Sleeve designed by Works Associates of Dublin under the direction of Steve Averill
Out of the immeasurable discography of U2, Zooropa tends to get overlooked. Not casting judgment for those who are unfamiliar with the album, as it is understandable. With The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, and All that You Can’t Leave Behind – among others – glittering in one’s eyes and one’s ears, “the spacy, experimental” Zooropa – it has an astronaut on the jacket for godsakes! – it’s easy to tune it out.
It’s the 8th studio album, released in 1993. My kids were reaching double digits in age, which means I was still a spring, well maybe summer, chicken at that time, chomping to consume the new album. It was before I had a computer, AOL, and dial-up. Without the experts of Cyberia telling me what to think of it, back then I made up my own mind with music sensibility and for what resonated. What hit me first was how different and electronic it sounded, like there was a barrier between the music and the listener. What was this gap all about? Was it U2 trying to distance itself from the world? Or to call attention to technology attempting to do the job?
I knew I had to find out. As my usual MO, I focused on the music when I listened. Again. And again. Until I felt at home with it. I know that The Beach Boys are so often heralded with what they did on Pet Sounds, and rightfully so. Zooropa takes you there – and then beyond. You are the one in the space suit, floating up there.
Then I started in with the lyrics. It’s so easy nowadays to websearch a title and lyrics and it pops up like magic. At least with LPs, the lyrics, liner notes, etc. were in large enough print to make it easy – and don’t forget the 20/20 vision of youth! With no internet one had to contend with the tiny lettering on the CD inserts. Now familiar with the music, it was a matter of getting used to the lyrics and following along with them. Again and again. And again. Until you can sing them without looking.
Zooropa is a constellation. Listen up there with it and be dazzled.
I could have chosen any tune from it to highlight today. It’s the album that is the favorite.
Today it’s, “Stay (Faraway, So Close)”
“Stay (Faraway, So Close!)”
Green light, Seven Eleven
You stop in for a pack of cigarettes
You don’t smoke, don’t even want to
Hey now, check your change
Dressed up like a car crash
Your wheels are turnin’ but you’re upside down
You say when he hits you, you don’t mind
Because when he hurts you, you feel alive
Oh no, is that what it is?
Red lights, grey morning
You stumble out of a hole in the ground
A vampire or a victim
It depends on who’s around
You used to stay in to watch the adverts
You could lip-sync to the talk shows
And if you look, you look through me
And when you talk, you talk at me
And when I touch you, you don’t feel a thing
If I could stay, then the night would give you up
Stay, and the day would keep its trust
Stay, and the night would be enough
Faraway, so close
Up with the static and the radio
With satellite television
You can go anywhere:
Miami, New Orleans
London, Belfast and Berlin
And, if you listen, I can’t call
And, if you jump, you just might fall
And, if you shout, I’ll only hear you
If I could stay, then the night would give you up
Stay, and the day would keep its trust
Stay with the demons you drowned
Stay with the spirit I found
Stay, and the night would be enough
Three o’clock in the morning
It’s quiet, there’s no one around
Just the bang and the clatter
As an angel runs to ground
Just the bang and the clatter
As an angel hits the ground
Writer(s): Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen, Dave Evans, Paul David Hewson
Tao Talk 
I do hear songs off of this album all of the time since I am one of the few people on Earth that still listens to my iTunes (I have almost 40,000 songs on my iTunes…), but I haven’t listened to the album in many ages – I just put it on (in iTunes, of course).
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AWESOME, Trent. You pretty much can’t go wrong with U2. 40K is a LOT! I’m listening to “Daddy’s gonna pay for your crashed car” right now (had to take a break from the album to to other stuff and just came back to it.) I have all of U2 in CD. Question: do you like this album more than others of theirs because of the techno stuff?
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I’m not sure if I like it better than any of the others. In fact, boring as it may seem, I think I like Joshua Tree best of all. After that, it sort of depends on mood. There are days I like War and October best of all! But I haven’t really sat and listened to an entire one of their albums in ages – I was only able to get 4 songs deep into Zooropa before I had to leave for the evening (I just got back).
I just looked and I was wrong I have about 140 GB of music, but it is “only” about 25K “songs. Almost half is classical, so quite a few of the songs are 15 or 20 minute long movements, so quite a few hours of music! And 140 GB is size on my hard drive – it is closer to 130 GB on the actual iPod. Yeah, I have an ancient, old school iPod that holds 160 GB of music. I’m not the only one who hated it when Apple got rid of all of their high capacity devices and I know I’m not the only one still using one.
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Trent, I’m sure you are not the only one who doesn’t listen to albums from beginning to end. With digital downloads so easy to use, seems more and more people are cherry picking albums. To each their own. Since I’ve “invested” in compiling some playlists on Spotify, I am leaning a bit that way there also. That said, at home, with the LPs and CDs, I listen from beginning to end. It takes a real aversion to a song on an album to get me to skip it and that isn’t often.
I just looked at what music I have on the PC and it totals 50 GB, which gives me an idea of how much you have stored on your hard drive and iPod. A lot! I’ve never had an iPod, and I’m trying to figure out why Apple made a decision to backtrack on high capacity devices?
On another topic, what’s the status of your car repair??
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If I pick up a new album, I do listen a couple of times from beginning to end before I add it to the collection. I also listen to CDs when I exercise. When I am at my computer in New Hampshire I have the whole collection on random, though I often pause to watch YouTube or whatever. When I am elsewhere, I typically use the iPod itself and have a playlist with most of my rock and pop on random. This playlist has about 7000 songs. In my car I listen to satellite radio and usually keep it on the indy-rock station, XMU. when I fly I usually put on Bach on random – actually a piece by Bach is playing now. And I misstated before – almost 2/3 of the collection is classical!
Apple said they were discontinuing those devices because it was too easy to damage the real physical hard drive in them. Of course most people said the failure rate of those hard drives was almost zero… The real reason is they want to switch iPods to being like an iPhone but without the phone. It made them a lot more money per unit and they would have one standardized product across the line.
I haven’t talked to the dealership in three weeks. I am going to call today…
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Music is life! I wouldn’t want to go a day without it. Sounds like you’re set up pretty well there. I used to have pandora radio for the car but they kept jacking the prices up. I got onto spotify because it worked with the bluetooth in the car, but the bluetooth was nothing but trouble, or maybe it was spotify, but irritatingly inconsistent. During the outages, and after they said they were discontinuing it for car use, I use CDs or listen to NPR.
Thatsa lotta songs and 2/3 classical!? I’ve barely dipped a toe into classical, but mostly because it takes a level of concentration to listen to it that it deserves but I don’t have. I do love Bach and he’s one I’ve probably listened to more than others. Keith Jarrett’s Goldberg Variations CD was a gift from a friend and I’ve listened to that many times.
Of course Apple wants its consumers to keep spending $$. Can’t have a device that works too well, so malign it to justify building a better wheel (yeah, right.) I’m glad yours and it sounds like others’ are still going strong so that’s cool.
I think you should send the dealership an itemized statement (you can probably look up every time you’ve had to go out of your way and how many miles it was) for your inconvenience in their dragging their feet on getting your car fully functional again. A letter from an attorney also works amazingly well to get the wheels greased.
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I always liked classical. back around 2003 or so I started to study harmony, counterpoint, etc. After a little bit, instead of wanting to use the knowledge for rock/pop, I decided to study “classical”. And then it went deeper, I started studying classical composition in depth. Part of it was listening to anything and everything I could get my hands on, listening and studying it. Those studies came to an end some time around 2010 and I really did very little music at all until closer to 2015, give or take a year or two. It’s really only been the last 2 or 3 years that I have gone hard core into writing and recording rock/pop (I did 2 new songs in late 2021, 4 in 2022 and 24 in 2023). And, of course, a year ago I started drums and 3 months ago guitar. I know that is tmi, but it tells you why I have almost 100 GB of classical music.
Sirius XM is expensive, but my wife listens to CNN when she is in the car and I’ve grown used to getting my new music fix via XMU. I do explore new music with YouTube and, occasionally, Spotify (I only use their free service).
I called the dealership a couple of hours ago and they have the part so ti should be fixed soon. I can blame the dealership for taking over a month to figure out the issue, but from everything I read online it has been taking two to four months for the dealerships to get the part from Kia. This seems to be a Kia problem and they aren’t keeping their dealerships informed about it. Oh yeah, the other thing I can blame the dealership for is letting me come in last time when they didn’t have the part yet. They sort of made up by charging my car to 100%, washing it and vacuuming it, so the trip wasn’t totally wasted.
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I appreciate you giving me tmi ;) I’m also happy your song writing and recording is blossoming because we listen and get happy listening to it.
Fantastic on them getting the part, and I have to agree, that wasted trip wasn’t totally wasted :)
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Thanks :) I’m hoping that as the journey continues the music gets better.
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p.s. Just curious, how much does it cost to fully charge your car, and how far does it take you?
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Not an easy answer… First, I got 1000 kWh “free” when I bought the car, so most of my charges have not cost me anything and I really didn’t pay attention to the price. That being said, I am pretty sure that the price per kWh has at least doubled since last autumn. My “free” energy ran out recently and I so I had to pay for two charges. Yuck. As I said, the price had at least doubled and possibly tripled recently (because of something Trump did? Not sure) and is still going up. Going from about 10% to 100% cost me a little over $35 the first time and then it was up to a little over $40 only two weeks later. As to distance, 100% usually gets me around 300 miles, but I have had close to 400 before. It depends on temperature, driving conditions, terrain and, of course, speed. Worse case – 75 mph at 0 F, super windy, snowing and all of that, I might only get 250 or 240 miles.
The expensive charging is for Fast DC charging. AC chargers are much more common. All of the AC charging stations I’ve been to are free, usually paid for by the company closest to where it is installed or the town (often near town offices) so I can’t say how much one of those would cost.
Charging at home might add as much as $5 to my bill (maybe less), but it takes at least 12 times as long and as much as 20 times as long as a DC charger.
DC chargers are super expensive to install, while even a commercial AC charger is pretty cheap.
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VERY useful information, Trent. Much appreciated you taking the time to answer.
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You’re welcome.
Yeah, with AC charging, the “fuel costs” for EVs are less expensive than gas powered cars, but are more expensive if you rely on DC charging. Still, no oil changes and far less maintenance, so…
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I have listened to some U2 but not a lot.
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They cover a lot of genres, but one thing I can say about them is that their lyrics mean something.
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I have to admit to not recognizing this song at all. It’s a very good song with a strong message and I am glad you introduced it to me.
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I’m glad you like it, Randy :)
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Zooropa is a great album. I bought the original on vinyl. I haven’t played it lately though.
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Oh nice, to have it on vinyl! Yes it is! Bono talks about it and the Zoo TV Tour in his book (which I highly recommend if you’re a U2 fan.)
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