U2 - Rattle and Hum

The ill will that initially greeted Rattle and Hum--the follow-up to the band's massively successful Joshua Tree album--was due in large part to the bloated and self-important feature film that accompanied it, which showed the band as being simultaneously naive and pretentious as it "discovered" America. But as the film mercifully slips from memory, the music has remained, from the furious swirl of "Desire" and a clutch of live hits to insightful musical nods to heroes such as Bob Dylan, John Lennon, and Billie Holiday. Songs like "When Love Comes to Town," a supercharged blues duet with B.B. King, suggests the quartet knew more about America from listening to its music than Phil Joanou's unintentional mockumentary suggested. --Daniel Durchholz Amazon.com

 Great studio tracks. Pity about the live tracks.
This album is considered the poor relation of U2's output up to and including Achtung Baby. But in fairness it could have been a great studio album and amazingly for a band who excel in live performances, the live tracks here show Bono at his pompous, self-important worst. It was released with the forgettable movie of the same name, showing four Irishmen (really three and one Englishman)and I hate this expression "searching for America". Dear Bono. America has been found and has been doing pretty well overall, Thank You. Why do artists feel they have to go out and search for America anyway? Why not Estonia, or Denmark or Canada?

The studio tracks are up there with the best U2 with a few exceptions. DESIRE, LOVE RESCUE ME, ALL I WANT IS YOU, HEARTLAND and possibly WHEN LOVE COMES TO TOWN are some of the best songs they have written.

As for the live tracks. Let me see why else I dislike them so much.

"This is a song Charles Manson stole from The Beatles. We're stealing it back". (HELTER SKELTER). Like the song had gone missing for the previous 19 years. Please!!!
"Am I bugging you?. Don't meant to bug ya" (SILVER AND GOLD)
"For The Reverend Martin Luther King. SING!" (PRIDE). Just hate the wayhe instructs the audience.
"All I have is a red guitar, three chords and the truth" (ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER)
"And the sky is ripped open like a gaping wound pelting the women and children, pelting the women and children who run, who run into the arms of America" (BULLET THE BLUE SKY)
By the way Bono, it is South Africa, not "Suthefrika". Ironically it sounds like he has an Afrikaans accent (SILVER AND GOLD)

He does have one great line in BULLET... "The God I believe in isn't short of cash, Mister". Have to admit that is a great one!

All the above and more are spoken by Bono during the songs and it is commendable that he thinks of troubling issues around the world. But having them all contained within 70 minutes of music makes you groan each time he goes off.

Anyway I digress. They had so many non-album B-sides that could have been included and scrap the live tracks. SILVER AND GOLD is the best live song but it is practically ruined by Bono's sermon at the end. The covers: ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER and HELTER SKELTER are surprisingly ordinary. I STILL HAVEN'T FOUND... has to be on nearly half of all U2 albums at this point! It is an interesting arrangement with nice backing from The Voices Of Freedom choir. But again at the end it goes off the rails with the lead male and female singers trying to outdo each other in vocal prowess.

Just wish there more songs like DESIRE. This is what U2 does so well. A three minute rock explosion that never lets up. ALL I WANT IS YOU is very tender with Beatlesque strings and a tour de force from The Edge at the end. HEARTLAND seems to be the crux of the whole album as the lyrics to this song are the first you will see inside the sleeve notes, although it is Track #13. WHEN LOVE COMES TO TOWN features a searing vocal by BB King. Unfortunately the last verse is very bizarre and I cannot figure out what it has to do with the generally upbeat song. ANGEL OF HARLEM could have been better. Does not really say much about Billie Holiday who inspired the song. But the song is redeemed by contribution of The Memphis Horns

Other tracks:
VAN DIEMEN"S LAND. Sung by The Edge on guitar alone about an Irish prisoner being sent to what is now Tasmania and leaving behind loved ones. However the fade-out is badly timed.
HAWKMOON 269. Maybe overlong and repetitive but has an intense build-up and wonderful backing vocals from Billie Barnum, Carolyn Willis and Edna Wright. Also is that Larry pounding those kettledrums?
FREDOM FOR MY PEOPLE. Perfromed by two street musicians and is basically a snippet.
GOD PART II. Quite a good song apart from the title. It is not remotely in the same league as John Lennon's GOD but I think Bono thought he was the next Lennon at this time. The title makes the whole thing come accross as very pretentious.
STAR SPANGLED BANNER/BULLET THE BLUE SKY: Again it is a fine version until Bono decides to keep talking at the end. The anthem is a recording of the Jimi Hendrix version.
March 6, 2008

 "This song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles, now were steeling it back".
"This song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles, now were steeling it back".

Bono "singing" Helter-Skelter sounds incredibly unprofessional, he can't seem to get the timing or the lyrics right. Check it out if you get a chance it is ridiculous!
In my opinion remaking a Beatles song is a sin!
The pompous moron who calls himself Bono is the last person who should be remaking Beatles songs. Bono has always compared his inept, politically motivated band, U2 to the Beatles. If U2 were going to be the next Beatles they missed their window back in the Eighties! The Beatles did it in 7 Years; U2 has had 28 years to do it! Compare the two bands total Number 1 singles. U2, 4 UK and 2 US Billboard Hot 100. Yet the Beatles have released a 79 minute album called Beatles 1. This album contains 27 Number One Hits from a band that released their first studio album in 1963, Please Please Me, and their last studio album in 1970, Let it be. The Beatles had 7 years total time releasing original studio recorded music not 30!
February 18, 2008

 Not as bad as I expected. (3.5)
You know, there was a time when I really hated U2's more "Americanized" phase. This is basically the work they did in the mid and late '80s in particular and I always felt at once like it was ill-fated and arrogant. I hadn't yet touched this album, either. And then later on I recognized some of it wasn't bad at all. The Joshua Tree was the greatest thing the guys had done by the point it was out but for awhile I always was more into the post-punk early records and the electronic later work, and some of the new stuff too. The band has shown though that they can pull that type of thing off and that it's really even entertaining at times. Most U2 stuff is.

I heard a lot of bad rap about the album. So when I found it recently for only FIVE bucks used, I was somewhat skeptical. Only "somewhat" because I was aware of "All I Want Is You" which is one of my favorite U2 songs and "Desire" and "Angel of Harlem" were pretty good songs as well.

I don't really consider this a studio album, if that makes any sense. It's a compilation of sorts, with some being live and some studio, and two interludes that technically aren't even U2. There's enough studio work to make a long EP or a short album, which the album could have done if that was what they wanted to. And also it may have been more effective with the length. Although I would have liked less of the gospel choir in the song I otherwise found the live "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" to be fantastic, and the live "Pride (In the Name of Love)" is pretty well done as well. Although not included I think they could have put a version of something like "Trip Through Your Wires" since the song itself sounds like something that would appear on here. They also do a B-side and a cover, but those are both awfully performed on here. "Helter Skelter" and "Silver and Gold" have better versions available and the commentary on both of those songs is pretty embarassing.

Not really perfect. Also, there's other ill-fated moments like the failed John Lennon response song "God, Part II." Its intentions were probably good but everything else about the song is just failed, in general. Oh, the live "All Along the Watchtower" wasn't special either, not on par with Dylan and especially not as good as the Hendrix version. Speaking of which one of those "interludes" I mentioned was his rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner," probably the band's nod to Americanism, but I don't mind since it's a cool rendition. "Bullet the Blue Sky" (which inspired the project's name) isn't really my favorite but it's about as good performed live as it is on "The Joshua Tree."

Oh, and "All I Want Is You" is just an amazing way to close the album. It's probably the song that makes the record worth owning, with a very emotional performance that shows they were pretty good with the more personal songs as well. "Desire" is the really big single from the album and is nice to listen to even now. More of a western feel than most of it but not bad. "Angel of Harlem" is a nice melodic piece reminiscent of "The Joshua Tree" even if not particularly special.

A lot of the album is really in between. It's an interesting record, though. For example you do get one song with the Edge on the vocals and it's a pretty decent song, too ("Van Diemen's Land"). The only studio song that was really pretty bad was "Hawkmoon 269"; I guess it's just too bad that one was on the earlier half of the record.

This record is definitely not for everyone and it's a mixed bag in pretty much any definition of the term, but I recommend this to people who are willing to get into more U2. As a guy who wasn't conceived until a few months following "Joshua Tree"'s release, there's some younger fans who may seek this. It goes in all directions but if you don't mind any of the types of songs that are in here even in spite my warnings I suggest you give it a try and you may enjoy it. December 9, 2007

 Um... Bono?
I have a theory about this album, the first bad disc U2 ever put out. With The Joshua Tree, U2 suddenly had the ear of the world. So what did they do? They pushed their political agenda. And while I agree with Bono's points about poverty in Africa (which needs to be fixed), televangelism, and how amazing Martin Luther King, Jr. was, Bono makes a total fool out of himself on this album by presenting his opinion in the most didactic, in-your-face way. What's the dumbest quote on the live portion of the album? Well, there are several, including the infamous "Am I buggin' ya? I don't mean to bug ya. Edge, play the blues!", from the uninteresting protest "Silver and Gold", which is followed by a guitar solo that has as much to do with the blues as Beethoven's Ninth, to that laughable switched lyric from "All Along the Watchtower", "All I've got is a red guitar, three chords, and the truth". Yeah. It's far too obvious to beat up on the live tracks, which also contain a poor cover of "Helter Skelter" ("This is a song that Charles Manson stole from the Beatles... AND NOW WE'RE STEALING IT BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"), so I just won't. Suffice it to say that they're all, without a single exception, really, really bad.
But hey, all that's all right, because the studio tracks are gonna save the day, right? WRONG! Okay, not entirely wrong. There are some really good songs on the studio side. Five, to be exact. First off, maybe it's because I like B.B. King more than most U2 fans, but I see nothing wrong with "When Love Comes to Town", other than the weirdness of the B.B.-Bono matchup. There are a few others, too: "Desire" is a blast, with a fun Bo Diddley beat and a horn section. "All I Want Is You" and "Angel of Harlem" are good songs too, and I love "Hawkmoon 269". And... that's it for the good stuff.
Now, onto... well, the rest. "God, pt. 2" is one of U2's most embarrassing songs. It's a trip-hop continuation of John Lennon's fantastic "God", but here it's just Bono ripping on the most trivial people he could pull out of the hat Edge wore on the cover of The Joshua Tree. Much as I like Dylan, he doesn't sound all that good on "Love Rescue Me", which he features on. They make the mistake of letting the Edge "Van Dieman's Land", and it turns out he's not a good singer at all. And "Heartland" is a bland Joshua Tree outtake.
This, right here, is a classic example of what fame can do to a good band. I don't really like the direction U2 shifted towards in the '90s, so I see this as kind of the beginning of the end (at least until they were reborn with All That You Can't Leave Behind) for U2. A very bad, very unfocused, very confusing album. November 19, 2007

 U2 is next to the Beatles!
I love this CD! U2 played the Cain's Ballroom in 1982 and hearing all these songs was great! October 10, 2007

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