Numb

"Numb"
Single by U2
from the album Zooropa
Released	June 1993
Format	VHS single, CD single
Genre	Alternative rock, industrial rock
Length	4:20
Label	Island / Polygram Video
Producer	Flood, Brian Eno, and The Edge (song) / Iain Brown (video)
U2 singles chronology
"Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" (1992) "Numb" (1993) "Lemon" (1993)
Alternate cover Promo CD version of "Numb"

"Numb" is the third track from U2's 1993 album, Zooropa and was released as the album's first single. The song is a monotonous mantra spoken by The Edge with various sound effects and samples. The song's noisy composition and lyrical concept were inspired by the theme of sensory overload, a theme explored on the band's Zoo TV Tour. "Numb" also features backing vocals by Bono and Larry Mullen, Jr.

Writing and recording

"Numb" was recorded during the Zooropa sessions between February-May 1993, but the song originated from a track called "Down All the Days" that was left over from the Achtung Baby sessions.^[1] The band was not fond of the song, but decided to use its instrumental backing for a new composition.^[1] Brian Eno subsequently added a layer of keyboards to it.^[1] The song's biggest contribution came while the band was organizing the final running order for Zooropa. The Edge took an unused backing track devised during the sessions and spent several hours in another studio demoing ideas, eventually adding vocals in a monotone, almost rapped delivery.^[1] This addition for the most part completed "Numb". The Edge described it as "a few hours' work and a lot of editing."^[1]

The Edge explained that writing the lyrics "came very quickly". In fact, he wrote so many lyrics that two verses had to be cut from the song.^[1] He also called mixing the song "the easiest thing in the world."^[1]

Composition

"Numb" is an industrial rock-influenced song, as it features a variety of sound effects and samples edited in-time with the song's rhythm section. One of the samples is from Leni Riefenstahl's 1936 propaganda film Triumph of the Will of an 11-year-old Hitler Youth boy playing a bass drum at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin; a video clip of the sample was used as on-screen imagery during future concerts on the band's Zoo TV Tour.^[2] The Edge sings lead vocals, providing a monotone list of "don't's": "Don't move / Don't talk out of time / Don't think / Don't worry / Everything's just fine". Drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. provides his first backing vocals, while lead vocalist Bono contributes "Fat Lady" falsetto vocals.^[2] The song's various sounds are meant to "recreate that feeling of sensory overload", a theme prevalent on the Zoo TV Tour.^[2] Similarly, The Edge's lyrics "tapped into many of the ideas behind Zoo TV, the sense that we were being bombarded by so much information that you find yourself shutting down and unable to respond".^[1]

Release

"Numb" was an unlikely choice for a first single, and was released in an even more unlikely format, being released as a "video single". Though Madonna had already released "Justify My Love" as a video single in 1990 following the blacklisting of that video by MTV, it was an unusual release mode for the early 1990s; DVD singles became common place by the latter part of the decade.

Alternate versions

This song was later remixed by producer Mike Hedges for U2's compilation release for the 1990s, The Best of 1990-2000. The new mix featured louder, clearer vocal performances compared to the Zooropa album, more distinct background noises, and a new guitar riff.^{[citation needed]}

Track listing

Music video

The music video (directed by Kevin Godley) featured The Edge staring straight into the camera sitting under a dripping tap, while strange things happen to him, such as having feet put on his face, being tied down by the other group members, and a belly dancer perform in front of him. The video remix was produced by the performance group Emergency Broadcast Network and features a number of random television and audio clips. The video and sound segments from the video remix were eventually incorporated into the band's live performances of the song on the Zoo TV Tour. The commercial single itself was released in video format only on VHS, echoing the television theme from their Zoo TV Tour (Although limited copies of promotional vinyl and CD's do exist).^[3][4]

Parodies

• VH1 parodied the video for Numb as a promo for The New WKRP in Cincinnati. Richard Sanders (AKA Les Nessman) sat in Edge's place and rambled out the lyrics to the show's opening theme song much the same way Edge does the lyrics to Numb, while the rest of the show's cast did the odd, random things to him.
• Parody writer "Weird Al" Yankovic performed a parody of the song on the Canadian MuchMusic channel by donning a hat similar to The Edge's, sitting in front of a black background, and reciting verses from the book Green Eggs and Ham as the song's lyrics while having the strange things from the original video happen to him.^[5]
• Irish children's TV puppet Dustin The Turkey released a parody of the song in 1994.^[6]
• Mike Myers and Dana Carvey, in character as Wayne and Garth respectively, inserted themselves into the video on a 1993 MTV special promoting the upcoming Wayne's World 2. Garth stared straight into the camera and was lipsynching Edge's part, while Wayne performs various gags using Garth's head.
• French Canadian comedians Les Bleu Poudres made a french language parody of the video, entitled "Bum".
• In the Philippines, the music channel, Myx parodied the video to promote their 24 hour U2 marathon. The video starring the Myx VJs Luis Manzano, Nikki Gil and Iya Villana

Chart positions

See also

• List of covers of U2 songs - Numb

Notes

References

• McCormick, Neil (ed), (2006). U2 by U2. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0-00-719668-7