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About This Track
The song was originally written about the United States’ military intervention during the 1980s in the El Salvador Civil War. Bono told The Edge to “put El Salvador through an amplifier”. The song is a combination of The Edge’s guitar slides, Adam Clayton’s laid back bassline, Larry Mullen Jr. ’s cold drumming and Bono’s aggressive and growly vocals during the verses, and a spoken word section during the bridge. Clayton played the song in a different key from the rest of the band: Clayton’s bass riffs are in E flat minor while The Edge is playing D flat. Bono was thinking of American President Ronald Reagan as he sang “This guy comes up to me / His face red like a rose on a thorn bush / Like all the colors of a royal flush / And he’s peeling off those dollar bills / Slapping them down.”
Although it was never released as a single, “Bullet the Blue Sky” has been played at nearly every one of the band’s live concerts since its first performance at the opening night of the Joshua Tree Tour on April 2, 1987. Its live performances have traditionally been paired with “Running to Stand Still”; this took place on the Joshua Tree Tour, Lovetown Tour, Zoo TV Tour, and the first 46 concerts of the Vertigo Tour.
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Albums featuring this track
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Rock's Hottest Ticket, Volume 2
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The New Year's Concert (disc 1)
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2005-12-19: Portland, OR, USA (disc 1)
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Into San Diego (28 March 2005)
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Shouts
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Kobra_Generosa I especially love "Rattle and Hum" version of it.
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dewbie226 WHOOOOOoooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooo
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hsxeric Fav. U2 song. Just so different from everything else they or anyone else has done.
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Jealousheart Huge
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prismism Impressionism at its finest.
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innerspeaker Man I hate Bono, but even I have to admit his vocals are fucking awesome on this.
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andymadden lyrical perfection and musical genius
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echo725 The live versions of this song from the Zoo tour are scathing.
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pjb808 Most excellent tune :-)
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Aki_of_the_dead I love how fiercely he growls that first verse.
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daydream_set As a man breathes into a saxophone, and through the walls you hear the city groan - outside is America.
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JuniorMcCartney in the Arms... of America.
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jjamavizca Well the god I believe in isn't short of cash, mister
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Allard7351 And I can see the fighter planes...
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clarky212 ............................and we run into the arms of America!!!
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lfsc25 great.
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Bub_Clifton That solo is ridiculous.
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zodiac_4_music best track on the joshua tree!!
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adace An oft-ignored aspect of this song: I love those lyrics. The Bono of the 80's wrote with such a fierce passion about the injustices in the world as well as love. There's just such a gritty realism to the lyrics that really helps the listener connect on an emotional level and Bono is able to switch seamlessly from one landscape to another yet he ties it all together brilliantly. The lyrics here and in many other U2 songs are downright stunning. And of course the guitar work is phenomenal!
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theytsejamer One of the best U2 Livesongs ever. I love the ZooTV-Version (2)
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Recent Activity
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Metalhead552 added Bullet The Blue Sky to his Loved Tracks. yesterday evening
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thiswickedlife tagged Bullet The Blue Sky with ‘1987’. Saturday evening
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tampared2 and Dav759 loved U2 – Bullet The Blue Sky. Friday afternoon
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FRSCW tagged Bullet The Blue Sky with ‘classic rock’. Thursday afternoon
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justemptyspace tagged U2 – Bullet The Blue Sky with great voice, agressive and dark. last week
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