"Back the Way We Came: Vol. 1" - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
Compilation Album
U2 Related Tracks (Main Film):
- "Blue Moon Rising" (Studio Version) - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds (ft. Bono) (03:43)
- "Blue Moon Rising" (Sons of the Desert Remix) - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds (07:05)
Full Track Listing (Cassette, 2xVinyl, 2xCD Outside of Japan):
- Everybody’s on the Run
- The Death of You And Me
- Aka…What A Life!
- If I Had a Gun
- In the Heat of the Moment
- Riverman
- Lock all the Doors
- The Dying of the Light
- Ballad of the Mighty I
- We’re on our Way Now
- Black Star Dancing
- Holy Mountain
- A Dream is All I Need to Get By
- This is the Place
- It’s a Beautiful World
- Blue Moon Rising
- Dead in the Water (Live at the RTÉ 2FM Studios, Dublin)
- Flying on the Ground
Bonus Tracks (Japan 2xCD):
- Everybody’s on the Run (Fuji Rock Festival ’12)
- Dream On (Fuji Rock Festival ’12)
- If I Had A Gun (Fuji Rock Festival ’12)
Bonus Tracks (3xCD Version):
- It’s A Beautiful World (Instrumental)
- If I Had A Gun (Acoustic Version)
- Black Star Dancing (Skeleton Key Remix)
- Black Star Dancing (12-Inch Mix Instrumental)
- The Man Who Built the Moon (Acoustic Version)
- International Magic (Demo)
- Blue Moon Rising (Songs of the Desert Remix)
- The Dying of the Light (Acoustic Version)
- This is the Place (Skeleton Key Remix)
- This is the Place (Instrumental)
- Black Star Dancing (The Reflex Revision)
- Be Careful What You Wish For (Instrumental)
Background Information
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds have collected together many of their bigger songs for this collection titled, Back the Way We Came: Vol. 1 released on July 11, 2021. The tracks include “Blue Moon Rising” which is a track to which Bono has contributed vocal sounds. When the song was initially released as a standalone EP in 2020 Bono was not credited on the song, but here on this compilation it lists, “instruments are by Noel Gallagher, except drums by Jeremy Stacey, and backing vocals by PDH.” (PDH = Paul David Hewson, aka Bono) Noel also writes in the liner notes for the album, “The bit in the solo section that has become known as ‘The Kate Bush Bit’ is actually the singer from U2 singing it down the phone in his kitchen!!” Bono’s vocals consist of a series of noises in the background of the song.
The album was released in multiple formats on July 11, 2021. This included cassette, two disc vinyl editions in black vinyl and in a picture disc format, and the wide release of the album in a two CD edition. In Japan the two CD edition included two extra bonus tracks. Also of interest to U2 fans will be “It’s A Beautiful World” which U2 used nightly on the eXPERIENCE + iNNOCENCE tour in 2018 to open their concerts.On Record Store Day, July 12, 2021, a limited and numbered black and yellow vinyl version of the album was released.
A special three CD version of the album contains a bonus disc of remixes, instrumentals and demos. Included among these remixes is “Blue Moon Rising” (Sons of the Desert Remix). Although Bono can clearly be heard on the original version of the song, it is more difficult to hear him on this remix.
“Blue Moon Rising“ was initially released as a stand alone EP in March 2020, which included three mixes of the track. A promotional video was released for the song, but the video does not feature Bono. The video was released on January 30, 2020, ahead of the release of the full EP. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds toured extensively with U2 in 2017 and again in 2019 on the anniversary tour for The Joshua Tree.