| Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of | |
| Cover: | Stuck in a moment.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | U2 |
| Album: | All That You Can't Leave Behind |
| B-Side: | Big Girls Are Best |
| Studio: | HQ (Dublin, Ireland) |
| Genre: | Rock |
| Length: |
|
| Label: |
|
| Composer: | U2 |
| Lyricist: | Bono and the Edge |
| Producer: | |
| Prev Title: | Beautiful Day |
| Prev Year: | 2000 |
| Next Title: | Elevation |
| Next Year: | 2001 |
"Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the second track on their tenth studio album, All That You Can't Leave Behind (2000), and was released as the album's second single on 29 January 2001. The band's lead vocalist Bono has said the song was inspired by a fictional conversation with his friend Michael Hutchence about suicide. The song peaked at number 52 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and topped the charts in Canada, their native Ireland, and Italy, while reaching the top 10 in Australia, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom. In 2002, the song won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal at the 44th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony.
"Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" originated from a gospel-influenced chord progression that guitarist the Edge composed on a piano in a Japanese hotel room.[1] [2] He said: "I suppose I was consciously looking for something in that [gospel] tradition. Having been through that whole experimentation period during Pop—with techno and dance ideas and dance aesthetics—it seemed like I wanted to get back to something a bit more earthy."[1] During the recording sessions for All That You Can't Leave Behind, the Edge played the piano piece in a music sequencer, after which co-producer Brian Eno removed every first and second note, leaving every third note. Eno then set it into a different keyboard with extensive treatments, resulting in what the Edge called an "otherworldly effect" on top of his "traditional gospel piano sequence".[2]
Co-producer Daniel Lanois said the recorded version of the song was essentially a live take performed by the band with him and Eno. On guitar, Lanois played "the harmony to The Edge's part". The Edge achieved a clean guitar tone by plugging his 1950s Fender Stratocaster guitar directly into a Fender Bassman amplifier.[3] The song ends with a "choral chant" written by the Edge; Lanois said they had always wanted to compose such a part before. The group tried several variations of it before settling on the version that appears on record. The vocals were sung by the Edge, Lanois, and Eno; Lanois said it was easy to imagine hiring a choir to sing the part but "if you want it to sound like a U2 record, then you use the team".[4] Mick Jagger and his daughter Elizabeth recorded backing vocals for the song, although these did not make the final mix.[5]
U2's lead singer Bono wrote the lyrics about the suicide of his close friend Michael Hutchence, lead singer of the band INXS. The song is written in the form of an argument about suicide in which Bono tries to convince Hutchence of the act's foolishness. Bono characterised the song as a fight between friends, which he felt guilty for never having with Hutchence. As Bono said in 2005, "It's a row between mates. You're kinda trying to wake them up out of an idea. In my case it's a row I didn't have while he was alive. I feel the biggest respect I could pay to him was not to write some stupid soppy song, so I wrote a really tough, nasty little number, slapping him around the head. And I'm sorry, but that's how it came out of me."[6] [7] New York magazine's Caryn Rose wrote in Vulture that it was "a gospel song at its heart... The last three stanzas are heart-wrenching."[8]
"Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" was released in the UK on 29 January 2001,[9] [10] in Japan on 7 February,[11] in Australia on 12 February,[12] in the United States on 6 August,[13] and in Canada on 30 October.[14]
The song was performed at every show on the Elevation Tour in 2001.[15] The song was not played again until the third leg on the Vertigo Tour in 2005 in an acoustic form by Bono and The Edge. The full band electric version was revived for the sixth leg of the Vertigo Tour in 2006. The song was performed on the U2 360° Tour, again in an acoustic form by Bono and The Edge.[16] The song was played five times on the Innocence + Experience Tour.[17] These performances were by the full band and featured The Edge on the piano. The song was not performed on the Experience + Innocence Tour in 2018, but was played during many promotional shows for the Songs of Experience album. It made two appearances on The Joshua Tree Tour 2019.[18] Both performances were in Sydney and were dedicated to Michael Hutchence.[19]
Three official music videos were filmed for the song. The first video (known as the US version) is directed by Joseph Kahn, features an American football game between the "Flys" [sic] and the "Lemons" filmed at the Houston Astrodome (named The Unforgettable Fire Dome in the video), and contains various inside jokes and references to the band's past—such as the team names themselves, which were the titles of two U2 singles released in the 1990s. The video features a brief cameo in the beginning from John Madden, whose lines also feature several U2 references. The main part of the video shows a placekicker named Paul Hewson—Bono's real name—forced to relive a field goal he missed that cost his team the game.
The second video, directed by Kevin Godley and aimed at an international audience, shows Bono being thrown out of a van several times, as if "stuck in a moment". At the end of the video, the rest of the band helps him up.
The third and final video is the "Eze version", filmed in Eze, France, and features live footage of the band recording All That You Can't Leave Behind, intercut with footage of the band roaming the streets of Eze.
All three videos were remastered in high definition and uploaded to the band's YouTube channel in 2020.
The "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" singles were backed with the following B-sides:
There are three versions of this song:
Note
Note
Note
Note
Note
| Peak position | ||
| Canada (Nielsen SoundScan)[20] | 1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Canada CHR (Nielsen BDS)[21] | 13 | |
| Croatia (HRT)[22] | 2 | |
| Europe (Eurochart Hot 100)[23] | 5 | |
| scope=row | Portugal (AFP)[24] | 2 |
| Position | ||
| Australia (ARIA)[25] | 91 | |
|---|---|---|
| Canada (Nielsen SoundScan)[26] | 20 | |
| Canada Radio (Nielsen BDS)[27] | 69 | |
| Ireland (IRMA)[28] | 44 | |
| Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[29] | 94 | |
| UK Singles (OCC)[30] | 119 | |
| US Adult Top 40 (Billboard)[31] | 43 | |
| US Triple-A (Billboard)[32] | 22 |
| Chart (2002) | Position | |
|---|---|---|
| Canada (Nielsen SoundScan)[33] | 38 | |
| US Adult Top 40 (Billboard)[34] | 27 |
| Date | Format(s) | Label(s) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 29 January 2001 | Island | ||
| Japan | 7 February 2001 | CD | ||
| Australia | 12 February 2001 | |||
| United States | 6 August 2001 | Interscope | ||
| 7 August 2001 | ||||
| Canada | 30 October 2001 | CD |
Somalian-Canadian rapper K'naan performed the song live in July 2010 for iHeartRadio.[35] Actress Scarlett Johansson covered the song for the soundtrack to the 2021 animated film, Sing 2, in which U2 frontman Bono appears in a voice role.
Footnotes
Bibliography