User:Melicans/Tryin

"Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World" is a song by rock band U2. It is the ninth track on their 1991 album Achtung Baby.

Inspiration, writing, and recording
The line "a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle" was incorrectly believed to have originated from American Feminist icon and Journalist Gloria Steinem. However, this has now been attributed to Irina Dunn

It is dedicated to the Flaming Colossus, a nightclub in Los Angeles, California.

Composition and theme
It is a tongue in cheek song about stumbling home drunk from a night out on the town. The lyrics describe a drunken stagger home.

Live performances
"Tryin to Throw Your Arms Around the World" debuted on 29 February 1992 in Lakeland, Florida, on the opening night of the Zoo TV Tour. The song was performed at 137 of 157 concerts on the tour. U2 typically opened each Zoo TV show by playing between six and eight songs in a row from Achtung Baby. "Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World" was usually last in this sequence. U2 concert historian Pimm Jal de la Parra wrote that the song "introduces a festive nature to the second half of the show in which audience participation and closeness to the crowd stand central." During the performances Bono would cease to act as The Fly. A girl would be pulled from the audience, whom Bono would dance and drink champagne with; she would then be given a camcorder and instructed to film him. de la Parra wrote it was "a ritual that will occur every night and will lead to unpredictable and often obscene results."

The final performance of the song was on 10 December 1993 in Tokyo, Japan. U2 have not played it live since. A performance from 27 November 1993 in Sydney, Australia, was filmed for the 1994 video release Zoo TV: Live from Sydney but not included in the final cut. It was also not included in the 2006 DVD re-release and the subsequent CD, although a version from 29 August 1992 in New York City was included as a bonus track on disc 2 of the DVD, and as the final track of the CD.

Personnel

 * U2
 * Bono – vocals
 * The Edge – guitar, backing vocals
 * Adam Clayton – bass guitar
 * Larry Mullen, Jr. – drums, percussion


 * Additional
 * Brian Eno – keyboards
 * Daniel Lanois – guitar


 * Technical
 * Production – Lanois with Eno
 * Engineering – Flood
 * Engineering assistance – Robbie Adams, Shannon Strong
 * Mixing – Steve Lillywhite, Adams
 * Mixing assistance – Sean Leonard