“Wake Up Dead Man” started its life during the recording sessions for Achtung Baby, as a germ of a lyrical idea that Bono sang during the chorus of what would later become “Blow Your House Down”. It seems that the band liked the idea enough to further work on it during the sessions for Zooropa, because the title is one of those hidden in the cover art for that album. What is unknown is how much the song changed during the Zooropa sessions. Did it remain true to its origins as part of what we now know as “Blow Your House Down”, or did it begin to evolve into its later form? “Wake Up Dead Man” finally saw release as the final track on 1997’s criminally underrated Pop album in a style and shape that is dramatically different from what might have been expected from those who listened to the bootlegged Achtung Baby sessions CDs and therefore heard the song’s origination.

“Wake Up Dead Man” is a sombre song that somehow retains a groovy, funky feeling despite its serious subject matter. The song starts off with some solemn acoustic guitar that plays over an eastern sounding sample. At shortly after a minute, Adam’s psychedelic bass riff comes in, joined at about 1:40 by an explosion from Larry’s drums. Later on, these instruments are joined by some jarring stabs of electric guitar from Edge. As I said earlier, the song feels solemn and danceable all at the same time. It’s a somewhat disconcerting juxtaposition that makes for an interesting listen. The song’s lyrics fall more on the dour side of the song’s moods. In “Wake Up Dead Man” Bono sings about the apparent disappearance of Jesus Christ from the modern world. He wonders aloud where the savior is while the world goes to Hell, and cites examples of people who could have used some divine intervention. It is one of Bono’s most hopeless lyrics and I wonder what might have been going on in the man’s private life to elicit such darkness from a writer who usually tries to uplift with his words.

As one of the few songs from Pop to be played after the Pop*Mart Tour, “Wake Up Dead Man” holds a special place in U2’s catalog. Along with “Discotheque”, “Gone” “Please” and “Staring at the Sun”, “Wake Up Dead Man” was played on the Elevation Tour of 2001. Unlike those other songs, “Wake Up Dead Man” was actually performed more times on the Elevation Tour than it was on the Pop*Mart Tour, making it the lone song from Pop to receive more performances after the tour that supported the album that the song was from than it did during the tour that supported that same album. Because “Wake Up Dead Man” lends itself so easily to acoustic performances, I wouldn’t be terribly surprised to see the band pull the song out of mothballs one of these days. Then again, “Wake Up Dead Man” is from Pop, and U2 seem perfectly happy to pretend that that album never happened. It might be fair to say that “Wake Up Dead Man” has as good a chance as anything from Pop, and a better chance than most of that album’s songs, to get played again.