The words sung during "Ultraviolet" are "Ultraviolet"

[Muldfeld]

Holy cow!

Achtung Baby is the album that turned me onto pop music -- that made me actively play albums that weren't story records about Rumpelstilskin or Sesame Street.

I've loved "Ultraviolet" for almost as long. Yet, for years, I couldn't tell what was being sung by The Edge and whomever else during 2:45-3:00 and 4:10-4:25, while Bono does his gorgeous gospel and lower register humming. I thought it was something with the words "to run" or something. I might have thought it was "Want to run away" at some point and just given up, at some point, on wanting to know.

I just realized a few minutes ago, watching this clip:
YouTube - U2 - Ultra Violet // Live in Basel '93 (ProShot)

that the words are the bloody title of the song! "Ultraviolet".

I'm sure most of you knew this, but maybe some of you didn't and now do.

It's pretty funny. I was always slow, but this is quite shocking.

Anyway, goodnight.

 

[quadcaster]

Very true, but i think this might be the wrong part of the forum

 

[trucdfou]

i thought absolutly the same for decades (i may eventually heard "won't you buy her love")....then i saw the U2360 TV special on youtube with some bloody portugese subtittles (ultravioleta), now my way is lightened

 

[Galeongirl]

Oh god, here we go again.

 

[Flaming Friar Sr]

jeezz you're right

myself, I have always heard 'won't ya light my way'

 

[nielsgov]

Oh god, here we go again.

Yes, the thread in IAMJ was great fun.




Anyway, I still think it's Ultraviolet light.

 

[subnet]

bono is so robert smith here, in octave and makeup

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

i still hear "oh tomorrow love". so nyeah!

 

[Angel-Of-Harlem]

I used to hear "don't you come home late" until I realised what it said

 

[theedgeu2]

Some of the misheard lyrics are making me laugh really hard. I can't say anything, because I've misheard lyrics before that absolutely make no sense whatsoever with what is being talked about in the song.

I have always heard "Ultraviolet Love" from the first listen onward.

 

[U2girl]

It was always Ultraviolet.

 

[digitize]

I can hear ultraviolet, ultraviolet light, and ultraviolet love interchangeably, and I don't care what it is. My best guess is ultraviolet (ultra vi-oh-let), though.

 

[corianderstem]

Yeah, that's pretty much my take on what I hear as well (except for the "ultraviolet love" bit - I don't hear that one).

 

[Galeongirl]

I can hear ultraviolet, ultraviolet light, and ultraviolet love interchangeably, and I don't care what it is. My best guess is ultraviolet (ultra vi-oh-let), though.

I've just never been able to hear anything other than Ultraviolet in it. Ah well, as Freud said, people hear what they want to hear I guess..

 

[U2DMfan]

http://www.u2interference.com/forums/f194/what-does-edge-sing-in-ultraviolet-201597.html

We didn't quite make it a year this time.

 

[Muldfeld]

I'm so glad I'm not alone. For nearly 20 years, I was lost and now am found -- at least this this song.

I've also wondered what Bono was singing at the very beginning of "Last Night on Earth"; I haven't liked the song since '97, but I've always LOVED those first 20 seconds or so when Bono raps and the way the drums and guitar kick in. So damn catchy. I always wished they'd figured out a better chorus.

bono is so robert smith here, in octave and makeup

Actually, Robert Smith has never worn white make up on his face, as he emphasized in an interview once. He's just pale. And looking like Robert ain't a bad thing!

Have a look at him even in the early phase of his career before the hair and lipstick; he has no make up, besides what's needed for filming publicity videos (Shameless Robert Smith plug).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZwVgQ4Wq7E

Some of the misheard lyrics are making me laugh really hard. I can't say anything, because I've misheard lyrics before that absolutely make no sense whatsoever with what is being talked about in the song.

I have always heard "Ultraviolet Love" from the first listen onward.

The worst part is when you're so used to reciting those lyrics you know don't make sense so many times, it's a reflex. I've always been afraid others will hear me sing wrong lyrics but I won't be able to stop myself.

On a Robert Smith-related note, that happened to him when he was rehearsing a David Bowie song in the late '90s with Bowie himself, who told him, "That's very nice, but those aren't the words!"

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

I used to hear "don't you come home late" until I realised what it said

i like that one!

 

[Muldfeld]

http://www.u2interference.com/forums/f194/what-does-edge-sing-in-ultraviolet-201597.html

We didn't quite make it a year this time.

Huh? I guess that's why we're U2 fans. We obsess over the same stuff.

"All of this has happened before and all of it will happen again."
-Battlestar Galactica

 

[subnet]

the whole robert smith comment was totally tongue in cheek.

 

[Muldfeld]

the whole robert smith comment was totally tongue in cheek.

Yeah, I know. But even I perhaps used to think Smith wore white make up. I just enjoy obsessing over Robert Smith.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

I thought that Achtung Baby was a rock album ...

But it's about time someone settled this "whatever Edge sings in Ultraviolet" once and for all.

 

[last unicorn]

i still hear "oh tomorrow love". so nyeah!

Same here. I always used to hear: Something something TOMORROW something something.



However, the thread title cracks me up every time I read it: The words sung during "Ultraviolet" are "Ultraviolet". That's just too obvious.

 

[U2387]

I can hear ultraviolet, ultraviolet light, and ultraviolet love interchangeably, and I don't care what it is. My best guess is ultraviolet (ultra vi-oh-let), though.

Exactly.

BTW, Ultraviolet is sheer brilliance, just to say that for the 9 billionth time here on blue crack!

On AB

And on Zoo Tv and 360 live performances.

Not much better out there than Ultraviolet.

 

[bonocomet]

I've always heard him sing just "ultraviolet" too (plus it makes sense so I never questioned it.) But then I've always very easily heard Bono sing "mother fucker" in the chorus of Mofo too, and I was surprised when I found out here that some people didn't hear it before.

 

[TheEdge25]

I've always heard him sing just "ultraviolet" too (plus it makes sense so I never questioned it.) But then I've always very easily heard Bono sing "mother fucker" in the chorus of Mofo too, and I was surprised when I found out here that some people didn't hear it before.

I've heard Mother Fucker in Mofo as well.


I think on the album version, Edge just sings "Ul-tra-vi-oh-leeeett"

And I was watching the Rose Bowl DVD and I think when they play the song live, Edge sings "Ultraviolet LIGHT"

 

[BVS]

You mean it's not "ultra violent light"?

I thought it was another political song against people who drive with their high beams on

 

[ryancoke71]

You mean it's not "ultra violent light"?

I thought it was another political song against people who drive with their high beams on

I heard something with tomorrow in it until my then 6 year old daughter said " mom, you are singing it wrong, they are saying Ultraviolet!"

 

[trevgreg]

I recall being confused by it the first time I started listening to the song, but overtime I figured I was hearing "ultra vio-let" and then something else. Maybe he was just holding the last part at the end, but "love" seemed to make sense too when I read it.

 

[digitize]

Technically, there's no such thing as "ultraviolet light", as ultraviolet is beyond the light spectrum, so Bono screwed up scientifically if that's the lyric.

 

[Galeongirl]

Technically, there's no such thing as "ultraviolet light", as ultraviolet is beyond the light spectrum, so Bono screwed up scientifically if that's the lyric.

Edge is a science nerd. No way he would let Bono get away with that one. That proves it then, it must be just ultraviolet.