"Always" (2000)

Demo Song

Background Information

“Always” was a song developed for 2000’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind. “Always” appeared as a B-Side to U2’s 2000 single “Beautiful Day” but many do not realize it also was an earlier form of “Beautiful Day”. If you listen to the tracks it can be heard, but if you view the video for “Beautiful Day” that was shot in Eze, not the main one, you can also see it listed on the white board where tracks are kept track of during recording. In the video you see “Beautiful Day (Always): Add shine gtr / fix tamb.”

In the alternate video for “Beautiful Day” filmed in Eze and Dublin’s Hanover Quay studio, that appears on the 18 Videos release, we get to see a bit of a white board listing some songs worked on during the All That You Can’t Leave Behind sessions. On that white board we see “Home” (an early version of “Walk On”), above that is “Beautiful Day (Always)” with notes saying to “add shine gtr” and “fix tamb.”, and above that is “NY / Snow is Falling” (perhaps “New York” had an alternate set of lyrics?)

But that is all we see in the commercially released video. However on U2.com in the lead up to the release of the album, a short EPK video for the album was located on the site which shows the same whiteboard, however we get to see more of it. Above “NY / Snow is Falling” is “Kite (Stuck)”, above that is “Elevation (Busy Bee)”, above that is “Stuck in a Moment”, and the last title we see before the camera pans away is “Original of the Species (Everywhere I Go)”.

It’s difficult to make out for sure but the track below “Always” appears to be “Home” and above appears to end with “Falling”.

In 2003, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland Ohio opened a U2 exhibit, with multiple floors focused on U2. As part of that exhibit there was a notebook of song titles that were identified as having belonged to the recording sessions for All That You Can’t Leave Behind. The list for this album was long, containing 53 different titles. A few of these songs were eventually released such as “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own” (here it was marked the DooWop Version), “Miracle Drug”, “Grace” (listed here as the TV mix), “A Man and a Woman” (A note says that Bono and Brian call this “Boomerang 3”), “Love and Peace”, “Stuck” (a note says to work on the song with three different vocal approaches), and “Always” (with the “With or Without You” vocal approach). In the notes beside each song are clues to what the song was, or what work was left on the song. “Always” was one of these songs. Beside that title listed “with the “With Or Without You” vocal approach”.

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