Satellite of Love 2000

Bono—the acquisitive lead singer of U2—seems to have a small obsession with Lou Reed's "Satellite of Love." U2 covered it for the 1992 B-side of "One" and then played it live on their world tour, where Bono would duet with the beamed-in transmission of Lou on a video screen. But he wasn't done with it. When this most dogged of salesmen somehow talked German auteur Wim Wenders into directing his original script The Million Dollar Hotel, the song became the centerpiece of the film's soundtrack, appearing in three different versions, including one sung by the film's female lead, Milla Jovovich. This song has the same sultry three-in-the-morning beauty of the entire soundtrack. It also features a dream band that includes trumpeter Jon Hassell, guitarist Bill Frisell, and overall sound guru Brian Eno. But the reason I'm writing about it is that this rendition is a quite different song than the Lou Reed version, the U2 version (which hues closely to Lou's), or the one recorded (but never released) by Lou's old band, the Velvet Underground.

The chorus on the Million Dollar Hotel version is similar to earlier versions, but hardly an exact match, and the intro and verses practically constitute a rewrite. The MDH rendition has a darker hue, due mostly to the substitution of a D-minor for the brighter A7. This minor chord takes the song into a distinctly different melodic terrain; Hassell drops a nice—very torch—melody into this space during the intro and the breaks between verses. There is also a nifty G-C-G shift, unique to this version, that echoes the three syllables of "satellite." These changes appear subtle on paper; they are not, however, when you hear or play the song. In short, it's been jazzed.

I want to make a little plug for the entire soundtrack, which is excellent, one of the better creations to emerge from the U2 camp since the heady days of Berlin and Zoo TV. Like the band's 1995 Passengers collaboration with Eno, it is not well known but is refreshingly free from all the usual obligations. (There is a wealth of great music on the album, including the very fine "Never Let Me Go," which I've also tabbed.) As for the film itself, it has been available for free on Netflix practically since they started streaming things, but when I finally decided I'd check it out, I found that it had been removed. Netflix often toys with me in this way. The upshot is I've never actually seen it. It has a remarkably low profile for a Wenders film, so I'm guessing it's not great, but when/if I ever do have the pleasure, I expect the experience will be a bit like seeing one of my own dreams, since the music is settled so deeply in my imagination. (Wenders, incidentally, also shot a video for "Stay" that I'm still trying to forget.) I should probably point out that, if the fan forums are any indication, a lot of people passionately dislike Jovovich's vocal. But U2 unfortunately has a lot of fans who gatewayed to/from U2 with Coldplay, if not Christian rock, and this is one of the many things they're wrong about, because Milla is fine.

The 'net is full of tabs for "Satellite of Love," but as far as I can tell this is the only tab for this notably different—and in some ways better—version of the song.

Satellite of Love
(words & music Lou Reed)
From the Million Dollar Hotel Soundtrack

Intro: G Dm F C

G      C      G
Satellite's gone
F              C
Up to the sky
G          C        G
Things like that drive me
F                C
Out of my mind
F                        Dm
I watched it for a little while
C
I love to watch things on TV

G C G
G               F
Satellite of love
C               G    C
Satellite of love
G               F
Satellite of love
C               G    C
Satellite of love

C             G      F              C
Satellite's gone
 way up to Mars

G          C        C                  F                  C
Soon it will be filled (baby)
 with parking cars
F                        Dm
I watched it for a little while
C
I love to watch things on TV

Satellite of love (repeat)

G            Dm          F              C
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday (repeat)

Satellite's gone
 up to the sky

Etc.

Idaho via Coventry

"American Without Tears No. 2 (Twilight Version)" is an odd little number by Elvis Costello that's been hanging around lately. The alternate version of a King of America song and B-side to "Blue Chair," this thing stars an American vet who marries an English girl and does not turn out to be a catch. Squeeze sang about a very similar setup, and far more lucidly, in "Labelled with Love," from their Costello-produced East Side Story (1981). No one is where they belong in such stories; everyone is pining for somewhere else. The main character for some obscure reason shares several biographical details with Hemingway, from the war experience and impulsive marriages to the Havana, Florida, even Idaho settings, although the events take place just after Hemingway's lifetime and the heartbreaker in this song is absurdly identified as one Arnie LaFlamme. In the end, the atmosphere is more Graham Greene than Hemingway, but the lyric is really an excuse for trying out a few tropes, with as many shifts in viewpoint and setting as "Tangled Up in Blue." The designation of a "twilight" rendition seems as arbitrary as everything else in a song so whimsical that even Elvis calls its bluff, abruptly ending the last verse with a hasty "It would never work out," like an artist wadding up his drawing and tossing it in the wastebasket. (Damn thing isn't even on youtube. You have to go to 5:11 in this clip to hear a fuzzy live version.)


And yet, for all its flakiness, I've always liked this song. The recording has great drive, and Elvis has a lot of fun with this busker's arrangement, especially on the Sammy Davis Jr. line and in the switch-up in the final verse ("Just like me she found out..."). While tabs for the more placid King of America version of the song are easy to find, I haven't been able to locate a single set of chords for this alternate version anywhere on God's green Internet. And you know what that means...


American Without Tears No. 2 (Twilight Version)
(Elvis Costello)

G               C    G
December 1965 in Caracas
G                     A                 D
When Arnie LaFlamme took his piece of the pie
G                         C               G
When he packed up the casino chips, the IOU and the abacus
G                             D           G
And switched off the jukebox in a "A Fool Such As I"

G                                 C           G
He was a leg man who was open to offers
G                           A                 D
But he couldn't get her off his mind as he passed the tourist office
G                 C              G
And as he entertained himself singing just like Sammy Davis Junior
G           D         G
He toyed with a trip to Miami

    C
For money like that
G
He could have sweet talk in your ear
Em
Now they don't speak any English
C G    C           G
Just American without tears, just American without tears

G C G D G

It was an idea that he dandled on his knee and nursed it like his coffee cup
When he couldn't find any other way
It always seemed to come to him while the day was dipping down
And the sun was like a light bulb being swallowed by a clown

He took her for everything, he took her for his only one
He took her out of Coventry and over to Idaho
But the war wound that he carried home wasn't really visible
When the bullets were forgotten
She looked dowdy, down, and miserable

And she seemed to be crying for year after year
And said, "You don't speak any English
Just American between tears."

A  D A
"Arnie," she said to me, "will you turn down the radio?
    A      B    E
You haven't slept a wink since we came to Havana
A      D A
When're you gonna get the strength to go over to Florida?
E         A
All you ever listen to is 'The Voice of America'"

A                          D                      A
It was a story of a young English poppet
A                                                       B                            E
Who took up with a soldier boy and thought she would profit
A             F#m            E                   D
Just like me she found out what true love is about
A E                 A
Anyway she's in New Orleans, it would never work out
D A
Oh she seemed to be crying for year after year
                 F#m
Now you don't speak any English
          D                         A   D                     A
Just American between tears, just American without tears

For you seem to be crying for year after year
Now you don't speak any English
Just American without tears
Just American without tears