Sense and Sensation

When U2 first wrote the song “ Vertigo ”, the song had different lyrics, a different name, and a different arrangement.  The song, then called “ Native Son ”, was inspired by one Native American's experience brushing up against the law.  The band loved, absolutely loved, the raging guitar hook, but struggled with the way the song came out--because of the sensitivity of the lyrics. Bono felt uncomfortable singing it in front of audiences--and so the band spent days and days revising and reworking the song, jettisoning the lyrics, keeping the guitar hook and the basic melody, rewriting the lyrics entirely, reorganizing and remixing the song.  They worked and worked at it, and without this work refining the song, “Vertigo” likely wouldn’t have topped so many charts around the world. But to say that creativity is only about work is misleading--and a little pedantic--because play is also important. So how do we reconcile this deliberate, often-grueling work with ...