From the Sky Down

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What people are doing

when they're forming a band,

is they're forming what an

anthropologist would call a clan.

It's a group of people

who may not be genetically related,

but share interests of some kind...

...and have pledged loyalty

to each other.

I think men in particular, have

a kind of instinct for banding together,

and being in a group together.

Most of the identity of that group is formed

by its separateness from everybody else.

There is a moment when it is

dysfunctional not to look at the past.

20 years into it -

the randomness of an anniversary,

we're actually going to look at it.

We're gonna open the box.

Making Achtung Baby

was the reason we're still here now.

That was the pivot point

where we were either going forward,

or, is this our moment to implode?

I thought to myself, "This is it,

we've come to the end of the road -

"band breaks up

over artistic differences. "

Classic cliche.

We're gonna have to listen to The Fly,

I think, and...

So, if we can play it back...?

We can't afford to make a mistake

on the second song.

We had this thing where we really

believed in music as a sacrament.

It's over there.

You almost have to take your shoes off

in its company.

So we have quite a low opinion

of the musician,

and a very high opinion of music.

We're only reverent

to the thing if it happens.

That thing, whatever you call it, you know,

the song that enters the room,

and you go, "That's why we're all here. "

- It's not gonna work.

- It doesn't really work, does it?

You can stop that, if you would.

Do we know where that's from?

Was that actually played

to human beings...

...who were gathered together

for the purpose of music?

Was that a guitar mix?

It sounds like...

Yeah, it's a special mix

accentuating the guitar.

OK, it's certainly very 'special'.

Joe, do you have a version

that you mixed?

There's an environment

out of which music... grows.

There's a kind of faith that's necessary

to move from one note to the other.

That wasn't the environment

we were in.

We felt as we walked into this place,

well, it's so full of greatness...

...that greatness will visit with us.

So, we're there,

and greatness is nowhere to be seen.

Greatness has left the building,

it seems, years ago.

This is good.

Try it more, em...

...from you, Edge,

just more totally abstract,

like sonic abstraction.

At this moment, we're a long way,

a long way from the madness of Zoo TV,

we're a long way from taking

that television station around the world.

Picture, picture.

At this moment...

...I couldn't imagine

what we were gonna become.

Edge, it's brilliant.

Great. And then, when I'm singing,

slap it with the back of your hand.

We're much closer now.

The '80s, I think they suffered a lot

from my own intensity.

So, our rehearsals were, a lot of the time,

me shouting at people.

Well, shouting over the

fucking racket they were making!

And then shouting to achieve

some kind of direction,

and I don't know

how they put up with that.

Edge, Edge...

...when the singing starts,

try to create a dynamic

by almost getting really quiet -

make it a dynamic.

Very hard to do.

OK, hold on.

It's because you're in full flight -

if I stop, it'll just sound bad.

- No, it'll be great if you stop.

- OK.

So, a big, wild feedback thing.

OK, keep going.

Bono is the same now

as he was back then.

I mean, he's just one big idea.

The moment I met him, he had the ball

and he was running with it,

and this was his opportunity.

Look at where this could go

with a guy like that.

You know, having that guy out front,

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