MLK (song)

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“MLK”
Song by U2
Album	The Unforgettable Fire
Released	1 October 1984
Genre	Rock
Length	2:32
Label	Island Records
Producer	Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois
The Unforgettable Fire track listing
"Elvis Presley and America" (9) “MLK” (10)

"MLK" is the tenth and final track of U2's 1984 album, The Unforgettable Fire. A lullaby to honor Martin Luther King, Jr., it is a short, pensive piece with simple lyrics.

Its live debut was on 18 October 1984 as an intro to "The Unforgettable Fire", and the two songs were performed together at almost all Unforgettable Fire Tour shows and most Joshua Tree Tour shows. However, by the end of the Joshua Tree Tour, the band started to use "MLK" to precede other songs, especially "One Tree Hill", and it continued in this capacity on the Lovetown Tour. It failed to appear on the Zoo TV Tour but returned to the setlist on the PopMart Tour, especially after the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales and Michael Hutchence. It went into another hiatus after PopMart, missing the entire Elevation Tour, but was notably performed as the intro to "Where the Streets Have No Name" at U2's appearance during the Super Bowl halftime show in 2002. After the death of Rosa Parks, it made five Vertigo Tour appearances; in all five instances, it was sung after "One" to conclude the main set.

It was because of this song, along with "Pride (In the Name of Love)", another tribute to King, Jr., that earned Bono the highest honor of the King Center, an organization founded by Coretta Scott King.

Because of the extreme similarity between the closing of "MLK" and the introduction of "Where the Streets Have No Name", the opening track of the following album The Joshua Tree, some fans have speculated that this is a deliberate method of linking the two albums.

"MLK" was director Richard Kelly's original choice for the soundtrack to the final sequence of Donnie Darko. After difficulties licensing the song, it was decided to use Gary Jules' rendition of the Tears for Fears song "Mad World" instead.^[1]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• MLK's performance history at U2-Vertigo-Tour.com - Lists all known performances of "MLK".

v • d • e Martin Luther King, Jr. Works Speeches: How Long, Not Long • I Have a Dream • I've Been to the Mountaintop Writings: Letter from Birmingham Jail • What is Man? Protests: 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott • 1960 Nashville sit-ins • 1961 Albany Movement • 1963 Birmingham campaign • 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom • 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches • 1965-67 Chicago Freedom Movement • 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike • 1968 Poor People's Campaign People Family: Martin Luther King, Sr. (father) • Alberta Williams King (mother) • Christine King Farris (sister) • Alfred Daniel Williams King (brother) • Coretta Scott King (wife) • Yolanda King (daughter) • Martin Luther King III (son) • Dexter Scott King (son) • Bernice King (daughter) • Alveda King (niece) Others: Benjamin Mays (mentor) • Bayard Rustin (advisor) • Ralph Abernathy (colleague) Assassination Assassination • James Earl Ray • William F. Pepper • Loyd Jowers Related Media Film and television: King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis (documentary film) • King (television miniseries) • Return of the King (episode of The Boondocks) Songs: Happy Birthday (Stevie Wonder) • Pride (In the Name of Love) (U2) • MLK (U2) Shed a Little Light (James Taylor) Other Southern Christian Leadership Conference • Martin Luther King, Jr. Day • Lee-Jackson-King Day • National Historic Site • National Memorial • National Civil Rights Museum • Streets • Authorship issues