40 Bass Tab

Under A Blood Red Sky Tabs:

#-----------------------------------PLEASE NOTE------------------------------------#
#  This file is the author's own work and represents their interpretation of the   #
#  song. The owner of this website has not reviewed the contents of this file and  #
#  does not support copyright infringement or violating the rights of any artist   #
#  or legal entity. If you feel that the content of this file may be violating     #
#  copyright law, you may not use the information displayed here in any way.       #
#----------------------------------------------------------------------------------#

#


From Hieronim@aol.com Fri May 16 08:15:58 1997
Date: Tue, 6 May 1997 10:11:08 -0400 (EDT)
From: Hieronim@aol.com
To: guitar@olga.net
Subject: U2: "40"

Yo,
  I figured this out a while ago.  It's the bass tab for "40" by U2.  I think
it's right.  I play it tuned 1/2 a step down usually.

Intro:
G -----------------------------------------I
D------------------------------------------I
A--7--7--7--5--5--5/4--4--4--5--5--I
E-5--5--5--5--5--5----5--5--5--5--5I

G------------------------------------------I
D--2--2--2--2--2----4--4--4--4--4---I
A-0--0--0--0--0--0-0--0--0--0--0--0-I
E------------------------------------------I
I waited patiently for the lord...

G--------------------------------------------I
D--2--2--2--2--2----4--4--7--7--7-----I
A-0--0--0--0--0--0-0--0--0--0--0--0-I
E--------------------------------------------I
He lifted me up out of the pit...

G-------------------------------------------I
D-------------------------------------------I
A--7--7--7--5--5--5/4--4--4--5--5---I
E-5--5--5--5--5--5----5--5--5--5--5-I
I will sing, sing a new song

G-------------------------------------------I
D--2--2--2--2--2----4--4--4--4--4----I
A-0--0--0--0--0--0-0--0--0--0--0--0-I
E--------------------------------------------I
How long, to sing their song

Dat B it. Do it ovah and ovah until you feel like stopping.
-Hieronim Jasinski

Taken from The BassMasta -- http://www.bassmasta.net

Source: http://www.bassmasta.net/u/u2/119420.html

Tab Discussion, Comments, and Critiques


No Picture Alex Wanna Be	#1 by Alex Bosilkov at Sep 28, 1970 at 2:09 AM EST
	I think BrandtH missed the mark here - this song was written a decade before Bono discovered irony. I think it was a clarion call for the religious leaders in Ireland to take to heart the words of their own scriptures. I sincerely doubt there is a subversive undertone about religious conflicts here - this was U2 at their most spiritual.

No Picture [matt] Average	#2 by [matt] Anderson at Sep 26, 1984 at 9:30 PM EST
	glad to see that U2 are using this song to finish their live concerts these days. its an intimate number, more appropriately suited to the end of an emotionally charged night rather than sandwiched in between other great U2 songs. despite what's been said about religious/non-religious connotations "40" works simply because it tugs at the emotional heartstrings - it's U2 at their rawest, most open either with each other or in front of 40 000 fans, singing "how long to sing this song?" as a plaintive cry that could cover a wide range of issues and topics. it's sort of their answer (question?) to the question of pain and suffering in this world - rather than offering a simple straighforward answer, they throw a rhetoric question back at their whoever's listening and leaves the listener to draw their own conclusions. Bono at his rawest and finest.

No Picture chivo Wanna Be	#3 by chivo rivers at Jun 8, 1985 at 11:48 AM EST
	crone85, u might fing this interesting: Bono: "This is a song that...when were we, when were we--when we were being thrown out of the studio on our third LP, on the War LP, we're being, we're being thrown out of the studio, we had I think, we, we spent 10 minutes writing this next song, 10 minutes recording it, 10 minutes mixing it, 10 minutes playing it back, and that's nothing to do with why it's called 40."

No Picture Mehran Average	#4 by Mehran Farooque at Jun 29, 1991 at 10:08 AM EST
	i agree about it not being ironic (al least not deliberatly). its not U2 at thier most spiritual however, its U2 at thier most religious and also raw and primitive. this is one of their best of that period and in my oppinion its just simply praising god and nothing else. it was written at the time that the band really discovered religion and all its glory.

No Picture Chris Wanna Be	#5 by Chris at Dec 12, 2000 at 2:16 PM EST
	I think you have to stretch this song a bit much to make it be about religious violence per se (or perhaps pull in references from Sunday Bloody Sunday on the same album). Rather, I'd say it's about the conversion experience (being "brought up out of the pit). "How long to sing this song" refers to the fact that as long as the Christian lives, he is called to sing the new song that causes "many to see and fear" while continuing to be subject to all the evils and miseries of this present world. Yet one could certainly argue that religious violence is among the worst aspects of the present situation. The interpretations aren't mutually exclusive, which of course is usually the case with U2 songs.

No Picture Frubescu Average	#6 by Frubescu at Oct 10, 2001 at 2:02 PM EST
	~I never knew this side of U2 until i heard this song today.~

No Picture ty Average	#7 by ty at Dec 3, 2004 at 5:27 AM EST
	BrandtH, they didn't write the song. David wrote it about 4000 years ago. So I doubt it has much to do with Ireland...