"The Ground Beneath Her Feet"
Cover of the US promotional single
Song by U2 with Daniel Lanois
from the album The Million Dollar Hotel: Music from the Motion Picture
Released8 February 2000
GenreRock
Length3:44
LabelIsland / Interscope
Composer(s)U2
Lyricist(s)Salman Rushdie
Producer(s)Daniel Lanois, Brian Eno

"The Ground Beneath Her Feet" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It appears in the 2000 film The Million Dollar Hotel, which was produced by U2 lead vocalist Bono, and the song was included on the film's soundtrack. Author Salman Rushdie is credited as the lyricist, as the words are taken from his 1999 book The Ground Beneath Her Feet. Written during the recording sessions for U2's album All That You Can't Leave Behind (2000), the song features Daniel Lanois, who played pedal steel guitar. A different mix from the soundtrack version appears in the film. "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" was released as a promotional single in February 2000, reaching number two on the US Billboard Adult Alternative Songs chart, number 22 in Canada, and number one in Iceland.

Writing

Author Salman Rushdie's novel The Ground Beneath Her Feet contains lyrics for a song of the same name. In the novel, the fictional character Ormus Cama writes the lyrics as a lamentation for his lover, Vina Apsara.[1] After completing the novel, Rushdie sent a copy of the manuscript to U2 lead vocalist Bono and asked him to set the song lyrics to music.[2][3] According to Bono, he developed the song's melody as soon as he first read the lyrics. During a dinner break in the recording sessions for U2's album All That You Can't Leave Behind (2000), Bono and producer Daniel Lanois remained in the studio and recorded a version of the song. Bono said, "I sang the melody and it was all there." Lanois said: "It's a lovely song to sing with just an acoustic guitar. That's the mark of a good song, isn't it? That's probably the way the song should have been presented." Lanois played pedal steel guitar on the song, and guitarist the Edge added a guitar riff.[4] U2 manager Paul McGuinness confirmed in January 1999 that a demo of the song had been recorded and that the group were hoping to release it.[2] In an April 1999 issue of Rolling Stone, the Edge said: "The bones of it are there, but we're still in development. We're very excited about it."[5]

Ultimately, the rest of the band were unconvinced by the song. They pejoratively called it a "salad" (the group's term for a ballad) and questioned whether they needed another one for All That You Can't Leave Behind.[4] The Edge said the song seemed unnecessary because the band "already had so many great ballads".[6] Bono subsequently received permission to use the song for The Million Dollar Hotel, a motion picture he was producing.[4] The Edge thought it was the perfect use for the track, since it was not intended for U2's pending record.[6]

Rushdie, himself, was very pleased with the song, claiming it had "some of the most beautiful melodies [Bono] had ever come up with." In reference to the song, Rushdie said, "So I always knew, you know, that it wasn't going to be an uptempo foot-tapper, because it's a sad song. I think it sounds like, I hope, one of those big U2 ballads for which Bono's voice, actually, is beautifully well suited."[7] U2 uses Rushdie's lyrics almost word for word, except for omitting the following line:

She was my ground, my favorite sound, my country road, my city street, my sky above, my only love, and the ground beneath my feet.[1]

Promotion and releases

McGuinness said that there was interest in releasing the song to promote Rushdie's novel, well before the completion of All That You Can't Leave Behind; one plan called for the song to be published online to coincide with the 13 April 1999 release of the novel as a promotional tie-in.[2] The song debuted in a performance by Bono and the Edge on a Rushdie-centric episode of the BBC television series Arena that aired on 22 April 1999.[8]

After completion of The Million Dollar Hotel, Bono wanted to release the song as a single to promote the film.[9] Accordingly, a music video was created, directed by the film's director Wim Wenders. The video was shot in one day in the Sandyford Mountains near Dublin, Ireland; Wenders used a Sony CineAlta HDW-F900 digital video camera at 24 frames per second with specially developed lenses by Panavision and captured it on the HDCAM format.[6][10]

Plans for a single release changed after Island Records president Marc Marot viewed The Million Dollar Hotel.[9] He thought the film was poor and recounted the uncomfortable experience of sitting next to Bono in a Dublin theatre having to give his opinion. Marot told McGuinness, "You shouldn't go anywhere near it." He offered to include "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" on the film's soundtrack but advocated not releasing the single to avoid drawing attention to a film that he thought would not do well, telling Bono, "it will cause you embarrassment". Ultimately, no single was commercially released.[6]

After the song's release on the film's soundtrack, U2 hoped to feature the song on their newest album, All That You Can't Leave Behind, but instead the song was only released as a bonus track on the United Kingdom, Australian and Japanese releases of the album.

Reception

Steve Matteo of Newsday called the song "a haunting track of rousing, visceral majesty that can stand alongside anything U2 has recorded".[11] Rob Brunner of Entertainment Weekly rated the song a C+, calling it "so ordinary" and saying, "Eno's sonic atmosphere can't conceal a serious lack of melodic substance."[12]

Track listing

US promotional release
No.TitleLength
1."The Ground Beneath Her Feet"3:44
UK promotional release
No.TitleLength
1."The Ground Beneath Her Feet"3:44
2."The Million Dollar Hotel Trailer" (video) 

Personnel

U2

Additional performers

Production

Charts

Mnemonic version

Members of the London band Mnemonic Richard Das and Jonathan Skipp had heard Bono and the Edge perform a verse of this song as they were writing it for the upcoming film The Million Dollar Hotel on a television program in September 1999 and then interpolated verses and chorus from the Salman Rushdie book The Ground Beneath Her Feet to complete their own version of the song. Band members contributed their parts and a final version was mixed and completed in December 1999.

The band released it free on the internet downloadable from mnemonicgroove.com in January 2000 before the official U2 version (released on 8 February 2000). Hits on the Mnemonic band website at one point peaked at 97,000+ for one day for the download.

The news of their version of the song spread to global news agencies and this was widely reported on various media and a feature on the band was done by The Straits Times.[20] The release of their version of the song as free downloadable media prompted a "surprisingly favourable" response from the Edge.[21]

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b Rushdie, Salman (2000-03-16) [1999-04-13]. The Ground Beneath Her Feet (paperback ed.). Picador. p. 523. ISBN 0-312-25499-7.
  2. ^ a b c Glaister, Dan (22 January 1999). "After the Satanic Verses, the romantic lyrics". The Guardian. p. 1.
  3. ^ Kaplan, Fred (15 April 1999). "Rushdie Rocks Out". The Boston Globe. p. E1.
  4. ^ a b c Stokes (2005), p. 143
  5. ^ Hendrickson, Matt (1 April 1999). "U2 by the book". Rolling Stone. No. 809. p. 29.
  6. ^ a b c d McGee (2008), pp. 217–218
  7. ^ "The Ground Beneath Her Feet". B-Sides & Other Non-Album Tracks. Threesunrises.net. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-04-03.
  8. ^ Rampton, James (17 April 1999). "Music to his ears". The Independent. sec. Features, p. 45. Archived from the original on 2022-06-18. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  9. ^ a b Jobling (2014), p. 271
  10. ^ "Director Wim Wenders Produces 'The Ground Beneath Her Feet' in Sony CineAlta; Sony HDW-F900 Camcorder Used to Capture Stunning 24P Digital Images for New Music Production" (Press release). Business Wire. 9 April 2000.
  11. ^ Matteo, Steve (5 May 2000). "On the Record: A Grand 'Hotel' Soundtrack By Million-Dollar Talent". Newsday. p. D27.
  12. ^ Brunner, Rob (10 March 2000). "The Week: Music". Entertainment Weekly. No. 530. pp. 70–71. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  13. ^ "Top RPM Singles: Issue 9775." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  14. ^ "Top RPM Rock/Alternative Tracks: Issue 9767." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  15. ^ "Íslenski Listinn Topp 20 (16.3– 23.3 2000)". Dagblaðið Vísir (in Icelandic). 24 March 2000. p. 12. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  16. ^ "U2 Chart History (Adult Alternative Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  17. ^ "U2 Chart History (Alternative Airplay)". Billboard. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  18. ^ "Íslenski Listinn Topp 100". Dagblaðið Vísir (in Icelandic). 5 January 2001. p. 10. Retrieved 8 February 2020.
  19. ^ "The Best of 2000: Most Played Triple-A Songs". Airplay Monitor. Vol. 8, no. 51. 22 December 2000. p. 44.
  20. ^ "Singapore Band Beat Irish To The Punch". The Straits Times. 18 January 2000.
  21. ^ Gittins, Ian (2003). U2: The Best of Propaganda: 20 Years of the Official U2 Magazine. Thunder's Mouth Press. ISBN 1-56025-487-4.

Bibliography

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