November 14th, 2011 1:00am
Whispers And Moans
"Ultra Violet" has been one of my favorite songs for 20 years now, and I find that I as I get older, I only love it more. This makes some sense: It's a song about adult love, and a connection that endures so that both partners can show each other support in hard times. This could be a very trite song, but it's not – Bono's lyrics make it clear that none of this comes easy, and the band successfully convey a sense that this love is genuinely miraculous and invigorating. That passion and excitement comes through in the Edge's unusually jaunty guitar rhythm, but that's contrasted with a solemn, gorgeous bass line by Adam Clayton that emphasizes the intensity and romance at the heart of the piece.
The lyric that totally slays me comes at the climax of the final verse: "When I was all messed up and I heard opera in my head / your love was a light bulb hanging over my bed." The sentiment is one thing, but the specificity of the language is what gets me. I picture this bulb dangling on a cord above a squalid mattress, the light casting about, warping shadows around the room as it sways.
7 Responses.
11/14/11 5:59 am
and now we have Chris Martin and the “Ellen” show…
11/14/11 8:20 am
Easily my favorite from “Achtung Baby” and a song that was absolutely incredible to witness live during the U2360 tour!
11/14/11 10:24 am
I couldn’t agree more to what you wrote about that song, that has been following me for the last 2 decades too. I’d use the exact same quotation from the lyrics to prove its poetic worth.
11/14/11 7:42 pm
joyous, heart-rending, ecstatic, chill-inducing, variegated, warm, intimate, searing, yearning, closer, dangling, damaged, graceful, primordial, sideways, hoping, seeing, hearing, listening, feeling, singing, tasting, strumming invisible
my favorite song to play on guitar; sends passersby into a smile every time; well worth the cramps
11/14/11 8:02 pm
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. And that line is a such a desolate image — the naked bulb, so inadequate to the task of lighting the room, leaving it always half in shadow; love is not the answer to all your problems, at best it’s an unreliable, flickering spark in the darkness –but for God’s sake hold on to it. It is a squalid, seedy, grimy scene; and who would have thought, in 1991, that those were adjectives you could ever associate with a U2 song?
And that’s not even mentioning tthe way he sings it — all through the song he’s been in his low, growly register, and then on that final verse he goes up the octave and just lets loose from the gut — but it’s not the soaring high voice of earlier U2 records; it’s cracking, strained, desperate. Achtung Baby is just about the last time U2 allowed themselves to be so vulnerable, and it’s still their best record, I think.
11/14/11 9:37 pm
Beautiful song. Bono is one of the best lyricists in rock n’ roll. I always preferred ‘Achtung Baby’ to ‘Joshua Tree’. Feel like “Ultra Violet” is more characteristic of the Pre-Reinvented Achtung U2, though.
11/19/11 3:25 pm
Thank you for reminding me of this beautiful song!