Trivia / Achtung Baby

• Referenced by...:
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable features a Stand named Achtung Baby, which allows its user to turn invisible. Doubles as a Punny Name in that its user is literally a baby.
  • "Achtung, baby!" is the Character Catchphrase of Klavier Gavin, the main prosecutor of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. While one could say that this is a reference to the original source material of The Producers, it's worth noting that Klavier is also a guitarist.
• Refitted for Sequel: "Down All the Days", added later in the Achtung Baby reissues, was later reworked as "Numb" for Zooropa, replacing the more soulful approach with The Edge's more spoken monotone.
• Troubled Production: The album was recorded at first in Berlin's famous Hansa Ton Studios (formerly Hansa By The Wall, what with them being right next to the Berlin Wall) starting in October 1990 (in fact, the band caught the last flight to East Berlin, days before reunification), at the same time that an intra-band conflict started up: Bono and The Edge, burned by the poor reception of Rattle and Hum and their own Creator Backlash, wanted to go in a cyberpunk-industrial-electro-alternative-rock direction, inspired by the contemporary growth of the Alternative Rock, Shoegazing and Madchester scenes. Larry and Adam, on the other hand, wanted to keep the "old U2" sound. Hoping that they would be inspired by the post-Cold-War-ending euphoria, the band instead found the mood in Germany something of a malaise and their hotel really poor, not to mention the "bad vibe" of recording in what had formerly been an SS ballroom, and their producers being forced to import recording equipment due to the studio being long neglected. Cue lots of arguments, fruitless jamming and little tangible progress despite the aid of producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, and Mullen admitted that the band came close to breaking up in the process. The turning point came as the band was jamming on an early version of "Mysterious Ways" and The Edge tried various chord progressions for the bridge. At Lanois' suggestion, the jam stopped and The Edge instead played the various attempts sequentially on an acoustic guitar. The result was something of an epiphany for the band, and they ended up writing "One". They decamped back to Ireland with the tapes in February 1991, and realised that the sessions had gone better than they'd imagined, and continued recording in a mansion in Elsinore nicknamed "Dog Town", which provided a more relaxed environment. Despite speedbumps like the band's confidence being affected by the Berlin sessions being stolen and bootlegged in April, and Eno intervening at one point to strip away excessive overdubbing (something the band credit with saving the album) and convincing them to take a two-week holiday a month before the deadline to regain focus, the band sorted everything out eventually, continuing to record and mix at a hectic pace until the label-imposed deadline of 21 September (including last-minute changes to "The Fly", "One" and "Mysterious Ways"; The Edge said he believes half of the work was done in the last three weeks to finalise the songs). The result? Only one of the most critically and commercially successful New Sound Albums that revitalised the band's career and still remains one of their most beloved albums.

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