Maps of Music

The Unforgettable Fire (1984)

Where the lyrics of The Unforgettable Fire take you, and where it was really made.

The album takes its title from an art exhibit about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, but its lyrics never directly mention nuclear war.

Key places

Recording begins at Slane Castle (1984)

Recording site Slane Castle — The band arrived at Slane Castle on 7 May 1984 for a month-long session and lived there while recording. Most of the work took place in the castle library, because the ballroom had too much natural reverberation. The basic tracks were recorded as live takes with the whole band playing together. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Second phase at Windmill Lane (1984)

Recording site Windmill Lane Studios — U2 had recorded their first three albums at Windmill Lane Studios before the band chose a new location for this album. The band finished at Slane on 5 June and began the second phase here the following day. The album was completed here in August 1984. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• The Unforgettable Fire is the fourth studio album by Irish rock band U2
• Produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois
• Released 1 October 1984 by Island Records
• Title drawn from an art exhibit about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima
• Marked the most dramatic change of direction in the band's career up to that point
• Moved away from the harder-hitting rock of the previous album War (1983) toward a more ambient sound
• Pride (In the Name of Love) and MLK are lyrical tributes to Martin Luther King Jr.
• A 25th anniversary edition was released in October 2009

Background

• After War and the War Tour, the band feared becoming a shrill, sloganeering arena-rock band
• Bono hinted at radical change in U2 Magazine in February 1984
• Adam Clayton said the band wanted something more serious and more arty
• Early versions of Pride (In the Name of Love), The Unforgettable Fire and A Sort of Homecoming were written during a stay at Bono's seaside home in Bray
• Manager Paul McGuinness and tour manager Dennis Sheehan looked for a new studio, and Sheehan found Slane Castle in County Meath
• The castle's owner offered it for less than half the cost of Church Hall, along with lodging and dining
• Jimmy Iovine and Conny Plank were considered as producers, but the band chose Brian Eno
• The Edge had long admired Eno's ambient work, and Eno was first reluctant to work with a rock band
• Daniel Lanois came along with Eno and ended up as co-producer
• Island Records founder Chris Blackwell first tried to talk the band out of hiring Eno, but he was later won over by Bono's persuasiveness

Recording

• Recording began in May 1984 at Slane Castle, where the band lived, wrote and recorded
• The band arrived on 7 May 1984 for a month-long session
• Most of the recording took place in the castle library, not the ballroom, which had too much natural reverberation
• The water wheel generator on the River Boyne was unreliable, and an old diesel generator was used as backup
• The Edge processed guitar sounds with effects units and experimented with amplifier placement on the castle balcony
• The band finished at Slane on 5 June and moved to Windmill Lane Studios the next day
• The album was completed in August 1984 at Windmill Lane Studios
• The final vocal take for A Sort of Homecoming was recorded on the last day, as the album tapes were being prepared for mastering

Cover

• The band scouted locations around Ireland with photographer Anton Corbijn
• The castle on the cover is Moydrum Castle
• The photo was a near-copy of a picture from the 1980 book In Ruins by Simon Marsden, with the band added
• The band paid Marsden an unknown sum for the copyright infringement

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• U2 are an Irish rock band formed in Dublin in 1976 by teenage pupils of Mount Temple Comprehensive School.
• Members: Bono (lead vocals), the Edge (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Adam Clayton (bass), Larry Mullen Jr. (drums).
• The band was first named Feedback, then The Hype, and in March 1978 took the name U2.
• They won the Pop Group '78 talent contest in Limerick and signed with Island Records in 1980.

Career

• Debut album Boy (1980); War (1983) was their first UK number-one album.
• The Joshua Tree (1987) made them international stars and was their greatest critical and commercial success, selling about 25 million copies.
• The band reinvented their sound in the 1990s with Achtung Baby (1991) and the Zoo TV Tour.
• Their 2009–2011 360° Tour held records for the highest-grossing concert tour until 2019.
• In 2023 they released Songs of Surrender and began the U2:UV Achtung Baby Live residency at Sphere in Las Vegas.
• Estimated record sales: about 170 million worldwide; 22 Grammy Awards; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees (2005).

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Paul Du Noyer of NME praised the album and the new Eno-Lanois production team, describing the old four-square rock unit as deconstructed
• Tony Fletcher of Jamming! said the album was not full of hits but was a forceful collection of atmospheric ideas and themes
• Fletcher added that Eno's production removed some of the heavy metal from U2 and put emotion at the center
• Hot Press called the arrival of producer Brian Eno a bold move, and reviewer Liam Mackey called the album rich and rewarding
• Adam Sweeting of Melody Maker called the album the other side of the coin from War and warned that listeners who brought their existing idea of U2 would be disappointed
• Kurt Loder of Rolling Stone was more critical, citing a misconceived production strategy and self-indulgent interludes
• Robert Christgau of The Village Voice found Bono's moralizing and romantic idealism careless on Pride and Elvis Presley and America, but said the rest of the album made a skeptic believe in miracles for a while

Reappraisal

• Bill Graham of Hot Press wrote in 1996 that the album was U2's most pivotal and that it was their coming of age
• Niall Stokes of Hot Press called it the group's first album with a cohesive sound, on which U2 were reborn
• The album was included in the 1991 book The Worst Rock and Roll Records of All Time
• Will Hermes of Rolling Stone called the 2009 deluxe edition a transitional, hit-or-miss set
• Ryan Dombal of Pitchfork called it a transitional album of the highest magnitude
• Robert Crawford of American Songwriter ranked it U2's fourth-best album in 2023, crediting the change of producers for the band's development

Records

• Pride (In the Name of Love) cracked the UK Top 5 and the US Top 40, and became the band's most frequently played concert song
• The Unforgettable Fire single reached number six on the UK Singles Chart and number 8 on the Dutch singles chart
• At the end of 1984, the album was voted the 29th best record of the year in the Pazz & Jop poll
• The album ranks at 15 on Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 albums

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The band spent a few days driving around Ireland with photographer Anton Corbijn looking for potential locations.
• The castle on the cover is Moydrum Castle, and the band liked the ambiguity and Irish mysticism of the image.
• Eno overheard Clayton improvising a simple bass figure and recorded it, and the resulting instrumental 4th of July was finished straight to two-track master tape with no possibility of further overdubs.
• The band's experiments at Slane produced 15 additional pieces of music.
• The Edge recalled that Eno was the one who pushed the band to treat the studio itself as an instrument.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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