Under a Blood Red Sky

History

The album consists of live recordings from three shows on the band's War Tour, from Colorado and Boston in the US and from Germany.

An accompanying concert video entitled U2 Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky was released the following year. Unlike the album, the film was recorded entirely at the outdoor Red Rocks Amphitheatre on 5 June 1983. The band's performance of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" from the film has been cited as one of Rolling Stone's "50 Moments that Changed the History of Rock and Roll."

The title is taken from the lyrics of the song "New Year's Day", originally released on U2's War album.

The album was re-released on 29 September 2008 as a remastered CD with a DVD of the Red Rocks concert.

Track listing

All tracks written by U2, with lyrics by Bono.

Notes
During the performance of "The Electric Co.", Bono included a 27-second snippet of Stephen Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns". When Under a Blood Red Sky was released, U2 failed to get permission and pay the appropriate licensing and royalty fees to include that piece of Sondheim's tune on the album. When Sondheim objected, U2 agreed to pay a $50,000 (US) penalty for the unauthorized use and to press all future releases with a new version that did not include the snippet.

Essentially, there are now two versions of the vinyl album: the original with the full "The Electric Co." running 5:18 and the edited version which runs 4:51. However, the various CDs pressed around the world all vary in the versions of the song that are included.

Personnel