Native Son

Originally posted by Wikipedia
"Native Son"
During the Atomic Bomb recording sessions, "Vertigo" was originally recorded as a song called "Native Son" with a similar riff and bassline. "Native Son" is about a native man who was against his country due to his lack of freedoms, originally inspired by Leonard Peltier. It was later rewritten into "Vertigo," which appears on the album. At 3:08 long, "Native Son" is just a few seconds short of the run time of "Vertigo." The track "Native Son" has since been released on the digital album Unreleased and Rare, which is only available through purchasing the entire digital box set, The Complete U2

Originally posted by Rolling
How would you describe your first set of lyrics to "Vertigo"? Originally, it was called "Native Son" -- a reference to the jailed American Indian activist Leonard Peltier.

It was a new-journalism approach. I don't think this man should be in prison. But the song just didn't change the molecules in the room. We made the mistake of sending "Native Son" to Interscope, because we were jumping up and down over it at first. And they started jumping up and down. And then we sort of stopped. It wasn't as good as we thought.

Originally posted by [url=http://www.macphisto.net/article672.htmlMacphisto.net[/url]]
Knowing that a strong first single was U2's greatest concern, Lillywhite, 49, who has produced the band on and off since 1980, decided to re-record a promising track called Native Son. He set the group up in a Dublin warehouse to get a martial drum sound reminiscent of its early days and persuaded the Edge to "stop worrying about the fine line between White Stripes and Whitesnake"--or between art rock and arena rock — and just let loose. When the music started to smolder, Bono grabbed a microphone. "He was awful," says Lillywhite. "The song was all about gun control — an extension of his political beliefs. Bono doesn't try that kind of thing much anymore, but when he does, you can feel the ambivalence from the band, and so can he. They want the rock star." Native Son was rewritten, stripped of politics and retitled Vertigo. Gradually, it emerged as the most rousing — and ironically, seemingly effortless — opener of U2's career.

Originally posted by germcevoynice one Dan. Download 2005-06-10 - Brussels to hear the only 'snippet' of Native Son. Edge plays the opening notes before ripping into Vertigo

Originally posted by JohnnyVOXXnice post Dan!
congrats!!! and cheers for other 3000 posts more!!

Originally posted by MWSAHCongrats! Nice post and a song which should have been on the album. I think it's way better than Vertigo..honestly.

Originally posted by djrlewis[..]

Cheers Casper

I've just added a little more from Macphisto.net. The whole article makes for interesting reading as to why they changed it to Vertigo.

I do really like it but I really like Vertigo too. Not sure which side I ultimately fall, It depends on the day!

Originally posted by MWSAH[..]
I just saw your Song of the Week, haha

Originally posted by U2sBiggestFanthank for the post Dan

was'nt ther a 3rd version of this song called something like Shark Soup

Originally posted by someThis song was first called Full Metal Jacket and also Shark Soup, it could have had different lyrics