向前 (2001)

"Walk On" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the fourth track on their tenth studio album, All That You Can't Leave Behind (2000). The song was first released in Canada on 20 February 2001, then was given a UK release in November of the same year; it was the album's second single in North America and the fourth internationally. The song was written about Burmese academic Aung San Suu Kyi, who was the chairperson of the National League for Democracy and was placed under house arrest from 1989 until 2010 for her pro-democracy activities, which led to the song being banned in Burma.

"Walk On" won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year at the 2002 ceremony, marking the first time an artist had won the award in consecutive years for songs from the same album (following "Beautiful Day"'s win the previous year). In the United States, the song peaked at number 21 on the Adult Top 40 chart, number 19 on the Mainstream Rock chart, and number 10 on the Alternative Songs chart. It also topped the charts in Canada and Portugal, and reached the top 10 in Australia, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, and on the UK singles chart. It was used as the second credit song to end the broadcast of the 2002 World Series on Fox Sports.

Writing and composition

In March 2000, U2 were awarded the Freedom of the City of Dublin at a ceremony where Burmese academic Aung San Suu Kyi was honoured but absent. The band had never heard of Suu Kyi prior to that but learned that her activism and fighting for freedom in Burma led to her being under house arrest since 1989 (a sentence that was later ended in 2010). Her story inspired U2 lead vocalist Bono for the lyrics to "Walk On".

At first, Bono tried writing from the perspective of Suu Kyi's husband Michael Aris and son Alexander Aris, imagining them living with the pain of not knowing how she was. After he felt that it was too presumptuous, Bono changed the lyrics to be more abstract and to be "a love song about somebody having to leave a relationship for all the right reasons". He said the song was about "nobility and personal sacrifice, about doing what's right, even if your heart is telling you otherwise." In explaining the lyrics, he recalled a Biblical passage in Corinthians that used the image of a house fire to impart the lesson that only eternal things can survive. To Bono, these things were family and friendships, rather than anything material that someone could create. Accordingly, "Walk On" concludes with lyrics describing a "litany of ambitions and achievements" that are expendable, with lines such as "You've got to leave it behind / All that you fashion / All that you make / All that you build / All that you break". Bono described this section as: "a mantra, really, a bonfire of vanities, and you can throw anything you want on the fire. Whatever you want more than love, it has to go." The album All That You Can't Leave Behind's title was derived from the song's lyrics "The only baggage you can bring is all that you can't leave behind." Suu Kyi later told Bono that she liked the song, saying, "it's very close to how I feel".

As U2 worked on "Walk On" during the recording sessions, they decided to split it into two separate songs: "Walk On" and "Home". The album's producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois advised the group that the mix of "Walk On" "was not one to chase", but Bono insisted they continue working on it. Towards the end of the album's recording sessions, the band's long-time producer Steve Lillywhite was hired to make final touches to the songs. After he completed "Beautiful Day", the band played "Walk On" and "Home" for him. Lillywhite told them that "Walk On" had a "fantastic chorus" and "Home" a "great verse"; the band subsequently informed him that they were formerly the same song. Ultimately, under Lillywhite's guidance, the separate songs were fused back together. Bassist Adam Clayton concurred with the decision, saying that each track had great chord progressions but were not great individual songs. Lanois preferred a different version of the song with a more low-key beginning, saying: "When it gets to that stage of making a record, people are looking for songs that the record company can proudly go to radio with. And the ultimate version comes along with a bang, you know. The Edge sounds amazing and it holds so much promise in its first 30 seconds that it's hard to say no to. But the version that I preferred did not have such a slam-bam beginning. So that one got welded and bolted together."

Most of the guitar tone on "Walk On" was achieved by guitarist the Edge playing his white Gibson Les Paul through his Vox AC30 amplifier, while the guitar solo was performed on his Gibson Explorer.