| "Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World" | |
|---|---|
| Song byU2 | |
| from the albumAchtung Baby | |
| Released | 18 November 1991 |
| Genre | Rock |
| Length | 3:53 |
| Label | Island |
| Composer | U2 |
| Lyricist | Bono |
| Producer | Daniel Lanois withBrian Eno |
"Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World" is a song by Irishrock bandU2, and the ninth track on their 1991 album,Achtung Baby. It is a tongue-in-cheek song about stumbling home drunk after a night out on the town. It is dedicated to the Flaming Colossus nightclub inLos Angeles.[1] The album version includes keyboard playing by producerBrian Eno. The line "a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle" is a quotation fromIrina Dunn.[2]
During live performances onZoo TV Tour from 1992 to 1993, lead singerBono would spray a bottle ofchampagne towards the audience. It was played 136 times on the tour. The song was edited out of the live video releaseZoo TV: Live from Sydney; it was later revealed that the concert ran long and the song needed to be edited in order to fit the concert into a two-hour timeslot.[3]
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Aside from being snippeted at three concerts during the final leg of theU2 360° Tour in July 2011,[4] the song was not performed again until the band's 2023–2024U2:UVAchtung Baby residency at theSphere in the Las Vegas Valley. During performances, a digital chalk drawing of a balloon, designed by the Edge's wifeMorleigh Steinberg, was displayed high on the venue's LED screen. It was attached to an actual tether of knotted-up bedsheets that Bono held. Initial performances featured him picking a fan from the crowd to join him on stage to hold the tether and swing in it;[5] later performances added a prop door, with the story being that Bono had returned home with the balloon only to realise he was locked out and unable to find his keys as he peered through the peephole.[6]
The song was reworked for the 2011 tribute albumAHK-toong BAY-bi Covered byThe Fray. The Denver quartet had supported U2 on the seventh leg of the360° Tour, during which The Fray'sIsaac Slade celebrated his 30th birthday. "They gave me aping-pong table," he recalled, "and a ping-pong paddle with sunglasses drawn on it."[7]
