn't it?

not sure if anyone saw this one from last night:

if anyone has a good quality mp3 of zooropa and/or even better than the real thing from this tour, please email it to me at beatricemilk at hotmail dot com

that would be greatly appreciated.

cheers
Click to expand...

ive sent so much p0rn to that addy over the years... your welcome

:sexywink:
 
Seems even Willie Williams knows it was trending on twitter:

"It appears that last night’s performance of Zooropa triggered something of a global online storm, actually making into the top ten most worldwide ‘trends’ on Twitter at one point during the evening. What it is to be alive in the information age, where a single song, played in Brazil sends echoes and ripples all over the planet. I’m so happy that the band took the plunge and went for it. I love the boldness of the mood they’re in at the moment."

Looks promising that it will stay in the set for a while. Although South America gave it a lukewarm response, at least they know a crap load of people love this song.
 
Zooropa is one of my top 5 U2 songs. I've always hoped they would bring it back, but holy shit....I never thought they'd do it.

My one complaint is that they're in the dark the whole time. But hell, if it means they'll keep it in the setlist, stay in the dark guys! :wink:
 
It appears that there was a greenish light shed on the band during the 4/13 Sao Paolo show. Still not enough. It's sounding great though.
 
I can understand them wanting to keep it in a sort of mysterious looking setting visually, with the focus on the screen and the claw. They seem to still be working on it. Fine by me that we see it evolve, just keep on it this next few weeks U2 and show us what you got when you return, please!
 
Great read from wikipedia, few things I didn't know (Larry coming up with the bass part).

I'd love to see them keep the screen up for the first half and use the album cover/booklet as inspiration for the visuals. Lot's of purples and yellows, and random advertising pictures, then have it start expanding toward the end of the first half so that it is full expanded right when the second half kicks in, and they can start the whole clusterfuck visual thing they do now.
 
Tommy WM said:
Seems even Willie Williams knows it was trending on twitter:

"It appears that last night’s performance of Zooropa triggered something of a global online storm, actually making into the top ten most worldwide ‘trends’ on Twitter at one point during the evening. What it is to be alive in the information age, where a single song, played in Brazil sends echoes and ripples all over the planet. I’m so happy that the band took the plunge and went for it. I love the boldness of the mood they’re in at the moment."

Looks promising that it will stay in the set for a while. Although South America gave it a lukewarm response, at least they know a crap load of people love this song.
Click to expand...

:heart:

dan_smee said:
Great read from wikipedia, few things I didn't know (Larry coming up with the bass part).

I'd love to see them keep the screen up for the first half and use the album cover/booklet as inspiration for the visuals. Lot's of purples and yellows, and random advertising pictures, then have it start expanding toward the end of the first half so that it is full expanded right when the second half kicks in, and they can start the whole clusterfuck visual thing they do now.
Click to expand...

dittoz and dittoz :up: :wink:
 
Tommy WM said:
Seems even Willie Williams knows it was trending on twitter:

"It appears that last night’s performance of Zooropa triggered something of a global online storm, actually making into the top ten most worldwide ‘trends’ on Twitter at one point during the evening. What it is to be alive in the information age, where a single song, played in Brazil sends echoes and ripples all over the planet. I’m so happy that the band took the plunge and went for it. I love the boldness of the mood they’re in at the moment."

Looks promising that it will stay in the set for a while. Although South America gave it a lukewarm response, at least they know a crap load of people love this song.
Click to expand...

Looks like we just have to get Pop, Discotheque and Mofo trending, and we are sweet! :wink:
 
dan_smee said:
Is it little wonder this band is averse to experiment in this way? Sao Paulo should be ashamed. The biggest setlist surprise U2 have arguably ever put forward, and no reaction from the crowd. That is disgusting, and a big part of why U2 don't bother treating the fans like this.

Shame.
Click to expand...
I just read it on u2.com..sorry if posted already.

'The moment we were all waiting for though was Zooropa and happily we got through it unscathed. In the dressing room we had discussed the fact that the audience were unlikely to respond in a very animated way during Zooropa being more likely to just stand there with their mouths open (doing what we now refer to as the “PopMart stare”). However what we had tonight, which we didn’t have on the PopMart tour, was the cell phone barometer. When Zooropa kicked off and the screen came down, it seemed like every cell phone in the building was flashing.'

U2 > Sign In
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