"Out of the Living World" (1978)
Demo Song
Background Information
In November 1978, U2 went into the studio at Keystone with producer Barry Devlin for their second recording session. During that session they recorded three tracks, “Street Mission,” “Shadows and Tall Trees,” and “The Fool.” All three songs were completed and they were the first songs used to try to gain U2 a recording contract. In 2004, as part of The Complete U2, all three tracks were finally released. “The Fool” was sometimes identified as “Out of the Living World” on bootleg recordings, but there is enough evidence to say with confidence that the title was intended to be “The Fool”.
We have taken an in depth look at U2’s pre-Island Records demo sessions in two parts. Part One dealt with 1978 – February 1979. Part Two dealt with the latter part of 1979 until early 1980. “Out of the Living World” is discussed in Part One and additional discussion is available under the entry “The Fool” here in the Demos.