Zoo Station (song)

Following difficult recording sessions at Hansa Studios in Berlin in late 1990, U2 undertook the second phase of the recording sessions for Achtung Baby in Dublin. They struggled with the song "Lady With the Spinning Head" (later released as a B-side), but three separate tracks, "Zoo Station", "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" and "The Fly", were derived from it. After they distorted his voice to make it sound as if it were coming from a megaphone, Bono was inspired to sing in a persona, as the effect gave his vocals a different "emotional feel". With Achtung Baby, the group sought to recover some of the Dadaist characters and stage antics they had dabbled with in the late 1970s as teenagers. U2 had abandoned these ideas for more literal themes in the 1980s. However, for the new album, the band was interested in no longer making obvious sense. as well as a B-side on some versions of the "Miss Sarajevo" single. "Bottoms (Watashitachi No Ookina Yume)" is an instrumental track and was described by The Edge as a "crazy" mix. He added "'Bottoms' was done in Japan, and we just built on that mix. Sometimes you can end up with something completely distinctive." ==Composition==

As the first track on an album that was a major reinvention for the band, "Zoo Station" was an introduction to U2's new sound. The song features layers of distorted guitar and vocals, and industrial-influenced percussion. Irish rock journalist Bill Graham cites David Bowie's album Low as a major influence on "Zoo Station", which he called a "new brand of glam rock" with "Spartan rhythms and sudden flurries of melody". The song is played at a tempo of 130 beats per minute in a time signature, but only one element of the song's introduction, a marimba-like texture, is played in common time. This sound, which has been compared to that of a clock ticking, was achieved by picking the guitar's D string behind the bridge and the stopbar. On the second half of the third beat, the song's signature guitar riff, a distorted descending glissando, enters. The drums then enter, before stopping and starting again. Much like the song's guitar sounds, the drums' timbre is noticeably different from previous U2 songs as it exhibits a "cold, processed sound, something like beating on a tin can". Amidst layers of various guitar sounds, the bass enters, the part played in the introduction and verses consisting of repeating G and A notes, mimicking the ascending portion of the guitar riff after the glissando overshoots the octave. During the verses, he sings primarily in a medium-to-low range and his vocals are treated with heavy processing, which takes out the bottom of the sound and "emasculate[s]" his voice. ==Reception and legacy==

Upon the release of Achtung Baby, "Zoo Station" was praised by many critics. Steve Morse of The Boston Globe said the song was one on which "sonic assaults are teamed with dreamily processed vocals that recall Beatles psychedelia". The Orlando Sentinel called it "blistering" and praised the low mixing of Bono's vocals, which allowed The Edge's "new versatility" on guitar to draw more attention. BBC Music enjoyed "The Edge's guitar squall and electronics" creating a "dense sound [that] is irresistible", noting that "Zoo Station" was one track where the strategy "creates moods rather than hummable tunes". Jon Pareles of The New York Times stated that the song "announces a change, starting with a metallic clank, a buzzing guitar slide and a repeated electronic crunch—nothing ethereal". He also noted that Bono's voice was "electronically masked and the band's old style traded for a pushy bassline and a percussive stomp, although U2 can't resist some sweeter interludes". Rolling Stone was complimentary of The Edge, comparing his style of guitar playing on the song to using a rhythm instrument by "repeating a dark, buzzing phrase that drives the beat". Allmusic reviewed the track favourably, saying "there are layers to Bono's lyrics" and that by the end of the track, the song and the band are "soaring". Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune likened the song's introduction to "trying to out-demolish Ministry" with "grating metal-on-metal percussion and a belching guitar". The song subsequently appeared as one of seven U2 songs in the 2006 music reference book 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time and the Artists, Stories, and Secrets. "Zoo Station" is featured in the 2002 British comedy-drama film About a Boy. In one scene, the main character, Will (Hugh Grant), turns up the volume of the song as a "childless effort" to ignore Marcus (Nicholas Hoult), a boy ringing Will's doorbell, prompting Marcus to ring it in unison with the beat of the song. The song was covered by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails on the 2011 cover album AHK-toong BAY-bi Covered. It was also covered by The Smashing Pumpkins throughout their 2024 tour appearances. ==Live performances==

, Bono would arrive on-stage as his stage persona "The Fly". "Zoo Station" made its live debut on the opening night of the Zoo TV Tour on 29 February 1992 in Lakeland, Florida, and was performed as the opening song at each of the 156 Zoo TV concerts. During performances of "Zoo Station", Bono appeared on-stage silhouetted against a giant screen of blue and white video noise, making his entrance as his leather-clad stage persona "The Fly", often goose-stepping his way onto the stage. The Edge described the visual imagery displayed for the song in the context of Zoo TV's "sensory overload" that was intended as a commentary on mass media: "'Zoo Station' is four minutes of a television that's not tuned in to any station, but giving you interference and 'shash' and almost a TV picture." "Zoo Station" was not played during the subsequent PopMart and Elevation Tours, but it returned to the group's set lists on the Vertigo Tour. The song was most often performed during the first encore, along with other Achtung Baby/Zoo TV-era songs, as part of a mini-Zoo TV set paying homage to the band's 1990s era. It made its last appearance in November 2006 and was not played live again until the September 24, 2015 concert on the Innocence + Experience Tour. The song returned to the band's setlists during the Experience + Innocence Tour in 2018, and was played nineteen times. U2 performed "Zoo Station" during their 2023–2024 U2:UV Achtung Baby residency at the Sphere in the Las Vegas Valley, as the opening song of concerts. As the introduction was played, the concrete visuals that were displaying on the venue's LED screen during the preshow appeared to crack open, splitting into four quadrants; this allowed in light in the shape of a cross, which was inspired by the architecture of the Church of the Light. The opening revealed video imagery behind it, some of it the original footage by Mark Pellington from the Zoo TV Tour. Live performances of the song appear on the video releases Zoo TV: Live from Sydney and Vertigo 2005: Live from Chicago. A live version of "Zoo Station" from the Vertigo Tour also appears as a B-side on the maxi single for "Window in the Skies". ==References==