U2 are one of two acts that immediately conjure memories of my late friend, Matt (the other one is Dylan). Matt and I knew each other since first grade. Despite the comings and goings of other friends and girlfriends, we held on to that friendship until the early 2000s. It's a remarkable feat, when you think about it. We both left our suburban Cleveland hometown and moved west (he to Seattle, me to L.A.) and lived very different lives. What I remember of Matt was him chasing the that spark that brought him joy and wonder. He was always curious, sometimes to a fault, at least when I knew him. I can't tell you what he was like toward the end of his life; we'd lost touch. All that I have are the memories of the haunting young man I knew from young adulthood.
Matt and I came of age in the mid to late 80s, as U2 made their commercial breakthroughs with War (1983) and The Unforgettable Fire(1984) and then became the most significant band in the world with The Joshua Tree (1987). We were the appropriate age to embrace U2's idealism, Bono's poetic lyrics, and the band's chiming anthems and aching ballads. They ran counter to most of the mainstream radio fodder at that time (Genesis, Bon Jovi, etc.) They were speaking about profound subjects and creating a musical language that was distinctly their own.
Matt and I saw U2 in concert at the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium in the fall of '87 on their Joshua Tree tour. This was before the major acts had mastered the use of giant video screens. With our group of high school friends, we watched a Lego size human hopping around 150 yards away and exclaimed, "It's the Edge!" Despite the dreadful venue for a massive rock show, we still came away more enthused about the Irish band than we had four hours earlier. We couldn't wait for the next opportunity see U2, hopefully in a more intimate venue, even if that meant a sports arena. This hunger for more made the announcement of that U2 was releasing a concert film, Rattle and Hum, in the fall of '88 exciting news. To see the band expertly shot and perfectly mixed on a movie screen was almost
too much to bear.
Alas, the film was made at the zenith of U2's 80s hubris, and thye come across in their on screen interviews as a little full of themselves and a little preachy. At least they did when I saw the movie as a 19 year old. Years later, I can reflect and say that fame is a difficult thing to navigate. How are four young men from poor backgrounds supposed to act then the reach the pinnacle of commercial stardom? I wonder if I wouldn't have been any different.
The album that accompanied the movie, also called Rattle and Hum, is a mixed bag, It's not a complete soundtrack to the movie; there are select live tracks from the movie featured on the cassette, and several of the new songs recorded on the road don't appear in the film. Of the live songs, "Silver and Gold" is the best. It sears like an attack on South African apartheid should. When Bono snarls, "Am I buggin' you? I don't mean to bug ya," it doesn't seem like posturing at all. There's no mistaking he believes every word of that song. "Silver and Gold" is the highlight of the live songs. Unfortunately, the rest come off a little impotent. Throughout the years, U2 has released much better live recordings than the ones on Rattle and Hum.
As for the studio cuts that fill out this double LP (single cassette) "Desire," "Angel of Harlem," "All I Want Is You," and "When Love Comes to Town," (a duet B.B. King) have all become staples of classic rock and 1st wave/classic alternative radio stations. Deservedly so. They're all excellent songs. What of the other five Rattle and Hum originals? "Van Diemen's Land" is a fine one that put the spotlight on the Edge. I've long wished there was a version of this song that doesn't fade out on Edge's guitar strumming and carries through until the end of the song. "Hawkmoon 269" is one of those lesser U2 songs that you probably was would've ended up a B-side if Bob Dylan wasn't platying play organ on it. Dylan returns again for the beautiful "Love Rescue Me," one of those long lost U2/Dylan songs that deserves revisiting. There's a stunning cover by the Omagh Community Youth Choir found on the very first Playing For Change album I highly recommend. I like "Heartland," as it is features that wonderful balance of Bono's heart wrenching cries and Edge's chiming guitars. "Heartland" is the one that most reminds me of Matt. It's the sensuality in those opening lines, "See the Sun rise over her skin/Don't change it ... Dawn changes everything." Most likely Bono is singing about America, but I can imagine Matt grasping hold of and finding the double meaning.
I wish Rattle and Hum was a better album. I wish they'd included the glorious B-side, "Hallelujah, Here She comes," (which Matt introduced me to)instead of "Hawkmoon 269" or the clunky "God Part II." However, in order for artists to grow, they sometimes take side steps that don't make sense. For their next release, U2 would a go on to record their other seminal album, Achtung Baby. Nevertheless, in 1988 and 1989, I listened to the hits of this album hundreds of times.
It's been twenty years since Matt died, alone in his Seattle apartment. It feels unreal to write those words. In a short time, he'll have been dead longer than our formative friendship; in a short time, my children will have outlived him. Rattle and Hum may not be U2's best, but it helps me forget the ways Matt and I hurt each other over the years and only the good memories and the love comes up.
I was gifted a piece of artwork called "My 90's Tapes" by an artist named Jeff Klarin (https://www.bughouse.com/shop/jeff-klarin). It looks like one of my own collections at that time, a mix of rock/classic rock, pop, new wave, punk, dance, heavy metal and soundtracks. I decided to use this artwork as a writing prompt to review all 115 albums pictured and share some personal anecdotes along the way. Consider this me dipping my toe back into the Basement Songs pool.
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