Roy's song
Heres an except from a new interview book with bono...
Michka: You said, "Intimacy needs to be whispered." What about the whispering in "She's a Mystery to Me", the song you wrote for Roy Orbison? What's the inspiration there? Are you whispering, or was someone whispering to you? To me, that song is some form of incarnation of God -- one of the few I would believe in anyway. To me, it's a religious song, a mystical song. The melody is like the one you hear in your head when you're in a cathedral. You can't say that of many other U2 songs.
Bono: There's probably some mechanical reasons for this,you know. Like, we're very attracted to suspended chords to the fifth. Edge has that in his guitar playing. You hear it a lot in religious music: Bach. That happy-sad feeling. Agony and ecstasy. It's that duality that makes my favorite pop songs.
One of the reasons I'm sitting here today is because you and Edge wrote that song. It's the song I throw in the face of people who say they don't "get" U2. And their jaws drop when they listen to it. For me, it's way up there with the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" in the pantheon of great songs. So I won't leave this place until you tell me how that song happened.
That's a funny one, that. Edge's wife, Aislinn, was the most extraordinary girl, who could surprise you with kindness when you least expected it. She gave me a copy of a soundtrack for David Lynch's film Blue Velvet. We were in London playing a concert. I left the record on "repeat" and fell asleep. When I woke up, I had a melody and words in my head. I presumed I was singing something from the soundtrack, but then realized I wasn't. I wrote it down. At sound check that day, I played the song to everybody and started going on and on about Roy Orbison, what a genius he was, et cetera. I told them that this could be a song for Roy Orbison, we should finish it for him. After sound check, I continued working on it. After the show, I was banging on and on about Roy Orbison in this song when a very strange thing happened. There was a knock at the door. John, our security man, was announcing the guests for that evening: Roy Orbison, he told me, is outside. He'd love to say a few words.
What? You mean you had no idea he would be coming over?
I had no idea he was there, I had no idea he was coming over, and neither had the band. They all looked at me like I had two heads. In fact, I was just getting a very large one, (laughs) feeling that somehow, God had agreed with me about Roy Orbison! He walked in, this beautiful humble man. He said: "I really, really loved the show. I couldn't tell you now why exactly, but I was very moved by the show. I'm wondering: would you fellows have a song for me?"
That story's even better than the one I would have made up myself.
Later, I got to finish the song with him, got to know his wife, Barbara, his family, and the song became the title of his last album. It was an extraordinary thing to record with him. I was out standing beside him at the microphone, bringing him through the song. I couldn't hear him singing, because he hardly opened his mouth. We went back into the control room, and it was all there. He not only had an angelic voice, but a kind of way about him too.
Michka: You said, "Intimacy needs to be whispered." What about the whispering in "She's a Mystery to Me", the song you wrote for Roy Orbison? What's the inspiration there? Are you whispering, or was someone whispering to you? To me, that song is some form of incarnation of God -- one of the few I would believe in anyway. To me, it's a religious song, a mystical song. The melody is like the one you hear in your head when you're in a cathedral. You can't say that of many other U2 songs.
Bono: There's probably some mechanical reasons for this,you know. Like, we're very attracted to suspended chords to the fifth. Edge has that in his guitar playing. You hear it a lot in religious music: Bach. That happy-sad feeling. Agony and ecstasy. It's that duality that makes my favorite pop songs.
One of the reasons I'm sitting here today is because you and Edge wrote that song. It's the song I throw in the face of people who say they don't "get" U2. And their jaws drop when they listen to it. For me, it's way up there with the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" in the pantheon of great songs. So I won't leave this place until you tell me how that song happened.
That's a funny one, that. Edge's wife, Aislinn, was the most extraordinary girl, who could surprise you with kindness when you least expected it. She gave me a copy of a soundtrack for David Lynch's film Blue Velvet. We were in London playing a concert. I left the record on "repeat" and fell asleep. When I woke up, I had a melody and words in my head. I presumed I was singing something from the soundtrack, but then realized I wasn't. I wrote it down. At sound check that day, I played the song to everybody and started going on and on about Roy Orbison, what a genius he was, et cetera. I told them that this could be a song for Roy Orbison, we should finish it for him. After sound check, I continued working on it. After the show, I was banging on and on about Roy Orbison in this song when a very strange thing happened. There was a knock at the door. John, our security man, was announcing the guests for that evening: Roy Orbison, he told me, is outside. He'd love to say a few words.
What? You mean you had no idea he would be coming over?
I had no idea he was there, I had no idea he was coming over, and neither had the band. They all looked at me like I had two heads. In fact, I was just getting a very large one, (laughs) feeling that somehow, God had agreed with me about Roy Orbison! He walked in, this beautiful humble man. He said: "I really, really loved the show. I couldn't tell you now why exactly, but I was very moved by the show. I'm wondering: would you fellows have a song for me?"
That story's even better than the one I would have made up myself.
Later, I got to finish the song with him, got to know his wife, Barbara, his family, and the song became the title of his last album. It was an extraordinary thing to record with him. I was out standing beside him at the microphone, bringing him through the song. I couldn't hear him singing, because he hardly opened his mouth. We went back into the control room, and it was all there. He not only had an angelic voice, but a kind of way about him too.
posted by Accidental Academic at 9:42 am
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