With or without you
| With or without you | |
|---|---|
| U2 | |
| publication | March 16, 1987 |
| length | 4:56 |
| Genre (s) | skirt |
| Author (s) | U2 |
| Producer (s) | Daniel Lanois , Brian Eno |
| Label | Island Records |
| album | The Joshua Tree |
With or Without You is one of the most famous songs by the Irish rock band U2 and was released in March 1987 as the first single from the album The Joshua Tree . After I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, the song is the most frequently covered by U2 and was also the band's first single to be released on CD. In 2004, With or Without You was voted number 131 of Rolling Stone's 500 best songs of all time .
Origin and topic
The song was recorded in 1986 at Windmill Lane Studios , Dublin , Ireland for the album The Joshua Tree . As with the previous album, Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois worked as producers on the album. The EP released in March 1987 was the first single after The Unforgettable Fire , which had been released two years earlier.
According to U2 singer Bono , Scott Walker's album Climate of Hunter as well as the Righteous Brothers and Walker Brothers are sources of inspiration for the song.
Although the text of the song offers many possibilities for interpretation - such as religious longing or drug consumption - Bono explained in an interview that the song is a love song. The front man told Rolling Stone magazine that the song was a twisted love song that was about the violence of love, as well as ownership and possession. The pain caused by an unhappy love is shown in the song mainly through painful symbols, as for example, the verse "See the thorn twist in your side" ( "Look at the mandrel turn in your side") , "On a bed of nails she makes me wait ” (“ She makes me wait on a board of nails ”) and “ My hands are tied / My body bruised ” (“ My hands are tied, my body bruised ”) .
“ With Or Without You […] examined the violence of love. Love is the next feeling to hate, power is the next to submission and sadism is the next to masochism . Bono explained, 'It was interesting to me as I see this in myself and in the other people around me. Love is a double-edged sword and I didn't want to write about romance because I don't care as much as the other side. '"
Nevertheless, a personal reference to Bono can be found in the song, who at that time felt exposed to the audience as a singer, which affected both his private life and the band itself.
“In With or Without You , when it means and you give yourself away and you give yourself away , all the other band members know what that means. It's about how I sometimes feel at U2: exposed. I know the band thinks I'm exposed and the group feels that I'm giving myself away. And funny enough, Lou Reed said to me: 'What you have is a real gift: Don't give it up, because people don't really know how much it is worth.' And I think that if I harm the group, it's because I'm too open. For example, in interviews, I don't hold the cards and play the right one because I have to or don't have to do it. That's why I won't be doing a lot of interviews this year. Because that is at the expense of my private life and the group. "
U2 finally released the song on March 9, 1987 on the album The Joshua Tree , which Bono regards as incomplete, "because With or Without You would be incomprehensible without the two songs Walk to the Water and Luminious Times ." Then the two songs became that did not appear on the album were released as the b-side of the single.
“On the With or Without You EP, there are three songs on it, all of which are about obsession, about this kind of sexuality. I would have loved to do a whole page, a whole record. This single is a bit compressed. "
In addition to the album The Joshua Tree and the single, the song also appeared on The Best of 1980–1990 album, as well as on the 20-year deluxe version of The Joshua Tree . It can also be found on CD U218 Singles .
Live versions can be found on the DVD U218 Singles (Live in Milan, 2005), the 1988 film U2: Rattle and Hum , and on the DVD 20 Years The Joshua Tree (Live in Paris, 1987). Another live version can be found on the Please EP (Live in Rotterdam, July 18, 1997).
To the newly developed in 1987 Philips - CDV test system, the single was also released in a CD video format containing both audio and video tracks. Since this edition was only produced in a very small number (approx. 50 pieces), it is now one of the rarest collector's items.
Musical
The song is written in D major and is largely based on D major chords. In the sections where this is not the case, the band uses the chord progression: D - A7sus4 - Bm7 - Gsus9. This harmonic ostinato is expressed through the fundamental notes of bassist Adam Clayton and guitarist The Edge .
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Audio sample: download , information , full sheet music sample ) Harmonious ostinato (D - A7sus4 - Bm7 - Gsus9) from the solo which concludes With or Without You .When it was released, With or Without You was seen as the result of a completely new musical path, mainly due to the use of the infinite guitar . The Edge used the technology developed by Michael Brook (infinite guitar) to generate the infinite tones , in which an electronic sensor that reacts to the feedback enables the generation of any length of decay of the tone including a change in the overtone structure using an equalizer . With or Without You is considered the first successful song to use this technique.
"It has a similar effect to an E-Bow , but the downside of an E-Bow is that it is either on or off, whereas this gives you all the intermediate steps between no maintenance and infinite maintenance, as well as different appearances of a note."
The Edge also uses the delay effect , with which an echo-like sound can be achieved for the individual tones. He uses a 3 / 16th delay, which corresponds to 410 ms at 110 bpm . The Edge explains the use of the delay effect by saying that it enables an unlimited variety of musical constructions.
By using the delay technique and the infinite guitar, U2 entered a completely new musical path with With or Without You , so that the band members at times feared that the song would not be played by any radio station.
“Our music in the 80s, when I look back on it today ... it was so completely out of step with everything else. Something that is common radio feed today like With or Without You ... you have to understand, this is a very strange sounding song, it just sounds normal because you've heard it so often. Somehow it whispers its way and ... that crazy guitar part on The Edges Infinite Guitar ... It was a very unusual sounding record. "
Live performances
With or Without You first performed on The Joshua Tree Tour's second show on April 4, 1987 in Tempe , Arizona . It then became an integral part of the rest of the tour, and the band played it on most of the shows on the Lovetown tour in 1989. During this time, the encores at the end of the song, which were not found on the studio version, were particularly noticeable are. Although The Edges Solo fades slowly in the studio version, it was used live to build up an additional verse. The Edge described this as follows:
“This is actually my favorite guitar part from the whole album, and it's actually one of the easiest. It's like it could have just gone into a big solo so easily, you know, and it was something incredibly satisfying ... the ending of that melody [...] that's the complete opposite. to a great solo], the most relaxed, most undramatic guitar part. "
The verses following the solo read “we'll shine like stars in the summer night / we'll shine like stars in the winter night / one heart, one hope, one love” . Occasionally they appeared in a slightly modified form of these lines. On some performances, Bono also ended the song with vocal parts from songs by other artists, such as a verse from Joy Division's song Love Will Tear Us Apart .
U2 played With or Without You at almost every single concert on the Zoo TV Tour and at every concert on the Popmart Tour . During the third section of the Elevation tour, the band took the song out of the program and only performed it again occasionally during the Vertigo tour . There the song regained its original status and was included again in the program in the second part of the tour in Europe.
Overall, With or Without you played at so far 694 concerts (April 2013). The last time U2 completed a concert with With or Without You was on October 7, 2005 during the Vertigo Tour at Madison Square Garden in New York.
For the stage show for With or Without You , Bono usually selects a girl from the audience to sing the song for on stage.
Video clip
The music video for With or Without You was filmed in Dublin in February 1987, directed by Meiert Avis and Matt Mahurin . Michael Hamlyn and Paul Spencer worked as producers .
The video clip is mostly black and white and mainly plays with the light and dark contrasts as well as a sometimes “stormy” camera work, especially towards the end of the video.
At the beginning of the music video, the band members are shown relatively motionless playing the song, while scenes of a storm can be seen in the background. The band gets more and more restless towards the end of the song, so that Bono, for example, hurls his guitar around him. The video clip adapts to the musical design of the song, which begins relatively calmly at the beginning, but ends very energetically at the end.
Between the band's appearance, some scenes from a thunderstorm, such as lightning or trees shaking in the wind, were cut into it. Furthermore, you can see a man walking along a stormy seashore with a flashlight (matching the song line “Through the storm we reach the shore” ). At the end, an unknown woman in a white robe is also shown, who is being blown by a stormy wind.
In an interview, The Edge described the special path that U2 was taking with their music and music videos at the time:
“It doesn't sound like the other things from that time at all. It doesn't come from an 80s mentality. It's like it's from a completely different place [...] And I watched some videos from that time, you know, and our videos were so different, like ... like they were from a completely different place. "
The video was nominated for seven categories at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards and won the Viewer's Choice Award . It was named the second best music video of the year at the Rolling Stone Magazine Music Awards in 1987 .
Charts
With or Without You occupied top 10 positions in many different charts shortly after its release. It was the first U2 single that in the USA the first place of the Billboard charts reached and she could occupy this position for three weeks. In addition, the song reached the top ten of the UK singles chart and stayed in the UK Top 75 for eleven weeks . In Germany the song reached number 7 and managed to maintain its position in the top 10 for seven weeks.
| Charts | Top ranking | Weeks |
|---|---|---|
| Chart placements | ||
 Germany (GfK)
|
7th (19 weeks) | 19th |
 Austria (Ö3)
|
15th (16 weeks) | 16 |
 Switzerland (IFPI)
|
10 (14 weeks) | 14th |
 United Kingdom (OCC)
|
4th (19 weeks) | 19th |
 United States (Billboard)
|
1 (18 weeks) | 18th |
 Ireland (IRMA)
|
1 (6 weeks) | 6th |
Reviews
From music critics was With or Without You mostly well received.
Steve Pond, a reviewer for Rolling Stone , recognizes the musical change U2 underwent in the album The Joshua Tree and thus also in the song With or Without You . Instead of the stormy hymns that had shaped the previous albums in particular, the band now places more emphasis on creatively arranged melodies. This also included With or Without You , which the critic as a rock 'n' roll - Bolero describes that builds on a soothing beginning and go to a resounding climax.
The BBC critic Daryl Easlea considered With or Without You as a unique feature of the album, which the two strands of Albumöffner Where the Streets Have No Name , and I honorary knighthood What I'm Looking For merges. Furthermore, he considers the song to be a demonstration of the efficiency that the band has achieved and sees a parallel in the musical design with the growing success of U2.
Josh Tyrangiel, a reviewer for Time magazine , points out The Edges guitar playing, which leaves so much space between the individual notes that you could take a road trip in between. He also praises Bono, who sings at his upper limit in With or Without You .
This view is shared by the Hot Press critic Bill Graham, who also emphasizes Bono's vocals as very controlled and varied. In addition, he sees the key to the U2 ethos in the verse "And you give yourself away" .
The song received a negative review from Austin Chronicle critic Greg Beets, who also sees With or Without You as the main single on the album, but is not satisfied with the musical interpretation of the lyrics. The melodic bassline and the somewhat romantic presentation of the song would not adequately reflect the agonizing indecision that emerges from the text. The critic compares this with the song Every Breath You Take by The Police , which in the same way glosses over the topic of stalking . Greg Beets adds that with the song With or Without You , the band would venture too far into Simple Minds territory and thereby fail to convey feelings through music. They would have done this perfectly with other songs on the album, such as Running to Stand Still and Mothers of the Disappeared .
Cover versions
With or Without You is the second most-covered song by U2 after I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For and has been re-edited by artists from a wide variety of genres.
One of the earliest adaptations of the song is With or Without U2 by the punk band Jawbreaker , a title that appeared on a 1991 split single with Jawbox that began as the With-or-Without-You cover and later featured in the song Skulls by the Misfits passes over.
This was followed by numerous cover versions by bands from the rock and pop area. For example, the English electro-pop group Heaven 17 covered the song on their 1997 tribute album We Will Follow: A Tribute to U2. In the same year, singer Mary Kiani also recorded a version of the song for her album Long Hard Funky Dreams , which rose to number 46 in the British charts. Promo CDs contain a quote from The Edge approving the cover version on behalf of the whole band.
In 2000 the Dutch rock group Kane released a cover version of the song on their live CD / DVD With or Without You , which was recorded in Rotterdam. The American rock band Finch also played a live version of the song at some concerts, but it did not appear on CD or DVD. The Japanese singer Hikaru Utada also covered the song as a live version of the Japanese version of MTV Unplugged in 2001. In 2006 the English rock group Keane played an acoustic cover version of With or Without You in the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge , which later appeared on the double album BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge .
One of the more recent arrangements of the song comes from the Japanese rock band Glay , who re-recorded the song in 2008.
In addition to these cover versions from the rock and pop genre, the song was also reworked in other musical genres. For example, Gregorian , a vocal group that reworks modern pop and rock songs in a medieval style , published the song on their 2003 album Masters of Chant Chapter IV. The Belgian girls' choir Scala & Kolacny Brothers also took a cover version of With or Without You in the year 2005 on.
The song also did not go unnoticed in the field of classical music and was released in 2000 by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra as an instrumental version on the album Mancini Rocks the Pops .
In 2008 the Belgian acoustic guitarist Jacques Stotzem released a purely acoustic version of this song on the CD "Catch the Spirit".
In 2004, Köbes Underground , a music group in the Cologne carnival and house band of the alternative Cologne carnival event Stunksitzung , whose specialty are cover versions of well-known pop and rock music melodies with new texts that make reference to Cologne and partly also to Kölsch , created their version with the title "Because of the customs". This has since become a kind of hymn and is regularly performed as one of the encores.
Use in film and television
With or Without You was used twice in the American sitcom Friends as a leitmotif for the failure of Rachel and Ross' relationship. In the eighth episode of the second season (The One with the List) Ross lets the song play on the radio to ask Rachel for forgiveness. In the 15th episode of the 3rd season (The One where Ross and Rachel Take a Break) the song has another appearance. After Ross and Rachel take a break from their relationship, Ross meets a woman in a nightclub. There he tells her that With or Without You is his favorite song when it is being played.
The song was also used as the background music for an amateur video compilation about the working life of a paper mill in Scranton , Pennsylvania on the Valentine's Day episode of NBC's 2005 series The Office . The song can also be found in episode 8:03 AM of the US crime series Cold Case - No Victim Is Ever Forgotten .
The song also served as the soundtrack in Tommy Lee Jones ' 1994 film Explosiv - Blown Away when a bomb exploded.
In 2000, Hamish Cowan's cover version of the song was used as the backdrop for a funeral scene in the Australian film The Secret of the Alibrandis .
In the 311st episode of the German action series Alarm für Cobra 11 , the song is played at the end.
In the 14th season of the German telenovela Sturm der Liebe from November 2017 to October 2018 it was the love song of the protagonist couple Alicia and Viktor and either in the original version or in the version by Scala & Kolacny Brothers was always special moments or thoughts of the both played together.
Awards for music sales
| Country / Region | Award | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales) |
||
 Denmark (IFPI)
|
 gold
|
15,000 |
 Canada (MC)
|
gold
|
75,000 |
 Italy (FIMI)
|
 platinum
|
50,000 |
|
United Kingdom (BPI)
|
platinum
|
600,000 |
Nominations and Awards
Nominations
- Best Video of the Year
- Best Group Video
- Best overall performance
- Best editing
- Best Cinematography
- Best Direction
Prices
MTV Video Music Awards 1987
- Viewer's Choice Award
Rolling Stone Magazine Music Awards 1987
- Best single
- 2nd Best Video
Individual evidence
-
↑ See www.U2.com ( Memento of the original dated September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Bono said the following in an interview with the New Musical Express :
- Scott Walker's 'Climate of Hunter', that was a great influence on our LP. Listen to With Or Without You.
-
↑ Bono in a radio interview when asked to what extent With or Without You is a new kind of love song. Out: Timothy White's Rock Stars. June 1, 1987.
- Timothy White: "With Or Without You" seems like a new kind of love song to me.
- Bono: Thank you. That's kinda the way I feel about it. I've said it before, but to me there's nothing more radical, there's nothing more revolutionary than two people loving each other. One, 'cause it's so uncommon these days, and two,' cause it's so difficult to do.
-
↑ Dalton, Stephen: How The West Was Won. In: Uncut Magazine ; September 8, 2003.
- With or Without You is probably the most personal statement on The Joshua Tree. In the Rolling Stone Bono called it a "twisted love song" about "the violence of love, ownership, possession, all these things."
-
^ Bowler, Dave & Dray, Bryan: U2 - A Conspiracy of Hope. London, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1993, ISBN 0-283-06169-3 .
- "With or Without You" [...] investigated the violence of love. Love is the closest emotion to hate, power the closest to submission and sadism the closest to masochism. Bono revealed that "it was interesting to me because I see it in myself and in other people around me. Love is a two-edged sword and I didn't want to write about romance because that doesn't interest me as much as the other side. " [...]
-
↑ Bono in an interview. See Stokes, Niall: The World About Us. In: Hot Press , March 26, 1987.
- In "With Or Without You" when it says "and you give yourself away and you give yourself away" - everybody else in the group knows what that means. It's about how I feel in U2 at times - exposed. I know the group think I'm exposed and the group feel that I give myself away. And funny enough, Lou Reed said to me, 'what you've got is a real gift: don't give it away because people might not place upon it the right value.' And I think that if l do any damage to the group, it's that I'm too open. For instance, in an interview, I don't hold the cards there and play the right one because I either have to do it or not do it. That's why I'm not going to do many interviews this year. Because there's a cost to my personal life and a cost to the group as well.
-
↑ Graham, Bill: Band On The Run. In: Hot Press , December 17, 1987.
- [...] Bono wants to argue that "the album is almost incomplete". With Or Without You doesn't really make sense without 'Walk To The Water' or Luminous Times. [...]
-
↑ Bono in an interview. See Hutchinson, John: Luminous Times. In: Musician , October 1, 1987.
- On the "With or Without You" EP there are three songs that all deal with obsession [Walk To The Water, Luminous Times], with that kind of sexuality. I'd like to have done a whole side, a whole record, blue. That EP is something close.
-
↑ The Edge in: Rooksby, Rikki: Inside Classic Rock Tracks . Backbeat, 2001, ISBN 0-87930-654-8 , p. 122.
- It has a similar effect to the E-Bow, but the disadvantage of the E-Bow is that it's either on or off, whereas this gives you all the mid-points between no sustain and infinite sustain, and different levels of emergence of the grade.
-
^ The Edge in Total Guitar , 2005.
- I've found so many guitar parts from using the echo - it's limitless. The biggest difference between me and other players is that I don't use effects to color my parts. I create guitar parts using effects. They're a crucial element of what I do so I don't consider them a crutch ... They're a part of the art.
- ↑ More details on The Edges Delay Technique by Tim Darling
-
↑ The Edge On Holiday - Propaganda April 10, 1989 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. :
- [...] "With or Without You," [...] at that moment it was something no one had heard of before, although it's since become a kind of format or style, and even for us we now accept it as kind of established. But when we first released it, it was like, "Will anyone play this?"
-
↑ Bono on DVD The Joshua Tree , 1999, TDK Mediaactive in the Classic Albums series .
- Our music, looking back on it now, in the eighties it I can see… that would be so out of step with everything around. […] Something which is a staple on the radio now like With Or Without You … you've got to understand it's a very odd sounding song, it just sounds normal because you've heard it so many times. It kind of whispers its way into the world and ... this odd guitar part that played on Edge's infinite guitar. It was an unusual sounding record.
-
↑ The Edge on the Joshua Tree DVD , 1999, TDK Mediaactive in the Classic Albums series.
- This is actually my favorite guitar-part from the whole album, and it's actually one of the simplest. It's like it could have so easily gone just into, you know, a whole kind of big solo thing, and it was something incredibly satisfying… the end of that tune […] This is the most opposite, the most chilled, you know, kind of non-dramatic guitar part.
- ↑ a b Entry about all U2 concerts
- ↑ Information about the video at www.u2tour.de
-
↑ The Edge on the Joshua Tree DVD , 1999, TDK Mediaactive in the Classic Albums series .
- It doesn't really sound like anything else from its time at all. It's not coming from an 80s mentality. It's like it's coming from somewhere completely different. [...] And I've been watching some of the videos from that time, you know, and our videos are so different, so ... like from some other place.
- ^ U2 - With or Without You chart placement Germany. GfK Entertainment , accessed on June 10, 2018 .
- ^ U2 - With or Without You chart placement Austria. In: Austriancharts.at. Hung Medien, accessed June 10, 2018 .
- ^ U2 - With or Without You chart placement Switzerland. In: Hitparade.ch. Hung Medien, accessed June 10, 2018 .
- ^ U2 - With or Without You Charthistory United Kingdom. Official Charts Company , accessed June 10, 2018 .
- ^ U2 - With or Without You chart placement United States. Billboard , accessed June 10, 2018 .
- ^ U2 - With or Without You chart placement Ireland. Irish Recorded Music Association , accessed June 10, 2018 .
-
↑ Pond, Steve: U2 - The Joshua Tree - Album Review ( Memento from February 23, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). In: Rolling Stone , April 9, 1987:
- But for every predictably roaring anthem there's a spare, inventively arranged tune, such as “With or Without You,” a rock & roll bolero that builds from a soothing beginning to a resounding climax.
-
↑ Easlea, Daryl: U2 - The Joshua Tree - Album Review. BBC, December 7, 2007. [1]
- The third track (and lead single), "With Or Without You," is the unique selling point of the album; it brings together the threads of the album's openers “Where The Streets Have No Name”, and “I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For” and demonstrates quite how capable as a group they had become. When the 'and you give yourself away' section explodes, it was like a metaphor for what was about to happen to their career.
-
↑ Tyrangiel, Josh: The All-TIME 100 Albums: U2 - The Joshua Tree . In: Time ; November 13, 2006.
- “With or Without You” and “I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For” could be played under a revival tent, while you can road trip in the open space between the Edge's guitar notes. Bono sings at or near the top of his range through out, [...]
-
↑ Graham, Bill: The Joshua Tree. In: Hot Press ; March 12, 1987. [2]
- "With or Without You" has perhaps its most controlled vocal, building from an almost conversational first verse over a bare rhythm section to a soul-baring confession. "And you give yourself away," he sings - a line which may be the key to the U2 ethos, to the heart of a band who have consistently preached their own brand of self-surrender.
-
^ Beets, Greg: Music Review: U2 - The Joshua Tree. In: Austin Chronicle ; March 30, 2001. [3]
- Then came "With or Without You," the strategic lead-off single whose melodic bassline and quasi-romantic delivery covered up the lyrics' tortured indecision almost as well as the Police's "Every Breath You Take" whitewashes stalking. [...] even if "With or Without You" trod too deeply into Simple Minds territory, the band's ability to convey emotion via consummate soundscaping shone on the stark addiction tale, "Running to Stand Still" and the sorrowful, album-closing elegy, "Mothers of the Disappeared."
- ↑ Storm of Love Wiki for Season 14 In: Fandom, accessed on November 15, 2018
- ^ U2 "With or Without You". ifpi.dk, accessed on June 10, 2018 .
- ↑ Gold / Platinum. musiccanada.com, accessed June 10, 2018 .
- ^ Certificazioni. fimi.it, accessed on June 10, 2018 .
- ↑ BPI Awards. bpi.co.uk, accessed June 10, 2018 .
literature
- Mark Chatterton: U2 - The Ultimate Encyclopedia. (If You Still Haven't Found What You're Looking For ...). Heel, Königswinter 2005, ISBN 3-89880-404-6 .
- Colm O'Hare: U2 and the Making of The Joshua Tree. Unanimous Ltd, 2006, ISBN 1-903318-81-5 .
- Niall Stokes: U2 - Into the Heart. The story for every song. Rockbuch Buhmann & Haeseler, Schlüchtern 2003, ISBN 3-927638-12-9 .
- Dave Thompson : The Making of U2's The Joshua Tree . CG Publishing, 1996, ISBN 1-896522-30-0 .
- U2 - Joshua Tree. Music Sales, ISBN 0-7119-1315-3 ( sheet music: guitar, tablature)
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