I wanted to take a minute to explain a little about the title of the film. If there were a FAQ about “Bleed Into One” one of the first questions on the list would surely be “where did the name of the film come from?” The short answer is that it comes from a U2 lyric, specifically a line from “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” off of “The Joshua Tree.”
The lyric says “I believe in the kingdom come, when all the colors will bleed into one.”
The main idea for this came from an unlikely source: Hootie and the Blowfish. For some odd reason, I remembered an anecdote about their gazillion selling album “Cracked Rear View” that the title of the album came from a Bruce Springsteen lyric. Taking the name from a song lyric seemed like a good idea to me at the time and I apparently filed away said information until the time came to choose a title for the film.

I knew I wanted something that would represent not only the scene but of culture in general, and from there it was only a short jump to U2. Thanks to the trusty internet it only took a few minutes to have every U2 lyric ever written at my fingertips, so I started at “Boy” and went from there. I had a stack of post-it notes on which I would write any phrases that I thought might be a candidate. I had compiled a list of about 10 or so possibilities before I came to “The Joshua Tree” which is actually my favorite U2 album. As soon as I got to “found” I just knew that was it. I had heard the lyric literally hundreds of times before but I knew as soon as I read it in the context of what we were trying to do that “Bleed Into One” would be the name of our film.
In addition to linking me with one of my favorite bands it makes me proud to steal a name from U2 as well, because in the echelon of spiritual music U2 did it right, they did it all right.
I remember distinctly hearing “New Year’s Day” for the first time and being really into it and then a short time later seeing the “War” LP in a Christian book store. I thought it must have been a mistake. I later got really into the band when “Unforgettable Fire” came out and bought every cassette U2 had made to that point. I remember that most people didn’t care about them around that time and I got them all in the cutout bin. Of course “Boy” had the American -read lame- cover, but it didn’t matter, I ate it all up. I literally wore out “Under a Blood Red Sky” and “Wide Awake in America”, whose version of “Bad” is to this day my favorite U2 song.
But I digress, back to the spiritual stuff. I remember listening to “War”, and this was long after I had forgotten about the Christian bookstore sighting, and being really moved by the lyrics to “Drowning Man” especially the “rise up with wings like eagles, you’ll run and not grow weary” part. The music was so ethereal, and the drums after the “run” part was so majestic, it literally changed me. I knew that this was a band that meant something, not just to me but to the world. Then later when I found that the lyric was taken from the Bible it became even more, almost transcendent. Like I said before, they did it all right, it was passionate, heartfelt, and relevant. I think all my U2 moments revolve around that realization. I was saddened to see that for years, “Drowning Man” has kind of been the forgotten U2 song. It’s been played live on very very rare occasions, and most people, even some fans are not familiar with it. At the risk of sounding dramatic: I want it to belong to this film. I hope to feature it in “Bleed Into One.” I’m sure licensing for U2 stuff is off the charts but I’m going to try as we are also going to try to interview Bono. We’ll see though, there’s a good chance Paul McGuinness will think I’m insane but to be honest just to be on his radar would be an honor. Hopefully Bono and I will laugh about this someday….
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