A “traditional country version” of Dolly Parton‘s final recorded song, a duet with U2 titled ‘Torn’, has been released alongside the band’s new album – listen to both versions below.
The emotional ballad closes U2’s 16th studio album ‘Carnaval De Luz’, which is out today (November 13), and features the late country star trading vocals with Bono.
An alternative recording, titled ‘Torn (Kent Wells Version)’, also arrived today, having received its premiere on US country radio yesterday (November 12). The version takes a more traditional country approach to the song, in contrast to the atmospheric arrangement on U2’s album.
The two recordings offer contrasting settings for Parton’s final vocal performance, with her distinctive voice at the centre of a song about family relationships fractured by political divisions.
Listen to both versions of ‘Torn’ here:
Speaking to The Sun, Bono explained the differences between the recordings, saying: “We did something similar with Johnny Cash. If you think about Larry’s drum part, it’s more of a sci-fi country landscape.”
“I think he did her a favour by not doing the obvious but it was risky. If she didn’t run with it — and she’d have no problem telling you — then we’d have lost her.
“But she liked the direction we took it and her camp has a more traditional country version, which they’re going to put out.
“Hearing her voice in the context of ‘Carnaval De Luz’ is a bit of a shock and a welcome one.”
The track was co-written by U2, Parton and Snow Patrol‘s Johnny McDaid, with Daniel Lanois contributing pedal steel guitar and Jacknife Lee producing the album version.
Bono revealed that the collaboration came about after U2 had initially approached Parton about contributing to other material.
“We wrote loads of songs that we tried to sell her,” he recalled. “But she said, ‘Well, I have a song I started that you may want to take in a different direction and it’s called Torn.’”
Parton’s original idea was a traditional country song about a woman torn between two lovers, but U2 subsequently reworked it to explore the damage caused by political disagreements within families.
“Dolly stayed away from politics but she had two brothers that don’t speak to each other,” Bono explained.
“They’re fighting about politics — and that doesn’t just happen in the red and blue states of America. It happens in the UK, it happens in Ireland, it happens all over the world, where families are at each other’s throats about the right way to go.”
The finished song takes the perspective of a mother caught between two estranged family members, with its lyrics expressing the pain of loving both sides of a seemingly irreconcilable dispute.
Parton recorded her contribution in Nashville in June, just two months before she died on August 25 at the age of 80.
Meanwhile, in a new interview with NME, Bono and The Edge discussed how the band came to work with Parton while experimenting with material that was not initially intended for a U2 album.
“We disregarded anything that was an agenda at first. We literally just enjoyed making music,” The Edge explained.
“We worked with Brian [Eno] without knowing if that was going into the album, we worked with Johnny McDaid [Snow Patrol], we worked with Ed Sheeran, which led us eventually to work with Dolly Parton.”
The guitarist also discussed the themes of the wider record, which follows the band’s politically charged ‘Days Of Ash’ and spiritually focused ‘Easter Lily’ EPs from earlier this year.
“The big enemy right now is despondency,” he told NME, adding: “Defiant joy is the sense that the future is something we can co-author, and not to give in to this doom-mongering.”
‘Carnaval De Luz’ also features the singles ‘Silencio’ and ‘The Greatest Show On Earth’, alongside ‘The Mirror Maker’, a tribute to Rosalía.
In NME‘s three-star review of the album, the record was praised for its renewed sense of energy, with the verdict that the band sound “more playful than preachy for the first time in a long time”.
U2 are also preparing to embark on their ‘The Greatest Show On Earth’ world stadium tour in 2027, which will visit Latin America and Europe. Wolf Alice will be supporting at the UK and European dates, including four concerts at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in June. Tickets are on sale now – find yours here.
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