I NEVER HEARD A SONG CALLED…

‘I Love You’… but we did. In Antwerp, Belgium, tonight U2 premiered an untitled, unfinished (according to Paul McGuinness) song that we’ve dubbed ‘I’ve never heard a song called ‘I Love You’. This came near the end of a surprising set, wholly deserved by the beautiful Belgian audience. Earlier in the night, U2 responded to a request from U2 Vlaanderen’s Eric, who had been lobbying (through U2s road crew) for the band to play ‘Mystery Girl’ (real audio) as a tribute to Roy Orbison, who played his last ever show in the Antwerpen Sport Paleis venue.

Listen to the audience and Bono singing Happy Birthday for The Edge, and U2’s new song with (we think) mostly improvised lyrics, caught for you on disc for you by a U2log.com editor when she wasn’t getting into fisticuffs with the most annoying VIPs in the heart this side of the universe. (Elevation-tour.com have the mp3.)

Discussing the song with the Edge just before playing it, Bono could be heard saying ‘…play the song… I’m just gonna make it up.’

Some of the lyrics: ‘Gonna make it up as I go along, gonna make it up there, as I go along, gonna make you a ribbon and turn it into song, cause I love you. And our love is true. Gonna make it up this is in my heat, gonna take the song back off of my feet, gonna make it up when I’m asleep [ … ] I love you, love you. Cause I love you, cause our love is true. When I heard your name, I knew what to say, when I took your life by the hand, never saw someone like you before, never saw someone that showed me the door, and I love you, I love you. There’s all kinds of songs that I heard growing up, but I never heard one that made the sun stop, all kinds of songs when I was growing up, but I never heard a song called ‘I Love you”