"40" (song)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "'40' (How Long)" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Single by U2 | ||
| from the album War | ||
| Released | August 1983 | |
| Format | Vinyl (7") | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Length | 2 m 53 s | |
| Label | Island | |
| Producer(s) | Steve Lillywhite | |
| Chart positions | ||
| U2 singles chronology | ||
| Sunday Bloody Sunday (1983) |
"40" (Germany only) (1983) |
Pride (In The Name Of Love) (1984) |
| War Album Listing | ||
|---|---|---|
| "Surrender" (Track 9) |
"40" (Track 10) |
(end of album) |
| Under a Blood Red Sky Album Listing | ||
| "New Year's Day" (Track 7) |
"40" (Track 8) |
(end of album) |
"40" (the quotation marks are part of the song title) is the tenth and final track from U2's 1983 album, War. It was fourth single from the album and was only released in Germany.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Recording
Reportedly, this song was recorded right at the end of the recording sessions for War. Bassist Adam Clayton had already left the studio, and the three remaining band members decided they didn't have a good song to end the album. Bono, The Edge, and Larry Mullen Jr. quickly recorded "40", with Bono basing the lyrics off of Psalm 40 (where the song's title originated) and Psalm 6, with The Edge playing both guitar and bass. Bono would later state before a live performance on 29 April 1987, "We spent ten minutes writing this song, ten minutes recording it, ten minutes mixing it, ten minutes playing it back, and that's got nothing to do with why it's called "40"." [1]
[edit] Live performances
"40" debuted live on 26 February 1983 in Dundee as the final song of the show, and closed almost every single concert on 1983's War Tour. It became very popular as a concert closer, and between its debut and 10 January 1990, roughly only twenty full tour concerts were not closed by "40". During live performances, Adam Clayton and The Edge would swap instruments so that Adam played guitar and Edge played bass, and the band members would progressively leave stage, with Bono the first to depart, then Clayton, then Edge, and finally, drummer Larry Mullen. The crowd usually continues to chant the refrain of "How long ... To sing this song?" even after the band has left the stage. Sometimes, the crowd's reaction would be so powerful, the other band members would return to continue the song, and as a result, some performances of "40" became extremely long. The longest known performance was nearly seventeen minutes long, roughly six times longer than the studio recording. Other times, clusters of audience members would continue the singing into the stairwells and out onto the streets outside the venue.
Between January 1990 and March 2005, full performances of "40" were extremely rare, though on 2001's Elevation Tour, it was regularly snippeted at the end of "Bad" before the song segued into "Where the Streets Have No Name". "40" made a return to the regular setlist in March 2005 on the Vertigo Tour and has closed many of the tour's shows. It is one of the fifteen most frequently performed songs by U2.
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ U2 Singles - "40". Retrieved on 2006-09-16.
[edit] Track Listing
[edit] Version 1
- "40" (Album Version) (2:53)
- "Two Hearts Beat As One" (Album Version) (4:02)
This is the only known release. Oddly enough, the single was titled "40 (How Long)" for this release.
[edit] External links
- 40's performance history at U2-Vertigo-Tour.com--Lists all concerts at which "40" is known to have been performed.
