White As Snow Lyrics

In an interview with The Guardian Bono revealed that he became tired of writing in the first-person, noting that "I'd just worn myself out as a subject matter"; as a result he created several characters, including a traffic cop, a junkie, and a soldier serving in Afghanistan.The soldier's character appears in "White As Snow", which focuses on the soldier's last thoughts as he dies from the wounds caused by an improvised explosive device.Bono came up with the idea after reading Pincher Martin, written by William Golding. "White As Snow" was recorded in one take during two weeks of recording sessions in Fez, Morocco in 2007, though it received some minor editing in the final sessions in December 2008.At this time, it was taken out of the 'Maybe' pile to balance out the rockier tunes present earlier on, with Adam Clayton noting that "it gave the listener a break." Original plans were for the track to start with an explosion, though this was later scrapped.Richard Watkins played the French horn in the song.The melody of the song is based on that of the traditional Advent hymn "Veni, veni Emmanuel".Bono noted that, with the exception of "White as Snow", the band had tried to keep the theme of war out of the album. "White as Snow" appears as the fourth track in the Anton Corbijn film Linear, based on a story by Corbijn and Bono where a Parisian traffic cop travels across France and the Mediterranian Sea to visit his girlfriend in Tripoli.