Acrobat (Collaboration)

"Acrobat" is a song by rock band U2, and is the eleventh track on their 1991 album Achtung Baby. The song developed from a riff created by guitarist the Edge, and is played in a 12 8 time signature.[1] Lyrically, the song expresses themes of hypocrisy, alienation, and moral confusion. Although "Acrobat" was rehearsed prior to the third leg of the Zoo TV Tour, it had not been performed live until its debut on the Experience + Innocence Tour on 2 May 2018. "Acrobat" is played in a 12/8 time signature. The Edge noted "it's a very Irish time signature, it's used in a lot of traditional Irish music, but in rock and roll you don't really hear it that much."[6] In the time leading up to the start of the Achtung Baby sessions, U2 listened to records which had a "hard-edged industrial kind of sound", including works by KMFDM and Sonic Youth, as well as artists such as Roy Orbison and Jacques Brel. These influences led the band to seek the creation of songs which were harder musically than their previous work, while remaining personal lyrically.[2] "Acrobat" is one of the most personal songs on Achtung Baby with Bono acknowledging personal weakness, contradictions, and inadequacy.[2] The Edge noted that the song contained "a bit of venom", likening it to "the bitter, John Lennon tradition of 'Working Class Hero', slightly snarling and cynical."[7] Bono stated "as we moved from the eighties to the nineties, I stopped throwing rocks at the obvious symbols of power and the abuse of it. I started throwing rocks at my own hypocrisy... 'Acrobat' [goes] 'Don't believe what you hear, don't believe what you see / If you just close your eyes / You can feel the enemy...' I can't remember it, but the point is: you start to see the world in a different way, and you're part of the problem, not just part of the solution". In 2006, he noted it was "a song about being a hypocrite, and I think we all can be and I certainly have been. And you know, you exact very high standards on people in the world but then you don't live them personally", noting the theme was most evident in the lyric "I must be an acrobat to talk like this and act like that". Hot Press editor Niall Stokes felt The Edge's guitar playing combined elements of "Where the Streets Have No Name" with "Bullet the Blue Sky". Speaking of its theme he said "at its heart is an awareness of the ravages of time, and what it does to people and to relationships. But beyond that, there is the self-awareness that, itself, comes only with experience... Bono acknowledges his own weakness and inadequacy. He is more conscious now than ever before of the contradictions in his own position." Andy Greene of Rolling Stone believed the "aggressive and venomous" song reflected Bono's thoughts during the album sessions, saying "Nearly every lyric brims with rage... It was a new decade and it was quite possible they were about to be dismissed as a relic of the past." Red Lights are : Fabio Vox : Lead Vocal Regis Fort : Guitar - Backing Vocal Fabio Mex - Bass U2 Drumcover : Drums - Percussion