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new release
'You can hear it in her voice': U2 to release song with Dolly Parton, her final recording
The song, titled Torn was recorded two months before her death and will be released this Friday.
DOLLY PARTON’S FINAL recording, a duet with U2, has been played on air for the first time today.
The track, titled Torn, was recorded in June, two months before the country icon’s death.
In a pre-recorded video that was aired at a remembrance event, Bono said the band was “blessed” to have been able to work with Parton.
“We’d no idea it would be her last, but I wonder if she knew,” he said.
“It was like she was singing herself to somewhere else.”
The frontman recounted a time when they had been trying to work together, but their schedules didn’t align.
“Unfortunately, Bono, I have more love than time,” he says she told him.
Torn will feature on U2′s upcoming album Carnaval De Luz, which will be released on Friday.
The album also has a feature from Rosalia, who recently collaborated with Fontaines DC.
Torn is co-written by Parton, U2 and Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid.
In a note she wrote to Bono the day she recorded her part, Parton said: “Hope you like what I did. I did quite a few things.
“Take from it what you want and what you need, but I love the song, and I think it could be something really special.
“Thanks for including me in your life. I’ve always loved you and always will.”
Radio DJ Dave Fanning got to be the first to play the track on radio, as he often has been since U2′s early work.
He told Oliver Callan on RTÉ Radio 1 that the song is “brilliant”, but “very sad” in ways.
The last track, Torn is “a perfect ending” to the album.
“You can hear it in her voice,” he said, referencing that she was near the end of her life at the time of recording.
“It does add a certain poignancy to it,” he said.
“Bono really didn’t know it was that bad. He didn’t know this was going to be the end.”
Reacting to the track on Good Morning America, co-anchor Lara Spencer described it as “angelic”.
Robin Roberts said it was nice “to hear her voice again”.
The song is about division and disagreement within a family.
The lyrics to the song are as follows:
I can’t deny this passion and desire
But I know it has to burn me
Standing this close to the fire
What am I supposed to do?
And how am I supposed to choose?
I love ‘em both and I just feel so torn
I love ‘em both and I just feel so tornThe glass that frames the picture crack like ice
The photograph remembers all that we now deny
When halfway seems too far to meet
Across the table too hard to reach
Apples falling from the same tree can rollTorn apart these loving hearts
That beat and break the same
We share a house divided
And the blood that fills our veins
Brothers turn to strangers
And sons deny their name
Somebody loses either way
And every heart is tornTorn, torn, torn
Torn, torn, torn
Every heart is tornHands that used to hold you clenched in fists
Words that used to soothe you cut you into bits
Are you your brother’s keeper now?
Or know what you’re fighting for?
Nothing hurts a mother more
Than a family at warTorn apart these loving hearts
That beat and break the same
We share a house divided
And the blood that fills our veins
Brothers turn to strangers
And can’t feel each other’s pain
Somebody loses either way
And every heart is tornTorn, torn, torn
Torn, torn, torn
Every heart is torn
Every heart is torn
Torn, torn, torn
Every heart is torn
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