One (U2 Song) - Writing, Recording, and Production

Writing, Recording, and Production

Looking for inspiration on the eve of German reunification, U2 began the recording sessions for Achtung Baby in Berlin's Hansa Studios in late 1990. However, the mood was bleak, and conflict arose within the band over their musical direction and the quality of their material. While bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. preferred a sound similar to U2's previous work, vocalist Bono and guitarist The Edge were inspired by European industrial and electronic dance music of the time and were advocating a change. The band also had difficulty in developing demos and ideas into completed songs. Bono and The Edge believed the lack of progress was the fault of the band, while Clayton and Mullen Jr. believed the problem was the song ideas. Mullen said he "thought this might be the end" of the band.

"At the instant we were recording it, I got a very strong sense of its power. We were all playing together in the big recording room, a huge, eerie ballroom full of ghosts of the war, and everything fell into place. It was a reassuring moment, when everyone finally went, 'oh great, this album has started.' It's the reason you're in a band – when the spirit descends upon you and you create something truly affecting. 'One' is an incredibly moving piece. It hits straight into the heart."

Ultimately, a breakthrough in the sessions was achieved. While jamming on a song called "Sick Puppy"—an early version of "Mysterious Ways"—the band tried different chord progressions for the bridge. The jam stopped and The Edge tried playing them alone on an acoustic guitar, as "everyone was trying to decide if they were any good." At the suggestion of producer Daniel Lanois, The Edge played the separate sections sequentially. The band liked the way it flowed and decided to try and play it together. Speaking of the improvisation, The Edge said, "suddenly something very powerful happening in the room." He added, "Everyone recognized it was a special piece. It was like we'd caught a glimpse of what the song could be." Soon afterwards, the band had developed the piece of music into "One". Bono recalls that "the melody, the structure—the whole thing was done in 15 minutes". He also stated that the lyrics "just fell out of the sky, a gift"; the concept was inspired by the band members' fracturing relationships, the German reunification, and Bono's skepticism of the hippie idea of "oneness". Bono later sent a note to the Dalai Lama declining an invitation to a festival called Oneness, incorporating a line from the song: "One—but not the same". The song's writing inspired the band and changed their outlook on the recording sessions. Mullen Jr. said the song reaffirmed the band's "blank page approach" to recording and reassured the band that all was not lost.

Following the song's initial improvisation, tapes of the recording sessions were delivered to assisting producer Brian Eno in order to gather his input; Eno spent extended periods of time away from the sessions before visiting to review songs, and he believed that distancing himself from the work allowed him to provide the band with a fresh perspective on their material each time he rejoined them. The band were rather anxious about the quality of their material, but when Eno arrived in Berlin, they were surprised to hear that he liked most of the tapes. However, as Bono recalls, Eno said, "There's just one song I really despise, and that's 'One'." Eno felt that they needed to deconstruct the song.

The band returned to Dublin in 1991 to record at the "Elsinore" mansion on the Dalkey coastline. The band continued to work on the song there, adding various overdubs, but not finding a mix they were satisfied with. The Edge thought that they had the foundation for the song, but that it needed "foreground". Eno interceded, explaining to the group that "One" was among the sessions' tracks in which "The song has gone, whatever it is you liked about this song is not there anymore", and that the track had "disappeared under layers of overdubs". He created his own mix, which gave the band a better idea of an arrangement they liked. Eno wanted the band to remove the melancholy elements of the song and persuaded them to remove the acoustic guitar from the song. He also worked with Lanois and The Edge to "undermine the 'too beautiful' feeling", which is why they added the "crying guitar parts that have an aggression to them".

Flood, the sessions' engineer, was unconvinced by the song's mix, saying he "was the nagging doubter. I always felt it was a bit straight, until we did the final mix." The final mix was completed at Windmill Lane Studios in September 1991 on the last night of the album's recording sessions, when some last minute additions were made. Bono did not like a line in the vocals and spent most of the day re-recording it. Later, after the song's mix had just been completed by the production team, The Edge came up with a guitar part he wanted to add to the song's end near the lyric "Love is a temple". After convincing the production team to allow the addition, The Edge played the part once and had it mixed in ten minutes later.