"I Walk" - Grönemeyer
Album
U2 Related Content:
- "Mensch" (Studio Version) - Grönemeyer featuring Bono (04:32)
Full Track Listing:
- Mensch (4:32)
- All That I Need (3:52)
- Will I Ever Learn (feat. Antony Hegarty) (3:50)
- Keep Hurting Me (3:02)
- To the Sea (feat. James Dean Bradfield) (5:17)
- Because of You (3:54)
- Before the Morning (3:49)
- I Walk (3:34)
- Airplanes in My Head (4:31)
- Behind the Glass (4:04)
- Same Old Boys (3:20)
- The Tunnel (4:36)
- Mensch (featuring Bono) (4:32)
Background Information
In 2007, Bono joined Herbert Grönemeyer onstage in Rostock Germany to perform Grönemeyer’s 2002 song “Mensch” at an anti-poverty concert. In August 2012, Bono would once again join Grönemeyer on stage to sing the same song, as well as to perform “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of”. Grönemeyer is a very popular performer in his native Germany, and has been releasing solo records there in his native language since 1979. The song “Mensch” on which Bono has guested was Grönemeyer’s first number one song in Germany when it was released in 2002 on the album of the same name. The album, “Mensch” is Germany’s biggest selling record of all time at the time of this discography writing.
In 2012 Grönemeyer released his first album in English, which featured three new recordings, and new versions of some older songs to round out the album. The working title of the album of the album was “Das English Album”. “Mensch” was re-recorded and features as the first track on the album. A second version of the English recording of “Mensch” finishes the album, this one a duet with Bono on the song. It is listed here as a bonus track and finishes the album. Grönemeyer discusses Bono coming in to record for the album, “He was here in the studio, and the really beautiful thing with Bono is that once he’s into something then he can get really focused. And he listened to the album, and he said ‘Wow! It’s so beautiful! Sounds like classics to me. May I try something out? Maybe pick two songs for me and if you like it, take it.’ And I was really, ‘Wow! What is that?! This can’t be true.’ And then he sang on ‘Mensch’, and I was completely thinking, ‘Wow, this is really kind.’ It was not that we’d been sitting down (and planning), but it’s a massive help. It’s a big door opener. Because I think no one’s waiting for this album.”
Grönemeyer calls both Bono and Anton Corbijn friends. Indeed it is Anton, a long time collaborartor with U2, who does the photography for Grönemeyer’s album. The press release sent with the single “Mensch” spoke more about the relationship between Anton, and Bono, and the song. “The pair (Bono and Grönemeyer) became close through their humanitarian work and their mutual friend, Anton Corbijn, for whom Grönemeyer financed the Ian Curtis biopic Control and scored the 2010 film The American. When the u2 front man heard that Grönemeyer was to rerecord a collection of songs in English, Bono’s immediate reaction was: “I Want to be on the album”. And so the pair recorded the opening track for “I Walk” (previous dubbed “Das English Album”) with Bono lending his vocals to the stadium-filling, powerful and heartfelt “Mensch”, testament to love, loss and redemption.”
The album was released October 8, 2012 in the UK. A release in Europe followed a few weeks later, on October 19, 2012 in Germany. It followed on February 19, 2013 for North American audiences.
Liner Notes
Mensch (Bonus Track Feat. Bono):
Recorded by John Smith & Michael Ilbert. Mixed by Michael Ilbert and Alex Silva. Featured Artist: Mensch Bonus Track (Vocals): Bono.
Music: Herbert Gronemeyer. Lyrics: Herbert Gronemeyer. Piano: Herbert Gronemeyer. Drums: Armin Ruhl. Bass: Norbert Hamm. Guitar: Jakob Hansonis. Keyboards: Alfred Kritzer. Percussion: Mark Kofi Essien.
Artwork
Photography: Anton Corbijn.