Is it getting better, or do you feel the same?
Will it make it easier on you, now you got someone to blame?
You say one love, one life, when it's one need in the night.
One love, we get to share it
Leaves you baby if you don't care for it.
Did I disappoint you or leave a bad taste in your mouth?
You act like you never had love and you want me to go without.
Well, it's too late tonight to drag the past out into the light.
We're one, but we're not the same.
We get to carry each other, carry each other... one
Have you come here for forgiveness,
Have you come to raise the dead
Have you come here to play Jesus to the lepers in your head
Did I ask too much, more than a lot
You gave me nothing, now it's all I got.
We're one, but we're not the same.
Well, we hurt each other, then we do it again.
You say love is a temple, love a higher law
Love is a temple, love the higher law.
You ask me to enter, but then you make me crawl
And I can't be holding on to what you got, when all you got is hurt.
One love, one blood, one life, you got to do what you should.
One life with each other: sisters, brothers.
One life, but we're not the same.
We get to carry each other, carry each other.
One, one.
Composed by U2 / lyrics by Bono and The Edge
The above video is the first in a Youtube search with keywords "U2 One" and it's automatically embedded. We are sorry if this video is not pertinent. If you think that this video violates copyright, please ask Youtube to remove it.
About "One"
From the original U2 Album "Achtung Baby" (19 November 1991)
"One" is the third single from U2's 1991 album, Achtung Baby, and was released in 1992. While recording Achtung Baby, there was a rift between band members over the direction of the band's sound. Tensions almost prompted U2 to break-up until the band rallied around the writing of "One". The song reached #7 in the UK charts, and #10 in the US charts, and reached the top of the US Mainstream Rock Tracks and the US Modern Rock Tracks charts. It peaked at #10 on the Dutch Top 40.
The song is widely considered to be one of the band's greatest songs and is consistently featured in lists of the greatest songs of all time. It was named the 36th greatest song by Rolling Stone on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and #1 on Q's list of the "1001 Greatest Songs of All-Time". VH1 ranked the song #2 in its list of "Greatest Songs of the 90s".
Writing and recording
Looking for inspiration following the falling of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent German reunification, U2 began the recording sessions to Achtung Baby in Berlin's Hansa Tonstudio in 1990. However, the mood was bleak, as the studios, in addition to the hotel the band were staying at were run-down. Conflict arose within the band over the quality of the material and their musical direction. While bassist Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. preferred a sound similar to U2's previous work, Bono and The Edge were inspired by alternative rock and European electronic dance music of the time, and were advocating a change. Mullen, Jr. in particular felt his "input was being diminished", as Edge was delving into drum beats from electronic music while Mullen Jr. was focusing on learning to play differently. The band also had difficulty in developing demos and ideas into completed songs. Bono and Edge believed the lack of progress was the fault of the band, while Clayton and Mullen Jr. believed the problem was the song ideas. Mullen Jr. said he "thought this might be the end."
"At the instant we were recording it, I got a very strong sense of its power. We were all playing together in the big recording room, a huge, eerie ballroom full of ghosts of the war, and everything fell into place. It was a reassuring moment, when everyone finally went, 'oh great, this album has started.' It's the reason you're in a band - when the spirit descends upon you and you create something truly affecting. 'One' is an incredibly moving piece. It hits straight into the heart."
The Edge on the recording of "One"
A breakthrough was achieved when Edge combined two separate bridge sections he had been developing for "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)". Playing alone in another room, Edge was improvising chord progressions, which he did not like in the context of the song. Daniel Lanois overheard him and asked him to play the separate sections together. Edge did so on acoustic guitar and Bono joined in with vocals, improvising lyrics and melodies. Soon afterwards, the band had improvised the piece of music into "One". Bono said the lyrics "just fell out of the sky, a gift"; the concept was inspired by a note Bono sent to the Dalai Lama declining to attend a festival called Oneness - the note read, "One - but not the same". The song's writing inspired the band and changed their outlook on the recording sessions. Mullen Jr. said the song reaffirmed the band's "blank page approach" to recording and reassured the band that all was not lost.
Brian Eno wanted the band to remove the melancholy elements of the song and persuaded them to remove the acoustic guitar from the song. Eno also worked with Lanois and Edge to "undermine the 'too beautiful' feeling", which is why the the "crying guitar parts that have an aggression to them" were added.
Months later at Windmill Lane Studios, on the last night of the sessions, some last minute additions were made to "One". The song's mix has just been completed by the production team, but Edge came up with a guitar part he wanted to add to the song's end. After convincing the production team to allow the addition, Edge played the part once and had it mixed in ten minutes later.
Composition
Bono described the song as such: "It is a song about coming together, but it's not the old hippie idea of 'Let's all live together.' It is, in fact, the opposite. It's saying, We are one, but we're not the same. It's not saying we even want to get along, but that we have to get along together in this world if it is to survive. It's a reminder that we have no choice". The band has mentioned that many people tell them they have played "One" at their weddings, prompting Bono to respond, "Are you mad? It's about splitting up!"
Reception
"One" was ranked #36 in the List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, the highest ranked U2 song. The track was also voted #1 on Q Magazine's "1001 Best Songs Ever" list, and the 5th most popular song of all time in a poll conducted by Sony. A listener's poll conducted by the popular Israeli radio station Galgalatz ranked "One" as the best song of the 1990s, and in April 2006 it was voted as having Britain's number one lyric – "One life, with each other, sisters, brothers" – by a VH1 poll. In a recent poll, the listeners of the Portuguese radio RFM voted "One" as the best song ever, while VH1 ranked the song #2 in its list of "Greatest Songs of the 90s".
Live performances
Since its first live appearance in 1992, the song has been played at every concert of U2's subsequent tours. It has also been played at several benefit concerts, including the 1995 Pavarotti and Friends concert in Modena, the 1997 Tibetan Freedom Concert in New York, the 2003 46664 concert, at Live 8 in 2005, and with Mary J. Blige on Shelter from the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast. The song took on an even more emotional meaning at U2's Popmart show at Mexico City in 1997, as featured on the live DVD of the same name, where the tearful rendition was dedicated to the late Michael Hutchence of INXS. [From Wikipedia]
Back to home page
