Island
1988
Rattle And Hum
About This Album
Functioning as both the soundtrack to the group's disastrous feature-film documentary and as a tentative follow-up to their career-making blockbuster, Rattle and Hum is all over the place. The live cuts lack the revelatory power of Under a Blood Red Sky and are undercut by heavy-handed performances and Bono's embarrassing stage patter; prefacing a leaden cover of "Helter Skelter" with "This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles, and now we're stealing it back" is bad enough, but it pales next to Bono's exhortation "OK, Edge, play the blues!" on the worthy, decidedly unbluesy "Silver and Gold." Both comments reveal more than they intend -- throughout the album, U2 sound paralyzed by their new status as "rock's most important band." They react by attempting to boost their classic rock credibility. They embrace American roots rock, something they ignored before. Occasionally, these experiments work: "Desire" has an intoxicating Bo Diddley beat, "Angel of Harlem" is a punchy, sunny Stax-soul tribute, "When Loves Come to Town" is an endearingly awkward blues duet with B.B. King, and the Dylan collaboration "Love Rescue Me" is an overlooked minor bluesy gem.
Track List
(try tracks 1,3,4,5,8,12,13,14 and 17)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
Similar Albums
Eric Burdon Sings The Animals Greatest Hits
by Eric Burdon
Glass Houses
by Billy Joel
Substance
by New Order
Live On Two Legs (Live)
by Pearl Jam
Inner Revolution
by Adrian Belew
Most of the time the reviewers are just plain WRONG on Pandora. Their facts are crap and their reviews are crap. As a movie, Rattle&Hum may have been a bit much for non-U2 folks...but as an album, its amazing. The live cuts are great. The studio tracks are beautiful (Heartland, Van Dieman's Land, All I Want Is You, Love Rescue Me)...and then there are those amazing "others" like God Part II
|
||
With perhaps one or two exceptions, I completely disagree with the reviewer. There were some genuinely great moments, and great experiments on this album. My opinion regarding Bono's comment about playing the blues; he had just spent the last couple of minutes lamenting apartheid, not exactly an upbeat subject. Edge's solo following was not meant to be typically "Bluesy". It was blues in the sense that they were upset about the issue. Basically; "Ok Edge, express how unhappy we are, in our way."
|
||
I agree with chrisrobidea u x . As a lead singer, I came up with banter that's funny and stupid (but more often funny). When you're playing rock and roll, you can't get too serious, or you risk losing the "fun factor" that people came out to experience.
When Bono says "play some blues" before a song that's not blues, it's called sarcasm. Before singing Date Rape by Sublime, I used to tell the audience that "this next number is a love song..." Get it? Got it? Good. |
||
I love this live version of "Pride (In the Name of Love)." With the crowd response and Bono's passion it is nothing short of thrilling. I really like this album as postcards of their trip documented in Rattle and Hum. Sure it lacks the calculated synergy of a studio album, and their willingness to explore America is captured in their side trips that result in tracks that don't all hang on the classic U2 sound. So they chose not to be completely self-involve d . Not a bad thing in my book.
|
||
I get this album might like the coherence of other U2 albums, and it does stand apart for me as their one album that really delves into a classic American rock/blues sound. That said, this album contains some of the best and most powerful rock songs ever made, several of which were lambasted by Mr. Erlewine in his review. It also really confuses me when folks talk about the "disastrous" film that was Rattle and Hum, I thought the film was amazing. I especially appreciated the "MLK" performan
|
||
This reviewer is, uh, pretty blind and tone-deaf, and I doubt he could find the D-string on a guitar. A great transition for U2 - it's honest, if not the most "focused" concept album of all time. As live albums go, it's right up there with the best. Bono's "patter" is done pretty cheekily, I think, and not meant to be too serious.
|
||
Hawkmoon & All I Want..: The Edge is the best at using the least to get the most out of a guitar.
|
||
Perhaps the finest collection of true blues ever performed. Genius. A mirror in the face of the post-60's era...an absolute must-hear!
|
||
| report abuse |
Portions of content provided by All Music Guide © 2006 All Media Guide, LLC.