The vocal performance that Bono crowned as “perfect”
At the start of the 1990s, U2 were seemingly at the peak of their powers, releasing number one album after number one album and becoming one of the most popular bands in the world as a result.
The release of their 1987 album, The Joshua Tree, proved to be the main turning point in their career, transforming them from a post-punk-inspired act into something that had considerably more commercial appeal, and although they’d eventually end up being branded as ‘stadium rock’, which some saw as a pejorative term that highlighted how they’d abandoned their roots in pursuit of glory, if anything, it was proof that they’d managed to tap into something that had mass appeal to it, and that’s no mean feat in itself.
This had been their third consecutive number one in the UK, and they’d follow it up with more substantial successes in Rattle and Hum and Achtung Baby, either side of the change in decades. However, in spite of their newfound success, they fancied exploring something a little outside of their comfort zone and sought to incorporate elements of dance music into their next release, 1993’s Zooropa, a decision which divided fans and critics alike.
Working alongside two producers in art rock pioneer Brian Eno and industrial titan Mark ‘Flood’ Ellis, the Irish band really tried to push the boat out with their eighth studio album, and given that they were a major name with the ability to court in-demand personnel to help them with mixing and production, then there was arguably nothing there to stop them making outlandish requests to bring other icons into the studio for guest appearances.
During a 2013 interview with Flood as part of the 20th anniversary celebration of Zooropa, initially conducted for the @U2 fansite, the co-producer recounted several stories of being in the studio with the band, as he had been on their previous two albums, and fondly remembered the bizarre process of putting together the album’s closing track, ‘The Wanderer’.
“Bono and Edge, if I remember rightly, sort of had the song,” he recalled, before adding that he and Eno then took the song into their own hands by adding their own treatments. However, what neither had expected to hear during the process was the suggestion that they should get a guest vocalist on board, namely country titan Johnny Cash.
Of course, U2 were big enough to convince Cash to come into the studio for a day, but Flood maintains that he deeply regrets not having been there on the day of his vocal takes to this day. “What happened was he sang it through loads and loads of times and they tried to put together a vocal that felt in keeping with the music, but it never quite seemed to connect,” he explained, before stating that he had to go to extra lengths to distort Cash’s voice into a robotic and “dispassionate-sounding” version of himself to make it work.
“It took quite a lot of time to eliminate all feeling from it,” he continued, “But in a way that helped marry it to the music. Bono heard it and went, ‘Perfect!’ He did backing vocals, and we moved a couple of things around, but what he heard was what he wanted for the song.”
While it’s far from being the most typical-sounding song from U2, and certainly atypical of Cash’s usual fare, it ended up being the perfect fit after hours of Flood’s determination to manipulate his take into something that felt appropriate for one of the boldest songs of U2’s career.
