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U2 Connections: Brian Eno
by Angela Pancella
 I
realized recently that about 1/5 of my tapes, CDs and records
feature Brian Eno or Daniel Lanois or both of them. The scary
part is that I acquired much of this music before realizing
Eno or Lanois' involvement, or indeed before knowing they had
any connection to U2. My tastes just seem to gravitate toward
the sort of work they do.
The trouble with Brian Eno in particular is that he has done
so much--solo albums, collaborations, musical guest appearances,
production work, books, art installations--it can be overwhelming
to delve into it all without guidance. That is what I intend
to provide here--a rough guide to some works where Brian Eno
is the main artist, a principal collaborator, or the producer.
I'll list here only the albums I own myself as I am familiar
with them and can talk about what attracts me to them.
U2 contacted Brian Eno--who had also recorded for Island Records--when
they were beginning to think about the album that would become
"The Unforgettable Fire." At first Island was not
keen on the idea of Eno acting as U2's producer, and neither
was Eno--he turned them down when they first approached him.
Eno at the time had moved away from rock. He had last worked
as a producer for a rock band in 1980, for the Talking Heads
album "Remain in Light," and since then had concentrated
on ambient recordings and atmospheric work--with Harold Budd,
Laraaji, Jon Hassell, and a young Canadian musician/producer
named Daniel Lanois.
"You should never work with people who are your fans,
is my opinion," Bono said in an interview with Dave Fanning.
"I knew he wasn't a fan of us, it was one of the reasons
we got to work with him. I wanted to know the other side of
the argument. I knew what was right about us...I wanted to find
out what wasn't."
Carter Alan explains in "The Road to Pop" (also known
as "Outside Is America") U2's interest in getting
Eno involved in The Unforgettable Fire:
"...The band members knew they required a different sort
of producer for the project they had in mind. Edge told International
Musician and Recording World about the group's realization that
Brian Eno might be able to help take U2 where it wanted to go.
'There's one particular track on [Eno's] Before and After Science
which impressed me a lot. He had some echoed drums on it, so
when we were putting together "I Threw a Brick Through
a Window" for the October LP, I brought down the record
and we stayed up very late one night with Steve Lillywhite and
got out some rototoms and started working on that. When we were
deciding on a producer for this record, [Eno's] name just kept
coming up.'"
Eno's gift is an ability to make interesting music. His imitators
often copy his penchant for inserting blips, boinks and squeaks
in random places in a song. They pay less attention to his gift
for melody, his belief in the basic structures of pop music
and his desire to remain accessible to an audience. He may break
the rules, but he is aware of their existence. This pioneer
of ambient music (music that is unobtrusive yet also rewards
close listening) is a big fan of Hank Williams and 50s doo-wop
girl groups, which may come as some surprise.
I will list here only the albums that I own which involve Eno
in some way. This barely scratches the surface of what he has
done. In addition to the artists featured here, Eno has worked
with Devo, Ultravox, Depeche Mode, Elvis Costello, the Neville
Brothers, Genesis, EMF, INXS, Massive Attack, Robert Wyatt,
and the Portsmouth Sinfonia ("the world's worst symphony").
Those hungering for more Eno should visit a discography compiled
by the fan site Enoweb at music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/discog.html.
It is not exhaustive, but it lists 277 works and takes up 25
pages when printed out.
My catalogue seems puny in comparison, but if it inspires someone
to find these discs I will consider it successful. Where applicable,
I will mention U2 songs that seem related in sound or atmosphere.
I didn't know how these other songs Eno has worked on would
relate to U2 when I went back and listened to them, if indeed
they would at all. Confusing the question is that there is no
obvious dividing line in a song between what was Eno's idea
and what was contributed by the musicians he was working with.
I might point to an atmospheric effect on, say, Unforgettable
Fire, as being characteristic of Eno, but Edge has a similar
love of atmospheric effects--it is one of the reasons U2 wanted
to work with this particular producer. The same is true of other
artists--they go to Eno because elements of his work resonate
with them. So where does their artistic vision end and Eno's
input begin?
Parsing this out is an inexact science, but I expected by listening
closely to a range of projects Eno participated in, I'd see
certain musical ideas coming up again and again, and I did.
When the melody or the atmosphere or the rhythm or the boinks
and squeaks reminded me of something I had heard in a U2 song,
I listed the song. The connections are intuitive and often ambiguous.
But if you search out these pieces, you might be surprised by
how seamlessly U2's work with Eno fits in with the rest of his
projects. I was.
Roxy Music, For Your Pleasure (1973)
Recommended Track: For Your Pleasure
Recommended If You Like (RIYL): New York
For its first two albums, Eno was a member of this progressive/art-rock
English band fronted by Bryan Ferry (Eno played synthesizers
and manipulated sound in the live performances). For Your Pleasure
is the second album, worth picking up if only for the outrageous
picture of Eno with long hair and a feather boa. The best track
is an ode to an inflatable sex doll called "In Every Dream
Home A Heartache," but one listen to the last cut and you
may guess where Edge drew inspiration for the wobbling guitar
at "In New York you can forget/Forget how to sit still."
Brian Eno, Here Come The Warm Jets (1973)
Recommended Track: Baby's On Fire
RIYL: I Will Follow
Shortly after leaving Roxy Music, Eno recorded his first solo
album, the title of which referred obliquely to urination. He
worked with sixteen other musicians and recorded the album in
twelve days. In an interview later, he explained, "I'm
only interested in working, really, with people I don't agree
with or who have a different direction." (Bono has echoed
this sentiment, particularly in reference to why U2 would work
with Eno when Eno has said he doesn't like rock music much:
"[never work with people who agree with you]) "I got
them together merely because I wanted to see what happens when
you combine different identities like that and you allow them
to compete. My role is to coordinate them, synthesize them,
furnish the central issue which they all will revolve around,
producing a hybrid..."
His role was also spelled out on the sleeve, which say that
"Eno sings...and (occasionally) plays simplistic keyboards,
snake guitar, electric larynx and synthesizer, and treats the
other instruments."
The Edge and Eno share a love for simplicity--finding the smallest
number of notes necessary to get a point across. "Baby's
On Fire" and "I Will Follow" both pack a maximum
amount of punch using just two notes. "Baby's On Fire"
has the added recommendation of employing disturbing imagery
over a singsong melody. (If you saw the movie Velvet Goldmine
you heard "Baby's On Fire" in a pivotal scene, sung
by one of the movie's fictional bands; this cover version is
available on the soundtrack.)
The track "Blank Frank" is another example of effective
simplicity. Like "Desire," it is a recasting of a
Bo Diddley beat.
David Bowie, Low (1976)
Recommended Track: This album is largely conventional songs
on the first half and experimental pieces on the second. Of
the first I recommend "Sound and Vision," of the second
"Warszawa."
David Bowie, Heroes (1977)
Recommended Track: Heroes
RIYL: Ultraviolet
David Bowie, Lodger (1978)
Recommended Track: Look Back in Anger
RIYL: Lady With the Spinning Head
Low, Heroes, and Lodger are David Bowie's "Berlin trilogy,"
albums he made with Eno at Hansa Studios by the Berlin wall.
It should come as no surprise, then, that the title track of
Heroes would be echoed in drama and structure by a track on
U2's "Berlin album." Compare the part of "Heroes"
that begins "I remember standing by the wall" to "Ultraviolet"'s
"I remember when we could sleep on stones." (The high
wailing guitar on "Heroes" is by Robert Fripp of King
Crimson, who collaborated with Eno on two minimalist albums:
No Pussyfooting and Evening Star.)
Brian Eno, Music For Airports (1978)
Recommended Track: There are only 4 tracks! Listen to the whole
thing!
(The version I have is by Bang on a Can. The original was created
with tape loops and they've re-recorded it with live musicians,
playing cello, bass, piano, clarinet, etc.)
RIYL: Bass Trap
When people refer to Brian Eno as the originator of "ambient
music," they are referring to albums like this, "Discreet
Music," and "Music For Films"--albums designed
to play softly in the background without calling attention to
themselves. ("New Age" music draws some inspiration
from this, but careful listening to Eno's ambient pieces is
generally more rewarding.) Eno was exploring the idea of "generative"
music--music set in motion with a few simple rules. He set up
repeating patterns and cycles of notes and listened to what
happened when they interacted. In the piece "2/1"
on Music for Airports, for instance, each note was recorded
on a different bit of tape. He made each bit of tape into a
loop of a different length, and recorded them playing simultaneously.
The notes are long and the loops were longer, which makes for
periods of silence as well as notes grouping together. All of
this could have resulted in cacaphony had he not been judicious
in choosing the notes to use. Instead, it is a gentle meditative
piece with moments that hint at a melody which never quite appears.
Because Eno cut the loops into random lengths, the piece could
play for a long, long time before cycles repeat; this sense
of flowing forever without any drastic change is a hallmark
of many of Eno's pieces. The conventional idea of a "song"
having a beginning, middle and end does not apply here. The
lack of resolution may be frustrating to some, who will listen
and think, "but it doesn't go anywhere!" It isn't
designed to. This openended feeling combined with a steadily
repeating pattern is echoed in "Bass Trap."
David Byrne/Brian Eno, My Life in the Bush
With Ghosts (1979)
Recommended Track: The Regiment
RIYL: The Ground Beneath Her Feet
This collaboration came of Eno and Talking Heads singer David
Byrne recording random things and setting them to music (and
by random, I mean everything from Sufi songs to an exorcism).
"The Regiment"'s combination of Mideastern vocals
and Byrne and Eno's Western sensibility point towards U2's "Indo-Celtic"
mix in "Mysterious Ways" and "The Ground Beneath
Her Feet."
Talking Heads, Remain In Light (1980)
Recommended Track: Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On) or
Crosseyed and Painless
RIYL: Lemon
Eno's imprint is so unmistakable on the three Talking Heads
albums he produced that he was nearly an additional member of
the band. When Bill Flanagan describes the genesis of "Lemon"
in U2 at the End of the World, he compares the "A man makes
a picture/a moving picture" section to Talking Heads. This
album may have been what he had in mind with the comparison.
It makes much use of chanting call-and-response-style choruses.
(Eno and Talking Heads singer David Byrne share a fascination
with world music, as you've seen in their collaboration above.
Byrne has taken his love of African call and response, South
American rhythms, etc. and formed a world music record label,
Luaka Bop.)
Eno/Cale, Wrong Way Up (1990)
Recommended Track: Spinning Away
RIYL: One Tree Hill (play them back to back!)
Brian Eno has guested on various albums by John Cale of the
Velvet Underground; this almost-mainstream-pop album is a full
partnership between them. The whole album is melodic, hooky,
engaging, with Eno and Cale trading off on lead vocal duties.
"Spinning Away" is a pretty meditation on drawing
pictures during the approach of evening. The hook is stylistically
similar to African highlife guitar, a characteristic it shares
with "One Tree Hill"'s hook. The soaring synthesized
violins and choral ending are also reminiscent of "One
Tree Hill," although, since this is a Brian Eno song, there
is less resolution.
Jane Siberry, When I Was A Boy (co-produced
by Eno and Michael Brook) (1993)
Recommended Track: Calling All Angels (duet with k.d. lang)
Jane Siberry is one of a seemingingly endless stream of Canadian
chanteuses with unique voices. Her delivery is wispy but not
saccharine, and she makes frequent use of overdubs to create
strange harmonies to match complex lyrics and unconventional
melodies. This song was featured on the soundtrack to Wim Wenders'
Until the End of the World, which also features tracks from
U2, Talking Heads, REM, Depeche Mode, Can (a German experimental
electronic group--Eno later was a remixer for them) and Daniel
Lanois.
Laurie Anderson, Bright Red/Tightrope (1994)
Recommended Track: Tightrope
RIYL: MLK
Anderson is a New York based performance artist with many albums
to her credit and one novelty hit, "O Superman." (Incidentally,
last time I checked she's also Lou Reed's girlfriend.) Eno's
atmospheric sound washes, conjuring ghostly church organs or
underwater computer beeps, give this album a sense of Deep Meaning,
not to mention menace, similar to the effect of David Bowie's
Outside.
It's the ghostly church organ on this track that leads me to
compare it to "MLK." This is only speculation, but
perhaps Eno's love for the organ comes from his Catholic upbringing.
(It does help explain the unusual length of his name--Brian
Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno).
David Bowie, 1.Outside (1995)
Recommended Track: Segue: Baby Grace (A Horrid Cassette)/Hallo
Spaceboy
RIYL: Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car
This album is part one of a planned trilogy and marks the first
Bowie/Eno collaboration since their "Berlin trilogy."
The other two albums have yet to surface. It's a concept album
set in 1999 wherein the body of a homicide victim is made into
an art installation. The liner notes are the diary of the detective
investigating the case, who ponders, "It was definitely
murder, but was it art?" Eno encouraged the musicians recording
the album to stretch their creativity with role-playing games.
As he discloses in his 1995 diary, "A Year with Swollen
Appendices," he would assign them futuristic identities
and ask them to perform as if they were that persona. (Their
new names were anagrams of their old names; you can see similar
wordplay in the Passengers liner notes, written by "Ben
O'Rian" and "C.S.J. Bofop.")
Hallo Spaceboy and Daddy's Gonna Pay are not that similar sonically,
but a certain manic creepiness runs through both of them.
James, Whiplash (1997)
Recommended Track: Play Dead
RIYL: Alex Descends Into Hell for a Bottle of Milk/Korova 1
The British alternative group James is perhaps the closest
thing to a conventional rock band Eno has produced (besides
U2), and as such these two albums aren't as "wacky"
as certain other products bearing the Eno name. (Incredibly,
as his diary relates, during a single year he was working with
James, David Bowie, Passengers, and Elvis Costello.) The similarity
of "Play Dead" to "Alex Descends..." is
in a crunching mechanical drum sound appearing in both songs.
Russell Mills, Strange Familiar (Eno plays
"Select-A-Bonk" percussion; others involved in this
project include The Edge and Infinite Guitar inventor Michael
Brook)
Recommended Track: Ice in the Sleeve
RIYL: United Colours (Passengers Original Soundtracks 1)
Russell Mills has designed covers for Nine Inch Nails, Nusrat
Fateh Ali Khan, David Sylvian, and other luminaries; he works
mostly in collage. For his ambient recordings (Undark, Pearl
+ Umbra, Strange Familiar) he has assembled all-star casts--Pearl
+ Umbra, for example, has Peter Gabriel, Thurston Moore and
Bill Laswell (this latter, like Eno, has appeared on a mind-boggling
number of albums).
This album is largely a collection of grooves, interesting
musical ideas that repeat and fade. I only recommend it for
the hardcore ambient fan.
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