"Ballad of New Orleans" (1990)
Demo Song
Background Information
“Ballad of New Orleans” is a working title of a song developed for Achtung Baby.
As U2 were starting work on “Achtung Baby”, Propaganda magazine interviewed Bono in issue 13 of that magazine in an article called “Bono: Songwriting By Accident”.
In that interview he mentions “Ballad of New Orleans”:
he was scribbling bits and pieces for a play that is set there, also a prose-poem, “which may or may not be a song”, entitled “Ballad of New Orleans”. “These are kind of the loose ends left over by The Joshua Tree and Rattle and Hum, just different projects which may never see the light of day,” says Bono. But he is certain, in their own way, even these diverse projects will contribute to the overall U2 mix in the same way that Larry’s continuing interest in country music or Adam’s passion for the sounds of urban black America will contribute.