The Fly (4:29)

“The Fly” is a song by rock band U2. It is the seventh track from their 1991 album Achtung Baby and was released on 12 October 1991 as the album’s first single. “The Fly” introduced a more abrasive sounding U2, as the song featured hip-hop and industrial beats, distorted vocals, and an elaborate guitar solo. Lead vocalist Bono described the single as “the sound of four men chopping down the Joshua Tree,”[1] due to its departure from the traditional sound that had characterised the band in the 1980s.

Bono described the song’s subject as that of a phone call from someone in Hell who enjoys being there and telling the person on the other end of the line what he has learned.[2] The song and its video were also a showcase for “The Fly”, a persona that Bono took on for the Zoo TV Tour, in which he played the part of a stereotypical leather-clad rock star known for wearing large wrap-around sunglasses and strutting around the stage. The song became the band’s second number-one single in the UK and was successful among alternative rock radio audiences.
The promotional video was the first appearance of The Fly character and displayed the band’s “new look”. The song was promoted with a music video directed by Ritchie Smythe and Jon Klein. Smythe’s contribution was a basic performance video, relying heavily on unfocused, fast, wandering takes. Klein’s part featured only Bono sitting in a chair with a remote control, facing a wall with several TV sets. The intro to the video, also filmed by Klein, featured a small portion of the “Lounge Fly Mix”, with Bono running in the streets in his “Fly” costume.