#u2 4 #with or without you #alternate video #shorts

From u2songs.com.
This “Alternate Version” of the video for “With or Without You” opens with the focus on Morleigh Steinberg, the future wife of The Edge. The video opens with a shot of her arm, and then her face, before turning to The Edge in black and white. Throughout the video the naked body is much more evident, and Bono appears to be much darker lit than the more popular version of the song. We also see scenes of someone naked crashing in waves. The more common version opens on Bono, and the scenes with the band are much better lit throughout. The focus is much more on the band in the main version, and a good portion of the footage is in colour, where in the Alternate version the footage is all in black and white.

This was the original version of the video, shot by director Matt Mahurin. There was a concern about the nudity in the video, and the whole footage of U2 was found to be too dark and the choice was made to re-shoot the video. Meiert Avis who had previously worked with the band a number of times was brought in to reshoot those portions of the video, while some of Mahurin’s footage was still used. Quite often this is referred to as a video by Avis and Mahurin, but it is only the second more popular video that is the result of both men.

The footage of the woman in the background is Morleigh Steinberg who would later marry The Edge. But at this point they had not even met, and Mahurin shot the footage of Morleigh in California, and she did not meet the Edge till later in life.

This video was not released for years, but was finally included on the deluxe box set for the remastered 25th Anniversary edition of The Joshua Tree. It was used however for some promotion, and was known about and aired from time to time in 1987.#u2 4 #with or without you #alternate video #shorts