Originally posted by WojBhoy[..]
The red guitar on fire could also be a reference to Bono's ES-335...? That was his trademark at the time...
Could be a reference to Bono's ES335 - which he was using around then...
During the Dec 27th (if memory serves) show... Bono sings... "with a red guitar... sometimes vanilla".
That night, Edge was using the yellow Clapton for Desire . He'd used the red Clapton some nights during the Aussie shows. (11/18/1989 Sydney comes to mind)
That said... it might not have referred to either of their guitars initially. Or maybe Edge had gotten the red Clapton and had been playing it in rehearsals - hence Bono writing that line?
But from my understanding, Edge used the Les Paul Custom on the studio version of Desire - even though he used the White Falcon in the R&H movie version. And I didn't remember seeing the red Clapton in any of the R&H footage. Perhaps Edge didn't get the Claptons until mid-1989 whilst getting ready for the tour - as the (3) Clapton's seemed to take the place of other Stratocasters. (old all black "Blackie", the Danvel Nelson seen used for "...Streets..." in R&H...)