"Scott Walker" (1997)

Demo Song

Background Information

“Scott Walker” was an early development title for “City of Blinding Lights”.

“Scott Walker” was initially developed during the Pop recording sessions. This was confirmed by Adam Clayton in an interview for Blender Magazine in 2004 at the time of release of “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb”: “This began as an outtake from Pop. To us, it was a homage to Scott Walker. The working title was ‘Scott Walker.’ “

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. “Scott Walker” was one of these songs. There were no additional notes beyond the title. Perhaps of interest, it was the only song title that had quotations around its name in the list.

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