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Slug (song)

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"Slug"
Song

"Slug" is a song by Passengers, a group composed of rock band U2 and producer Brian Eno. It is the second track on the group's only release, the 1995 album Original Soundtracks 1. The track was given the working title "Seibu" and was almost left off the album before it was rediscovered later during the recording sessions. Though Eno made the majority of creative decisions during the recording sessions, "Slug" was one of the few tracks that the members from U2 tried to craft themselves.

Lyrically, it is a portrait of a "desolate soul"[1] during a time of celebration. As Passengers were writing songs for fictional soundtracks, they tried to create a visual suggestion from the music that was more important than the story within the lyrics. In "Slug", the instrumentation is intended to represent the lights of a city being turned on at dusk. The group primarily drew inspiration for the song from U2's experiences in Tokyo at the conclusion of the Zoo TV Tour. "Slug" was praised as one of the best songs on the album by critics from various publications, and was compared to tracks from U2's previous album, Zooropa.

Background and recording

A brightly lit city at night.
U2's experience in Shinjuku, Tokyo, was their primary inspiration for the music of "Slug".

U2 and producer Brian Eno intended to record the soundtrack for Peter Greenaway's 1996 film The Pillow Book.[2] Though the plan did not come to fruition, Eno suggested they continue recording for imaginary films as a warm-up for U2's 1997 album, Pop. The result was Original Soundtracks 1, a collaboration between U2 and Eno released under the name "Passengers". The tracks on the album were written as soundtrack pieces for specific films, some of which were fictional and "exist only in Eno's imagination".[3][4] Vocalist Bono felt the visual suggestion from the music was more important than the story told by the lyrics, so the band tried to create "visual music" when recording, continuing a trend that had begun with their 1993 song "Zooropa".[5]

U2 spent time in Shinjuku, Tokyo at the end of the Zoo TV Tour in 1993, and their experience in the city influenced the recording sessions. The vivid colours of the street signs and billboards caused them to feel as if they were on the set of the 1982 science-fiction film Blade Runner.[6] Original Soundtracks 1 was conceived as a "night-time record", and "Slug" was written with the idea of the street lights and advertisements turning on as day faded to dusk, harking back to U2's memories of Shinjuku. Bono stated the opening notes, which reflect this scene, are reminiscent of turning on the lights of a Christmas tree.[7]

The song was originally given the working title "Seibu", after the Tokyo department store of the same name.[7] After recording "Seibu", the band set it aside, and the piece was forgotten as the sessions progressed. It was almost left off the album, until guitarist the Edge rediscovered the track while looking through the session's discarded songs. Recognizing the track's potential to become a great song, the Edge brought "Seibu" to Eno's attention, and in early June 1995, Eno listed "Seibu" as a late entry to be considered for the album.[8] As producer, Eno had most of the artistic control during the sessions, limiting U2's creative input on the recordings, which prompted the Edge to force the other members of U2 into putting extra effort into arranging the song. He stated that along with "Miss Sarajevo" and "Your Blue Room", "Seibu" was one of only three tracks from the album in which U2 "really dug in [their] heels and did more work on and tried to craft".[7]

By early July 1995, the band renamed the song "Seibu/Slug", and Eno noted that the piece started to "sound better" and described it as a "[l]ovely song".[9] During the final editing of the track, Eno became angry with U2 because they seemed "unfocused" and he felt he was doing all the work. Bono decided to completely deconstruct the mix of the song, to Eno's disapproval. However, following the changes, Eno was satisfied with the decision.[10] The editing of the track was finalized on 10 July, and the Edge later stated he felt his effort to push extra work into the song "paid off".[7][11] Details of the song's recording sessions were documented in Eno's 1996 book, A Year with Swollen Appendices.[8][9][10][11]

As all the songs on Original Soundtracks 1 were written for films, "Slug" is credited as having been written for a fictional German film of the same name.[12] Eno wrote the album's liner notes which describe the fictional film's plot as the story of a young car mechanic who aspires to attract the attention of a cashier by staging a robbery and pretending to be the hero.[4] However, the "robbers" decide to abandon the scheme and commit an actual robbery, causing a shootout where the cashier accidentally shoots a security guard and gets arrested, and the mechanic must find a way to get her released from prison.[12]

Composition and lyrics

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"It's a portrait of somebody a little the worse for the wear, which we were all in Tokyo, because it was the end of the tour. So tired you can't sleep. Wanting to go out to see what's going on in the city and not being able to stop yourself though you should be looking after yourself better."

—Bono, on the meaning behind "Slug"[7]

"Slug" runs for 4 minutes, 41 seconds and features a synthesizer rhythm laid over a drum track, with vocals sung by Bono in a murmured voice.[12][13][14] Jon Pareles of The New York Times described the song's sound as a mix of "shimmering echoed guitars with swampy electronic rhythms".[3] The lyrics are sung in a list-like format and consist of 19 lines, most of which begin with the words "Don't want".[13][15] The line "Don't want what I deserve" was written by Bono with a sense of "ironic, self-deprecatory humour".[7] The end result is a depiction of celebration set against the thoughts of a "desolate soul", as echoed in the closing verse "Don't want to change the frame / Don't want to be a pain / Don't want to stay the same", with an undercurrent of confusion regarding the differences between love and faith.[2][1]

The lyrics were written in five minutes and are derived from U2's experience in Shinjuku. Bono compared the lyrics to those in U2's 1991 song "Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World", as both depict the nightlife of a city.[7][16] Lyrics were also inspired by the presence of the Yakuza in Shinjuku; the group witnessed gang members who had their fingers amputated as punishment for their misbehaviour, which Bono described as a "very, very surreal" experience. He commented the theme of "Slug" was not wanting to "blow it" and make harmful mistakes, stating how "we all play with things we shouldn't play with."[5]

Reception

"Slug" was released as the second track on the Passengers album Original Soundtracks 1 on 6 November 1995.[17] The song received mostly positive feedback from critics and was praised as one of the best tracks from the album. Tony Fletcher wrote in Newsweek that "Slug" is one of the album's "instantly rewarding songs" and that Bono's vocals show "genuine tenderness".[18] Rating "Slug" four stars out of five, Uncut reviewer Alastair McKay described the melody as "clockwork" while noting that Eno's "yen for melodic simplicity" was evident.[2] The Orange County Register listed "Slug" as one of the best songs on the album, describing it as a "dreamy" track,[19] and The Age and The Dominion both stated that the song features Bono providing his best vocals.[20][21] The Age also said "Slug" was one of the album's "brilliant songs",[20] and Allmusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine selected it as one of four track picks from the album.[22]

The song was also compared to tracks from U2's previous studio album, Zooropa (1993). Jim DeRogatis of Rolling Stone described "Slug" as one of the album's most engaging tracks, commenting that it could have been an outtake from Zooropa because of Bono's "minimal crooning over skeletal backing tracks".[4] Hot Press editor Niall Stokes felt the song was reminiscent of the Zooropa single "Numb", as both songs frequently utilize negative commands at the beginning of each line.[7] He concluded, "the song has a genuinely reflective quality and it underlines the fact that, some 15 years on since the release of their debut album Boy, U2 are still running."[7] Trouser Press was more critical of the song, describing it as sounding like "flimsy Zooropa afterbirths".[23]

Personnel

References

Footnotes
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Graham & van Oosten de Boer 2004, p. 58.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "UMGU2" defined multiple times with different content
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ U2 2006, pp. 247–248.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 7.8 Stokes 2005, p. 196
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Eno 1996, p. 139.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Eno 1996, p. 147.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Eno 1996, p. 148.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Eno 1996, p. 153.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Stokes 2005, p. 106.
  17. ↑ Stokes 2005, p. 204.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (subscription required)
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Bibliography
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External links

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