Writing and Recording
"Mysterious Ways" began as an improvised demo called "Sick Puppy" that the group recorded at STS Studios in Dublin, with vocalist Bono, guitarist The Edge, and bassist Adam Clayton jamming over a drum machine. The band liked Clayton's bass part, which originated during their recording of a cover version of "Night and Day" and for a while, consisted of little more than a "one-note groove". However, the band had difficulties completing the remainder of the song melodically. Bono said that it was "a bass line in search of a song", while The Edge stated that "the key to the song was finding ways to mess around with chords on top without having to change the bass".
U2 stalled in the process of trying ideas out for the song and soon, the tense atmosphere of the recording sessions at Hansa Studios in Berlin took its toll. Producer Daniel Lanois arrived at the studios early one morning before the band to work on ideas he had for the song. When Bono arrived in the studios, he began singing and contributing vocal ideas, but this conflicted with what Lanois had in mind for the track. Bono and a frustrated Lanois proceeded to argue intensely for over two hours, worrying sound engineer Joe O'Herlihy that a physical altercation would ensue. Bono looks back on the episode with a sense of humour: "That's why I love Danny so much. He cares about the record he's making as much and more than any band or artist he's working with."
The song "One", which proved to be breakthrough in the difficult recording sessions for Achtung Baby, originated during the writing of "Mysterious Ways". The Edge caught Lanois' attention while toying around with various chord progressions for the bridge of "Mysterious Ways". Encouraged by Lanois to combine two of the chord progressions, The Edge composed a riff, which inspired the rest of the group to join him and improvise the new song, "One".
The band made progress on "Mysterious Ways" after The Edge began experimenting with a Korg A3 guitar effects pedal and Bono told him to use it for the song. Bono said it made an "envelope of sound which would turn a guitar chord into the funkiest of jackhammers". Drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. added a drum track near the end of recording, introducing a "much groovier beat" that "demonstrated the difference between a drum machine and a real drummer". Bono calls the song "U2 at our funkiest... Sly and The Family Stone meets Madchester baggy." Lanois provided additional percussion by playing the congas. "Mysterious Ways" and the track it inspired, "One", were the only two songs that were primarily completed at Hansa Studios before the album sessions moved to Dublin in 1991. Much like they did for other songs from Achtung Baby, U2 continued to work on "Mysterious Ways" up to the recording deadline, adding a guitar overdub after the mix was already finished.
Several different verses were written, but The Edge advocated those with a "nursery rhyme feel", such as "Johnny, take a walk with your sister in the moon / Let her pale light in to fill up the room". He also composed the chorus' reassuring coda, "It's all right / It's all right / all right", wanting to prove a point, since no prior U2 song contained the line.
Read more about this topic: Mysterious Ways (song)
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