"Please" is the eleventh song from U2's 1997 album, Pop. It was released as the album's fourth single on 20 October 1997.

As with "Sunday Bloody Sunday", the song is about The Troubles in Northern Ireland. The single cover for this song features the pictures of four Northern Irish politicians — Gerry Adams, David Trimble, Ian Paisley, and John Hume (clockwise from top left). Two months before the release of the single, live versions of "Please" and three other songs from the PopMart Tour were released on the Please: PopHeart Live EP in September 1997.

Live performances[link]

This song was played live during every performance of the PopMart Tour, with an outro similar to the drumbeat to that of "Sunday Bloody Sunday." Each performance segued directly into "Where the Streets Have No Name." During the Elevation Tour, the song was initially played in electric form before being played acoustically by Bono and The Edge at about 20 different shows. The song has not been played in full since the final show of the Elevation Tour. However, it was frequently sampled along with "The Hands That Built America" during "Bullet the Blue Sky" on the Vertigo Tour.^[1] It was later sampled in the outro of I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight on the U2360 Tour to lead into the beginning of fellow Northern Ireland Troubles song Sunday Bloody Sunday.

Track listings[link]

The four live tracks were previously released in other countries on the Please: Popheart Live EP.

B-sides[link]

The "Please" singles were backed with the following B-sides:

"Dirty Day"[link]

Two remixes of "Dirty Day" from Zooropa were made for the single, both by Butch Vig and Duke Erikson.

"I'm Not Your Baby" (Skysplitter Dub)[link]

This song was recorded for the soundtrack for Wim Wenders' The End of Violence, with guest vocals by Sinéad O'Connor. The version featured here is an instrumental remix, with few differences from the original version.

"Please" and "Where the Streets Have No Name" (Live from Rotterdam)[link]

This performance was taken from the European première of the PopMart Tour on 18 July 1997 at Feijenoord Stadium, in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The middle eight in "Please" featured the drumbeat from "Sunday Bloody Sunday", and the outro, with Bono's falsetto, segued into the opening chords of "Where the Streets Have No Name", which was updated to an almost techno sound. The end of the performance included some lyrics from another song from Pop, "The Playboy Mansion".

"With or Without You" (Live from Edmonton)[link]

This performance of "With or Without You" was taken from the first leg of the PopMart Tour in June 1997, at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Canada.

"Staring at the Sun" (Live from Rotterdam)[link]

This performance of "Staring at the Sun", played by Bono and The Edge as part of an acoustic set at the PopMart concerts, was a departure from the version on the Pop album. It was a more subtle, vocal-oriented version, with only the two guitars and some harmonies during the choruses.

Alternative versions[link]

There are five versions of this song available:

• The album version, featured on Pop.
• The single version, on the single and video. This version was more similar to the live performances, with an orchestrated intro and the "Sunday Bloody Sunday" drumbeat on the middle eight. This version was recorded at the Wisseloord Studios in Hilversum, Netherlands.
• The USA edit, a special edit included on the US versions of the "Please" single CD. It is a more stripped down and shortened version of the single version. Its running time is 3 minutes, 55 seconds.
• The live performance from the 18 July 1997 concert in Rotterdam, also from the single.
• Another live performance, from the 3 December 1997 concert in Mexico City. This version appears on the Hasta la Vista Baby! album.

Videos[link]

The "Please" music video is a black-and-white concept piece by Anton Corbijn. It takes place on a street called "No Name" (a reference to the song "Where the Streets Have No Name") where a beggar is standing, with a sign saying "please" hanging from his neck. Several people pass by on their knees, until a point where this situation is reversed. The band actually does not show up for much of the video, finally making an appearance during The Edge's guitar solo. This video appears on the DVD for The Best of 1990-2000, along with the director's commentary.

Two live videos from the PopMart Tour have been released as well — one video from the PopMart: Live from Mexico City release, and one known as the "Mural Mix," (filmed in Helsinki on 9 August 1997), which was released on "The History Mix" bonus disc from The Best of 1990-2000 & B-Sides.

Charts[link]

See also[link]

• List of covers of U2 songs - Please

References[link]

Look up please in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Please may refer to:

Music[link]

• Please (Pet Shop Boys album), 1986
• Please (Matt Nathanson album), 1993
• "Please" (Toni Braxton song), 2005
• "Please" (The Kinleys song)
• "Please" (U2 song), 1997
• "Please (You Got That...)", a 1993 song by INXS
• "Please", a song by The Apples in Stereo from Velocity of Sound
• "Please", a song by Lamb from Between Darkness and Wonder
• "Please", a song by Tom McRae from The Alphabet of Hurricanes
• "Please", a song by Nine Inch Nails from The Fragile
• "Please", a song by Paul Hartnoll from The Ideal Condition
• "Please", a song by Chris Isaak from Speak of the Devil
• "Please", a song by Robin Gibb
• "Please", a song by Ludo
• "Please", a song by Staind

Other uses[link]

• Please! or Onegai, an anime series
• PLEASE, a keyword in the INTERCAL programming language

See also[link]

• "Please, Please", a song by McFly
• Please, Please, Please (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Three singers-a trio-singing a song while accompanied on a lute played by one of the singers. Das Konzert [The Concert] (c. 1490, Lorenzo Costa).

In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing. A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs. The lyrics (words) of songs are typically of a poetic, rhyming nature, though they may be religious verses or free prose.

A song may be for a solo singer, a duet, trio, or larger ensemble involving more voices. Songs with more than one voice to a part are considered choral works. Songs can be broadly divided into many different forms, depending on the criteria used. One division is between "art songs", "pop songs", and "folk songs". Other common methods of classification are by purpose (sacred vs secular), by style (dance, ballad, Lied, etc.), or by time of origin (Renaissance, Contemporary, etc.).

A song is a piece of music for accompanied or unaccompanied voice or voices or, "the act or art of singing," but the term is generally not used for large vocal forms including opera and oratorio.^[1] However, the term is, "often found in various figurative and transferred sense (e.g. for the lyrical second subject of a sonata...)."^[1] The noun "song" has the same etymological root as the verb "to sing" and the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines the word to mean "that which is sung" or "a musical composition suggestive of song." The OED also defines the word to mean "a poem" or "the musical phrases uttered by some birds, whales, and insects, typically forming a recognizable and repeated sequence and used chiefly for territorial defence or for attracting mates." ^[2]

Cultural types[link]

Art songs[link]

Art songs are songs created for performance in their own right, usually with piano accompaniment, although they can also have other types of accompaniment such as an orchestra or string quartet, and are always notated. Generally they have an identified author and composer and require voice training for acceptable performance. German-speaking communities use the term art song ("Kunstlied") to distinguish so-called "serious" compositions from folk song ("Volkslied"). The lyrics are often written by a poet or lyricist and the music separately by a composer. Art songs may be more formally complicated than popular or folk songs, though many early Lieder by the likes of Franz Schubert are in simple strophic form. They are often important to national identity.

Art songs feature in many European cultures, including but not limited to: Russian (romancy), German (Lieder), Italian (canzoni), French (mélodies), Scandinavian (sånger), Portuguese (canções), Spanish (canciones). There are also highly regarded British and American art songs in the English language. Cultures outside of Europe that have a classical music tradition, such as India, may or may not feature art songs. The accompaniment of European art songs is considered as an important part of the composition.

The art song of the period in which they originally flowered is often a duet in which the vocalist and accompanist share in interpretive importance. The pieces were most often written to be performed in a home or salon setting, although today the works enjoy popularity as concert pieces. The emergence of poetry during this era was much of what inspired the creation of these pieces by Brahms, Schumann, Schubert and other composers. These composers set poems in their native language. Many works were inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Heinrich Heine. Another method would be to write new music for each stanza to create a unique form; this was through-composed form known in German as durchkomponiert. A combination of both of these techniques in a single setting was called a modified strophic form. Often romantic art songs sharing similar elements were grouped as a song cycle.^[3]

Folk songs[link]

Folk songs are songs of often anonymous origin (or are public domain) that are transmitted orally. They are frequently a major aspect of national or cultural identity. Art songs often approach the status of folk songs when people forget who the author was. Folk songs are also frequently transmitted non-orally (that is, as sheet music), especially in the modern era. Folk songs exist in almost every culture.

Popular songs[link]

Modern popular songs are typically distributed as recordings and are played on the radio, though all other mass media that have audio capabilities are involved. Their relative popularity is inferred from commercially significant sales of recordings, ratings of stations and networks that play them, and ticket sales for concerts by the recording artists. A popular song can become a modern folk song when members of the public who learn to sing it from the recorded version teach their version to others. Popular songs may be called pop songs for short, although pop songs or pop music may instead be considered a more commercially popular genre of popular music as a whole.

See also[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Song

• Air (music)
• Animal song: bird song, whale song, zoomusicology
• Aria
• Ballad
• Canticle
• Category:Musical forms
• Hymn
• Instrumental
• Lied
• Madrigal (music)
• Song structure (popular music)
• Vocal music
• Theme song
• Poem and song
• Singing

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Marcello Sorce Keller (1984), "The Problem of Classification in Folksong Research: a Short History", Folklore, XCV, no. 1, 100- 104.

Larry Mullen, Jr.
Background information
Birth name	Lawrence Joseph Mullen, Jr.
Also known as	Larry Mullen Jr.
Born	(1961-10-31) 31 October 1961 (age 50)
Origin	Artane, Dublin, Ireland
Genres	Rock, post-punk, alternative rock
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, Actor
Instruments	Drums, percussion, vocals, synthesiser
Years active	1976–present
Associated acts	U2 Automatic Baby Passengers
Website	www.u2.com
Notable instruments
Yamaha drums & accessories, Paiste (Signature) cymbals, Pro-Mark drumsticks, and Remo drumheads.

Lawrence Joseph "Larry" Mullen, Jr. (born 31 October 1961) is an Irish musician best known as the drummer for the Irish rock band U2.^[1] He is the founder of U2, which he later described as "'The Larry Mullen Band' for about ten minutes, then Bono walked in and blew any chance I had of being in charge." He has worked on numerous side projects during his career, including a collaboration with Michael Stipe and Mike Mills of R.E.M. to form Automatic Baby in 1993 and working with bandmate Adam Clayton on the re-recording of the theme to Mission: Impossible, in 1996.^[2][3] He and U2 have won many awards, including 22 Grammy awards.^[1]

Life and career[link]

Mullen, the middle child and only son of Larry and Maureen Mullen, was born 31 October 1961 in Artane, Dublin, Ireland. Mullen began drumming in 1970, at the age of 9, under the instruction of Irish drummer Joe Bonnie and, later, Bonnie's daughter Monica.^[1] His mother died in a car accident in November 1978, two years after U2 was founded.^[4]

Before founding U2, Mullen was involved in a Dublin marching band called the Artane Boys Band (now known as the Artane Band), contributing to the martial beats common in Mullen's work, such as the song "Sunday Bloody Sunday".^[4] Mullen founded U2 in the fall of 1976 by placing a now famous notice on the Mount Temple Comprehensive School bulletin board, saying something to the effect of "drummer seeks musicians to form band."^[5] The band, originally consisting of Mullen, Paul "Bono" Hewson, David "The Edge" Evans, his brother Dik Evans, Adam Clayton, and Mullen's friends Ivan McCormick and Peter Martin, was originally known as the "Larry Mullen Band", but the name quickly changed to "Feedback", as that was one of the few musical terms they knew. Soon after the band formed, McCormick and Martin left and the band, by then known as "The Hype", was a 5-piece.^[1][3][4] Just before they won a talent contest in Limerick, Ireland, they changed their name again, for the final time, to U2. This was formally done at a farewell concert for Dik Evans, becoming the 4-piece band they are today.^[3][4]

As U2 grew more popular, Mullen added the "Junior" suffix to his name to stop confusion with his father (also Larry Mullen), who was receiving large tax bills meant for his son.^[1] Mullen is unmarried, but has lived with his girlfriend Ann Acheson for more than 30 years.^[1] They have three children, Aaron Elvis (born 1995), Ava (born 1998), and Ezra^[6] (born 2001).^[1][4] He is the first cousin of Irish actor Conor Mullen.

He is known to be the "brakes of the band",^{[clarification needed]} and prefers to let the other band members take the spotlight at interviews.^[4] Mullen has also played synthesiser or keyboards on several songs, including "United Colours" from 1995's Original Soundtracks 1, an album that Mullen has always disliked.^[4][7] Mullen loves Harley Davidson motorcycles and is a big fan of Elvis Presley. He currently lives in the Howth suburb of Dublin.

Style and techniques[link]

Mullen Jr. playing keyboards

After forming U2, Mullen’s drumming style and techniques began to evolve. In the early days of the band, his contributions to the band were often limited to fills and drum rolls, but he became more involved in the writing of the songs later, particularly in conjunction with Adam Clayton, his partner in the rhythm section, with whom he has collaborated on solo projects.^[4] When the band was first being signed to CBS Records, they refused to sign the band unless Mullen was fired.^[4] He was not, and as a result, his drumming became more integrated into the song structures. Mullen's experience as a teenager in the Artane Boys Band now known as the Artane Band, heavily contributed to the martial beat featured in many of U2's songs, helping to evoke military imagery.

Mullen typically makes heavy use of the floor tom with his right hand, often resulting in a 'tribal' rhythmic style much in evidence on certain U2 records, such as The Unforgettable Fire. Mullen is also known to use 16th notes on his hi-hat and first tom on his drum kit. He also uses tambourine hits in many U2 songs, either replacing or in sync with his snare drum. This style is used to add a layer of foundation and texture towards U2's sound. Notable songs of him using this style are "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" and "Beautiful Day".

During the recording of the album Pop in 1996, Mullen suffered from severe back problems.^[3] Recording was delayed due to surgery. When he left the hospital, he arrived back in the studio to find the rest of the band experimenting more than ever with electronic drum machines, something driven largely by guitarist The Edge's interest in dance and hip-hop music, and, given his weakness after the operation, he relented, allowing The Edge to continue using drum machines, which contributed heavily to the album's electronic feel.^[3]

Mullen has had tendinitis problems throughout his career. As a means to reduce inflammation and pain, he began to use specially designed Pro-Mark drumsticks.^[1] He uses Yamaha drums and Paiste cymbals. He was placed at # 21 in Stylus Magazine's list of the 50 Greatest Rock Drummers.^[9]

Although he occasionally plays keyboards and synthesiser in concerts, Mullen rarely sings during performances. However, he contributed backing vocals to the songs "Numb", "Get On Your Boots", "Moment of Surrender", "Elevation", "Miracle Drug", "Love and Peace or Else", "Unknown Caller", "Zoo Station" (only during Zoo TV Tour) and others. And he occasionally performed a cover version of "Dirty Old Town" on the Zoo TV Tour.

During live performances of "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight", Mullen walks around the stage, contributing to the song with a large djembe strapped around his waist.

Mullen is said to have a preternatural sense of rhythm. Brian Eno recounted that when he was working with Mullen on a U2 album, Mullen kept insisting that the click track was off and lagging behind the tracks that had already been recorded. Eno adjusted it, thinking that he was just humoring Mullen, but later found that Mullen was right and the click track had indeed been off by six milliseconds.^[10]

Solo projects[link]

Mullen has worked on many solo projects in his career, including collaborations with Maria McKee, Nanci Griffith, and U2 producer Daniel Lanois.In 1990 he co-wrote and arranged an official Republic of Ireland soccer team song `Put `em under pressure`. Mullen played drums on many of the songs on the 1995 Emmylou Harris album Wrecking Ball. Mullen, along with bandmate Adam Clayton, recorded the soundtrack to the 1996 movie of Mission: Impossible, including the theme song, whose time signature was changed from the original 5/4 time signature to an easier and more danceable 4/4 time signature.^[2] The "Theme from Mission: Impossible" reached #8 on the U.S. Billboard chart, and was nominated for a Grammy award in the "Best Pop Instrumental Performance" category.^[2][11][12] Mullen worked with producer Daniel Lanois on his album Acadie. Mullen and Clayton also collaborated with Mike Mills and Michael Stipe from R.E.M. to form the one-performance group Automatic Baby, solely for the purpose of performing the song "One" for Bill Clinton's inauguration at MTV's 1993 inaugural ball. The group's name refers to the titles of both bands' latest albums, Achtung Baby and Automatic for the People. He provided 'marimba and inspiration' on Underworld's song "Boy, Boy, Boy" from their 2007 album Oblivion with Bells.

Acting career[link]

Mullen's film debut was in a film by Phil Joanou called Entropy where he played himself alongside bandmate Bono. Mullen appeared as a thief in Man on the Train with co-star Donald Sutherland. Filmed in Orangeville, Ontario Canada, Man on the Train was released in 2011.

Kit configuration[link]

Mullen drumming in 2005.

• Paiste Signature cymbals:
  • 16" power crash
  • 17" power crash
  • 18" power crash
  • 18" full crash
  • 22" power ride
  • 14" heavy hi-hat/sound-edge hi-hat.
• Yamaha Birch Custom Absolute Nouveau drums: (Since the Elevation tour. Previously he used Yamaha's Maple Custom drums in the same sizes).
• On the video of Get On Your Boots, Larry uses a Yamaha Oak Custom, with the same sizes as the Birch Custom
  • 14"x10" rack tom
  • 16"x16" floor toms x2 (one left of the hi-hat, one right of the snare drum for the Vertigo tour). For previous tours, he used an 18"x16" floor tom to the left of the hats.
  • 14"x7" Brady Sheoak Block — primary snare drum on the Vertigo tour. For ZooTV and Elevation tours, he used a 12"x7" Sheoak block snare. For Popmart, a 14"x6.5" Jarrah block primarily. Depending on the gig, he sometimes used a 14"x6.5" Jarrah ply snare instead of the block snare.
  • 24"x16" kick drum. 22"x16" Kick on the b-stage during ZooTV only. He has not used a different kick drum on any tours since then.
  • Pro-mark 5A Japanese oak drumsticks.^[13]

Various other percussion instruments, including LP cowbells.

Awards[link]

Mullen and U2 have won more than 60 awards, including 22 Grammy awards.^[14] At the Grammy awards, the band has won "Best Rock Duo or Group with Vocal" 7 times, "Album of the Year" twice, "Record of the Year" twice, "Song of the Year" twice, and "Best Rock Album" twice.^[14]

See also[link]

• List of drummers
• List of people on stamps of Ireland
• Timeline of U2

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Larry Mullen, Jr.

• U2.com, official U2 site
• Larry Mullen Biography from @U2
• Larry Mullen, Jr. at the Internet Movie Database