"Tokyo Glacier (Fact)" (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. “Tokyo Glacier (Fact)” is one of the songs included in the book.
On June 6 he wrote a list of progress off songs, and in that list “Tokyo Glacier” needs ‘trombone sorting out’. “Tokyo Drift,” “Tokyo Glacier,” “Antarctica” and “Ito Okashi” are all listed as different songs in this list. On July 6 he mentions the song again, “Then moved on to ‘Tokyo Glacier’ and found some simple, spacious drum feelings. Soon all hell broke loose and suddenly there was Adam playing DX7 bass, Edge playing guitar, me treating it, Bono singing, Howie B scratching away on a record-player, and Larry on DX7. All of us in the control room, hanging from lights, under tables. Poor Danton. What a mess – but so exciting. The song gets another mention on July 7, where they were mixing two forms of the song, and Dave from reception playing sax, “he’s good”.
In Issue 23 of Propaganda Magazine, in an article titled “All Passengers Present and Correct” the song is also mentioned as part of a list of songs that are being worked on. In that list the song is listed as “Tokyo Glacier (Fact)”