"Pilgrim's Lack of Progress" (2008)
Demo Song
Background Information
“Pilgrim’s Lack of Progress” may have been a song title being developed for No Line on the Horizon.
One of the photos in the deluxe booklet that comes with the box set and magazine versions of No Line on the Horizon features a white board with some titles listed on the board. We are unsure if “No Line on the Horizon” and “Songs of Ascent” here are referring to the album titles or possible song names.
But there are other notes which definitely look like they are songs, including “Pilgrim’s Lack of Progress,” “House of Abraham,” “Velvet Home (?)” and “Thank You for the Day” which is a title we have heard about elsewhere.
In the article “U2: Hymns for the Future“ by Brian Hiatt in Rolling Stone Magazine, the band provides some insight into the album No Line on the Horizon, as well as song songs that will be used for the next album.
The lyrics of No Line on the Horizon are full of characters who have lost track of themselves. “You could have called this album The Pilgrim and His Lack of Progress,” Bono says, “because all the characters are struggling to stay true to their values or want to realize their potential. And without getting all self-help on your ass, I do think that at the heart of U2 is the idea that the problems we face in the world start and end with the human spirit. And our music, I would like to think, reminds people what the human spirit is capable of. The greatest obstacles to people realizing their potential are of a spiritual nature — and I’m speaking personally.”
So “Pilgrim’s Lack of Progress” or “The Pilgrim and His Lack of Progress” could potentially be a song name, or potentially an alternate name for the album itself.