// U2 Lyrics // U2 Album

Lyrics to U2's 'The Unforgettable Fire'.
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The Unforgettable Fire Albumcover U2
The Unforgettable Fire
1984

// Lyrics:

  1. A Sort of Homecoming
  2. Pride
  3. Wire
  4. The Unforgettable Fire
  5. Promenade
  6. 4th of July
  7. Bad
  8. Indian Summer Sky
  9. Elvis Presley and America
  10. MLK

// About 'The Unforgettable Fire'

The Unforgettable Fire was released in 1984. It is the group's fourth album and their first collaboration with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. The title refers to a series of paintings made by survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

It was recorded at Slane Castle and finished at Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin. Contrary to expectation, the castle depicted on the cover is not Slane but Moydrum Castle.

The album has an indistinct, atmospheric sound that emphasizes mood and ambience over hooks and melody and explores the intricacies of The Edge's uniquely minimalist guitar sound. Its recording was rushed to meet the band's tour schedule, giving it an unfinished feel that complements its somewhat recondite songcraft. "The Unforgettable Fire was a beautifully out-of-focus record, blurred like an impressionist painting, very unlike a billboard or an advertising slogan." --Bono, 1987

Thematically, the album began the band's fascination with America and centered around the "two kings", Martin Luther King, Jr. and Elvis Presley. The former was elegized with the rousing, anthemic "Pride (In the Name of Love)"--the first single from the album, which cracked the UK Top 5 and the US Top 50--and the sparse, dreamlike "MLK". The latter is acknowledged by the murky, bumbling "Elvis Presley and America", an improvised track that takes the album's emphasis on feeling over clarity to its furthest extreme.

The album was a success, initially on the strength of "Pride" as a single and later due to the band's attention-grabbing Live Aid performance. In 1985, Rolling Stone magazine called U2 the "Band of the 80s", saying that "for a growing number of rock-and-roll fans, U2 has become the band that matters most, maybe even the only band that matters".

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "The Unforgettable Fire".