I would have to tell him, ‘You’re repeating verses. Even when we were recording, Bono hadn’t finished all the lyrics. They played those songs in clubs before they got signed. “The first album was the result of three or four years of writing. It’s never come easily to them,” he says. “They’ve had writer’s block their whole lives. Following their initial attempts at recording, the band had sketched out only a few new song ideas, which The Edge remembers as being “interesting, but nothing we were really excited about.” Lillywhite says this was par for the course. Getting that story right wouldn’t be easy. My sort of communistic morals changed slightly when I realized that it could be such a wonderful story if we could get it right with U2.” They always seemed to keep convincing me to come back. “At first, I thought, God, I’ve never done an album number three with anybody,” he says.
Lillywhite was more than a little surprised when he got a call from Bono in early summer 1982, asking if he’d be interested in producing U2’s next album that fall. A few other names were tossed around – Rhett Davies, Roy Thomas Baker and even Brian Eno, who would ultimately begin a long relationship with U2 starting with 1984’s The Unforgettable Fire – but nothing took. Next, they recorded tracks with Sandy Pearlman (famous for his work with the Clash and Blue Öyster Cult) and Blondie keyboardist Jimmy Destri, after which the band decided to continue their search. For a time, they considered working with multiple producers – possibly one per song – but that idea was soon discarded.
In fact, the band had entertained a few other options. (Image credit: STEVE RAPPORT/GETTY IMAGES) U2 pose while on the “Pre-War Tour” that preceded the album’s February 1983 release, December 21, 1982.
0 kommentar(er)
