Category: U2

U2 – Rattle and Hum (1988)

posted by record facts

Rattle and Hum is a hybrid live/studio album by Irish rock band U2, and a companion rockumentary film directed by Phil Joanou.
The album was produced by Jimmy Iovine and was released on 10 October 1988, while the film was distributed by Paramount Pictures and was released on 27 October 1988.
Following the breakthrough success of the band’s previous studio album, The Joshua Tree, the Rattle and Hum project captures their continued experiences with American roots music on the Joshua Tree Tour, further incorporating elements of blues rock, folk rock, and gospel music into their sound.
A collection of new studio tracks, live performances, and cover songs, the project includes recordings at Sun Studio in Memphis and collaborations with Bob Dylan, B. B. King, and Harlem’s New Voices of Freedom gospel choir.

Studio recordings

Bono said “Hawkmoon 269” was in part as a tribute to writer Sam Shepard, who had released a book entitled Hawk Moon. Bono also said that the band mixed the song 269 times. This was thought to be a joke for years until it was confirmed by guitarist the Edge in U2 by U2, who said that they spent three weeks mixing the song. He also contradicted Bono’s assertion about Shepard, saying that Hawkmoon is a place in Rapid City, South Dakota, in the midwestern United States.

“Angel of Harlem” is a horn-filled tribute to Billie Holiday. The bass-heavy “God Part II” is a sequel of sorts to John Lennon‘s “God“.

The lead single, “Desire“, sports a Bo Diddley beat. During the Joshua Tree tour, in mid-November 1987, Bono and Bob Dylan met in Los Angeles; together they wrote a song called “Prisoner of Love” which later became “Love Rescue Me”. Dylan sang lead vocals on the original recording, a version which Bono called “astonishing”, but Dylan later asked U2 not to use it citing commitments to The Traveling Wilburys. The live performance of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” (recorded with a full church choir) is a gospel song. “When Love Comes to Town” is a blues rocker featuring B. B. King on guitar and vocals.

U2 recorded “Angel of Harlem”, “Love Rescue Me” and “When Love Comes to Town” at Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, where Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash and many others also recorded. They also recorded an unreleased version of “She’s a Mystery to Me” and Woody Guthrie’s “Jesus Christ“, which appeared on Folkways: A Vision Shared. The band started writing “Heartland”, in 1984 during The Unforgettable Fire sessions, and it was worked on during The Joshua Tree sessions. All of the studio tracks apart from “Heartland” were performed in concert on the Lovetown Tour, which began almost a year after Rattle and Hum‘s release.

In addition to the nine studio tracks that comprised one half of the double album, a number of additional recordings from the Rattle and Hum sessions would be released on various singles and side projects. “Hallelujah Here She Comes” was released as a B-side to “Desire“, and “A Room at the Heartbreak Hotel” was released as a B-side to “Angel of Harlem.” Covers were released as B-sides for the rest of the singles—an abbreviated cover of Patti Smith‘s “Dancing Barefoot” would be released as a B-side to “When Love Comes to Town” (the full version would see release on the 12″ version of the single and on CD on the 1994 soundtrack album to Threesome), while “Unchained Melody” and “Everlasting Love” would be released as the B-sides to “All I Want Is You.” A cover of “Fortunate Son” recorded with Maria McKee would not be released until 1992’s “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses” single; a version of the soul classic “Everybody Loves a Winner” by William Bell, also recorded with McKee, would eventually be released on the 20th anniversary edition of Achtung Baby.

Studio versions of “She’s a Mystery to Me” (a Bono/Edge composition that would eventually be recorded and released by Roy Orbison), Bruce Cockburn‘s “If I Had a Rocket Launcher“, Percy Sledge‘s “Warm and Tender Love”, and “Can’t Help Falling in Love With You“, while recorded, have yet to be released. (A solo Bono cover of the Elvis Presley classic would be released on 1992’s Honeymoon in Vegas album, however.) A cover of the Woody Guthrie song “Jesus Christ” was also recorded during these sessions for eventual inclusion on the cover album Folkways: A Vision Shared. Lastly, a cover of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” was recorded and released for the first A Very Special Christmas album, released at the end of 1987.

Live performances

The band chose to film the black-and-white footage over two nights at Denver‘s McNichols Sports Arena on 7 and 8 November 1987. They chose the city following the success of their U2 Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky video which was filmed in Red Rocks Amphitheatre near Denver in 1983. The Edge said, “We thought lightning might strike twice”. The first night’s performance disappointed the group, with Bono finding that the cameras infringed on his ability to play to the crowd. The second Denver show was far more successful and seven songs from the show are used in the film, and three on the album.

Hours before the second Denver performance, an IRA bomb killed eleven people at a Remembrance Day ceremony in the Northern Irish town of Enniskillen (see Remembrance Day Bombing). During a performance of “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, which appears on the film, Bono condemned the violence in a furious mid-song rant in which he yelled, “Fuck the revolution!” The performance was so powerful that the band said they were not sure the song should have been used in the film. After watching the film, they considered not playing the song on future tours.

Colour outdoor concert footage is from the band’s Tempe, Arizona shows on 19 and 20 December 1987. Tickets were sold for US$5 each and both nights sold out within days. The set was different each night with the band throwing in some rarely performed songs, including “Out of Control”, “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”, “One Tree Hill”, and “Mothers of the Disappeared”. For the latter, all four members played at the front of the stage, each under a large spotlight.

The album opens with a live cover of the Beatles‘ “Helter Skelter“. Its inclusion on the album was intended by the band to reflect the confusion of The Joshua Tree Tour and their new-found superstar status. Bono opens “Helter Skelter” with this statement: “This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles. We’re stealing it back”.

The album contains a live version of Bob Dylan‘s “All Along the Watchtower“. The performance is from the band’s impromptu “Save the Yuppies” concert in Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco, California on 11 November 1987. The video intersperses the performance of the song with footage from the band’s performance of “Pride” from the same show, during which Bono spray-painted “Rock and Roll Stops the Traffic” on the Vaillancourt Fountain. This caused a bit of controversy, and ultimately, the band paid to repair the damage and publicly apologised for the incident. The phrase “Rock and Roll Stops the Traffic” reappeared 18 years later in the video “All Because of You” when an unnamed fan appeared with the sign at 1:55 in the video. It also reappeared in February 2009, when the band played on the rooftop of the BBC Radio studios in Langham Place.

Dennis Bell, director of New York gospel choir The New Voices of Freedom, recorded a demo of a gospel version of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For“. While in Glasgow in late July during the Joshua Tree Tour, Rob Partridge of Island Records played the demo for the band. In late September, U2 rehearsed with Bell’s choir in a Harlem church, and a few days later they performed the song together at U2’s Madison Square Garden concert. Footage of the rehearsal is featured in the movie, while the Madison Square Garden performance appears on the album. After the church rehearsal, U2 walked around the Harlem neighbourhood where they came across blues duo, Satan and Adam, playing in the street. A 40-second clip of them playing their composition, “Freedom for My People”, appears on both the movie and the album.

During “Silver and Gold”, Bono explains that the song is an attack on apartheid. “The Star Spangled Banner” is an excerpt of Jimi Hendrix‘s famous Woodstock performance in 1969.

 

Track listing

  1. Helter Skelter (live at Denver, Colorado) (Lennon–McCartney lyrics and music) – 3:07
  2. Van Diemen’s Land (The Edge lyrics) – 3:06
  3. Desire – 2:58
  4. Hawkmoon 269 – 6:22
  5. All Along the Watchtower (live from "Save the Yuppie Free Concert", San Francisco) (Bob Dylan (lyrics and music) – 4:24
  6. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For (live at Madison Square Garden, New York) (with The New Voices of Freedom) – 5:53
  7. Freedom for My People (Sterling Magee (lyrics and music); Adam Gussow (music) Sterling Magee and Adam Gussow – 0:38
  8. Silver and Gold (live from Denver, Colorado) – 5:50
  9. Pride (In the Name of Love) (live from Denver, Colorado) – 4:27
  10. Angel of Harlem – 3:49
  11. Love Rescue Me (Bono and Bob Dylan (lyrics) U2 with Bob Dylan – 6:24
  12. When Love Comes to Town (with B. B. King) – 4:14
  13. Heartland – 5:02
  14. God Part II – 3:15
  15. The Star Spangled Banner (live) (John Stafford Smith (music) Jimi Hendrix – 0:43
  16. Bullet the Blue Sky (live at Sun Devil Stadium, Tempe, Arizona) – 5:37
  17. All I Want Is You – 6:30

All lyrics are written by Bono; all music is composed by U2, except where noted

 

Personnel

  • Bono – lead vocals, guitars, harmonica
  • The Edge – guitars, keyboards, backing vocals, lead vocals on “Van Diemen’s Land”
  • Adam Clayton – bass guitar
  • Larry Mullen Jr. – drums, percussion

Guest performers

  • Bob Dylan – Hammond organ on “Hawkmoon 269”, backing vocals on “Love Rescue Me”
  • The New Voices of Freedom – gospel choir on “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”
  • Joey Miskulin – organ on “Angel of Harlem”
  • The Memphis Horns – horns on “Angel of Harlem” and “Love Rescue Me”
  • B. B. King – guest vocals and lead guitar on “When Love Comes to Town”
  • Billie Barnum, Carolyn Willis, and Edna Wright – backing vocals on “Hawkmoon 269”
  • Rebecca Evans Russell, Phyllis Duncan, Helen Duncan – backing vocals on “When Love Comes to Town”
  • Brian Eno – keyboards on “Heartland”
  • Benmont Tench – Hammond organ on “All I Want Is You”
  • Van Dyke Parks – string arrangement on “All I Want Is You”

Additional musicians (field recordings and tapes)

Notes
Released: 10 October 1988
Recorded: 1987–1988 Venue Various locations Studio Sun (Memphis) Point Depot (Dublin) Danesmoate (Dublin) STS (Dublin) A&M (Los Angeles) Ocean Way (Hollywood)
Genre: Roots rock
Length: 72:27
Producer: Jimmy Iovine

Label – Island Records

U2 – How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (2004)

posted by albums-base

How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb is the eleventh studio album by Irish rock band U2. It was released on 22 November 2004 in the United Kingdom by Island Records and a day later in the United States by Interscope Records. Much like their previous album All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000), the record exhibits a more mainstream rock sound after the band experimented with alternative rock and dance music in the 1990s. It was produced by Steve Lillywhite, with additional production from Chris Thomas, Jacknife Lee, Nellee Hooper, Flood, Daniel Lanois, Brian Eno, and Carl Glanville.

Looking for a more hard-hitting sound than that of their previous album, U2 began recording How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb in February 2003 with Thomas. After nine months of work, the band had an album’s worth of material ready for release, but they were not satisfied with the results. The group subsequently enlisted Lillywhite to take over as producer in Dublin in January 2004.

Lillywhite, along with his assistant Lee, spent six months with the band reworking songs and encouraging better performances. U2 lead singer Bono described the album as “our first rock album. It’s taken us twenty years or whatever it is, but this is our first rock album.” Thematically, the record touches on life, death, love, war, faith, and family.

Halfway through the excellent new U2 album, Bono announces, “I like the sound of my own voice.” Well-said, lad; well-said. Ever since U2 started making noise in Dublin several hundred bloody Sundays ago, Bono has grooved to the sound of his own gargantuan rockness. Ego, shmego — this is one rock-star madman who should never scale down his epic ambitions. As the old Zen proverb goes, you will find no reasonable men on the tops of great mountains, and U2’s brilliance is their refusal to be reasonable. U2 were a drag in the 1990s, when they were trying to be cool, ironic hipsters. Feh! Nobody wants a skinny Santa, and for damn sure nobody wants a hipster Bono. We want him over the top, playing with unforgettable fire. We want him to sing in Latin or feed the world or play Jesus to the lepers in his head. We want him to be Bono. Nobody else is even remotely qualified.

U2 bring that old-school, wide-awake fervor to How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. The last time we heard from them, All That You Can’t Leave Behind, U2 were auditioning for the job of the World’s Biggest Rock & Roll Band. They trimmed the Euro-techno pomp, sped up the tempos and let the Edge define the songs with his revitalized guitar. Well, they got the job.

On Atomic Bomb, they’re not auditioning anymore. This is grandiose music from grandiose men, sweatlessly confident in the execution of their duties. Hardly any of the eleven songs break the five-minute mark or stray from the punchy formula of All That You Can’t Leave Behind. They’ve gotten over their midcareer anxiety about whether they’re cool enough. Now, they just hand it to the Edge and let it rip.

During the course of Atomic Bomb, you will be urged to ponder death (“Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own”), birth (“Original of the Species”), God (“Yahweh”), love (“A Man and a Woman”), war (“Love and Peace or Else”) and peace (“City of Blinding Lights”), which barely gives you time to ponder whether the bassist has been listening to Interpol. “Vertigo” sets the pace, a thirty-second ad jingle blown up to three great minutes, with a riff nicked from Sonic Youth’s “Dirty Boots.” “City of Blinding Lights” begins with a long Edge guitar intro, building into a bittersweet lament. “Yahweh” continues a U2 tradition, the album-closing chitchat with the Lord. It’s too long and too slow, but that’s part of the tradition.

Like all U2 albums, Atomic Bomb has false steps, experimental bathroom breaks and moments when the lofty ambitions crash into the nearest wall. As America staggers punch-drunk into another four-year moment we can’t get out of, it would be a real pleasure if the political tunes had any depth. (How long? How long must we sing this song?) But Bono scores a direct hit on “One Step Closer,” an intimate ballad about his father’s death from cancer in 2001; “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own” is the song U2 did at the funeral. When Bono sings, “You’re the reason why I have the operas in me,” his grief and his grandiosity seem to come from the same place in his heart. It’s a reminder that what makes U2 so big isn’t really their clever ideas, or even their intelligence — it’s the warmth that all too few rock stars have any idea how to turn into music.

Track listing

  1. Vertigo (Bono and the Edge) – 3:14
  2. Miracle Drug (Bono and the Edge) – 3:59
  3. Sometimes You Can’t Make It on Your Own – 5:08
  4. Love and Peace or Else (Bono and the Edge) – 4:50
  5. City of Blinding Lights – 5:47
  6. All Because of You – 3:39
  7. A Man and a Woman – 4:30
  8. Crumbs from Your Table – 5:03
  9. One Step Closer – 3:51
  10. Original of the Species – 4:41
  11. Yahweh (Bono and the Edge) – 4:21

UK, Ireland and Japan CD bonus track

  1. Fast Cars (Bono and the Edge)– 3:43

All lyrics are written by Bono except where noted; all music is composed by U2.

U2

  • Bono – lead vocals, additional guitar (tracks 2, 9-11), backing vocal (2), piano (5)
  • The Edge – guitar, backing/additional vocals (1–4, 6–7, 9, 11), piano (2, 4–5, 10–11), keyboards (3), additional percussion (7), synthesiser (10–11)
  • Adam Clayton – bass guitar
  • Larry Mullen Jr. – drums, percussion, backing vocal (2)

Additional performers

  • Jacknife Lee – synthesisers/additional synthesisers (1–2, 4–5, 7–10), programming (2, 4), keyboards (6), additional guitar atmospherics (8)
  • Daniel Lanois – additional guitar and pedal steel (9), mandolin (11), shaker (4)
  • Carl Glanville – additional percussion and synthesisers (2)
  • Brian Eno – synthesisers (4)
  • Fabien Waltmann – programming (3, 5)

Companies, etc.

Credits

Notes
Released: 22 November 2004
Recorded: February 2003 – July 2004 Studio Hanover Quay (Dublin) / South of France
Genre: Rock, Pop
Length: 53:09

Label – Island / Interscope