U2MoL

Unforgettable Fire

Elvis Presley And America

  1. This is a one-take, Bono-on-the-spot experiment of a song. Legend has it that Brian Eno (producer on Unforgettable Fire - Zooropa) just told Bono to sing over a slowed-down, reversed backing track for A Sort of Homecoming. It's about Elvis and his genius as the Prototype Rock Star and his decline into the fat Elvis that would forget his lines and fumble his lyrics. Boom, instant song.

    Crow crow@globalserve.net (contributed before the 20:th of February 1998)

  2. Elvis Presley and America, similar to Bad, is a chronicle of the best and the worst of times. Just like Bad talks about the heroin addict's low of "desolation" and "isolation" to the high of being "wide awake", Elvis Presley and America talks about Elvis's high of "breaking through for you and me" to his low of dying on a bathroom floor–"I can hold my head and see the door, and you pick me up, bits and pieces on this floor." Elvis's highs and lows refer to the wonders he did to the world's music but also to his drug use. Being able to see the door before being found dead on the bathroom floor is ironic–Elvis felt he could get out of the silly chronicle of drug abuse only when it was too late.

    Dan dchale@students.wisc.edu (23:rd of April 1998)