Mysterious Ways (song)
"Mysterious Ways" is a song by the rock band U2. It is the eighth track from their 1991 album Achtung Baby and was released as the album's second single on 25 November 1991. The song reached the top ten of the singles charts in several countries, including the band's native Ireland, where it went to number one. In the United States, the song topped the Modern Rock Tracks and Album Rock Tracks charts and peaked at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100.
The song began as an improvisation called "Sick Puppy", with the band only liking the bass part that bassist Adam Clayton composed. The band struggled to build a song from it, with vocalist Bono and producer Daniel Lanois arguing intensely during one songwriting session. The song's breakthrough came after guitarist The Edge began playing with a new effects pedal. "Mysterious Ways" features a danceable beat, funky guitar hook, and conga-laden percussion, as well as mystical lyrics by Bono about romance and women.
The song received praise from critics after the release of Achtung Baby, many of whom called it one of the album's standout tracks and one that best illustrated the band's musical evolution on the album. A music video for the song was filmed in Morocco and incorporated distorted images of Bono and a belly dancer. "Mysterious Ways" made its live debut on the Zoo TV Tour in 1992, when performances were accompanied by an on-stage belly dancer. The group has continued to perform the song on subsequent tours.
Read more about Mysterious Ways (song): Writing and Recording, Composition, Release, Music Video, Reception, Live Performances, References in Popular Culture, Track Listings, Personnel
Famous quotes containing the words mysterious and/or ways:
“Droll thing life is—that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself—that comes too late—a crop of unextinguishable regrets.”
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)
“Where we come from in America no longer signifies—it’s where we go, and what we do when we get there, that tells us who we are.
The irony of the role of women in my business, and in so many other places, too, was that while we began by demanding that we be allowed to mimic the ways of men, we wound up knowing we would have to change those ways. Not only because those ways were not like ours, but because they simply did not work.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)