"Isn't It White" (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. “Isn’t It White” is one of the songs included in the book.
Eno has a long passage about this song and how it became “Your Blue Room”:
We put up ‘Isn’t It White’ and I got a nice organ sound. Bono heard a tune I’d played in passing and sung it into his machine. Edge then came in and took over the organ (I couldn’t play the bloody thing – too many black notes) and came up with a tune himself. I checked Bono’s tape – it was exactly the same tune. Then we redid guitar. Then Adam did a gorgeous bass – he’s really good these days, with authority and economy in his playing. Then Bono and Edge and I sang. A song was starting to happen. Oh yes – in between I wrote a new part as a bridge. Now Larry put on new drums – great sound by Danton. As far as I can recall, nothing went wrong all day – no backtracks. Back to work to add tambourine and new vocal and – BANG! – a great song (‘Your Blue Room’)