Near the end of the promotional cycle for “All That You Can’t Leave Behind,” U2 released one final video for “Stuck in a Moment.” This video showcased the band in the studio recording the song, as well as on vacation in the south of France. There is lots of laughter and good vibes from the band in this video, and overall it is light and airy to watch. I always get a kick out of these kinds of “behind-the-scenes” videos that show the band’s products taking shape in the studio. In this example, we can see several shots of people in the background working on the mixing and recording of the album as it is being recorded, and some further shots of the band choosing shots from a photo shoot. Some of the footage in the studio is shaky and slightly out of focus, lending to the home-made quality of this video. In addition, Bono is wearing a shirt with the sleeves cut or torn off which I absolutely detest, but that I also kind of love. I hate it because I think it looks ridiculous, but I love it because it is the kind of thing I can imagine Bono wearing on a day off, when he is not involved in shooting publicity for an album. It lends to the candid feeling of this video, which happens to be its strongest point. It is just a nice view of the band members being non-glamorous, and still managing to look cool and down to Earth. It just struck me that this is one of several videos for songs from this album that showcases the band members being “just guys,” and I think that there is a definite reason for the seeming repetition of that theme. Following the Pop*Mart debacle, I think that the band members were all keen to get away from being celebrities and back to being four musicians who happen to be in the best band on the planet. This video, and several others like it, showcase the fellows hanging out together, kicking back, having fun, and being themselves. I believe that it was a calculated effort to get to the other side of the band, away from all the glamor and the glitter and the extravagance of the tours of the 1990s, especially Pop. This same thought was behind the Elevation Tour being largely devoid of lighting effects and large screens and other distractions, which allowed the songs and their performers to shine through. In some ways, this was as much a departure from the band’s work of the 90s as Achtung Baby was from The Joshua Tree.
With this article, we come to the end of our coverage of the promotional vids for “All That You Can’t Leave Behind.” U2 were, by the time this video was released, back on top of the world. Their next release would be the “Best of 1990-2000,” for which a couple of new songs were released as singles, both of which featured promotional videos. Next week, we will be discussing the promo video for “Electrical Storm,” one of U2’s most provocative and interesting videos. Thanks for reading, and be sure to leave a comment down below, telling what you thought of the videos of the All That You Can’t Leave Behind” era.