"Heaven" (1995)
Demo Song
Background Information
Brian Eno published his diary from 1995, called A Year with Swollen Appendices. It was published as a book in 1996 by Faber and Faber in the UK. That was the year that Eno worked with U2 on Original Soundtracks 1, and the book makes mention of a number of demos and working titles throughout. “Heaven” is one of the songs included in the book.
Eno first mentions this song saying “Thereafter another disturbed day working on MJ (Military Jam) – Bono trying to develop a song: “Heaven’s (this), Heaven’s (that), how wide are the gates of (something)’. Something about it doesn’t grab me – too bluesy and minor; too ‘known’ a feeling; not complext enough emotionally. It just sounds like more music. I have no better ideas, so my only contribution is to try to derail the whole train. Anyway, it trundled on for the rest of the day.
On June 6 Brian Eno wrote: “Played through existing material, I suggested dropping ‘Heaven’ and ‘Theremin’. No need to spend time on stragglers (but, as usual, it’s the stragglers that get all the time!).