"Zoo Station" is a song by rock band U2 and the opening track from their 1991 album Achtung Baby. The song is one that most dramatically represents the band's reinvention with the album's release. It features several layers of distorted guitars and vocals and industrial-influenced percussion, along with lyrics suggesting new intents and anticipations. During the Zoo TV Tour, "Zoo Station" opened every concert except for one. The song title refers to the Bahnhof Zoo (the official name is Berlin Zoologischer Garten) station in Berlin. Coincidentally, the station has been on the U2 line of the Berlin metro since 1993; however, at the time the song was recorded this part of the Berlin metro was served by the U1 line.

Writing and recording

After troublesome recording sessions at Hansa Studios in Berlin in late 1990, U2 returned to Dublin in 1991 for the second phase of the recording sessions for Achtung Baby. One song, "Lady With the Spinning Head", later released as a B-side, proved troublesome, but would inspire portions of three separate songs, "Zoo Station" being one of them, and "Ultraviolet " and "The Fly" the other two. The band ultimately decided to take "Zoo Station" in a more industrial direction than "Lady With the Spinning Head".

"Zoo Station" came together near the end of the recording sessions when producer Flood was mixing the song and introduced heavy distortion to the drums. The song's direction was largely influenced by the production team of Daniel Lanois, Brian Eno, and Flood. Lead vocalist Bono had been disappointed with his vocal performances in early recording sessions for the album, and told the production team, "Let's just try something that's gonna put me in a completely different place". After they distorted his voice to make it sound as if it were coming from a megaphone, Bono was inspired to sing in a persona, as the effect gave his vocals a different "emotional feel".

The song's lyrics were originally inspired from a story that Bono heard of Berlin during World War II, in which animals escaped the city's zoo after it was damaged in overnight bombing. Rhinoceri, pelicans and flamingoes wandered around the next morning while people were sifting through the rubble. Bono was also influenced when he learned of a subway station in Berlin called Zoo Station, since it stopped at the zoo. He compared the song to the actual subway station, saying "it was written as an opening track, the beasts breaking out of their cages." Bono took further inspiration from the subway station representing Europe at a crossroads, as people of many different walks of life had descended upon a reunified Berlin after the Berlin Wall was knocked down.

Composition

As the first track on an album that was a major reinvention for the band, "Zoo Station" gives listeners an introduction to the U2's new sound. The song features several different layers of distorted guitar and vocals. Irish rock journalist Bill Graham cites David Bowie's album, Low, as a major influence on "Zoo Station", which he called a "new brand of glam-rock" of "Spartan rhythms and sudden flurries of melody".

The song is played in a 4/4 time signature, but only one element of the song's distinctive introduction, a marimba-like texture, is played in regular time. This sound, which has been compared to that of a "clock ticking", was achieved by picking the guitar's D string behind the bridge and the stopbar. On the second half of the third beat, the song's signature guitar riff, a distorted, rapidly-strummed descending glissando, enters. In its descent, the glissando overshoots the octave by a major second before sliding back up to it. After the second time it is played, an "explosion" of percussion is heard, playing twice on beat four of every second measure. This "explosion" of percussion, played by Flood, enters early the third time, being played on beat two. The drums then enter, before stopping and starting again. Much like the song's guitar sounds, the drums' timbre is noticeably different from previous U2 songs, exhibiting a "cold, processed sound, something like beating on a tin can". Amidst layers of various guitar sounds, the bass enters, the part played in the introduction and verses consisting of repeating G and A notes, mimicking the ascending portion of the guitar riff after the glissando overshoots the octave. After the bass begins, the song's regular groove is established.

Guitarist The Edge says "Danny [Lanois] provided an incredibly mad intro which sounds like a keyboard, but is in fact guitar on which I'm creating strange textures." Of the song's introduction, bassist Adam Clayton says, "When people put on the record, we wanted their first reaction to be either 'this record is broken' or 'this can't be the new U2 record, there's been a mistake.' So there is quite a dramatic extended intro where you just don't know what you are listening to." Author Albin Zak, in his book The Poetics of Rock, says of the introduction, "Before any words are sung, the sounds alone alert the listener that the band has moved into new expressive territory."

After the introduction, the song follows a conventional verse-chorus form. During the verses, Bono sings primarily in a medium-to-low range and his vocals are treated with heavy processing, which takes out the bottom of the sound and "emasculate[s]" his voice. The processing also introduces a wavering quality to his vocals. The guitar glissando continues to be played during the verses. During the chorus, the bassline becomes more dynamic and plays descending quarter notes of G-F -D-C-D-C-A-G-A. Bono's vocals also become more dynamic in the chorus, featuring layers of both "open-throated" singing and monotone lyric recitation, as well as both processed and unprocessed vocals.

Many of the lyrics suggest new anticipations and appetites ("I'm ready for what's next"), as well as a willingness to throw caution to the wind and take risks ("I'm ready for the laughing gas… "I'm ready to let go of the steering wheel"). Some of the lyrics, particularly those in the bridge before the final chorus, use the eponymous subway station as a metaphor for time: "Time is a train" / "Makes the future the past" / "Leaves you standing in the station" / "Your face pressed up against the glass". Bono cites the enjoyment of his first child born in 1989 as a major influence on Achtung Baby, as was his wife's second pregnancy during the album's 1991 recording. Bono says babies influenced the lines within "Zoo Station", "I'm ready, to say I'm glad to be alive" / "I'm ready, I'm ready for the push…"

Reception

"Zoo Station" was not released as a single, yet became a radio success in the United States, reaching the top spot on the mainstream rock charts and No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

The song was featured in the 2002 film About a Boy.

Live performances

On the Zoo TV Tour, "Zoo Station" opened every concert except for one show. "Zoo Station" was not played during the PopMart and Elevation Tours. It was played on the Vertigo Tour. It appears on the video releases Zoo TV: Live from Sydney and Vertigo 2005: Live from Chicago. A live version of "Zoo Station" from the Vertigo Tour also appears as a b-side on the maxi single for "Window in the Skies."

References

General

Notes