U2’s Rattle and Hum — 35 years: The musical journey continues
In 1987, U2 released The Joshua Tree album and conquered the international success. Millions of copies sold, top of the charts… They’ve established as one of the biggest bands of the world. But then, not everything has worked for them. This greatness idea infected everyone. So, they decided to release a double album and a film with the same name — Rattle and Hum. The album highlighted live performances from U2’s successful 1987–88 The Joshua Tree tour, as well as additional songs recorded at Sun Studios, in Memphis.
“I get a lot of the blame for this and I’ll take it because I was up to my neck in it. I was very keen on the idea of going wide at a time like that, just seeing how big this thing could get,” said Paul McGuinness. “I had always admired Colonel Parker and Brian Epstein for realizing that music could capture the imagination of the whole world.”
“The original idea was to make a low-budget film and release it in a limited number of theatres, and make it a kind of fan-based event,” told The Edge.
“We wanted to make a film about our journey through America music and try to mythologize the tour,” said Bono.
“The original idea was that we would finance our own road movie and include live footage with the money we’d made from The Joshua Tree tour,” said Larry Mullen Jr. “ It was all going well and then all this other stuff started being added to the schedule because it might look good in the movie. It became a monster. I blame the madness of The Joshua Tree tour. We lost touch with reality.”
U2’s ambition is a gift, but also a curse. The band didn’t feel much comfortable doing it. There are few moments of real spontaneity. Anyway, as a fan I love it. Even knowing that some parts were planned to be recorded, it was my first U2 film. And I think it was amazing at the time to see not only the shows, but also a little bit of the backstage. I’m Elvis’ fan so, for me it was very exciting to follow the band’s visit to Graceland and Larry’s touching testimonial is quite something we rarely have the chance to witness.
Some great songs in the album are still relevant until now, such as “Desire”, “Angel of Harlem” and “All I Want Is You”. And we can’t forget about the amazing collaborations with the New Voices of Freedom choir in “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and with B.B. King during “When Love Comes To Town”.
I can’t help but mention “Love Rescue Me”. U2 surprised all of us playing this song live at the opening night of U2: UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere in Las Vegas, on 29th Sept. I was thrilled about it. The song has only been played 4 times since the Lovetown tour ended in 1990.
“Rattle and Hum is the sound of four men who still haven’t found what they’re looking for — and whose restlessness assures that they will be looking further still.” (Rolling Stone review.) The time showed us exactly that. Achtung Baby was the album that came next, and it’s considered a masterpiece by many. Honestly, I think the musical journey continues. U2 are a band that is always trying to do it better; they don’t stay at their comfort zone. After almost 50 years of career, they don’t need to prove anything else. However, they still want to innovate and to produce great rock and roll songs.
*Quotes from the book “U2 BY U2”
By Fernanda Bottini
Communication: Journalism / PR
Massive U2 fans who writes about the Irish group for about 20 years
Email: febottini@gmail.com
