Rattle and Hum by U2
Rattle and Hum is the sixth studio album by rock band U2 and its companion rockumentary directed by Phil Joanou, both released in 1988. The film and the album feature live recordings, covers, and new songs. To a greater extent than on their previous album, The Joshua Tree, the band explores American roots music and incorporates elements of blues rock, folk rock, and gospel music in their sound. The motion picture was filmed primarily in the United States in late 1987 during The Joshua Tree Tour and it features their experiences with American music. Although Rattle and Hum was intended to represent the band paying tribute to rock legends, some critics accused U2 of trying to place themselves amongst the ranks of these artists. While critical reception was mixed, the album was a commercial success, reaching the number one spot in several countries and selling 14 million copies. While in Hartford during the 1987 The Joshua Tree Tour, U2 met film director Phil Joanou who made an unsolicited pitch to the band to make a feature-length documentary about the tour. Joanou suggested they hire Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, or George Miller to direct the film. Joanou met the band again in Dublin to discuss the plans and again in France in September before the band chose him as director. The movie was originally titled "U2 In The Americas" and the band planned to film in Chicago and Buenos Aires later in the year. It was later decided that the Chicago venue wasn't suitable, and instead U2 used the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver to film. Following the success of Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky, which had been filmed in Denver four years earlier, the band hoped that "lightning might strike twice". With production problems and estimated costs of $1.2 million the band cancelled the plans for December concerts in South America. At the suggestions of concert promoter, Barry Fey, the band instead booked the Sun Devil Stadium in Arizona. The movie is a rockumentary, which was initially financed by the band and intended to be screened in a small number of cinemas as an independent film.[citation needed] After going over budget, the film was bought by Paramount Pictures and released in theaters in 1988, before arriving on video in 1989.[citation needed] It was produced by Michael Hamlyn and directed by Phil Joanou. Paul Wasserman served as the publicist. It incorporates live footage with studio outtakes and band interviews. The album is a mix of live material and new studio recordings that furthers the band's experimentation with American music styles and recognises many of their musical influences. It was produced by Jimmy Iovine and also released in 1988. The title, Rattle and Hum, is taken from a lyric from "Bullet the Blue Sky", the fourth track on The Joshua Tree; the image used for the album cover and movie poster, depicting Bono shining a spotlight on Edge as he plays, is from the live performance of "Bullet the Blue Sky" recorded in the film and album.
By the late ’80s, U2 had climbed the highest mountains of rock success, having racked up sold-out stadium shows, multiple magazine covers and a chart-topping album in <i>The Joshua Tree</i>. Bono and the boys had officially become the World’s Biggest Band—and now, they had to come up with an appropriately massive follow-up project. Should they make an indulgent double album? A lightning-capturing live album? What about a worshipful rock-doc? With the extravagant <i>Rattle and Hum</i>, U2 chose all three. A mix of new studio cuts and onstage highlights from the <i>Joshua Tree</i> tour, the album chronicles the US’s love for U2—and vice versa. A trip to historic Sun Studio yields “Angel of Harlem”, a swinging, horn-heavy ode to Billie Holiday that became an unlikely radio hit. It’s just one of several cuts that lets U2 dig deep into America’s musical past: The group teams with B.B. King for the wailing “When Love Comes to Town”; adopts a Bo Diddley shuffle on the grabby “Desire”; and collaborates with Bob Dylan for the languid ballad “Love Rescue Me”. Those in-studio moments—which also includes the stirring, straightforward love song “All I Want Is You”—are interspersed with a handful of tracks recorded during U2’s 1987 tear through America, and chronicled for the 1988 <i>Rattle and Hum</i> documentary. Those live moments find the band working overtime to match their fans’ arena-sized expectations: Bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. march in a lockstep groove to Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower”, while the Edge lets rip on a fiery solo on “Bullet the Blue Sky”. And while <i>Rattle and Hum</i>’s concert tracks feature a few typically indulgent Bono bon mots—he opens a cover of the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” by name-dropping Charles Manson—all is forgiven when Harlem’s New Voices of Freedom gospel choir shows up for a joyous rendition of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”. If that all sounds a <i>bit</i> all over the place…well, at the time, so were the members of U2, who were struggling to understand the new-found fame they’d been chasing for more than a decade. The result is an album that encapsulates the group’s past and present—while sneakily pointing to its future. Buried toward the end of <i>Rattle and Hum</i> is the raging “God, Pt. II”, in which Bono unloads a series of violent fantasies over a spare, slinky, proto-industrial dance beat. It’s unlike <i>anything</i> U2 had made up to that point. And it was an early hint of the dark, daring experiments the band would undertake in the next decade. The ’80s were dead, and the ’90s were just around the corner. <i>Achtung</i>, baby.
