Exit (song)
Encyclopedia
"Exit" is a song by rock
band U2
. It is the tenth track on their 1987 album The Joshua Tree
. "Exit" originated as a lengthy jam in The Joshua Tree sessions, which was edited from a single take. The lyrics, which portray the mind of a serial killer, were inspired by lead singer Bono
's reading of Norman Mailer
's 1980 novel The Executioner's Song
, and other related works. In his trial for the murder of Rebecca Schaeffer
, Robert John Bardo
used "Exit" as part of his defence, claiming the song had influenced his actions.
"Exit" was frequently played live on The Joshua Tree Tour, but has been performed on just one occasion since then. Live performances are depicted in the 1988 film Rattle and Hum
and the 2007 video and live album Live from Paris.
. It developed from a full band jam, of which a single take was made and recorded. Bassist Adam Clayton
noted that the result was "quite a long piece", which producer Brian Eno
edited it down to the end length. Guitarist The Edge
said "it started off as an exercise in playing together with a kind of mood and a place in mind. And it really, for me, it brought me there, it really did succeed as an experiment." Producer Daniel Lanois
said "There's something that happens when U2 bash it out in the band room... and sometimes things get out of control, sonically, in a good way. Out of control in the sense that you don't know what it is anymore, it just takes on a life of its own, and it makes people do things." Speaking of the jam, he noted "it was a long jam, and there was just this one section of it that had some kind of magic to it, and we just decided to turn it into something."
The lyrics were inspired by Norman Mailer
's 1980 Pulitzer Prize
-winning novel The Executioner's Song
, written about serial killer Gary Gilmore
, and by Truman Capote
's 1966 novel In Cold Blood
. Lead singer Bono
had read both novels and wanted to try and write "a story in the mind of a killer". Further reading of Flannery O'Connor
and Raymond Carver
caused him to try and understand "the ordinary stock first and then the outsiders, the driftwood — those on the fringes of the promised land, cut off from the American dream." Bono described the lyrics as "just a short story really, except I left out a few of the verses because I liked it as a sketch. It's just about a guy who gets an idea into his head. He picks it up off a preacher on the radio or something and goes out...". He noted that, although 30 songs were in contention for inclusion on the album, he "wanted a song with that sense of violence in it, especially before 'Mothers of the Disappeared
'."
at a tempo
of 120 beats per minute.
"Exit" portrays the mind of a psychotic killer. Hot Press
editor Niall Stokes
stated the song "trawls the area occupied by either or both [Gilmore and Manson
], getting inside the head of a protagonist who's careening into psychosis." He added that the point of "Exit" was "to convey the state of mind of someone driven, by whatever powerful urges, to the very brink of desperation." Stokes felt that "the undercurrent of religious imagery" in the song was a response to "the fanaticism implicit in faith", and that the song allowed U2 to "[purge their] own demons, their own anger and fury at the vicissitudes fate had thrust upon them. Another Hot Press contributor, Bill Graham, said "Exit" allowed U2 to "finally confess their gradual recognition of the Anti-Christ in everybody."
Clayton said the line "He saw the hands that build could also pull down" was a jab at the US government's conflicting roles in international relations. Two songs from The Joshua Tree, "Bullet the Blue Sky
" and "Mothers of the Disappeared", focused on the foreign policy of the United States. In describing "Exit", Bono said "It is all very well to address America and the violence that is an aggressive foreign policy but to really understand that you have to get under the skin of your own darkness, the violence we all contain within us. Violence is something I have quite a bit about. I have a side of me which, in a corner, can be very violent. It's the least attractive thing in anyone and I wanted to own up to that."
Don McLeese of the Chicago Sun-Times
believed "Exit" "[suggests] the evil that can result from moral self-righteousness." Music journalist Bill Graham wrote "For the first time, [Bono] was owning up to the dangers of the dualism implicit in Christianity", comparing the song's spiritual and musical tone to that of the Virgin Prunes
. David Werther, a faculty associate in Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
, compared "Exit" with U2's 1991 song "Until the End of the World
" in an examination of the role music can play in catharsis
. He noted that both were powerful songs, but that while "Until the End of the World" allowed the possibility of purification, which he described as the cleansing of the soul "through pity and fear", by placing the listener in the position of Judas Iscariot
, "Exit" was an example of purgation, a freeing from excess pity and fear. Werther noted "'Exit' evokes feelings of fear, fear of losing control, giving into one's dark side, perhaps even taking one's life", contrasting it to the "waves of regret" experienced by Judas.
described the song as a "decidedly scary... guitar-driven barrage". Divina Infusino of the The San Diego Union-Tribune
described it as "blistering". Tony Perry of The Patriot-News
felt it was one of the low points of the album, stating "'Exit'... crescendoes into little more than noise", a sentiment echoed by Lennox Samuels of The Dallas Morning News
who called it "a dull piece". Writing for the Orange County Registrar, Jim Washburn and Noel Davis called it "a journey through a killer's mind, made harrowing not so much by Hewson's creepy-religo lyrics as by the band's (still The Edge, drummer Larry Mullen and bassist Adam Clayton) overdriven backing, which practically boils right out of the pot." Thom Duffy of the Orlando Sentinel
labelled the song's atmosphere "eerie".
Richard Harrington of The Washington Post
called it "metaphorically ambivalent". Barbara Jaeger of The Bergen Record
called Clayton's bassline "ominous". Stokes described it as "the antithesis of [U2's] bright, ringing, optimistic, inspirational selves, it was dirty, loud, discordant, repetitive, noisy, black. If the intention was to invoke a sense of evil abroad, then it was effective". Graham said "'Exit' should have exploded the myth of U2 as the nice guys of rock. Never had they shown such a vicious streak or produced such a withering track.... Far more than even 'Bullet the Blue Sky', [The Edge's] playing is scratching at the prison bars of polished good taste", describing it as the wild card of the album. Author John Luerssen contrasted it to the rest of the band's catalogue, saying "Unlike most of the songs U2 had written up to this point, 'Exit' lacked any optimism." Hot Press contributor Colm O'Hare felt the claims by Bardo evoked memories of Charles Manson
's use of "Helter Skelter", and contained "even more sinister shades" of the death of John Lennon. In Rolling Stone
, Steve Pond argued it was "awkward enough to remind you that not even Patti Smith
could regularly pull off this sort of thing."
Although "Exit" was not released as a single it charted in the Netherlands
, peaking at number 46 after two weeks.
song "Gloria", which was written by Van Morrison
Following the conclusion of the Joshua Tree Tour, U2 performed "Exit" on only one more occasion; 14 October 1989 in Melbourne, Australia, on the Lovetown Tour
, almost two years after the previous performance of the song. In 2007, U2's manager Paul McGuinness
said that the song had been "slightly tainted" after the trial of Robert John Bardo, speculating that it had fallen out of favour with the band following the incident.
In 2006, Bono stated "When things aren't going right and I'm feeling like we're not communicating, I go through terrible things on stage." He likened his emotions on those occasions to "a big blackness", and found that performing the song helped him to purge them from his mind on some occasions. Several scenes in the 1988 film Rattle and Hum depict Bono with his arm in a sling, a result of his falling and dislocating his shoulder during a performance of "Exit" on 20 September 1987 in Washington. The concert was being filmed for the movie, and The Edge stated that "the show was not going well". Bono fell while running across the stage "in an attempt to try and get something going". Recalling the incident, Bono said "['Exit'] had taken me to some ugly place... but it was rage that caused it. That was when I realized rage is an expensive thing for your general well-being." On another occasion he said "I just want to take a bath after we do that. I just want to wash it off my skin." Graham wrote that "performances of 'Exit' would grow ever more fraught and purgative."
David Zimmerman of USA Today
believed the live performance of "Exit" helped to showcase Mullen's drumming skills, which he described as "more assertive than ever". McLeese described the live rendition as "harder, more aggressive and more explosive than much of the band's earlier music." Jon Bream of the Star Tribune
said "it galvanized the crowd in much the same way that U2 had in its legendary performances at Live Aid in 1985", believing that it helped to focus the band's energy.
A live performance of "Exit", recorded on 8 November 1987 in Denver, Colorado, appears as the fourth song in the 1988 film Rattle and Hum. Another live performance of the song, played on 4 July 1987 at the Hippodrome de Vincennes in Paris
, was broadcast live on television. It was later released on the video and live album Live from Paris in 2007.
. In 1986 he became obsessed with actress Rebecca Schaeffer
after sending her a letter. In 1989, Bardo witnessed her in a love scene in the 1989 film Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills
; he later stated "Even though nothing really happened in the movie too dirty that involved her, it still bothered me, and it just ruined this innocent image of her." He paid a private investigator to find out her home address and began to stalk her. On 18 July 1989 he travelled to Shaeffer's home and murdered her.
Dr. Park Elliott Dietz, a psychiatrist who had worked on the case of John Hinckley, Jr.
following his assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan
, was assigned to work with Bardo. He told that court that Bardo claimed "Exit" had influenced his actions. According to the Associated Press
, when the song was played in court "Bardo, who had sat motionless through the trial, sprang to life... He grinned, bobbed to the music, pounded his knee like a drum and mouthed the lyrics." Bardo was convicted of first-degree murder.
Asked if he felt responsible that one of U2's songs was used in a murder defence, Bono said "Not at all. That sounded to me like a good lawyer at work for his client. But I still feel that you have to go down those streets in your music. If that's where the subject is taking you, you have to follow. At least in the imagination. I'm not sure I want to get down there to live. I'll take a walk occasionally, and have a drink with the devil, but I'm not moving in with him." The Edge said "I think it is very heavy. It gets back to self-censorship. Should any artist hold back from putting out something because he's afraid of what somebody else might do as a result of his work? I would hate to see censorship come in, whether from the government or, from my point of view, personal."
Technical
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
. It is the tenth track on their 1987 album The Joshua Tree
The Joshua Tree
The Joshua Tree is the fifth studio album by rock band U2. It was produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, and was released on 9 March 1987 on Island Records. In contrast to the ambient experimentation of their 1984 release The Unforgettable Fire, U2 aimed for a harder-hitting sound on The Joshua...
. "Exit" originated as a lengthy jam in The Joshua Tree sessions, which was edited from a single take. The lyrics, which portray the mind of a serial killer, were inspired by lead singer Bono
Bono
Paul David Hewson , most commonly known by his stage name Bono , is an Irish singer, musician, and humanitarian best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his...
's reading of Norman Mailer
Norman Mailer
Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
's 1980 novel The Executioner's Song
The Executioner's Song
The Executioner's Song is a 1980 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Norman Mailer that depicts the events surrounding the execution of Gary Gilmore by the state of Utah for murder. The title of the book may be a play on "The Lord High Executioner's Song" from Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado...
, and other related works. In his trial for the murder of Rebecca Schaeffer
Rebecca Schaeffer
Rebecca Lucile Schaeffer was an American actress best known for her role in the sitcom My Sister Sam...
, Robert John Bardo
Robert John Bardo
Robert John Bardo is an American man serving life imprisonment without parole after being convicted in October 1991 for the murder of actress Rebecca Schaeffer on July 18, 1989, whom he had stalked for several years beforehand....
used "Exit" as part of his defence, claiming the song had influenced his actions.
"Exit" was frequently played live on The Joshua Tree Tour, but has been performed on just one occasion since then. Live performances are depicted in the 1988 film Rattle and Hum
Rattle and Hum
Rattle and Hum is the sixth studio album by rock band U2 and companion rockumentary directed by Phil Joanou, both released in 1988. The film and the album feature live recordings, covers, and new songs...
and the 2007 video and live album Live from Paris.
Writing and recording
"Exit" was created on the final day of recording for The Joshua TreeThe Joshua Tree
The Joshua Tree is the fifth studio album by rock band U2. It was produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, and was released on 9 March 1987 on Island Records. In contrast to the ambient experimentation of their 1984 release The Unforgettable Fire, U2 aimed for a harder-hitting sound on The Joshua...
. It developed from a full band jam, of which a single take was made and recorded. Bassist Adam Clayton
Adam Clayton
Adam Charles Clayton is a musician, best known as the bassist of the Irish rock band U2. Clayton has resided in County Dublin since the time his family moved to Malahide when he was five years old in 1965...
noted that the result was "quite a long piece", which producer Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
edited it down to the end length. Guitarist The Edge
The Edge
David Howell Evans , more widely known by his stage name The Edge , is a musician best known as the guitarist, backing vocalist, and keyboardist of the Irish rock band U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 12 studio albums with the band and has released one solo record...
said "it started off as an exercise in playing together with a kind of mood and a place in mind. And it really, for me, it brought me there, it really did succeed as an experiment." Producer Daniel Lanois
Daniel Lanois
Daniel Lanois born September 19, 1951 in Hull, Quebec) is a Canadian record producer, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He has released a number of albums of his own work and has produced albums for a wide variety of artists, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Emmylou Harris, Willie...
said "There's something that happens when U2 bash it out in the band room... and sometimes things get out of control, sonically, in a good way. Out of control in the sense that you don't know what it is anymore, it just takes on a life of its own, and it makes people do things." Speaking of the jam, he noted "it was a long jam, and there was just this one section of it that had some kind of magic to it, and we just decided to turn it into something."
The lyrics were inspired by Norman Mailer
Norman Mailer
Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
's 1980 Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction has been awarded for distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life. It originated as the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel, which was awarded between 1918 and 1947.-1910s:...
-winning novel The Executioner's Song
The Executioner's Song
The Executioner's Song is a 1980 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Norman Mailer that depicts the events surrounding the execution of Gary Gilmore by the state of Utah for murder. The title of the book may be a play on "The Lord High Executioner's Song" from Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado...
, written about serial killer Gary Gilmore
Gary Gilmore
Gary Mark Gilmore was an American criminal, and murderer, who gained international notoriety for demanding that his own death sentence be fulfilled following two murders he committed in Utah. He became the first person executed in the United States after the U.S...
, and by Truman Capote
Truman Capote
Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...
's 1966 novel In Cold Blood
In Cold Blood
In Cold Blood is a 1966 book by Truman Capote.In Cold Blood may also refer to:* In Cold Blood , a 1967 film and 1996 miniseries, both based on the book* In Cold Blood...
. Lead singer Bono
Bono
Paul David Hewson , most commonly known by his stage name Bono , is an Irish singer, musician, and humanitarian best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his...
had read both novels and wanted to try and write "a story in the mind of a killer". Further reading of Flannery O'Connor
Flannery O'Connor
Mary Flannery O'Connor was an American novelist, short-story writer and essayist. An important voice in American literature, O'Connor wrote two novels and 32 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries...
and Raymond Carver
Raymond Carver
Raymond Clevie Carver, Jr. was an American short story writer and poet. Carver is considered a major American writer of the late 20th century and also a major force in the revitalization of the short story in the 1980s....
caused him to try and understand "the ordinary stock first and then the outsiders, the driftwood — those on the fringes of the promised land, cut off from the American dream." Bono described the lyrics as "just a short story really, except I left out a few of the verses because I liked it as a sketch. It's just about a guy who gets an idea into his head. He picks it up off a preacher on the radio or something and goes out...". He noted that, although 30 songs were in contention for inclusion on the album, he "wanted a song with that sense of violence in it, especially before 'Mothers of the Disappeared
Mothers of the Disappeared
"Mothers of the Disappeared" is a song by rock band U2. It is the eleventh and final track on their 1987 album The Joshua Tree. The song was inspired by lead singer Bono's experiences in Nicaragua and El Salvador in July 1986, following U2's involvement on Amnesty International's A Conspiracy of...
'."
Composition and theme
"Exit" runs for 4:13. It is played in common timeTime signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
at a tempo
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
of 120 beats per minute.
"Exit" portrays the mind of a psychotic killer. Hot Press
Hot Press
Hot Press is a fortnightly music and political magazine based in Dublin, Ireland founded in 1977. The magazine has been edited since its inception by Niall Stokes. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it had a circulation of 19,215 during 2007...
editor Niall Stokes
Niall Stokes
Niall Stokes is the award-winning editor of the long-running fortnightly Ireland music and political magazine Hot Press based in Dublin. He has edited the magazine since 1977. He has been a longstanding champion of Irish music, most famously U2 in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s...
stated the song "trawls the area occupied by either or both [Gilmore and Manson
Charles Manson
Charles Milles Manson is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction...
], getting inside the head of a protagonist who's careening into psychosis." He added that the point of "Exit" was "to convey the state of mind of someone driven, by whatever powerful urges, to the very brink of desperation." Stokes felt that "the undercurrent of religious imagery" in the song was a response to "the fanaticism implicit in faith", and that the song allowed U2 to "[purge their] own demons, their own anger and fury at the vicissitudes fate had thrust upon them. Another Hot Press contributor, Bill Graham, said "Exit" allowed U2 to "finally confess their gradual recognition of the Anti-Christ in everybody."
Clayton said the line "He saw the hands that build could also pull down" was a jab at the US government's conflicting roles in international relations. Two songs from The Joshua Tree, "Bullet the Blue Sky
Bullet the Blue Sky
"Bullet the Blue Sky" is the fourth track from U2's 1987 album, The Joshua Tree. The song is one of the band's most overtly politically toned songs, with live performances often being heavily critical of political conflicts and violence....
" and "Mothers of the Disappeared", focused on the foreign policy of the United States. In describing "Exit", Bono said "It is all very well to address America and the violence that is an aggressive foreign policy but to really understand that you have to get under the skin of your own darkness, the violence we all contain within us. Violence is something I have quite a bit about. I have a side of me which, in a corner, can be very violent. It's the least attractive thing in anyone and I wanted to own up to that."
Don McLeese of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
believed "Exit" "[suggests] the evil that can result from moral self-righteousness." Music journalist Bill Graham wrote "For the first time, [Bono] was owning up to the dangers of the dualism implicit in Christianity", comparing the song's spiritual and musical tone to that of the Virgin Prunes
Virgin Prunes
Virgin Prunes was an Irish gothic rock band formed in 1977. They disbanded in 1986 after the departure of Gavin Friday. The other members continued under the name The Prunes until they split up in 1990.-Career:...
. David Werther, a faculty associate in Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
, compared "Exit" with U2's 1991 song "Until the End of the World
Until the End of the World (song)
"Until the End of the World" is a song by rock band U2 and the fourth track from their 1991 album Achtung Baby. The song began as a guitar riff composed by lead vocalist Bono from a demo, which the band revisited with success after talking with German filmmaker Wim Wenders about providing music...
" in an examination of the role music can play in catharsis
Catharsis
Catharsis or katharsis is a Greek word meaning "cleansing" or "purging". It is derived from the verb καθαίρειν, kathairein, "to purify, purge," and it is related to the adjective καθαρός, katharos, "pure or clean."-Dramatic uses:...
. He noted that both were powerful songs, but that while "Until the End of the World" allowed the possibility of purification, which he described as the cleansing of the soul "through pity and fear", by placing the listener in the position of Judas Iscariot
Judas Iscariot
Judas Iscariot was, according to the New Testament, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. He is best known for his betrayal of Jesus to the hands of the chief priests for 30 pieces of silver.-Etymology:...
, "Exit" was an example of purgation, a freeing from excess pity and fear. Werther noted "'Exit' evokes feelings of fear, fear of losing control, giving into one's dark side, perhaps even taking one's life", contrasting it to the "waves of regret" experienced by Judas.
Reception
"Exit" received mixed reception from critics. Colin Hogg of The New Zealand HeraldThe New Zealand Herald
- External links :* * *...
described the song as a "decidedly scary... guitar-driven barrage". Divina Infusino of the The San Diego Union-Tribune
The San Diego Union-Tribune
-Predecessors:The predecessor newspapers of the Union-Tribune were:* San Diego Sun, founded 1861 and merged with the Evening Tribune in 1939.* San Diego Union, founded October 10, 1868.* Evening Tribune, founded December 2, 1895.-Ownership:...
described it as "blistering". Tony Perry of The Patriot-News
The Patriot-News
The Patriot-News is the largest daily newspaper serving the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania metropolitan area. In 2005, the newspaper was ranked in the top 100 in daily/Sunday circulation in the United States...
felt it was one of the low points of the album, stating "'Exit'... crescendoes into little more than noise", a sentiment echoed by Lennox Samuels of The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News is the major daily newspaper serving the Dallas, Texas area, with a circulation of 264,459 subscribers, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported in September 2010...
who called it "a dull piece". Writing for the Orange County Registrar, Jim Washburn and Noel Davis called it "a journey through a killer's mind, made harrowing not so much by Hewson's creepy-religo lyrics as by the band's (still The Edge, drummer Larry Mullen and bassist Adam Clayton) overdriven backing, which practically boils right out of the pot." Thom Duffy of the Orlando Sentinel
Orlando Sentinel
The Orlando Sentinel is the primary newspaper of the Orlando, Florida region. It was founded in 1876. The Sentinel is owned by Tribune Company and is overseen by the Chicago Tribune. As of 2005, the Sentinel’s president and publisher was Kathleen Waltz; she announced her resignation in February 2008...
labelled the song's atmosphere "eerie".
Richard Harrington of The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
called it "metaphorically ambivalent". Barbara Jaeger of The Bergen Record
The Record (Bergen County)
The Record is a newspaper in northern New Jersey. It has the second largest circulation of New Jersey's daily newspapers, behind The Star-Ledger. Owned by the Borg family since 1930, it is the flagship publication of the North Jersey Media Group. Stephen Borg is the publisher of The Record...
called Clayton's bassline "ominous". Stokes described it as "the antithesis of [U2's] bright, ringing, optimistic, inspirational selves, it was dirty, loud, discordant, repetitive, noisy, black. If the intention was to invoke a sense of evil abroad, then it was effective". Graham said "'Exit' should have exploded the myth of U2 as the nice guys of rock. Never had they shown such a vicious streak or produced such a withering track.... Far more than even 'Bullet the Blue Sky', [The Edge's] playing is scratching at the prison bars of polished good taste", describing it as the wild card of the album. Author John Luerssen contrasted it to the rest of the band's catalogue, saying "Unlike most of the songs U2 had written up to this point, 'Exit' lacked any optimism." Hot Press contributor Colm O'Hare felt the claims by Bardo evoked memories of Charles Manson
Charles Manson
Charles Milles Manson is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction...
's use of "Helter Skelter", and contained "even more sinister shades" of the death of John Lennon. In Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, Steve Pond argued it was "awkward enough to remind you that not even Patti Smith
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....
could regularly pull off this sort of thing."
Although "Exit" was not released as a single it charted in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, peaking at number 46 after two weeks.
Live performances
U2 debuted "Exit" on 8 March 1987 for a broadcast of The Old Grey Whistle Test. Bono introduced it as "a song about a religious man, a fanatic, who gets into his head the idea he calls 'the hands of love'." It was next performed on 2 April 1987 in Tempe, Arizona, during the first concert of The Joshua Tree Tour. Clayton noted that the manner in which they created the song inadvertently caused a problem for U2, saying "when you're in a touring situation you have to learn numbers that were never actually written so much as spontaneously created." "Exit" was played at all 109 concerts on the tour, and was frequently followed by a snippet of the ThemThem (band)
Them were a Northern Irish band formed in Belfast in April 1964, most prominently known for the garage rock standard "Gloria" and launching singer Van Morrison's musical career...
song "Gloria", which was written by Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
Following the conclusion of the Joshua Tree Tour, U2 performed "Exit" on only one more occasion; 14 October 1989 in Melbourne, Australia, on the Lovetown Tour
Lovetown Tour
The Lovetown Tour was a concert tour by the Irish rock band U2, which took place in late 1989 and early 1990.-Itinerary:It was limited in scope, but did try to reach places that their 1987 Joshua Tree Tour had missed, all the while avoiding the United States entirely.The tour's opening night was on...
, almost two years after the previous performance of the song. In 2007, U2's manager Paul McGuinness
Paul McGuinness
Paul McGuinness is the main shareholder and founder of Principle Management Limited: an artist management company based in Dublin, Ireland, which has managed U2 from the start of their successful career...
said that the song had been "slightly tainted" after the trial of Robert John Bardo, speculating that it had fallen out of favour with the band following the incident.
In 2006, Bono stated "When things aren't going right and I'm feeling like we're not communicating, I go through terrible things on stage." He likened his emotions on those occasions to "a big blackness", and found that performing the song helped him to purge them from his mind on some occasions. Several scenes in the 1988 film Rattle and Hum depict Bono with his arm in a sling, a result of his falling and dislocating his shoulder during a performance of "Exit" on 20 September 1987 in Washington. The concert was being filmed for the movie, and The Edge stated that "the show was not going well". Bono fell while running across the stage "in an attempt to try and get something going". Recalling the incident, Bono said "['Exit'] had taken me to some ugly place... but it was rage that caused it. That was when I realized rage is an expensive thing for your general well-being." On another occasion he said "I just want to take a bath after we do that. I just want to wash it off my skin." Graham wrote that "performances of 'Exit' would grow ever more fraught and purgative."
David Zimmerman of USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
believed the live performance of "Exit" helped to showcase Mullen's drumming skills, which he described as "more assertive than ever". McLeese described the live rendition as "harder, more aggressive and more explosive than much of the band's earlier music." Jon Bream of the Star Tribune
Star Tribune
The Star Tribune is the largest newspaper in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is published seven days each week in an edition for the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area. A statewide version is also available across Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota, and North Dakota. The...
said "it galvanized the crowd in much the same way that U2 had in its legendary performances at Live Aid in 1985", believing that it helped to focus the band's energy.
A live performance of "Exit", recorded on 8 November 1987 in Denver, Colorado, appears as the fourth song in the 1988 film Rattle and Hum. Another live performance of the song, played on 4 July 1987 at the Hippodrome de Vincennes in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, was broadcast live on television. It was later released on the video and live album Live from Paris in 2007.
Trial of Robert John Bardo
Robert John Bardo is an American from Tucson, ArizonaTucson, Arizona
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
. In 1986 he became obsessed with actress Rebecca Schaeffer
Rebecca Schaeffer
Rebecca Lucile Schaeffer was an American actress best known for her role in the sitcom My Sister Sam...
after sending her a letter. In 1989, Bardo witnessed her in a love scene in the 1989 film Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills
Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills
Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills is an American black comedy film released in 1989. Co-written and directed by Paul Bartel, Scenes re-unites Bartel with his Eating Raoul co-stars Mary Woronov and Robert Beltran...
; he later stated "Even though nothing really happened in the movie too dirty that involved her, it still bothered me, and it just ruined this innocent image of her." He paid a private investigator to find out her home address and began to stalk her. On 18 July 1989 he travelled to Shaeffer's home and murdered her.
Dr. Park Elliott Dietz, a psychiatrist who had worked on the case of John Hinckley, Jr.
John Hinckley, Jr.
John Warnock Hinckley, Jr., attempted to assassinate U.S. President Ronald Reagan in Washington, D.C., on March 30, 1981, as the culmination of an effort to impress teen actress Jodie Foster. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity and has remained under institutional psychiatric care since...
following his assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan
Reagan assassination attempt
The Reagan assassination attempt occurred on Monday, March 30, 1981, just 69 days into the presidency of Ronald Reagan. While leaving a speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., President Reagan and three others were shot and wounded by John Hinckley, Jr...
, was assigned to work with Bardo. He told that court that Bardo claimed "Exit" had influenced his actions. According to the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
, when the song was played in court "Bardo, who had sat motionless through the trial, sprang to life... He grinned, bobbed to the music, pounded his knee like a drum and mouthed the lyrics." Bardo was convicted of first-degree murder.
Asked if he felt responsible that one of U2's songs was used in a murder defence, Bono said "Not at all. That sounded to me like a good lawyer at work for his client. But I still feel that you have to go down those streets in your music. If that's where the subject is taking you, you have to follow. At least in the imagination. I'm not sure I want to get down there to live. I'll take a walk occasionally, and have a drink with the devil, but I'm not moving in with him." The Edge said "I think it is very heavy. It gets back to self-censorship. Should any artist hold back from putting out something because he's afraid of what somebody else might do as a result of his work? I would hate to see censorship come in, whether from the government or, from my point of view, personal."
Personnel
U2- BonoBonoPaul David Hewson , most commonly known by his stage name Bono , is an Irish singer, musician, and humanitarian best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his...
– lead vocalsLead vocalistThe lead vocalist is the member of a band who sings the main vocal portions of a song. They may also play one or more instruments. Lead vocalists are sometimes referred to as the frontman or frontwoman, and as such, are usually considered to be the "leader" of the groups they perform in, often the...
, guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with... - The EdgeThe EdgeDavid Howell Evans , more widely known by his stage name The Edge , is a musician best known as the guitarist, backing vocalist, and keyboardist of the Irish rock band U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 12 studio albums with the band and has released one solo record...
– guitar, backing vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists... - Adam ClaytonAdam ClaytonAdam Charles Clayton is a musician, best known as the bassist of the Irish rock band U2. Clayton has resided in County Dublin since the time his family moved to Malahide when he was five years old in 1965...
– bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - Larry Mullen Jr.Larry Mullen Jr.Lawrence Joseph "Larry" Mullen, Jr. is an Irish musician best known as the drummer for the Irish rock band U2. 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...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
Technical
- Brian EnoBrian EnoBrian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
– mixingAudio mixing (recorded music)In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may... - Flood – recordingSound recording and reproductionSound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...