Breathe chords by U2

"Breathe" is a song by Irish rock band U2 and the tenth track on their 2009 album No Line on the Horizon. The lyrics detail an outburst from the song's narrator. The song was developed primarily by guitarist The Edge, with musical influences from Jimmy Page and Jack White. The track was mixed numerous times before the band decided to rewrite it. The song was initially developed by The Edge, with co-writer and producer Daniel Lanois noting "he had that pretty intact without our involvement." Several of the guitar riffs were influenced by Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin and Jack White of The White Stripes, who The Edge collaborated with in the 2009 film "It Might Get Loud". The band worked on one version of the song with producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois for a long time before the band scrapped and recreated it. Eno had referred to the demo version as one of his favorite U2 songs of all time. After rewriting the song, U2 asked Steve Lillywhite to mix it. Eno estimated that the song was remixed 80 times during the album sessions. Two sets of lyrics were worked on during the song's many various incarnations. The first version was about Nelson Mandela, and the second was "more surreal and personal". The band eventually decided on using the latter for the song. The song takes place on 16 June, an intentional reference to Bloomsday, the date on which the James Joyce novel Ulysses is set. When writing the lyrics, Bono wanted the song to "become more intimate... I want to get away from subject and subject matter into pure exchange. Not even conversation. Often, it's just like grunts or outbursts." He noted that on "Breathe" the listener is "right there in the middle of this outburst." During the No Line on the Horizon sessions, he developed several characters to tell the song's stories for him. The narrator within "Breathe" is one of the few of these characters who ultimately finds redemption. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.