The Unforgettable Fire
The Unforgettable Fire is the fourth studio album by Irish rock band U2. It was produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, and released on 1 October 1984 by Island Records. The band wanted to pursue a new musical direction following the harder-hitting rock of their previous album, War. As a result, they employed Eno and Lanois to produce and assist in their experimentation with a more ambient sound. The resulting change in direction was at the time the band's most dramatic. The album's title is a reference to "The Unforgettable Fire", an art exhibit about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
Recording began in May 1984 at Slane Castle, where the band lived, wrote, and recorded to find new inspiration. The album was completed in August 1984 at Windmill Lane Studios. It features atmospheric sounds and lyrics that lead vocalist Bono describes as "sketches". "Pride " and "MLK" are lyrical tributes to Martin Luther King Jr.
The Unforgettable Fire received generally favourable reviews from critics and produced the band's biggest hit at the time, "Pride ", as well as the live favourite "Bad". A 25th anniversary edition of the album was released in October 2009.
Background
U2 feared that following the overt rock of their 1983 album War and the War Tour, they were in danger of becoming another "shrill", "sloganeering arena-rock band". Following their concert at Dublin's Phoenix Park Racecourse in August 1983, one of the final dates of the War Tour, lead vocalist Bono spoke in metaphors about the group breaking up and reforming with a different direction. In the 10th issue of U2 Magazine, released in February 1984, Bono hinted at radical changes on the next album saying that he could not "sleep at night with the thought of it all" and that they were "undertaking a real departure". As bassist Adam Clayton recalls, "We were looking for something that was a bit more serious, more arty."After completing the War Tour in Japan late that year, U2 rehearsed at Bono's seaside home in a Martello tower in Bray, County Wicklow. During this time, early versions of the songs "Pride ", "The Unforgettable Fire", and "A Sort of Homecoming" were composed.
U2 had recorded their first three albums at Windmill Lane Studios but decided to find a new location for their next studio album. Clayton lamented the lack of a live room in which the band could play together at Windmill Lane, while the band's manager Paul McGuinness said the studio had barely enough space for people to work. He set to finding a new location and came up with Church Hall in Ranelagh, but he found it overpriced. The band's tour manager Dennis Sheehan also searched for suitable locations and found Slane Castle in County Meath. The building's owner, Lord Henry Mountcharles, offered to lease it to the group for less than half the cost of Church Hall, and also offered lodging and dining for the band and crew on-premises. The castle's Gothic ballroom, which was originally built for music and had a 30-foot high domed ceiling, also attracted the band, as they were looking to capture the natural acoustics of a room in their recordings.
After working with producer Steve Lillywhite on their first three albums, the band sought experimentation rather than to create the "son of War". Both Lillywhite and the group agreed that it was time for a change of producers and that they should not "repeat the same formula". For their next studio album, the band considered hiring Conny Plank, whose previous production credits included Can, Kraftwerk, and Ultravox. U2 also met with Roxy Music producer Rhett Davies, but Clayton said that it "didn't really go anywhere". They also considered Jimmy Iovine, who had produced their live album Under a Blood Red Sky in 1983, but they found their early musical ideas for the new album to be too "European" for an American producer. Iovine thought that he was in line for the job and went so far as to hold a meeting about recording logistics at Slane Castle with his engineer Shelly Yakus and with another engineer Randy Ezratty, whose mobile recording studio U2 would be using once again. However, at the last minute, McGuinness informed Ezratty that they would be proceeding with different producers.
File:Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois.jpg|thumb|left|Seeking a new musical direction after their first three albums, U2 hired Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois to produce The Unforgettable Fire.|alt=Headshots of Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois.
U2 instead had turned their attention to hiring musician/producer Brian Eno. Guitarist the Edge had long admired Eno's music, particularly his ambient and "weird works". The group were also fond of his collaborations with Talking Heads. Eno was hesitant to work with a rock band and when contacted by U2, he told them he was considering retiring from music production to become a video artist. Reluctantly, Eno agreed to meet with the band in Dublin and brought along his engineer Daniel Lanois with the intention of recommending he work with them instead; Lanois had his own ambitions of producing a rock band. When the band played Under a Blood Red Sky to Eno, his eyes "glazed over". The Edge said of him: "I think he was intimidated by the lack of irony in what we were doing. He'd come from Talking Heads, the Rhode Island School of Design, living in New York, and here was this Irish band hitting everything full on, completely earnest, hearts on sleeves, no irony at all." Eno also thought that the group were "frightened of being overpowered by some softness". His doubts were resolved by Bono's persuasiveness and his increasing perception of what he called "U2's lyrical soul in abundance". Eno was impressed by how they spoke, which was not in terms of music or playing, but in terms of their contributions to the "identity of the band as a whole". The band's discussion about pursuing different recording techniques and capturing the ambience of a recording space also piqued his interest. Ultimately, Eno and Lanois agreed to produce the record with the understanding that if Eno's working relationship with U2 was not fruitful, they would still have a solid producer in Lanois on which they could fall back.
Island Records founder Chris Blackwell initially tried to talk U2 out of hiring Eno, believing that just when they were about to achieve the highest levels of success, Eno would "bury them under a layer of avant-garde nonsense". Nick Stewart, also of Island Records, thought the band were "mad". Blackwell instructed him to dissuade U2 from working with Eno; Stewart recalled Blackwell telling him, "You better sort your band out because they're going in a very odd direction." Stewart was unable to change their minds, prompting Blackwell to fly to Dublin to meet with the group. Ultimately, Blackwell too was convinced by Bono's persuasiveness and the band's enthusiasm for the collaboration. Stewart said that in hindsight, the group's decision to stretch themselves and find an extra dimension became the "turning point in their career".
Recording and production
The band arrived at Slane Castle on 7 May 1984 for a month-long recording session. A makeshift control room was set up in the castle's drawing room. Ezratty's company Effanel Music, which recorded U2's concerts in Boston and at Red Rocks Amphitheatre the previous year, was hired to provide their then-unique portable 24-track recording system. The equipment, which came in wheeling flight cases with removable lids, was described by Lanois as a "heavily modified Sound Workshop mixing console with a tape recorder". He said it was not the "ultimate technical system" but that the priority was to capture the feeling of the band's music. Ezratty's equipment was set up in the castle's library, dubbed the Chinese Room, with cables running into the adjacent ballroom where the band played. The band and crew lived at the castle during the sessions, helping to foster a camaraderie among them. The site provided a relaxed and experimental atmosphere.U2 worked long days at the castle, sometimes starting at 10 a.m. and finishing at 1 a.m. Eno, who worked on a more "executive schedule" than other members of the creative team, was focused on creative ideas and conceptual aspects, while Lanois handled the production duties. In Bill Graham's words, Eno's task was to "help mature a new, more experimental and European musical vocabulary". Eno was glad that the group began the sessions with only rough sketches of songs, as he was more interested in encouraging experimentation and improvisation than refining their ideas. To that end, he often created atmospheric compositions on a synthesiser that were intended to inspire U2 and Lanois to play along with. Bono and the Edge, who the singer described as the "more cerebral" members of the band, were particularly drawn to Eno's ideas. The band's experiments produced 15 additional pieces of music. The Edge said that they "didn't object to taking liberties with what had achieved up to that point", adding: "We were eager to learn and not precious at all about our sound or the way we worked. We threw ourselves wholeheartedly into this different approach." According to the Edge, Eno's points of reference were philosophy and contemporary art, and he was not beholden to the standard schools of thought in rock music. The producer encouraged U2 to work on their more unconventional material, "champion the songs that didn't seem very U2-ish or things that had strong beginnings but no clear destination". As a result, he did not take much interest in songs like "Pride " or "The Unforgettable Fire". Lanois would "cover for him" such that the two balanced each other out.
Since U2 had primarily been interested in working with Eno, Lanois was initially viewed as an "interloper", which caused tension at the start of the sessions, according to Ezratty. Once the band realised his musical talents, they embraced him as a fellow collaborator. As a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Lanois understood musical notation and was able to simplify the songwriting process for them. Drummer Larry Mullen Jr. in particular enjoyed working with Lanois, as the producer took an interest in the band's rhythm section, which Mullen felt had been neglected on their past recordings. Mullen called himself "not technically proficient" and appreciated Lanois spending time to develop his skills and encourage different approaches to playing drums. The producer convinced Mullen to utilise timbales and two types of snare drums in his drum kit, and he explained how to use brushes and tom-toms on various drum parts. The crew also experimented with distant miking of his drum kit, placing microphones up to 60 feet away. Mullen eschewed wearing headphones while playing and instead used monitor speakers, which caused audio spill issues with other microphones in the recording space.
The Edge said that the band's plan for recording at Slane was rather than working in the "dead, acoustic atmosphere" of a studio and "trying to revitalise the recorded work using effects and reverberation and all the standard music trappings, we would go into a very live room and try to do the opposite—try and tame what would be a wild sound". To capture the feeling of the music as much as possible, they recorded the basic tracks as live takes with the whole band playing together; this differed from their previous albums, for which they overdubbed the instruments as separate tracks on top of a drum track, with as much separation as possible. The Edge felt that the "vibrancy" from playing their older songs live had "outshone what had done on record", thus inspiring them to seek out a more live feel for The Unforgettable Fire.
Lanois originally intended for the band to record entirely in the ballroom, which he described as a "beautiful very tall room with big mirrors, chandeliers and windows overlooking the river". Shortly after their arrival, the team realised that the ballroom had too much natural reverberation, necessitating the addition of sound absorption materials such as drapes to the walls. Lanois said the room was only suitable for songs with "openness but not good for tracks that were quick and required punch", while crew member Stephen Rainford said, "Okay for chamber music, but no good for rock and roll". Consequently, most of the recording took place in the library, which was smaller, rectangular, filled with books, and provided improved sound quality. Lanois said the room helped them "achieve a denser more powerful sound" on their recordings. Adding to the recording challenges was the water wheel generator on River Boyne that powered the building. During low tide or periods of no rain, there was not sufficient power to keep their recording equipment operational. Ezratty said, "When that stupid river started to run low, the voltage would go down and it would beat the crap out of my equipment." As a backup, the team were forced to make use of an old diesel generator, which at times broke down or caught fire.
The Edge was encouraged by Eno to think of the studio as an instrument and to expand the range of his guitar tones, resulting in experiments with his equipment and guitar playing techniques. The producer processed the Edge's guitar through an AMS harmonizer effects unit, a Lexicon Prime Time delay unit, and a reverb chamber; Lanois at times confused the guitar sounds for keyboards. The Edge also used an EBow, a slide with echo, alternative guitar tunings, and a "zero sustain" technique that muted his strings with tape across the bridge. He experimented with the placement and miking of his guitar amplifier. At times, it was situated outside on the balcony encircling the castle, with close miking and, when it rained, a plastic cover to shield it. This placement was originally done for sound isolation purposes, but ended up producing a good sound. Other times, his amplifier was placed at the bottom of a staircase, with one microphone there and another placed at the top of the staircase.
A Fairlight CMI synthesiser was used during the demoing phase out of convenience to help fill in placeholder textures and string ideas, marking the first time the instrument had been used on a U2 album. These textures were later replaced with actual string arrangements, although the Fairlight CMI was kept on one song. Clayton said the synthesiser "was only really used as a means to an end, to see if an idea worked". Eno contributed synthesiser parts on a Yamaha DX7, while he and the Edge also played a Yamaha CP-70 electric grand piano.
Bono recorded his vocals on Neumann U47 and U67 and AKG C-12 microphones. Lanois said that they captured a warm sound and a "bottom end and depth" to Bono's vocals. For "Promenade", one of the first songs for which vocals were recorded, Lanois encouraged Bono to sing quieter by increasing the volume of his vocals in his headphones. By doing so, the producer was able to force Bono to "draw on the fine points of the voice".
The band finished recording at Slane Castle on 5 June and began a second phase of the recording sessions at Windmill Lane Studios the following day. Their original intent was to record the backing tracks at Slane before overdubbing and mixing at Windmill Lane. Clayton said this was because the mobile recording equipment did not offer them as many options or treatment possibilities as a traditional studio mixing console would. However, the group ended up crafting their songs at Windmill Lane more than they originally anticipated, including re-recording "Pride ". The Edge reflected that when recording at a new location such as Slane, it took them a few weeks to "get in to the momentum of the new creative surrounding". Lanois said that in hindsight the recording sessions were "split in a slightly off-balanced fashion", with too much time being dedicated to experimenting and not enough to fundamental recording. Within the band, there were concerns that their material recorded at Slane was too skeletal to consider completing yet, prompting them to re-evaluate and in some cases re-record it. Eno, on the other hand, was more interested in recording as few takes as possible and preserving the rough, spontaneous nature of the music. Clayton said that Eno would get easily bored if he had nothing to do, while Mullen said he was impatient with U2's creative process. Tension grew between them and the production team, largely because the band "weren't at a point where could finish anything".
Throughout the recording sessions, Bono had been ad-libbing his vocals, without completing lyrics. Mullen explained that the group's reliance on Bono to help complete the musical composition of their songs took time away from him to work on the lyrics independently: "While recording, we seemed to do our best work when we were in the room together. We depended on Bono to be there, every step of the way. He had to be singing something, anything, to get the song finished. When Bono came in and strapped on a guitar or started to sing, the band responded... A song recorded in the room with Bono and a song recorded without him could be very different animals altogether." Whereas Bono wanted to finalise the lyrics, Eno, Lanois, and the Edge advocated preserving the improvised nature of his vocals, telling the singer, "Why write lyrics?... I'm getting the feeling from this." In retrospect, Bono lamented leaving the lyrics to songs like "Bad" and "Pride " as incomplete "sketches".
Twelve days before the deadline to complete the record, Bono told his bandmates he did not think he would be able to finish the lyrics in time, creating a panic internally. McGuinness reminded the group of their commitment to tour Australia and New Zealand in less than a month, and that the producers and studio would not be available afterwards. To complete the album, the band worked 20-hour days for the final two weeks; Eno worked the first half of days, while Lanois worked the second half. Eno departed before the album was completed, leaving Lanois to oversee the final mixes. On their final day in the studio, the band worked overnight to complete the album by 7–8 a.m. on 5 August. As Lanois was preparing to depart for London with the album tapes for mastering, Bono expressed interest in recording another take of his vocals for "A Sort of Homecoming". With his taxi to the airport waiting outside, Lanois cued up the tapes for Bono to record one final vocal take. Lanois told the band he would mix it in London and then departed, delivering the tapes for mastering in the basement of Blackwell's offices.
Portions of the recording sessions were filmed by Barry Devlin and his crew for an RTÉ-TV documentary. The 30-minute programme, The Making of The Unforgettable Fire, was released in 1985 on VHS as part of The Unforgettable Fire Collection. Devlin said that he did not think the band and crew had thought through the logistics and access required for a film crew to document the making of the album. He often encountered "No Entry" signs on doors and windows when attempting to film the group, forcing him to take a more artful, impressionistic approach to the documentary.