i still haven't found what i'm looking for

U2 found their way to the top of the charts with the visionary introspection of this melancholy melody. 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For' was the second single released from 'The Joshua Tree' and went to the top of the charts just like 'With or Without You'. Producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois also sing backup on the song. Lanois recalls: "It was a very original beat from Larry. We always look for those beats that would qualify as a signature for the song. And that certainly was one of those. It had this tom-tom thing that he does and nobody ever understands. And we just didn't want to let go of that beat, it was so unique...I remember humming a traditional melody in Bono's ear. He said, 'That's it! Don't sing any more!' — and went off and wrote the melody as we know it...I've always liked gospel music and I encouraged Bono to take it to that place...It was a very non-U2 thing to do at the time, to go up the street of gospel. I think it opened a door for them, to experiment with that territory...he's singing at the top of his range and there is something very compelling about somebody pushing themselves. It's like hearing Aretha Franklin almost. It jumps on you and you can't help but feel the feeling."


'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For' went to thirty-seven in France; seventeen in Australia; sixteen on the US adult contemporary chart; thirteen in Belgium; eleven in Sweden; ten in Austria; six in Canada, Finland, the Netherlands, and the UK; two in New Zealand and on the US album rock tracks chart; and number one in Ireland and on the US pop chart. It also received Grammy nominations for Record of the Year and Song of the Year.


Adam Clayton says: "'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For' started out life as something completely different, a jam called, for some mysterious reason, 'Under The Weather Girls'. It was a bit of a one-note groove but it had a great drum part, so we kept the drums and this whole new melody came and all the music changed to fit around that melody. It was quite traditional rhythm and blues, whice wasn't somewhere we had gone before, but it was exhilarating."


Larry Mullen, Jr recalls: "That song wasn't as arduous as most, even though it had its moments, and we knew it was gong to be our trophy. Danny was very focused on the rhythm section and was able to make sense of my weird drum pattern. Rather that me changing the part, which would have happened in the past, he encouraged me to continue working on it. In the end, he mixed quite a bit of the drum pattern out and left the basics, and it became even more unusual but less fussy that it was originally. Danny's musical genius is all over that record."


The Edge tells the story: "It was kind of an interesting jam, an odd backbeat from Adam and Larry. At first I wasn't so convinced. It sounded to me a little like 'Eye of the Tiger' played by a reggae band. Then Danny and Flood put up this great mix and we got ready for Bono to try and find a top line melody. There are only a few moments of full-on electricity-in-the-air creativity that I remember from the making of that album, but the birth of 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For' is one. Bono started singing, and as usual there are a lot of signals and a few helpful suggestions coming his way from the floor, but then he just nailed this fantastic melody that came out of a classic soul tradition. And as I listened to this incredible song emerging out of the fog, I remembered something I had written in a notebook, a possible song title that I had actually stumbled upon that morning. I tried it in my head as Bono sang, and it scanned so perfectly that I wrote it on a piece of paper and handed it to him as he sang. It was like hand in glove. From then on, when anyone came to visit, that was the first thing we would play them. That's how you find out the best song. It's down to personal taste but when the record company or your mates come around you want to blow them away and you are going to instinctively choose the best song every time. I hadn't figured out what the title was about beyond maybe the idea Dylan expresses in 'Idiot Wind', that 'You'll find out when you reach the top you're on the bottom'. Bono took it in a different, more gospel direction. I have to credit Bono for spotting the guitar hook of substance. One day, in amongst all the other stuff I was trying out, he heart a couple of notes that worked for him. He was right, without the chrome bells it wouldn't have had the counterbalance to its muddy shoes. In fact, the track only came to sound like a record in the final mix. Everyone chipped in on that one, but the final mix was made in my home studio with Danny and myself on the board, working on top of an earlier Steve Lillywhite mix. We had a very unorthodox habit of mixing on top of a mix, adding a little of the same ingredients a second time to the blend. That is what gives it the weird phasing sound."


Bono considers: "This is an anthem of doubt more than faith...The music that really turns me on is either running toward God or away from God...I often wonder if religion is the enemy of God. It's almost like religion is what happens when the Spirit has left the building. God's Spirit moves through us and the world at a pace that can never be constricted by any one religious paradigm. I love that. You know, it says somewhere in the scriptures that the Spirit moves like a wind--no one knows where it's come from or where it's going. The Spirit is described in the Holy Scriptures as much more anarchic than any established religion credits...These are big questions. If there is a God, it's serious. And if there isn't a God, it's even more serious. Or is it the other way around? I don't know, but these are the things that, as an artist, are going to cross your mind--as well as 'Ode to My New Jaguar'. The right to be an ass I will hold on to very tightly. I just have to be allowed that."










http://www.u2.com/














http://www.mtv.co.uk/u2/videos/i-still-havent-found-what-im-looking-for

The making of the video for 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For'

MAKING OF I STILL HAVEN'T FOUND WHAT I'M... by U2songs

I have climbed highest mountains

I have run through the fields

Only to be with you

Only to be with you

I have run

I have crawled

I have scaled these city walls

These city walls

Only to be with you

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I have kissed honey lips

Felt the healing in her fingertips

It burned like fire

This burning desire

I have spoke with the tongue of angels

I have held the hand of a devil

It was warm in the night

I was cold as a stone

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I believe in the Kingdom Come

Then all the colors will bleed into one

Bleed into one

But yes I'm still running

You broke the bonds

And you loosed the chains

Carried the cross

Of my shame

Oh my shame

You know I believe it

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

U2 performed the song with The New Voices Of Freedom choir for their 'Rattle and Hum' documentary.





Bruce Springsteen joined them for this performance during their induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.









'Spanish Eyes' was one of the two b-sides that did not appear on the album.





'Deep in the Heart' was the other.

Negativeland served up some serious satire with their sampled sendup of the song.